What did you mod today?

Yes, about a 5-10% bump in kcd by removing the window, it's been reported here. I've done the mod on a few SBT90.2's and appeared to be under 5%, but can't be sure.

Today I put SFT-40 in BLF A6 and in WildTrail D80v2. Both have stock drivers.

I measured almost 27kcd throw from BLF A6 with SFT-40. 116kcd from D80v2.

Let’s start with A6. Beam is a little ringy (sorry for the white balance):

I was afraid that it will be very green, but it’s not bad. Behaves like SST-40/SST-70, green on 1x7135, more neutral on FET. I’d say that more green I can see in W2.2 beam (right one in the first picture, second from the left in the second picture):

Then I thought why not install it also in D80v2. So here it goes :wink: Beam is awesome, less green than A6, there is very slight ring, but nothing near A6 (which also is quite decent).

Here it is compared with other throwers:

Here are other measurements, I know that some are missing but it is what it is :wink: I don’t have professional equipment, so numbers are just to compare different flashlights. I tried to use the same battery for each test.

Modded my On The Road M9!
More details here: “REVIEW”: On The Road M9 – 1x18650 – 1100 lumens – USB-C Charging – 3 UI Groups - #12 by MascaratumB

Hmm, 10% is VERY significant when we’re talking about lights that output well over half a million candela…. I still wouldn’t dare open up my TM39 and attempt to remove the window. MAYBE after I’ve modded other, cheaper lights and I feel comfortable in my ability to do the work and not damage anything in the process. But if you’ve done it on a few SBT’s already and seen under 5% difference, the headache/risk might just not be worth it.

OK, today's mod - cheap zoomie from Ali, link here to old listing, paid $7.14 w/free shipping , back in June of 2020. Typical fake XHP50 as advertised. This one turned out to be not so bad for modding:

  • decent switch feel
  • decent switch LED's - 2 green, 2 red, nice window on the switch
  • enough room to piggyback in a driver
  • lens, though plastic, looks decent (generally I've seen plastic perform better than glass in aspherics)

Plan is to make it a decent thrower running Anduril 2. Here's the basic pieces, with the replacement driver mounted:

Stripped all components off the original PCB's, both driver circuit and USB charging circuit. Mounted it vertically on the short vertical board because it had the most open space, and could solder it directly to a ground plane. I notched the new driver with a hand file so it sits a little better to the stock vertical board. The rest was adding a grnd wire, batt+ wire (not shown on the other side), and the switch and LED wires. I traced things out to find the switch, green LED's, and red LED's pads. The switch, green and red LED's are all on the backside of the large vertical board (not shown). The switch wire is white, green LED is green wire, and red LED is the blue wire, all 30 AWG. It's actually a pretty clean piggyback setup.

The red LED's won't currently be used - they are wired to MCU pin #7, but just don't have support in Anduril 2 for a second color LED for the ATTiny85:

Here's the underside showing the batt+ and batt- connection to the driver, 28 AWG for batt+ (not for powering the main LED), and I believe 26 or 24 AWG for the batt- which feeds the driver and output circuit:

Replaced the stock spring with a "blue" spring of similar size and relative stiffness:

Went with OSRAM W1 3030 for best throw, moderate amps. The pill surface was actually in pretty good shape, better than many "brand" lights I've worked on. Did some light sanding to get it super smooth, MX-4 applied. The MCPCB will be secured down by re-using the stock black plastic press fit retainer - works for me.

Since I did away with the charging, thought I'd seal up the charging hole with JB weld. Came out pretty good for me:

Fully assembled, used 26 AWG long LED wires, same length as stock actually. because screwing the pill into the base results in twisting the wires, so the extra length comes in handy for that, plus I need to add resistance for the W1. No spring bypasses - driver spring is high performance ("blue"), and tail spring is thick and stocky.

With the 5000 mAh Wurkkos cell used in testing. The tailcap doesn't fit well to the tube when under pressure of a loaded battery. Stiff springs make it somewhat difficult but the threading is a poor fit. I can only catch the last 1-2 threads, but at least it tightens up.

Played around to get it centered well, actually didn't have to do much. Maybe cant see it, but the black plastic retaining ring is in this shot. Used a high quality lens cleaner on the plastic aspheric, and it came out pretty nice

Other Details

  • head diameter is 42 mm
  • plastic lens outer diam: 38 mm
  • plastic lens dome diam: 30.4 mm
  • used a 11K resistor for the 2 green switch LED's (primary)
  • used a 6.2K resistor for the 2 red switch LED's

The Results

Very happy how the switch green LED's came out with Anduril 2. The low setting is easily visible and the high setting is not too bright, but bright enough.

  • measured roughly 6 amps at the tail, but figuring the tail cap/spring will reduce that a bit
  • 700 lumens at start (maukka cal factor)
  • throw: 182 kcd, 853 meters
  • when zoomed out, the flood zone is very wide due to the lens' close proximity to the LED when fully retracted.

This came out better then expected. I'm not seeing any angry blue in the beam, though probably not running it more than 30 secs at a time.

Again, cheap plastic aspheric lenses do the job. There are many similar cheap (under $10) zoomies like this in slightly different styles. I have another one that I didn't even open up yet, but it does have a better fitting tailcap and identical size aspheric lens. It's always a gamble though when buying one of these to mod - never know what to expect inside.

Nice mod, you’re an expert at transplanting drivers.

I love mods where the sum of the parts is multiple times the price of the original light. Really highlights how crazy dedicated we are :slight_smile:

Yep, about $12 in parts on a $7 light makes it into something useful, so for like $19 out of pocket I get a custom light no one seems willing to make. I'd love to have the quality of a host by Convoy for example, and willing to pay $20 easy for one, $35-$40 if already running Anduril 2 with a decent LED.

Great mod Tom E! Definitely a winner! :person_with_crown:
I was suspicious about the Amps and that led, but I’m glad you don’t get any blueish on the beam! :+1:

Convoy S21B GT-FC40 3000K and Convoy 12V 2,5A boost driver.




Easy build and I’m very happy about the light quality of 3000K emitter.

Just an emitter and driver swap. 219b sw40 in a D80v2 with LD-A4 driver set to 2A max.

The beam is fantastic. Perfect for nighttime trail walks.




Looks very nice Rayoui!

How did the soldering of the spring onto the driver go? It seems whenever I’ve needed to replace a spring on a tailswitch, I always struggle and usually end up replacing the switch due to it melting.

I just apply a little solder paste and stick the spring in place, then use some hot air to melt the solder. It’s the easiest way I’ve found to do it and comes out very clean.

Ahh, hot air vs soldering iron. Looks good!

Liquid-cooled hack-sink, uh…. I mean heat sink.



Very nice. Actually similar to my D80V2, traded highest output for beam/tint quality, but I used a sliced high CRI 5000K LH351D instead and the stock driver, slightly better output slightly less tint.
(measured in hotspot @350mA, CCT=3920K, duv=–0.0001, CRI=93.5, R9=58)

Nice! I actually have a D80v2 with a sliced dogfart as well, but I’ve never been able to get mine to drop CCT that far. Using a ~0.8-0.9mm washer as a guide, they usually come in around 4500K. What method are you using to slice your 351D?

In fact, I have another one with a sliced 4000K 351D that comes in at 3800K which is very close to what you got out of your 5000K emitter!

Hmm, that makes me wonder if I used a 4000K one after all. Maybe I can look it up, I must have posted it somewhere.

I use washers as well, 4 in succesion to slice the dome gradually, each washer thinner, and the last gets me right on top of the phosfor, the angle of the razor blade determines if I cut into the phosfor or not.

This self-quote from Nov 2019 that I found in this thread mentions 5000K, but even then I do not trust myself, I always had 4000K versions in house too. I will never know :partying_face:

I know entry level mods, but yet I’m gunna post my first post on this thread!

sw40 d200 reflowed into my Tool AA 2.0. Rosier than I was expecting but I really like it! It originally had the hideous xpl2.

Osram nm1 swap into my BLF x5. Definitely regret due to focusing issues. And there’s no led gasket factory, so I’m shaving down one of Simon’s. Gave up for today!

Still looking for good 219c 4000k d240 bare to buy