Police Light Mod (pic heavy)

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.

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

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!)

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.

Cool. Ordered 5. Thanks DenBarrettSAR.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

Sometimes the easiest way is the best way ;)

Seriously the way you described is probably the easiest most cost effective method to push these. I would love some pics of that build for sure

Thank you DNF. Cool mod Pulsar13.

WarHawk. A 17mm driver will fit as the head is bored out bigger than the battery tube section.

They are designed for AA 1.5vdc, not 14500…

By that much? (maybe on the gold one, my black one is literally only 1/2" diameter, plus my kids have successfully managed to loose em already so finding them to mod them will be a pain…really wanting to try the straight up 2x7135 1 mode (off/on) regulated 14500 with a XP-E or XR-E…

I have other pressing issues/mod to tinker with before I go after this though :D

Yes, both models have excess space for a 17mm driver. Heck, with just a tad of filing, you can fit the driver in the battery tube. The battery tube almost accommodates 16mm cells.

I'm snowed in today. Yeah, no going into work! I think I'm going to make a 14500 version this morning using a Nanjg with 4 7135's. I would go higher, but my Sanyo 14500;s are only have 2C max continuous current rating.

Kind of hoping to lose power. Got the wood stove loaded and ready to go.

Really, still cold around there? We’ve been on hot spell for months. The reservoir dams are on low level, almost to the point where pipe water going to be rationized soon.

All this after severe rain and flooding affecting 1/3 of our peninsular. Really weird weather these days.

Good luck with the build. I have newfound love for 7135s after using them several times (often for these cheap AA lights) - they’re very efficient for such small package. More importantly they’re so easy to use by themselves, just solder a few wires and you’ve got your stackable current limiter.

Very nice. I have one around someplace that I got from banggood for nothing. I might just have to give that a try.

I’ve been running one on the 14500 without problems. It doesn’t get hot and the output makes it much more useful. Both light and battery were cheap so not a big loss if either fails.

I will give it a go then...

A word of caution: I’m using a cheap blue UltraFire so the current may be lower than a better quality battery.