What did you mod today?

Ahah :smiley: Naming this will be a weird thing to do :wink:

As for the tube, yup, I needed to use it that way to secure the switch PCB, considering that the other end as a wider opening that doesn’t allow contact with the PCB. So I needed to do that.

The other option would be…using the tube of another flashlight, which is also possible :innocent:

I’ve had great luck with removing the donut holes in quad E17A LEDs by sanding down 1 side of the lenses to make them frosted. You can experiment with how much flood vs throw by using different sandpaper grit. But too high of grit (ie. less of a frosted lens) may still result in a slight donut hole. But at least you can control the final beam vs buying something to cover or replace the lens.

Thanks for the screw trick. With that I was finally able to remove the driver from the light.

Unfortunately, it took an enormous amount of force. The board bent slightly and some traces and parts ripped off.

I tried connecting the extracted driver to a battery and switch outside the light. It’s irretrievably dead.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the broken light. The anodizing, lens and switch are all in perfect condition. It would be a shame to just toss this. Some options:

  • I wonder if Zebralight would be willing to fix it. Or if they have an old SC52 driver they can send me. I guess I’ll try sending them an email. They’re pretty good about responding.
  • or perhaps I can use it as a host. It’s not great since the space inside the head is so small owing to the one-piece driver/star, but I could probably transplant the guts from an FWAA into it.

EDIT: Quick response from Zebralight. They can’t repair it as they have no SC52 boards in inventory. I guess this light is now a host for me to try to put something else inside.

I guess in attempting to mod this I probably should have started with one of my defective non-functional Zebralights rather than one that was working perfectly.

That’s to bad firelight. Makes me scared for modding my sc64.

I just finished a Convoy 4 x 18 mod with a 86mm reflector upgrade. HERE
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Taking a closer look at the driver I now see what happened.

The bypass hole for the positive driver wire was completely filled with solder. I wasn’t able to remove it as my solder sucker wasn’t strong enough, and I couldn’t get solder braid in.

To remove the driver, I inserted my soldering iron into the bypass hole while lifting up on the screws with a pliers.

Unfortunately, even though the solder seemed molten, the positive wire actually hadn’t released. And it’s possible the tip of the wire accidentally bent downward and resoldered itself to the positive pad on the top of the driver while I was trying to remove it. The head is quite small and between my iron and the pliers I couldn’t see anything when I tried to remove it.

When I exerted force to remove the driver, it actually ripped the positive contact bondpad from the board, along with the metal can lining the bypass hole. Also ripped off the board was a large trace on the underside that went under the inductor coil from the positive wire to a capacitor. This trace coming off actually tore chunks out of the body of the coil and left the coil dangling from the board.

I also noticed that one of the switch contact pads on the board is dangling. Looks like it ripped mostly off, but is still connected.

As-is, the board doesn’t work at all.

On the upside, I gained some valuable insight into how Zebralights are constructed and what not to do to them.

To think… I might have avoided this problem had I purchased one of those super-powerful cheap solder suckers someone on BLF was talking about 2 weeks ago.

I’m not sure it’s possible to remove all the solder with a wire in a plated through hole even with a powerful solder sucker.

One other trick that I use is to lower the temp of the SAC/SnCu solder with BiSn which melts at 140C, and when things still don’t want to come off I add lead to it, which depending on the proportion of Sn Bi and Pb can melts as low as 95C (Rose’s metal).

Thanks for the suggestion NeutralFan. I’ve done the sandpaper trick while waiting the diffuser stickers to arrive. At first, I tried the 800grit, then tried to the lower and lower grit. At final, 240 grit for one side and 400 grit for the other side, it improves a lot but the donut hole still appeared. Lol

Holly molly!

I have a plan to do something similar by replacing stock driver with Tool AA driver or Reylight Pineapple driver.
The goal is to have a triple AA flaslight which support NiMH.

The main challenge would be replacing e-switch with standard clicky one without changing its form factor.

Hum, then, if I may suggest, the 17mm driver from Jaxman E3 (3 modes, no memory, which supports Ni-MH and 14500, although it is more suitable for Ni-MH) would be a suggestion for this light (FWAA)! It takes only button top batteries, though!

As for the switch, you can adopt the solution I adopted in mine! It is not absolutely secure but it works :wink: You just need to find a PCB that is large enough to make contact with the edges of the tube without falling into it.

OR, you can try to solder a switch to the original FWAA PCB, after removing that metal sheet (that acts as “switch”).
In case you need some hints on this, let me know :+1:

Since I now have nice Zebralight SC52w host in need of guts, I’ve been thinking of what to do with it.

I’m leaning towards the following:

  • Mountain Electronics driver flashed with Anduril
  • 20mm triple star filed down to fit.
  • Carclo 10507 optic with top leg snipped off.

Biggest concerns:

  • Mountain Electronics driver - I have a small one on hand that should fit in the space available, but the quality of these drivers has left a lot to be desired. 2/3 of the ones I got didn’t work properly when tested outside of a light. Much of the problem seems to be bad 7135 regulatator chips. Hopefully if that’s an issue I can just reflow a replacement onto the board. If the driver really doesn’t work I’ll have to consider whether to try ripping one out of another light, taking one from an FWAA, or ordering another from Mountain.
  • Space for the driver - The SC52w used a single board that contained both the LED and driver. I can’t do that in my replacement guts which is why I plan to install a triple. It should be possible to have a small driver float in the space where the original board used to go. Above this I will place a copper platform for the new star to go on. What makes this workable is that a Carclo triple-tir optic is shallower than the original aluminum reflector. However, until I test I won’t really know how much room is available. If there is insufficient space my backup plan is to try grinding or drilling out much of the original shelf. However, I’d like to avoid doing that is there is a substantial amount of mass for thermal management.
  • Filing the star - It looks like the optic should fit with little or no modification other than removing one of the legs. However, a substantial amount of material will need to be removed from the star to make it fit. I think the first step on this mod is to start filing the star down. This could take quite awhile. Also, The still will still need to work after it is filed down.
  • Emitters - I’m currently short on good spare emitters. I have an order coming from Kaidoman, but it hasn’t arrived yet. If I do this mod before they arrive, I’ll have to find some spare emitters to use or salvage them from an older mod.
  • Sizing everything to fit properly under the retainer ring - this is tough since the retaining ring does not screw on. Make the shelf too tall and the ring won’t socket. Too deep and it won’t seal. I’ll try to handle this like I did with a similar mod in a DQG Tiny III: Make the shelf a bit too short then add copper disks to bring it to the proper height.
  • To make the light easier to mod in the future I’ll probably leave off the glass lens and just have the optic resting on the edge of the retaining ring (hopefully with enough room for an o-ring). The lens fully recesses into the retaining ring so there would be room for it, but installing the lens makes it VERY hard to remove the retaining ring for maintenance, repairs or emitter swaps.

Skilhunt H04 Mini RC with Nichia 219B sw45k D220 R9080

Skilhunt H04 Mini RC with Nichia 219B sw45k D220 R9080

It seems like the link is broken.

The classic BLF “X” problem. Click

If you're interested, I discovered these guys on ebay years ago and they offer many bulbs in 40K, 41K, and/or 45K. They were the only ones I could ever find in neutral temps and the CRI on them is pretty decent...just took a handful of colored items out to the car for a viewing with a more critical eye and while not as nice as what we're used to with flashlight emitters and considering the reduced lumens of these bulbs, the colors pop pretty well and it's easy to tell varying shades/hues of the same color. I haven't used any of their warm temp models, though. If your subie uses a festoon bulb back there then the options are more limited unless you want to swap out the holder. They've got a vehicle-finder on the site, too, and for the three I've done it has been accurate (unlike some bulb mfr catalogs...). Prices are a little higher than the sea of cold-white ebay sellers but they're well packaged in esd bags and shipped in boxes. I think their stated lumens for each bulb model and the temps within each model seem pretty accurate as well (no 600 lumen 194 bulbs here...lol).

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

A while back I was tasked to work under a sink replacing the strainer/tailpiece. Quite an older home and the built-in counter isn’t up to our present day standards and the ‘cupboard’ space being God awfully small and with a front panel.
Space was very constrained and neither a headlight nor a standard light gave me any illumination. What I needed was a side-mounted magnetic light with swivelling head, and not too bright as I’m really close to the work.

I had this BBQ light in my drawer (the forgotten ones). This was made entirely of glass-filled plastic (I believe polystyrene) and had a 3 Volt incandescent bulb (ugh!) and a 3 x AA cartridge. So naturally, I undertook the task of re-purposing the light to my needs.

I had many setbacks, so many that I’ve lost track. At one point I just put the project aside as wasn’t justified to put so much time and energy into a plastic device. But with much perseverance, it finally came to fruition.

I had an XML2 4000ºK mounted on a copper 20mm star that just fitted nicely in the head, a single driver of unknown origin that could be adapted to the neck, and much ingenuity to carry the negative terminal to the head.

Found a Sandoz Calcium pill container – thin wall aluminium and a flat bottom. Just fitted in the body cavity, minus removing about 11 mm of length. Next is a way to have a connection point that permits the rotation of the head, and yet is easily accessible for the cell. A circular copper wire within a groove that contacts with the aluminium can. Next is a plastic cylindrical spacer to accommodate a 26650 or 18650 battery. Due to the limited depth I opted for a conical spring soldered to an embossed thin steel washer. Phosphor bronze was too stiff.

Below the head is the driver, fixed vis a top plastic plate. I opted for a cylindrical steel spring with a button cover - this to permit the head assembly to pivot about the cell’s + pole.

The driver worked on the bench, but something went fowl when I first put everything together. The aluminized reflector made intermittent contact between the MCPCB leads. The simplest of designs, but nowhere could I find an equivalent transistor. After many failed attempts of various pulls from some discarded electronic boards, I re-worked the driver board for 3 x 7135. This should give me ~1 amp and ~400 lm. Quite adequate for my needs, and I have thermal consideration as this light can’t have any radiating aluminium. The design of the ball head which swivels up/down and makes the single contact switch limits any additional heat-sinking. Also. the plastic, low-temperature polystyrene doesn’t help here. The original design of mounting to the BBQ hood side handle with this is nonsensical. Some cost-cutting I would suspect.

Unfortunately, my first attempt never had the driver work. After much analysis, and de-populating the 7135 to individually verify the regulation, I found that the cut-off serrations had some solder spill, ever so slightly. As I had re-done the traces by cutting out some of the copper, the outer negative ring made contact with the B- of the drivers. So after cleaning everything up, made some bench tests and proceeded to the assembly.

Some items will have to be changed as the magnet could be stronger for all the added weight. Tested for some 15 minutes and no plastic reek nor much heat in the ball head or the plastic lens.

If I’m happy? No, this took too much effort and being a specialty flashlight, I don’t know if and when it will be used. It works but the beam is littered with artifacts due to the lens design. I can’t remove or replace it as it holds the LED star in place.

But I’ll chalk one up as finished.

Some additional pics:


Strengthening the retaining posts in the head. Had to re-build some broken pivots (white stuff).


Contact blades (.012” thick.) had to be drilled .075” dia.


Assembled head and inner tubes w/in body.


Got to use my extended boring bar.

disassembled TCR-1 because the dial was slightly gritty. No longer a problem.
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Sidney, that sounds like some of my projects. Too much time wasted to give up. :smiley:

Very nice mod MoreLumens! I like how you can see inside into the MCPCB.

Regards Xandre