ITS HERE! SIPIK SK98 - A 18650 based Sipik SK68 with an XML!

I love this stuff. Thanks for helping me out with my first ‘mod’. I’m actually without a working soldering iron at the moment, so I have to put this little job on hold for now. But I was thinking of just doing the foil trick instead anyway. Do you think the stock driver will hold hold up with good heat sinking? Also, do you put any layer of non-conductive material between the foil and driver in the pill to protect from any impact knocking it out of place and hitting the driver circuitry?

Haha. Okay. I think I might have read Match’s thread once, but I need to again, it appears.

Damn… so maybe I’ll save this fix til I get a good replacement drive. I do like the rest of the Sipik design and do wanna salvage this light. Thanks again for the help. :slight_smile:

Does the 18650 version throws as far as the 14500?

You have a Sipik branded one?
Does the sliding mechanism feels solid?
It has the weak points, but some users here report the sk98 being fried by itself, i have a sk68 unbranded which becomes hot quite fast but it doesn’t selfdestruct, that’s worse than just a weak point :p.

Sorry for all my questions but i want an upgrade for my sk 68 and the trustfire z8 xm-l 14500 won’t do it so know i’m looking for an alternative for my sk68 which is the light i’m having the best time with.

Where did you buy your driver?
How do i access the star and driver? I manage to remove the lens but then i can’t figure out how to losen the rest and i don’t want to break anything :).

appreciate your help!

Does this unscrewing works the same as the sk68, because I don’t manage to get to unscrew the pill of the sk68. Due to receiving an underperforming trustfire z8 I have received a coupon of 7$ from t-mart for a Sipik branded sk98. That would bring the price down to 6,5$.

If i would keep the direct mode driver and just fill the pill with aluminium foil would that be sufficient not to fry the light?

Tmart says they haven’t received customer complaints so far…

I received my Ultrafire clone a few weeks ago, and this light was from a seller on Ebay called “Bobotoway”. The torch itself is great, although it arrived in a crumpled cardboard box, undoubtedly a cause of rough shipping.
The torch does not have the same overheating problem as the Sipik SK98, but still there is a hollow pill. I put some heat transfer compound around the base of the star, to improve heat transfer. I have been using this torch for 1-10 minutes on high every day for the last few weeks, and so far so good.

Of course the less heat produced, the less powerful the torch is, but still, this thing is bright!

- Ultrafire C8 XM-L U2

- Ultrafire Sipik SK98 XM-L T6

- Generic 200lm zoomie

- Small Sun zy-s13

- Police Force random model

Likewise, I got my UltraFire SK98 clone this last week. Regardless of the brand of cell I put in, charged to 4.2v, i’m getting over 2.5A on high. I tried SolarForce V3s, TrustFire Flames, and my crap UltraFire red 3000mAh.

And it is bright as hell and the head and body heat up almost immediately. I’m feeling pretty positive about this beast of a zoomie compared to the sk98. I do not think this is direct drive at all, otherwise my UF Reds would have tripped their protection circuit early like they did with the SK98. And that’s probably a good thing for an XM-L T6 in such a small package.

Now I have a special purpose for those lame UF cells. :slight_smile:

I got my Sipik 98 today from Tmart! Had a 60% coupon so i only costed like 6$.

first impressions (compared to sipik sk68 clone):

+

very bright and wide flood
i like mode spacing

-

zoomed it’s not as bright as sk68 clone, led image seems warped (rounded)
led or retaining ring (can’t figure out which one) isn’t centered well

I don’t know yet if my light will melt but i can tell that the pill feels very light, i can’t seem to remove the plastic retaining ring so i can’t see the heatsinking.

Ok managed to open it and there is no heatsinking AT ALL

post pics if you can.

this is how it looks like, i’ve made an aluminium ‘core’ out of foil and hopefully this will add some heatsinking.

how do i stick aluminium to aluminium? superglue doesn’t seem to get the job done :d

After scratching the surface of the star it now sticks :d. After 30 seconds of use in high i’ve opened the head again and the aluminium i sticked to it is blistering hot, so i guess my unorthodox system works :d.

I think the ‘sk98’ configuration is pretty much done for if one goes by the number of offerings on the Chinese form of ebay (there’re only 9 total SK98 link) versus the 5 or so pages for the SK68 link.

how do i remove the driver so i can fill up the entire pill? It doesn’t seem to be soldered to the pill but it sits very very tight.

this is how i fixed it now, the volume of added aluminium is about 1,5-2x that of the star, but as you can see it doesn’t contact the pill => rest of flashlight so all the heat goes to the clump of aluminium.

UPDATE: i managed to get the driver out, it was just stuck very very hard

I’m going to fill up the empty space between my added aluminium and the wall of the pill with some more aluminium instead of desoldering the driver and making an entire new aluminium disc.

I have another question: can the plastic of the wires melt when in contact with the added aluminium?

I did understand your method, but i don’t have soldering irons atm. I just added some additional aluminium foil so i have something similar like your method, with the aluminium contacting the walls of the pill. Should work as well (but not as good) :).

UPDATE: After testing the flashlight, the body gets hot which should indicate that the heat goes from the star - my ghettofix - pill - flashlight body.

Despite adding the extra heatsinking my sk98 still desoldered itself yesterday after only 30s of use :d. Sent an email to Tmart, advising them not to sell this light anymore.

to desoldered itself this mean huge amount of heat,you should not be able to touch the flashlight.

That would be the case if the heatsinking was well designed but all the heat stays on the LED star (although i added some aluminium on the back).