What did you mod today?

I see you had to drill the reflector...How's the beam?

Very floody. :smiley:

I know, i have XHP70.2 in my S21B but I didn't drill the reflector.

Any beamshots?

Probably 100m is closer. Hadn’t had opportunity to try it in dark conditions. Only indoors. I have one extra OP reflector for S21A with 11mm hole, if you ever need one.

Sorry, no beamshots. There really isn’t darkness before 1AM and even then you still can see around quite well.

I have an old C8+ build with FET + XPL-HI, works fine but I want to upgrade it. Which would you use?

CSLPM1 or SFT40?

Convoy ramping driver or 5A 17mm “SST40” driver? Does anyone know if these drivers accept convoy lighted switch?

I would go with SFT40 and FET or LD-A4 7 - 9Amp driver

Sst-40 driver works with lighted switch. As does Led4Power drivers, if you choose bleeder option.

Nice one! :+1:

I think it's maybe not so small - looks really good!

Today I swapped the three secondary red 5mm LEDs in my SF A2 Aviator with some warm white high CRI LEDs from Ebay (Sophia?).

I filed off the lip on the bottom of the LEDs so they would fit properly in the reflector holes.

I didn’t want to try to remove the leaf spring contact ring from the bottom of the LED board to properly desolder the red LEDs so I opted to just snip them off and solder the new ones right on top. This worked out great.



The LEDs in this light are powered directly by the cells with just a resistor in series. I left the original resistors for the red LEDs (100ohm I believe) since I’m going to use 16340 cells with this light rather than CR123 primaries. That’s a perfect value for the white LEDs with the higher voltage cells.

The incandescent lamp is actually driven by a buck converter (4.5v I believe?) with a “soft start” feature to extend lamp life. Pretty advanced for a light of its time.

CCT of the LEDs matches perfectly with the incandescent lamp. The LED beam is a bit weird when you shine it on a white wall but it’s so wide it isn’t really noticeable in actual use. Here it is next to the incandescent beam which has a very tight hotspot.

And here’s some measurements of the LEDs along with the incandescent lamp just for fun.

Those wanting to do this mod I recommend Convoy S21B. I just found out, not in a nice way, that it takes 22mm driver. So Convoys 22mm boost driver is direct match. With 21A I had to do all kinds of tricks to get it to fit.

1 Thank

First time tried to dedome a Led dipped for entire night on petroleum 1268(naptha for cigarette lighters).
part of the dome was almost detached,tried to removed it by lifting with a blade then half was broke.
The residual remained attached on the bond wire with result of a bizarre difference tint shift and artifacts between the two parts .

Does I used wrong solvent or had to wait longer to melt dome completely?
I would also find a method to remove the residuals dome.

Yeah,before tint was better,just slight cool/purple and now it’s greenish
Lesson learn with old Cree Leds.
Now need magnifier and patience for remove residuals,what about use compressed air?
Next I would try dedome a greenish SST-20 4K to improve tint and throw
but I’m hesitating,considering these results…

Now that half part is uncovered, there is a risk that the phosphors will be damaged when on contact with the solvent?
Thanks for support.

Hit it with electronic contact spray. You’re not gonna hurt anything. The force of the spray will tend to knock off the remaining already weakened/crumbly silicone. If that doesn’t work right off the bat soak it in “Goof Off!” for 4 hours.

Then spray it again. Let dry which will be pretty fast. You should end up with just a pristine phosphor pad and its wires.

Home Depot sells CRC QD Contact Cleaner and “Goof Off!” at a good price.

:student:

Some folks use gasoline. Comparable to Goof Off! essentially. Just a lot more vapor-flammable.

The stuff ya mention could be too harsh.

Ya know I’ve never tried kerosene which is relatively mild. I’ll give it a shot someday.

The contact cleaner should be fast drying and leaves zero residue. Essential in the process.

I use brake cleaner when cleaning dirty emitters and flashlight parts. Contact cleaner works also. Brake cleaner is effective when removing excess soldering residues from pcb’s.

It may work butt it can also harm certain plastic finishes and coatings. It’s a gamble. That’s why they use it on not so delicate brakes and not delicate electronic components. Contact spray is safest, less toxic, and much easier to deal with if it gets on ya or yer clothing - stink wise.

I think brake cleaner to clean dirty emitters and associated parts is kinda well, plain
overkill. :laughing: :confounded: :open_mouth:

Well, that might be. I think they are chemically quite close. They even smell the same and both evaporate very fast.