Skylight's 8th BLF OL contest entry, modified flashlight [DDH ML778SL FINISHED]

Last week the other three XHP70 leds for my project arrived, together with the long tube for 8 18650 batteries.

The four XHP70.2 5000K 90 CRI (N2 3C) and the three XHP70.2 3000K 70 CRI (P2 7A), in the right picture the configuration they will have:

The seven leds reflector is full now. :smiley:

Here is the long tube, together with the battery carrier:

What I did in terms of modifying was to grind away part of the egde of the reflector with my dremel to make it fit into the flashlight.

It went quite smoooth. I feared to scratch the reflector with the aluminium particles but they went outside and left the reflector untouched.

Before

During work

Almost there ā€¦

ā€¦ and it fits.

The edge is a bit textured now but not too rough so I will leave it this way.

Current status

Sweet light Skylight :sunglasses:
I really like this very challenging mod your doing. Great job and Iā€™m looking forward to more pics :heart_eyes:
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:beer:
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The torch looks finished on the outside. :+1:

With a good FET you can get 7000 out of the 70.2 pretty realisticallyā€¦ Wonder if with 7 of them youā€™ll hit 50k (however briefly)?

Just like CNCman said this looks like a challenging mod. Looking good so far :beer:

Thanks CNCman. I never did a mod with 7 XHP70 before but I hope to get it right.

True. Inside, the heart and the brain are missing, leds and driver. :wink:

50k lumens would be an optimistic but nice lumen value. :heart_eyes: If the FET can handle 70-80A I might reach that. However, my aim is more like around 30000 lumens which is already plenty. To handle the heat well I will solder the led MCPCBs to a copper plate and maybe add a little copper piece as heatsink on the FET.

Thanks pinkpanda3310. :slight_smile: I chose a challenging mod on purpose because if it was not for the contest I would always postpone it. The contest gives me the right motivation to finish this mod within a certain time limit.

[quote=Skylight]

ā€¦and that time limit is coming aroundā€¦. :laughing:

Thanks for the reminder, pinkpanda3310. :innocent: Just realised that time is running fast and I need to reserve a few afternoons for flashlight modding.

Here is a little update what I have so far:

- Host Dongdonghai D8A

- 7x reflector

- 7 XHP70.2 leds (3Ɨ 3000K, 4Ɨ 5000K 90CRI)

- 20mm copper rod

- 65mm, 55mm, 40mm copper discs for the spacer

- 30mm TA driver and side switch

- 8 18650 tube

  • Soldering paste, thermal paste, 16 or 18AWG cable, drill, metal saw, dremel and other material

So as of now I have everything to continue with the internal parts of the build. Some copper sawing, drilling and soldering is left to do.

What I am still waiting for is a 82x2mm AR coated glass lens (from the Haikelite MT07). It showed me to have arrived in my country so it should make it in time. It will replace the 80x3.8mm stock not coated glass lens.

Today Iā€™m back with good news. Last week I managed to complete most of the remaining work so that Iā€™m close to the final assembly now.

Here comes what I have done step by step with many pictures.

I drilled the hole for the side switch with a 10mm drill to let the side switch fit in.

Result

Filed the edge of the 65mm copper plate to make it sit lower in the flashlight.

Before I continued modding I took some fotos of all the parts together.

I guess youā€™ll need a shoulder strap to carry it, after putting all that copper inside :smiley:
Keep it coming :wink:

:slight_smile: Nice collection of parts!

The three copper plates used for the copper spacer all need two holes to pass the cables through.

Before

A few fotos with leds and reflector installed.

During drilling

The holes in the 65mm top copper plate are determined by the position of the leds.

I marked the holes in the 55mm copper plate to overlap with the 65mm copper plate.

The holes in the base 40mm copper plate correspond to the holes from the driver cavity in the flashlight.

Finished

I just had to take some fotos in the decorative shiny copper swarf.

The last part missing for the copper spacer is a 30mm piece to be cut from a copper rod with 20mm diameter.

All the parts for the copper spacer are finished now.

Here is what the copper spacer will look like. The 40mm and 55mm copper plates will be soldered to the copper rod, the 65mm copper plate will be put in only with thermal paste.

The 82mm glass lens of the Haikelite MT07 arrived. The original glass lens of the DDH D8A is a 80mm glass lens which fits tightly inside the flashlight.

That is why I had to use the dremel to remove 2mm of the aluminium in the bezel. I didnā€™t touch the glass because it would be too risky to break it. Also, I donā€™t have any experience or tools for working with glass.

The inner part of the bezel has quite a bit of superflous aluminium that can be removed without structural damage, I suppose.

During work

After quite a bit of careful work the 82mm glass lens finally fits.

Nice purple AR coating on the glass lens.

Compared to the old glass lens

Being at it with the dremel I sanded the contact surfaces for the copper spacer in the flashlight.

Before

Finished

I add some measurement fotos of the glass lenses and the copper parts here to give you a better idea about the sizes.

After lots of mechanical work here comes the electrical part of the build.

This is the 30mm TA driver I will use. I will replace the 18AWG wires with 16AWG wires and the second gen. BSM Be Cu springs with third gen. ones.

I reflowed this driver last year. The soldering is a bit messy, I know. I didnā€™t have much experience with reflowing drivers back then. I already used this driver so it works.

Before I solder the cables on I will flash a new Anduril version on the driver because the version on it doesnā€™t work well. I can access the MCU better without cables.

The battery carrier for eight 18650 batteries I got together with the long battery tube needs some modification. I thought I had ordered a 2S version but apparently this is the 1S version because I measured 3.5V with all eight batteries inserted.

This is the battery carrier before the modification.

I bypassed all the springs with 2.5mm braided copper wire and made also some improvements to enhance the high current capabilities of the battery carrier.

I drilled holes through the two central PCBs and passed some short 18AWG wires through. This way, I connected the positive buttons on one side to the negative springs on the other side. I also removed the solder bridges that where made for the 3V configuration. I thought it would be easier to just connect the batteries in series instead of figuring out how to change the buttons and springs.

The outer four brass rods conduct the negative from the tail to the head while the central column is positive. I made bridges with 22AWG wire to decrease the resistance and make the battery carrier suitable for higher currents.

The battery carrier is a lot better now. I also had to heat the shrinking tubes around the brass rods because they were quite loose.

The battery carrier for the short tube has an integrated protection circuit that limits the current to 10A. I bypassed the springs on that carrier as well.

For the best performance I will use the flashlight with the 8x 18650 battery tube anyway.

Wow, this is coming together nicely. The copper is tough to work with, but it gets the job done.
Your work on the battery carriers is impressive as well. You are swimming in deep waters on this mod Skylight.
Not many modders have taken on a mod of this magnitude. Kudos for bravery :wink:

Nice stuff Skylight. :slight_smile:

Impressive :+1:

You are right. :sunglasses: The copper spacer weighs around 400g and the flashlight itself around 900g.

Thanks, MtnDon.

Many thanks, CNCman. I appreciate your kind words. :slight_smile: I tried my best and it worked nicely.

I will post more pictures and beamshots tomorrow.

Thank you, Agro.

Thanks, Rdubya18.