First Mod. Now I'm Addicted! Need Advice On Next Light

Well I think I’ve been bitten by the bug.

I finally decided to do my first driver swap for one of my BLF Eagle Eye X6’s and managed to pull it off without burning the house down (or causing serious bodily harm to myself). Ended up putting in a Wight’s driver and am pretty happy with the results. Heck, with my inexperience, I was just happy the dang thing turned on :party: I still have to do a spring bypass, but so far so good.

So… now I want to set my sights on more lights that are within my ability to mode (simple driver swap, spring bypass and the like). I haven’t read up on how to reflow emitters yet, but that is next on my list.

My question is: what lights do you guys recommend that are of decent quality, that just need a new driver, maybe an AR lens and some new springs, that really “open up” once properly driven? I figured there must be a few “must have” modded lights out there that are just under-driven and have great potential.

Links would be greatly appreciated!

How about just buying a host and putting in your own led and driver?

Depends what kind of light you want. I definitely suggest one of the Convoys though. They make awesome hosts and I love their build quality. IMO their build is right up there similar to X6.

The next mod you should definitely be Noctigon or Sinkpads though…they really make a huge difference. If you are not comfortable reflowing emitters, you can just buy them already mounted. For the $2 it costs for a DTP copper star, it is one of the best bang for your buck mods.

Convoy S2 with a noctogon triple xpl V-6 3D on copper spacer from MtnE, BLFADD-S08. A true little pocket wall ’o light.

MRsDNF; I’m totally open to using hosts. Cracking open an already working flashlight, and just swapping out the guts gives me a little more confidence that I’m not going to screw it all up. :smiley:

Tristan; I’m all about the wow factor lights. I have a few EDC’s already that fit the bill just fine. I am kind of looking for ideas from everyone else’s previous builds.

Rufusbduck; now that is what I’m talking about! Does that spacer allow a 20 mm noctogon to fit in the host or something?? I read where the s2 requires a 16 mm but I can’t find any triple 16mm’s on the site. Or am I going to have to file down the noctogon?

The spacer is to help maintain the correct height as you are removing the reflector and using a much shorter optic lens to make the triple. The spacer fits the pill and gives you a surface for the PCB to rest on. I'm slowly accumulating the parts to make one myself...

Try a 2D Maglite and mod it to take an MTG2 direct drive off 2 Li-on 32650’s or put a FED DD Driver.

or

2C Maglite with MTG2 and put MTG2 Direct Drive off 2 IMR 18650 cells. 2 IMR 18650 cells fit length wise, but those Protected 18650’s are a bit longer and will not fit.

bigC

Do you have a link for the triple in 16mm at mtnelectronics? I don’t see it anywhere.

The triple in the Convoy S lights is 20mm Since it rides on the spacer and not inside the pill it fits well as to the optics

Ahhhhhhhh… makes sense now!

Yup I get that if it is working when it comes in th door then (as an idea) it is simpler to start substuting parts.

lots of folks like the:

courui d01
The TK35 “clone”
For an easy MT-G2 upgrade this light is attractive, the link has all the details.

“New-117 (TK35 clone) mod. Turn a TK35 into a TK35UE”

Be careful about maglite mods folks have often go so far as to start cutting them down to use different batteries types (which to me is a whole additional level of “mod”).

Lots of folks start off with changing parts on a C8, or similure they are also known as lego lights. There is a guy on ebay who sells a 10x7135 pill for his c8 lights that just drops in and make the cells the weakest link in the light (assuming the spring resistance mods have been done.

Once you start looking you will find way too many options.

Ronin, that TK35 clone looks awesome! I’d rather use the huge head of the courui as a thrower personally (xml2 de-domed?)

Yea the maglits seem like a massive hassile for me at this point in the game. I have an LED maglite but the internals look nothing like the rest of my flashlights. I’m actually shopping around right now for the Convoy C8 v2 so that is on my list for sure. Thanks for the help!

I just realized that you used Wight's driver. That and the 17DD are the cat's ass in my opinion if you want big power :)

Just food for thought....before you get to far into buying lights to mod...look into building a couple drivers. Do not worry about flashing firmware because you can get flashed mcu's from RMM. My personal experience is that I wanted to do the same thing by purchasing working lights and then I figured I will start collecting parts that I replace. Then it dawned on me...what the hell am I going to do with these extra drivers and emitters. Maybe one I will use them :)

If later you get into flashing the firmware you can start enjoying the ability to make the lights do whatever you want :)