Hi! My name is Oton, i am 20 years old and I’m reading this forum for about last 2 months, 7 days a week, few hours a day ( I don’t have better things to do) . I’ve learned here a lot about various emitters, bins, tints, CRI, optics and many other useful informations. I just wanna say BIG thank you to all of you! Since i was kid i was fascinated with artificial sources of light and transforming energy into it. When i was 8 years old my grandfather gave me flashlight and that was my first flashlight ever… since then it all began.
I have bought Ultrafire sk98 clone and it was the brightest flashlight that i have ever own, but i knew it could be a litle bit better. 3 weeks ago i ordered XM-L2 U2-1A on copper MCPCB, KD 8xAMC1735 V2 driver and 23mm glass aspherics.
Yesterday the postman knocked my door :bigsmile: . Let the modding begin!
First thing i’ve noticed when i opened the package is that the pill in my sk98 clone is for 20mm driver and u all know that the KD driver is 17mm. Immediately there was unexpected problem. I was angry at myself because i have not measure it |( , but not for long because i realized that i must make adapter and only material from what i can make it is copper pipe . I cut the pipe to required depth and use the file to adapt it for the pill and driver. Because the pill is narrow i’ ve
made a copper disc from the same pipe for the better thermal path.
Meanwhile the emitter was soaking in the petrol…
Dedoming finished after cleaning the die with isopropyl alcohol It was not perfect because i was scared of touching bond wires.
For elimination of resistance i made “spring” from copper wire. Actually it’s not the spring due its inflexibility.
I have forgot take the photo of assembling. I’ve used the thickest leads that can fit in the modified pill.
The pill fully assembled.
I’ve sanded the anodisation from the body and polished it.
BLING BLING
Moonlight mod
SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH AND EXPRESSION.
Thanks for reading!
Oton.
I forgot to mention tailcap readings. 2,95A with cheap DMM with long leads.
I’m using LG ICR18650D1 pink
The flashlight throws 400 meters measured by eye and google earth. That should be around 40kcd
Thanks for welcome! First step was with 400 sand paper, second with 500, third with 1500 and final with 2000. After that finished with some polish paste.
I knew that xp-g2 would be better for throw but my goal was ultimate all-rounder.
I love it! Loos like I’ll at least be messing with the finish on my SK98 clone. Welcome to BLF!
One question - I was under the impression that to get the increased throw by de-doming an emitter depended on the way the more widespread light formed a tighter hot spot from the reflector. I de-domed the LED in my Trustfire Z8 without thinking about that and all I did was lose some lumens. LOL. Since these zoomies don’t have conventional reflectors, I’m trying to imagine how de-doming improves anything…
I've done several zoom lights though, and even though they can't get as much output as a reflector based light, they do come in handy with the zoom function, and can be easily improved with a mod like you have done. The use of the copper pipe to solve the 2 problems: 17mm driver to 20 mm fit and the "hollow pill" (no top on the pill) looks to be well done!
Also, making the copper spring is pretty original stuff there.
Edit: Can't recall the exact #'s, but de-doming an XP-G2 in a T20 zoomie definitely helped in throw, compared to with dome. Believe I got about 135 kcd de-domed, and think about 75 kcd domed. So, think you are doing better de-domed in any zoomie for throw, but lose about 15-20% in lumens.
Thx for advice about thermal path. I’ve noticed that the copper star form KD is a bit curved and i was thinking about sanding it for better thermal path but since i’ve applied thermal paste mixed together with bits of filed copper from rasping the copper pipe i’ve find it good enaugh. Body is warming under a minute on high mode which tells me that the thermal path is sufficient. I was impressed with yours and djozz’s T-twenties with dedomed xp-g2. First minute after reading that specific mod uf-t20 was immediately in my wishlist :heart_eyes:
Nice mod, I like the bling and the desk cloth most.
In former times I fell in love with the sk98 as well(when xmlU3 was THE THING) but today I seldom use it because I hate all the light what the aspherical steals and focused the beam isn’t really tight because of the XML, so I am a bit away from zoomies. Also the switches are most high resistance ones… Check these 20mm adapterings for future mods
Mixing copper rasping in thermal paste is not ideal, the paste is just for bridging micro gaps between star and pill. Any rasp will be much thicker than useful…
But driven at 2.5A this is no big deal either.
Thx Werner for the link of adapters. About rasp… I thought about that but since the diy copper plate was not perfectly leveled with the pill so I thought that mixing would be useful but as you said the point of thermal paste is for filling micro gaps.I shouldn’t mix it… From time to time I take the switch apart and clean the contacts for eliminating as much resistance as possible. Btw emitter is driven at 3 amps(probably ) .