Skylight's entry to the 7th BLF Old Lumens Contest 2019 - modified light category [Matainvoy ML18S FINISHED, video added]

Giveaways and Contests
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Timeline

  • November/December 2019: Collecting ideas for a modded light
  • End of December 2019: Elaborating a parts list and taking fotos
  • January 8, 2020: Posting an entry thread for the BLF Old-Lumens-Contest
  • January 21, 2020: All parts ordered and on the way
  • February 5, 2020: All parts have arrived
  • February 9, 2020: Soldering springs
  • February 12, 2020: Reflowing leds and soldering wires and springs
  • February 19, 2020: Building a model spacer with coins and sawing the copper
  • February 21, 2020: Soldering the copper spacer
  • February 22, 2020: Preparing the switch and thick copper wires for the spacer
  • February 23, 2020: Preparing the copper spacer to fit and assembling the flashlight with copper spacer, switch and wires
  • February 24, 2020: Putting in the MCPCB and aux led board and connecting the last wires
  • February 25, 2020: Making the aux leds work
  • February 25, 2020: FLASHLIGHT IS FINISHED, it will be called Matainvoy ML18S
  • February 28, 2020: Adding GITD tape and taking beamshots
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Step-by-step summary of the build

First step: Choosing the host

Second step: Ordering all parts

Third step: Reflowing the leds

Fourth step: Building a spacer

Fifth step: Connecting driver and switch

Sixth step: Assembling the flashlight

Seventh step: Troubleshooting

Eighth step: Taking fotos and beamshots

I called my modified flashlight ‘Matainvoy ML18S’. The name is a combinations of the three brands and flashlight that I combined for this build. The host is a Wainlight L6, which is the same as the Convoy L6 and I needed one in brown color. The optics and MCPCB is from the Mateminco MT18S, also known as Astrolux MF01S, but I took the first three Letters of Mateminco as I got the parts from the Mateminco store.

I made a video showing some aspects of the building process in 5x to 10x time lapse so that it doesn’t go for one hour but only 12:29. There is no audio but only background music. Here it is (also in post# 42) :

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Very cool mod Skylight :+1: Glad to see you join the comp with this build :beer:

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Interesting mod. :slight_smile:

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Thanks, Agro and pinkpanda3310. :blush:

I still need some more material and may start the actual mod only in February.

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Good idea and nice pics :+1:

How will be the mcpcb thermally connected to the head body?

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Glad to see you entering! :+1: we have actually got a good few entries now :slight_smile:

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Thanks, man of light.

The MCPCB will sit on the small rim (1-2mm) just below the glass. Of course that is not enough for good thermal performance and so I will cut a 35mm copper rod to the right length (3-4cm) to have a spacer. I will have to drill a hole in the middle of the spacer for the cables.

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Thanks, G0OSE. In the beginning there where even more prices than participants. :smiling_imp:

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Welcome to the club Skylight. :+1:

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Cool, great to see you enter :+1:

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Gonna be a wall of light? :stuck_out_tongue:
Now I’m also curious with the beam of this :wink:

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Thank you, MRsDNF and CRX. :slight_smile:

It should be quite a bit floodier than the SST20 in the MF01S and maybe brighter.

I will for sure compare it to my SST20 4000K MF01S. :sunglasses:

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I guess you’re still waiting on parts since you were a bit of a late starter?

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Thank you pinkpanda3310 for the reminder. :wink:

I just updated my first post. Here is a quick summary of the current status:

1) The LH351D’s in 4000K are about to arrive.

2) I have ordered the 30mm driver and MF01 aux led board from Lexel. I may get it in early February.

3) Some copper rods with 16mm and 20mm driver that I already have will be cut to length and used for the spacer along with a 6mm thick copper plate (on the way).

4) I don’t know where my Sofirn Q8 side switch is currently, maybe it shows up in time. If not I will recover a switch from another flashlight.

5) The hot plate for reflowing will most likely arrive too late so the hot air station will be used once again. Maybe with a new MCPCB and fresh soldering paste it will not be too difficult to melt. Reflowing seven leds at once is already a challenge, just figure with 18 leds…

I expect to start the build in the first week of February. First I will fit the spacer, then reflow the leds and finally solder the PCB, switch, aux leds and driver and assemble everything.

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Nice design Skylight, :+1:
We are excited to see more pictures.

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Thanks, CNCman. :slight_smile:

There will be many pictures as the mod proceeds.

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UPDATE: All the parts and some modding supplies have arrived now! So let the modding begin! :partying_face:

These are the things I have been waiting for. Note that the hot plate for reflowing has arrived shortly after I posted that I don’t expect it to arrive in time. :smiley:

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Interested/following this build. With the size and ability to soak up heat on this L6, I’m hoping this would be an ultimate turbo run time monster. The MF01S is nice in a small size, but turbo run time is lacking.

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Thank you for following, YogibearAl. I assume that the turbo runs longer with the copper spacer I will use but the total runtime will be less than the MF01S.

Here are some more pictures and a complete parts lineup. Only the Sofirn Q8 switch is missing.

Also, the batteries that I will use in this flashlight have arrived, the Golisi S43 with 30A continuous discharge rate.