Hi 300winmag,
Have you thought about galvanizing and sealing your torch?
Alternatively, take it to your nearest anodizer and get them to anodize it.
I am still waiting for my torch to arrive so I can examine it. Pretty much, you have to turn it on before you dive? Otherwise the water passes the seals and it short circuits. What a flawed design.
I also disassembled my torch and figured out that the leds are connected in parallel. So as the tailcap amps are a bit over 2 A, isn’t the A per led something like 0.77?
I allready connected them in series and switched the driver for it and it seems a lot brighter. I also fixed the switch problem adding a push button switch to the tailcap that isolates the minus potential from the body when not turned on. Should fix the corroding problem. Still have to figure out, how to make it 100 % waterproof.
Altough I have some bigger plans for this lamp since it’s inner design seems to be a LOT better than the overall with this tailcap and using only two cells…
I can post more and some photos later
Would anodizing get rid of this corrosion problem?
Yes you have to turn it on before you enter the water and no other modes while in the water either.
Please post pics and links to where you got your parts from
Here’s some pictures of the disassembled lamp: dropbox gallery
I’m planning to use only the lighthead of the lamp with a canister. Also most propably replacing the XML’s with sst-90’s. ATM trying to find out if you can make the bigger led’s fit with the reflector and heatsink. Propably going to use this driver with that triple sst-90
No idea, I don’t have the torch yet to conduct tests. It’s already anodized so maybe they can put a thicker/harder layer on. I’ll be trying out Pokasha’s trick first by replacing the LED driver and soldering them in series. Definitely changing the o-rings and applying aqua shield. I won’t be functioning the torch underwater. Turning it ON before entering and leaving it ON.
Won’t delve into adding a push button/switch. I fear the torch would lose it’s water depth rating and render itself useless. I also don’t see any point in engineering a new longer tail cap with a longer seal face. I would much rather spend the extra money and buy a XTAR D35 or similar as a backup.
Can you add a link to the new driver you installed? Also, does the driver fit without any modifications?
Here you go Fits when you take the placing ring from the original driver and install the new with it.
Not 100 % sure that’s a good choice since it seems to create pretty much heat (without potting to heatsink it’s a matter of seconds when the driver is too hot to touch) and therefore starts to cut down the current. (a way that’s really good thing as it shows that the thermostat works)
I have no experience of the amount of heat that is still ok to be produced by the driver. Any opinions based on experience or knowledge?
Thanks Pokasha, I’ll place an order for it.
I’ve been looking at the other drivers online. The 7 led and 9 led series over heat temperatures are 55-60 degrees celsius.
Probably a stupid question but did you “smash thermal paste” between the driver and the body of the torch?
It will be interesting to see the cooling effect of the torch underwater.
No, that was just a test for the current drain and voltage and the driver was lying free on carpet. Pic I was just wondering is it normal that the driver heats up so quick since some driver producers promise something like 98 % efficiency…
I tested the heating when I got this lamp (with the leds still in parallel) and it was very moderate. I could keep the lamp on the whole battery cycle wich was almost an hour. The temp was highest in the “heatsink part” of the body and it was about 45 degrees celsius. Obviously in the water there is no problem especially here in Finland.
The case with triple sst-90 it could be another story :bigsmile:
I just dropped the LED module into my mag head… Not a bad fit!!
If I got a couple 2C mags I wonder if I could make it work. Does anybody make a rubber boot that would make the switch water proof?
Check the store link I posted before. Found my rubber boots there
How are those more waterproof then the OEM mag boot?
Hello all, I’m a diver from the Seattle area and I just found your excellent forum. Unfortunately I found it only after buying this particular model of Trustfire “dive” light.
Like many here, I was lusting for lumens and wanted more than my UK Light Cannon or even my single CREE dive lights could put out and I didn’t want to haul a canister around down there. Then I saw the fancy pictures of the TR-DF003 with the doubled-up red o-rings, dual staged machine threads and triple T6 CREE’s. Who could possibly resist such a splendid portrait of luminous SCUBA durability?
After a brief dive to pressure test it, I loaded the batteries and hit the drink. As you may have already guessed, from the start of the dive, my TR-DF003 adopted a poltergeist routine by turning itself on and, of course, doing so while in random strobe mode. WTF!!??
I was perplexed since it behaved well enough in my back yard when it was new. After this experience, and because of the TRD model number, this light was aptly named the CREE TuRD.
This is when I hit the net and found your forum and this thread of tragedies. By that time, mine wasn’t even working all that well OUT OF THE WATER since I had been changing and test diving it many times thus wearing the anodizing off of the tail threads. Perhaps more on that later.
It is actually possible to turn your TR-DF003 into a reliable dive light that will not anode-corrode and that you can TURN OFF and change modes while diving and it can be done with limited expense. Due to the other options available on the market, I DO NOT recommend buying this over the other triple CREE XM-L dive lights that are available. My modification posts are intended to help those like me who are already invested in these over-priced clubs. Okay so now back to fixing the TuRD.
Like Pokasaha, I considered drilling the tail for a switch. For diving I would recommend a canister toggle since the button switches will compress at depth and become useless. I haven’t done a toggle yet as I am reluctant to add yet another potential fail point to an otherwise bulletproof housing.
Here are the results. A few pics of it off and then on during a dive and a video showing it compared to a Light Cannon and then switching modes while on. As you can see from the worn logo, this light has been on many trial dives after a series of changes and test dives over the last month or so. I finally feel like this is a solid dive light and it’s brighter than many canisters I’ve seen.
The video opens with the TR-DF003 and then switches to my Light Cannon HID (at 0:21) and then back to the Modified Trustfire and then switching modes (at 0:49) with the modded TR-DF003.
I left it in HIGH MODE for the remainder of the 34 minute dive to 95 FSW. Voltage in the two Ultrafire 26650 5000mAh only dropped to 3.86 volts and the light did not appear to dim. DO NOT bother using 18650’s in this model. I tried it and did not feel it had enough run-time for diving in HIGH MODE and thus is noticeably brighter at the end of a dive with the 26650’s.
Care to explain how it is you got this light to function properly?
We need details… lots and lots of details…. :nerd_face:
Believe me, I want to lay it all down but I would have to ask forgiveness in advance for the downright embarrassing length of the explanation.
The other problem (besides the length of the write-up) is that I am still considering other improvements. I promise you I found problems that most will never find because this model usually self-destructs before all the problems reveal themselves. I seriously DO NOT recommend this POS light for the typical user and certainly not for the non-SCUBA diver.
I repeat, there is no good reason to buy this light if you do not plan to dive it and even then, I do not recommend it for most. You must LOVE tinkering to get this beast to work.
That said, I am now happy with this as a reliable and inordinately bright dive light.
If the moderators want a pages long write-up I will put it here.
Hell’s ya we want a long write up, now get typing my man!! :bigsmile:
First off, I want to say I’m using Firefox and I was initially not seeing recent posts here. My first post was based on a thread of 199 posts. Then 300winmag replied and I started realizing I needed to clear cash. It worked, I’m seeing all posts now.
I updated my first post to reference Pokasaha’s button switch vs toggle. I also would not recommend a button for a dive light as the pressure will render it useless. If I do a tail switch, it will be either magnetic or toggle (preferably toggle for cost and current). One of my rules with this light is to minimize expense since the usual suspects will almost certainly be cloning the XTAR D35 in a matter of months.
Question for Pokasha: Since you say you’ve already drilled for a button switch, could you use the same hole you’ve made to install a toggle? And if so, where would you recommend getting a good waterproof toggle like the ones on most canister set-ups?
Also, I will guess that the original egg-head designers of this light wired the T6’s in parallel to extend run-time for the two-battery configuration. Even with LED’s in parallel, the smaller 18650 batteries are useless since after about 15 minutes it starts dimming noticeably. And even though it’s a low Amp set up I also noticed my modded light heating up in atmosphere. Certainly not a problem at depth.
