Courui D01 Fitted with 86mm kaidomain reflector. (No lathe required, mostly off the shelf parts)

This looks very interesting….

I’ve modded several Courui’s for friends, & I’m sure some of them will want this treatment done to theirs when they see it.

I’m off to fleabay to get me some camera parts!

:beer: :beer:

- edit -

I managed to locate all of the camera parts, including a snap-on lens cover, from the same seller, for AU$22.75.

2 more questions:

  1. The bezel has to be cut down- could you take a photo of what and how had to be cut?
  2. The lens- is it possible to use some non- glass lens that does not shatter so easily? An acrylic lens or so should not be so fragile as a glass one right?

The bezel of the courui has a single groove on the outside, you can use that as a guide for where I suggest cutting it to remove the front crenelations. A messy hacksaw job is fine as it will be hidden, just needs to leave a threaded retaining ring. A couple slots to help tighten it down will also be a good idea.

On the lens. Sure, you could try a number of other things. A second option I have been playing with is to stick a third hood stage on and use a 95mm filter step down ring to retain a matching piece of UCLp acrylic flashlight lens. That combination would be more sturdy (and doesn’t require machining the reflector OD) but it makes the light a bit bigger and longer than it needs to be. It also requires raising the emitter on a pedestal to make up the gap to the pill. Not ideal.


That’s without the filter ring adapter in place

The 2 hood setup is more elegant and compact so I’m going to try and make that work for myself. The tolerances are too tight to fit a thicker lens though, unless you extend the front with something slightly.

I look forward to seeing people come up with other cool approaches to this kind of thing.

how about using a custom cut AR UCLp lens from the flashightlens.com ? Cut to fit your flashlight. They say ” ALL ACRYLIC MATERIAL (IR, Acrylite, Hardcoat, and AR Acrylic) CAN BE CUSTOM CUT TO ANY SIZE OR SHAPE!! ” so it is worth a try! It would be tougher ( since this material does not shatter like glass) and you would not have to mount an extra hood to attach it.

Sure, just be aware that with the parts I listed…

Clearance required by the reflector between the lens and the top of the pcb surface (provided you’re using the stock shelf or your custom pill matches the stock shelf in elevation, which mine does) is pretty tight already so a thicker lens and the required adapter ring may not work. I’m happy with the thin UV filter configuration personally so you’d have to try something else yourself and see what works.

Even with what I’m doing I’ll probably have to keep the head of the courui unscrewed a little (clamping a larger o-ring into the gap to keep things sealed and rigid) to give me the clearance needed to focus the reflector properly, it’s a tight fit! That has benefits in that it makes the whole package look really compact and like it’s intentionally designed that way. But also makes things a bit tricky as well. I won’t know if things really line up properly until I get the centering gaskets in place and have a go at focusing up the reflector.

You have to rely on a bit of luck sometimes with this kind of modding, and if that fails you need to have an alternative approach up your sleeve :slight_smile:

I did not know it was such a tiiiight fit… Good luck with that and keep us updated, I am sure this forum has enough ideas to help you make it work!

Are there any beamshot of this build? Thank you!

Not yet, haven’t installed an led yet. Busy with other builds at the moment :slight_smile:

BTW, just update the OP with a link to the 77mm hood available from dealextreme. That’s the same part I have here, provided the photos are correct.
77mm Fotga Hood from Dealextreme

Unfortunately they don’t also have the 82mm hood but I’m sure we’ll be able to track down a reliable source for that one too. This is another option that looks about right.
Fotga 82mm from Amazon

If you check out pinkpanda3310’s thread from the OP, you will find some beamshots of the same reflector + a very interesting kcd test :wink:

A few more pics and details in the OP

I have an idea( maybe)
How about a custom copper pill by NikolaS that is machined so that the emitter and the star sit deeper? That should enable you to use 2 hoods and even a proper AR lens. The pills he sells are massive, a few millimeters that will be filed down should not cause problems with the heat transfer.
Is it a good idea???

Sure, that would work as well. Though personally I think it would be nicer to have a design that works with a completely stock Courui pill/shelf. Would allow more people to carry out the mod and keep costs lower in general.

But really it’s up to the person doing the modding what preferences or specific requirements they may have, it’s also fun to try and figure out something different.

I haven’t tried it but you could probably find some way to sandwich an AR UCLp lens at the front between two filter rings, that would also give you some extra clearance. Like a step up and then a step down or something like that. May not look too great but it would work, even give the option of having an oring in there and some better sealing.

The options are fairly endless with something like this but until someone tries it and works out the kinks that’s all they are; Options :slight_smile:

A slightly taller 82mm hood is what we need then. The current is 25mm high, so we need at leas a 30mm one. This one is 36mm 82mm Tele Metal Screw-in Lens Hood for DSLR Cameras | eBay, probably too tall, but I havent found anything better. Maybe, with 2 o-rings ( one betwen the reflector and the lens, another betwen the lens and the retaining ring), it can be made to work. This setup should work even with a bone stock pill. I will try something like this when I finally have some time and access to tools.
What I dont like the most is the ultra thin 0,5mm glass your current lens is made of. It is too fragile for a normal use.

Does anyone have a pic of the stock pill ?

EDIT: Found it, nothing to that pill

if anyone can let me barrow a heatsink for this host i can have these made ?

Good find on that 36mm one, should work fine I’d say. A little bit of extra height isn’t too much of a problem. Certainly better than too little! :wink:
If the gap is too much then it’s easy enough to raise the emitter on a copper pedestal like by stacking two or three mcpcbs.

Depending on how much you can screw out the shelf/pill and how much space the lens and retainer takes up at the front it may actually work out. Worth giving a go I reckon.

Linus, did you order a 1405/1504? If you did can you please check if this approach with lens hoods & camera lens equipment, could be used to fit a larger aspheric lens. If we are lucky maybe it will :slight_smile:

The OD of the 1504 is 70.50mm, do you know if there is some that could fit?

If found for example these filter adapters

Or this 67mm to 77mm i am thinking if one where to sand away enough material, for it to be snuggly fit on to the UF-1504, at 70.50mm and then could we use those longer lens hoods to get the lens far away to be able to focus a larger aspheric lens. Am i thinking right? Or am i missing something vital.

An 78mm aspheric, according to those in another thread thats much better at math than me ;), should need 8-10cm to focus a proper spot.
Thats the next step up from 67mm thats in the 1404/1504 stock.

My lens adapters arrived yesterday, & the KD reflector showed up today.

The reflector I received is flawless, & was packaged safely, & sealed at the ends with some adhesive plastic to prevent crap getting on the surface.

Looks like I’ll be busy this weekend :slight_smile:

The KD reflector eats the stock Courui one, so I’m expecting some good performance out of it.

Any beamshots with new reflector?

Not yet, but I think that we need to send one of these puppies to JohnnyMac to include in his awesome aerial photo shootout.