I sent him my ideas and solutions for this and the other problems he’s posted about. Sent last night at my campfire before this post came up.
I don’t think he wants my help.
There have been LOTS of threads here and CPF looking for a modular P60 solution. I’m talking 5-6 yrs plus of ideas and discussion. Comfy & Rich make excellent points.
IMO…. modular designs are a solution looking for a problem. Sorry it that upsets the OP but I’ve used a ton of drop-ins, tried to make a simple connector for LED to driver, screw down LED board, etc. The P60 format is too limited for anything more complicated than a driver, a few wires, and a LED [or three].
I recall a very well made “screw-down” idea that used threaded rings to secure the driver and the LED. Problem? Yep, it could only use a 10-12 mm MCPCB and a small driver [maybe 14-15 mm]. And you still had to solder wires… plus the drop-in wall thickness was very thin, and it required a new reflector design to fit down into the pill.
Best idea I’ve seen for a P60 improvement is a genuine 100% copper pill w/ a thicker LED platform, machined FLAT. That I would pay $$ for.
Once you navigate all the options, P60’s are still fun & easy. Tail switches are easy to change with almost no tools. Lego Surefire’s & Solarforce are easy & fun with no tools. P60’s & battery combination options are endless. Gosh, I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Maybe a C8?? & some lego parts. 1 cell, 2 cell or 3 cell bodies, Bored & non bored, Orings, glow rings, glow powder & epoxy. Or Bunch of expensive Surefire E series lights & a few adaptors E to C & P, can really make for sum surefire P60, malkoff, UC lens, McClicky, glow button fun.
I have plenty of “custom” lights by doing various combinations of the above. Surefires, Mag lite, Solarforce fun can be had by checking out the link so provided below. Anyone new in this will enjoy it. Prices are a tad high, but……it is a good reference & you get what you pay for usually. Cheaper versions can be had by searching online.
This is just one of the many sites that have cool stuff.
I was thinking small male or female posts on the driver and a small connector coming from the led leads. The driver would be held in with a brass ring.
Shock proof, no. Would it allow you to pop out led and driver, yup. Thermal paste and everything would be messy and at higher current it probably wouldn’t be great.
Sounds like the only thing between you and the mods you want to do is the soldering.
Go down to your local Radio Shack and for $10-$20 you can get a 25watt solder iron and some solder. It is not hard at all to learn to solder and do it well. These small parts with relatively high current, it is the only way to get a good connection. There is already enough current lost in the switch, springs, and tail fittings.
What I consider to basically be a variation on the P60 drop-in is the design of the drop-ins for the EagleTac T20C2 MkII light. I have one and the drop-ins screw into the light body using a left hand thread. At first glance the drop-ins look about like a P60 and I suspect that the short threaded contact may give an even worse thermal path than the standard P60 does, particularly if the P60 is installed with a foil wrap and thermal compound used. At the time the EagleTac light and modules were designed the limitations of the P60 were well known so they had the opportunity to design a much better drop-in arrangement from a thermal cooling standpoint and so far as I can see they blew it.
If going to have interchangeable modules we cannot have a true integral LED mounting table with the light head. Therefore I would like to see a C8 size module and host designed from scratch to have the module make maximum possible contact with the flashlight head when installed, possibly by using a full length screw thread mating between the parts with thermal paste on the threads? The other possibility would be to make interchangeable thermally optimized heads which screw onto a combined battery holder and switch as Solarstorm has done for some of their high output light heads.
i wish the industry could promote flashlights with compatible pill threads. or that an aftermarket for pill adapters existed. the e-cig industry puts the flashlight one to shame in this area.
at any rate, don’t hold your breath…
Basic soldering isn't that hard. Get some instruction, get an iron, get some practice. It does take practice, but not years of practice.
Once you can do some simple soldering, your best bet for this sort of thing is probably Convoy C8 hosts (~$9) and the brass pills from Gearbest ($3.80). Then you can try a large number of combinations relatively cheaply. They even have extension tubes that fit the Convoy if you want an MT-G2.
If I had the engineering background and hands on experience I would design the modules myself and become wealthy!!! :>) I can imaging what it would look/work like but it wouldn’t be based in science. So take this description as a starting point for a discussion and not a proposal for a real solution.
All parts would have to be changed to work on this module. The LED would be placed on a rectangular board the two long edges are coated in conductive metal. One edge positive and the other negative. So when the card slips into the rails it makes a connection to the two edges. The rails would be wired through the pill to the other side of the pill that would have similar rails for the driver board. An alternative is the rails would still be on the pill to hold the LED card but the LED card would have two wires with a plastic computer style clip on it like they use in plugging computer parts inside a CPU. The driver goes on the bottom the same way and either is conducted through the rails or the driver has a similar set of wires with a computer clip on it and the LED and driver can just clip together. Now if I want to try a particular LED with different drivers, power strengths, modes, voltage spreads I can easily pop different drivers in.
The rest of the parts would hardly be modified at all. I can’t guarantee this is anywhere near the answer, but I think it is fairly clear that there is no complicated reason why these parts can’t be standardized and modularized in a way that more people can easily play mix and match without the need for drilling, sanding, soldering, etc. It just takes design and then a manufacturer to put out the first set. After that people will be flocking to the suppliers doors looking to buy parts so they can also get into the fun of modding. I suspect the number of people building their own drop ins would increase by 400 or 500%.
There is nothing complicated about flashlights that can’t be modularized. Second, every industry starts as hands on cut, drill and snip but eventually everything gets modularized if for no other reason than to make the manufacturing process easier with higher quality controls. I’m just suggesting that the people here who have the most hands on experience do the design, and take out the patents and make money while making everyone’s life easier. It will happen eventually
I know for some of you there is resistance to changing because doing the hand craft work is fun. I’m sure you can still build, drill and solder and market your product as hand made for a premium. But for the rest of us let’s make it easier. If I can build a computer by snapping in parts, and clipping on wires there is no reason we can’t do the same with a flashlight…
Why do this? Some of us have poor eyesight and will find it difficult to work with small parts, other might not have steady hands, some don’t have tool bench with a vice etc to make it easier.But I think this makes sense. IMO
I like the Solarforce P60’s. They have a great balance and feel. There are enough parts, body extensions, etc to make all sorts of models. However the limits are different battery configurations require different voltage in the drop in. And Drop ins are the more expensive part of the flashlight. So I don’t want to accumulate lots of drop ins sitting in a box if I can help it. I would buy some cheap ones from various retailers, but I have no confidence in the quality of the materials or workmanship, and many of the custom ones are too expensive. So that leaves me only to buy the Solarforce ones which are out of date for the single CR123, and 4 CR123 configurations.
Sounds like you want a light made from Legos. The thermal conductivity would suck though.
I think maybe you are overestimating the number of people who want to build their own P60 drop-ins but don't know (or care to invest the time/effort to learn) soldering and basic electronics.
+1
If you can assemble a “modular” drop in the size of a P60 with different components, you can solder two leads to an emitter star.
It’s an idea. It would require changes in design of the pill, the driver, the mcpcb, and the reflector and might take up volume from an already inadequate heat sink space. I’d rather see Solarforce either modify their heads to better fit drop ins or come up with a drop in that better fits their heads and has decent threads between the pill and the reflector.
:>) I’m trying to stay in the spirit of the budget forum.
Well I hope the engineering minds here will focus on these issues and come up with solutions.
funny cartoon. Not trying to convince anyone just trying to stimulate some ideas and conversation.
That could be true. But I look at the number of people on websites like this and how many are actually doing their own mods. My guess is less than 10% of the members here are making their own mods.And since these powerful LED flashlights are fairly recent I suspect as they become more popular even more people will want to give it a try. I could be wrong but I suspect more people will want in.
My goal in this thread is to stimulate conversation and hopefully some ideas to improve these lights. I have no problem with people making and selling souped up drop ins. And from what I have seen them are very reasonable priced for the amount of time and effort put into them.
My standard for buying a drop in is that it has to achieve a better price to lumen ratio. Now I can buy an under powered drop in from Solarforce for $16.99 and have confidence in their product. But I know we can squeeze some more light from these items. So if I buy a replacement drop in that costs twice as much then it has to return at least twice as many lumens. If the drop in cost 40% more then it has to deliver 40% + more lumens.
I’ve looked at some of the budget drop ins online and most of them don’t make as many lumens as those sold by Solarforce. The custom made drop ins are more powerful but also cost twice as much as the Solarforce ones. So nothing meets my standard which is why I am thinking about building my own. But then there comes the time and effort, having bad eyesight and no work room to do soldering etc and I think if these were just easier to use, modular, then I would build exactly what I want.
As I mentioned before I am not looking to build a pocket light house. When I need a flashlight I will probably not going to be at home so the large light house flashlights won’t be available. When I am out I need to have a small light on my person, in my pocket or in my backpack. The P60 is perfect. But I want to most light I can get for a budget.
I may play around with swapping reflectors to see how that changes the light display. My current solarforce XM-L2 with OP reflector is quite powerful. But I wonder how the light will be with a SMO? One of the things I like about the Solarforce drop ins is they have a wide volt spread so they will work with either 2 or 3 CR123’s. Many of the drop ins online don’t have this flexibility.
If I give building a try who do you recommend I get the parts from.
My goal is to make the assembly easier for those who aren’t as handy.