My very first build - Roche F8

I've taken my first step into the BLF modding world. I wanted a light with an XM-L 4C tint and gords1001 offered to build me one for the price of the parts. I thought, hell, I want to learn how to do this too. Gords and I decided to purchase the same host and parts, and he could tutor me through my first build. I got the last Roche F8, so Gords picked up its doppelgänger, the D5.

We never did get in sync, because I had to wait for extra parts when I realized the driver was too small to fit into the host. Gords1001 went ahead and did his build and posted it, giving me time to study and watch.

gords1001 builds the D5 https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/16514

In the meantime I attempted a P60, and botched it badly. I begged the forums for tips, and bought a better soldering system.

My soldering station arrived today...so here I go.

I chose the Roche F8 just because it looked cool. I wanted a nice looking host so I could feel proud of it if I ever got it built.

The first thing I needed to do was install a 20mm contact board into the fitting ring so I could adapt a 17mm AMC7135*8 5-Mode 3.04A Nanjg driver.



The wise ones all told me to tin everything, and use flux, so I did. I tinned the hell out of the fitting ring first, then installed the 20mm contact board and laid more solder around the ring on both sides. If this doesn't secure my negative connection, nothing will.



There aren't any circuits to harm on this board, so I had my iron set to 740°F and the solder just ran down into the crack between the board and the ring. The ring was smokin hot, so I could just paint the solder on.


Now to attach the driver to the contact board. First I removed the unnecessary spring and attached two short pieces of 20 AWG Teflon wire to the pos. and neg. on the driver, and then soldered them to the contact board.

As you can see, I didn't do a good enough job bridging the third star, because I still ended up with strobe and SOS.


The driver is now good to go.



Sorry. I was doing a lot of concentrating, so you'll have to take my word for it that I then applied thermal paste to the underside of the MCPCB and soldered on the wires. (pads and wires tinned first)



Cross your fingers. Will it work? I touched the leads from a battery holder to the pos. and neg...Yes...Glorious Light!!!

Now that I know it works, I fit the driver, contact board and retaining ring firmly into the head. It's a really snug fit, so I used a mallet with plastic end caps to firmly seat the driver ring. This sucker ain't comin' out. No need for any more solder.



Oh yeah. I should show you a pic of the slot that's cut into the threads on the head. This slot is not on gords1001s D5. It's there in case you want to pry the driver back out. Mine is in pretty darn tight. I'm not even going to try to remove it so I can fix the bridge for the strobe. I'll live with it.

Hmmmm? Oh yeah, the spring. I installed one spring, and then removed it and replaced it with a shorter spring. My protected Panasonics were to fat to fit inside the Roche F8, and protected Eagletacs fit, but were too long. I ended up using an unprotected Panasonic and a short spring. My AW flattops should fit...maybe.

i have three Roche lights and all of them are hard to match up with proper batteries. I wonder how gords1001s D5 is for fit?

Well. That's my first build. I think it went well. I have some more hosts in the mail, and I plan to reflow a Nichia219 into a D25A mini, and an XP-G2 3D into a D25C mini. I think I'll be looking over all my torches to see what can be improved.

I absolutely love the 4C tint in my Roche, and love the output. I planned to take some beamshots and tint comparisons, but its way too late for me tonight...and cold with driving ice pellets outside. I'll try to put some up tomorrow.

Id like to thank gords1001 for helping me get started on my new hobby. And thanks to everyone for giving me all the good soldering tips on this begging thread I started. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/16877

..and Scaru, for answering all my stupid PMs that went like...

"if I did this to that with this...would that work?"

Reserved

Congrats on your first build

now, is it just me or are you missing a 7135 chip on your board?

Welcome to the modding club Ouchyfoot. Excellent job.
Looks like you have earned the soldering 5-star rating.
!!

Congrats on the first build! That is awesome. It gets addicting. I am excited to see your skills advance and your future projects get posted here.

Damn! You may be right.

I thought it might have been a stunt double for the photo until the real driver showed up.
Where did it go?

Congrats Ouchyfoot! Just so you know if you do decide to one day “update” or modify it to 3 modes it’s quite easy to get the driver back out. You just need to desolder the leds on the star, and use a small nail to hammer the pcb board and driver back out. I’ve re-modded my JM07 and shadow VG10’s numerous times by using this method. Just cut the tip of the nail so it doesn’t stick and damage the bottom pcb board.

Edit: Oh, I see you’ve soldered the retaining ring to the pcb, probably a good thing but harder to knock it out, and you won’t need the nail trick because of the cut out slots. That’s handy.

kinda funny, never heard of a 7x board(unless custom)

buy one from fasttech and solder it on yourself, they are dirt cheap, and not that hard to get on there, especially with your skillz :wink: and with this opportunity get on that solder and show it who’s boss

That Roche F8 is one cool looking light, I had my eye on that for a long time. I should have bought it. Last one you say hey. :~

Nice build! Congrats on finally finishing it!

Nice work Ouchyfoot! There’s no turning back now.

Nice build. It’s good to hear you first went well…
pop*pop
:wink:

Nice job, glad you’ve got it fired up, satisfying isn’t it?

The d5 is cell unfussy, I don’t have a cell that wont fit, not sure why Roche persists in making such slim body tubes?

I’ve got my eye on this host next with a ramping driver and u3.

As you point out, now you’ve built one you start eyeing you collection up and thinking “hmmmm. …” :bigsmile:

Great job, Ouchy!! That is a fine looking host.

What ramping driver are you using. I have a couple in the mail that I just bought on impulse.

Sorry OuchFoot but you really need a set of decent tweezers. Do not listen to gords especially if it has 1001 after it. Modding torches does not pay and if your into pain well maybe your in the right place BUT. I will leave it there. I'm not trying to give you confidence in continuing along this line of insanity but you have built a very nice flashlight.

Congratulations! And welcome to the addiction.

And that is a really good looking host and a nice light you made out of it!

(and it looks like it could handle a XM-L2 on a Sinkpad at 4amps with an IMR battery, you will never be satisfied from now on, boowahahaha. )

Do not listen to djozz as he may make sense. That will always hurt the hip pocket.

I think I spent about $400 before I got my first build done. Do you think I could sell it on CPF and get my money back?