Police Light Mod (pic heavy)

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Quite a few people don't like these lights, but I'm kind of fond of them. Although, I don't see myself buying any more of them. Well, for a penny, I will. One can make a real cheap AA light with them. They have a nice size, reflector and tail switch. You can't make a blaster out of them, but you can get some cheap high CRI light. Lots of mouse overs here to save space.

This build only needed an emitter and some copper scraps. Used this emitter from TexasPyro. Here are the original parts plus a piece of 1/2" (ID) copper coupling. Everything pushes out the front of the light. Plastic lens holds everything in place. The 1/2" copper coupling is a real tight fit. Mouse over is coupling with copper disk soldered in. Coupling came to 1/2" long when completed. Spring, emitter, and plastic pill tossed. Filed off about most of the straight section from the bottom of the reflector (about .9", I think).

Nichia 119 on home-made base. Stuck a piece of 1/2" copper pipe for driver to rest on. Driver appears to be some kind of Joule Thief circuit. Not sure if it can be modded. I see no resister, but I think changing the resister on a Joule Thief circuit adjusts voltage. Mouse over shows top of pill.

Almost finished pill.

Before I pushed on the lens. I forgot to clean emitter and put in a reflector centering ring. If I ever install a glass lens, I'll fix that.

Light weighs a lot more now. Feels like it might actually be worth something. Actually, I wouldn't recommend seeking out these lights. If you already have some or get some for a penny, this mod may be for you.

2

The little black one up top is practically worthless, would like to know where to get the gold metallic one below, especially if you can disassemble or get to the pill easier

Then possibly one of those 13mm 550mA boost drivers from FT and a 14mm XR-E (saw some 10mm ones on DX.com or 13mm at FT)

XR-E on 13mm base

1AA 550mA boost driver 13mm base

3

They are the same light internally., just different looking exterior body. So I wouldn't get it if you don't like the black one.

4

Gotcha...with all that aside, VERY AWESOME mod though...definitely above and beyond...good job!

Any wall shots?

5

Thank you WarHawk. Check mouse over in first picture under first paragraph.

It's dark now and I took it outside. Definitely underwhelming in the brightness department. Looks like I will have to upgrade the driver eventually.

6

Wallshot with that little emitter is a bit brighter than the stock led for sure...but not much

I guess they would be useful if it was pitch black and you had nothing else available...

I have some of the above drivers inbound, was going to tweak out a Sipik SK68 clone for AA only (since it pushes a little bit more juice than the booster/regulator AA/14500 one) and going to swap out the emitter as well, just to play with em and see what I can squeeze out of it with only a 1.2-1.5vdc battery, with a 14500 it is quite bright (for a "bic lighter" of zoomies), but get's hot and chews thru a charge in 40-50 min

7

I’m eventually doing something similar with a lowes side clicky cheapie using XML TIR, xpg2, and the tiny AA boost driver from FT. Not a pocket rocket, just a functional AA light with decent output.

I definitely like that golden yellowish police light more than the other police one.

8

Nice way to make a truly budget light!

9

Nice job on this. I did similar mods to a couple of the cheaper single-AA lights with upgraded emitters & drivers.

10

Thanks guys. Much appreciate you taking the time to comment.

WarHawk, thanks for the driver idea. I'm going to order a few of those.

11

Another good driver to use for single-AA lights is the Grouped 20-mode 7880. i used them in the police light i modded last summer. using group #1 has a moonlight, low, med, high mode.
>> http://dx.com/en/p/3w-5w-20-mode-regulated-circuit-board-for-flashlights-7880

12

Nice!

800mA with those kinds of modes would definitely be a good AA type booster, any of the PCB guru's want to reduce one down to a 15mm or 13mm die size? (in fact I will buy and have one shipped to the PCB guru's to strip it down so they can build it...seriously!)

13

I have put these drivers in various lights including Sipik SK68s with XM-L2 emitters, XP-G emiters, etc. its also a regulated driver.
My current EDC in my winter jacket has a modded SK68 with this driver and a Neutral White XR-E in it. it has the best output on High from a single AA eneloop as any single AA light, while having a great firefly mode that runs for days, and even a Beacon mode. and another good thing about this driver it has almost no PWM, only on low and is if a high enough frequency not to be anoying.
Avoid 14500s though, it heats it up very quickly and may burn it out.

14

Cool. Ordered 5. Thanks DenBarrettSAR.

15

i forgot to mention it has mode memory too. ( rememberr the group and the mode it was in.)

16

I have 2 black ones. One had a strap hole drilled into each end of the tail cap so it can’t seal. The other went out after a minute on 3.7V and I thought something burned out. Nothing fried but I notice yours has a big spring that mine doesn’t. I just soldered some wire around the bottom. I’d buy the gold ones next time.

17

Excellent work on a crappy little light. Its amazing how some of these lights can be modded to perform like they were never designed for. Well done.

18

I modded one exactly like the gold one but with black colour. Baked to dark brown. Used similar 119 emitter, but for the driver I simply used 2x 7135 and run with 14500.

As a finalizer, I put a clip from $2 wallbuys light and glued in a couple of magnets.

The result was excellent. :slight_smile: I just love these cheap lights for tinkering.

19

Did a 17mm fit? I know AA are 14mm in diameter,unless you did some serious reducing of the diameter how did you get them in there, the Sipik’s are 15mm if I am not mistaken

I am going for a AA only booster (not 14500 regulated) this is my test to see what we "can" squeeze out of AA sized pocket lights with just an AA (how many granny birds or people you gift these pocket lights even know what a 14500 or how to properly handle a Li Ion)
That 800mA one is definitely the highest powered boost driver I have seen, however it's a bit too big for most of these teeny pocket lights

20

Umm… by 2x7135 I mean literally 2x 7135 chips. No 17mm board involved, no controlling IC, just straight single mode 700mA limiter.

The two 7135s - I soldered them together on the legs and wire them up direct to battery and emitter. I still use the original driver board, just clipped off the components to remove the big (by comparison) stuff.

To prevent shorts I just wrapped the 7135s in kapton tape, though any insulative method can be used.

Well, good luck with your boost driver experiment. I simply took the easy way :slight_smile: