What did you mod today?

@Haukkeli:

That’s an interesting take on a triplet. Combining 3 x S2+ reflectors plus the aluminium spacer gives me ideas.

Not described but I presume much fiddling to have the 3 separate MCPCBs and reflectors all ligne up. Nice workmanship!

It wasn’t that hard. MCPCB’s move nicely on top of a spacer when there is enough thermal paste and you haven’t yet pushed them all the way down.

If I was hinted at this mod about a year ago, I would have undertaken it. I had ordered a Sofirn C8F with the 3 LH351D emitters – but was lost in the shipping. After a much longer wait, Sofirn agreed to send another. However, they had no more in stock and I had to wait some more for the manufacturing schedule. All in all, 158 days (~5 months).
Aftermath: But in the following days of that 2nd order, so mysteriously showed up the 1st order. So now have 2 lights.

My stock lights don’t heat up much on high – 1800lm. On turbo (3600lm) it’s a different story. If your’s doesn’t heat up at these levels, I would suspect the shelf extension may not be transferring thermally to the head sides. Does it have much contact with the bowl? Nevertheless, the Sams are tough emitters and are a great choice. All milky white and just the right balance between throw and flood.

I use them on my bike. Best combo of throw with spill. Mostly on High with some moments on Turbo, and after some 2 to 2½ hours, change to my second unit.

It heats up, but it takes quite a while. That spacer is heavy piece of aluminium.

Thermal mass is the key to drawing the hotspot(s) of the emitters. Cooling fins only good if the air is circulating about.

But does the adapter fit nicely against the bowl? Drawing to the shelf may take some time.

I’m quite sure. I made contact surfaces extra carefully with lathe. It just takes time to heat that metal.

thank you for taking the time to post kind and encouraging words

the glow is very fun

latest mod AAA Thrunite Ti3 to LH351d 2700k w Pebbled Tir:

Happy 4th of July Holiday :slight_smile:

I was going to edit that last entry.

The Sam’s are good tough Leds. I had modded it to a small 14500 host and ran it at max. The heat got the expansion to pop out my friction fit / plastic lens and some damage to the reflector. But it always kept going.

Hey, that would be some machining skill to have a matching parabola cone.

Kudos!

Well, I have to admit that’s way above my skills. My problem is that I have basic skills in many areas, but I’m master of none. Metalworking, electronics etc.

Nice mod Haukkeli! I’ve often thought about modding my already modified C8 into a triple or quad, but it’s the spacer that I can’t make let alone custom reflectors. Very creative and looks very cool!

It’s been done before, but I wanted one for myself. FW3A raw converted to an FW1A, by drilling a couple holes, reflowing an sw40 219B, no-FET firmware. SS FW1A bezel. Turned out great, throwy, perfect tint and UI—one of my favorite lights.

Very nice! Is that the original FW1A reflector?

Yes, I was able to identify one in a FB for-sale post and snag it. I have a new one, too—some day I will do a comparison and post it, although with 219Bs they won’t match any stock FW1A emitters.

Dang. I thought maybe you had found another reflector that fit.

LEDIL Leila optics are a close fit too if TIR is your thing. I am running this one now in my converted FW1A with SS bezel. 21kcd with SST20 4000K off an MJ1 cell. FET is still enabled btw, firmware stock and light is from initial GB.

I’ve also got some optics on order from AE. They should be a near drop in fit too. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002280736440.html. Will post about them when they arrive.

In the future, I hope to build a LumeX1 and pair it with a Nichia B35AM under a pebbled narrow spot optic in an FW.

edit: Forgot to mention, if you are willing to space up the mcpcb, Convoy S21A/B reflectors fit perfectly in diameter. That was what I was running before the TIRs.

Today I modded my just received FWAA by removing the driver side spring and replacing it with a disc contact. This allows me to run my Shockli button tops that wouldn’t work with the spring in place. Shocked how small the light is honestly. Beam is nice for indoor use, don’t know how much I’ll carry this light honestly, but we’ll see. Considering swapping emitters to 219b or a tint mix of SST20s or even giving the HL2X 90CRI emitters a try that are collecting dust…

Also in the package was a FW21 X1L. I’m surprised how much I like the host. Looks and feels great in person. Even the ano color is somewhat pleasing on this body (not so on the FWAA - it’s about to get stripped or baked). The optic generates a super clean beam that I really like, but throw is disappointing… only 115kcd. Not going to cut it for me. If I can’t get that up to near spec’d range, swaps will happen. My Convoy M2 does 102kcd and is more pocketable

But really. The UI on this thing is AWFUL! Like wtf year is it? Long press for off, single to advance poorly spaced modes… no, no and no. This will have to change. Already taking measurements to convert this into an ANGIE quad. Hoping to get a driver designed for this running Anduril.

Is it actually using a different driver? That would make zero sense. Ideally it has a tiny85 on it, you can just put Anduril back on.

Thank you! I’m definitely going to look at those optics. I love my FW’s and would love more with single emitters.

Btw, what did you use to space up the pcb?

Still not finished but it will be.

New Armytek Prime C2Pro , still 12V driver so XHP35 and Yaijamei optic will do

Olight Warrior Mini 2 emitter swapped with SFT40. End result is great. Although i’m high cri fan, this emitter looks realy nice under Olight optic.


In my case I didn’t space it up, I machined my own bezel that’s a few mm shorter than the factory FW1A. I also had to machine the lower part (last ‘fin’) of the reflector off to fit within the head cavity.

Taking a second mcpcb, torching it until the top layers separate (doesn’t always work), then filing and sanding it smooth is an option to create your own spacer. Or buying copper discs from Bopper on Etsy is another (easier) option.