D.I.Y. Easy low amp triples for Convoy S2+, no spacer, no drilling....

I almost went that route, but figured with only 1.4A I would try it the easy way. Your way will have some great thermal path with all that work. I think the Noctigons have done a majority of the work keeping LED’s cool, even just by themselves. I wouldn’t push a build like mine past 2A total anyway, so a 6x7135 driver would work too, but I have trouble finding longer springs that fit the double sided drivers.

Just for the beam pattern for an EDC type light, I like the triples. Very good flood and still enough throw for everything but spotting a cat in a tree…

The super bright aspect is still available if you want, just buy a FET driver and a spacer later if you want to upgrade… But in a 18350 light the runtime will suffer… or you could transplant it to a18650 sized S2+ and go for broke….

Give it a shot can, the low cost option is $10 and a little waiting… make sure you get the parallel board from Kaidomain, they have a series one as well….

I just got a 36 minute runtime off the 219C version I built. This was with a SoShine “1000 mah” 18350. Once it rests, I will throw it on the Liilokala and see how many Mah it actually takes to recharge…

EDIT: 836mah on recharge after rest. This calculates to a .59 hour of runtime, about right considering the cell was 4.14V going into the test (had been sitting) and is now 4.21V after rest.

By the way, when holding these and using them, they only get a little warm…. The 219C version tailstanding for 20 min is pretty warm, but 30 seconds in your hand brings it down to just warm…

ReManG,

Many Thanks for your informative and well written article.

Particularly appreciated the photo’s comparing the 2 pill assemblies.

Timely, as I was recently mulling over some of these points, as I have Convoy S2+ Hosts and some triples already made up.

You may well have motivated me to get some assembled now!

Cheers,
Splott-Light :slight_smile:

What is the cheapest way to get an 18350 length triple host? I think Simon’s S2+ mini’s are the cheapest, are there any others?

I had been looking, but for the $10 or less you will spend on a S2+ host, you can’t go wrong…. The others all seem to require some work or finagling to get the parts to fit right, none of that with the convoy hosts, just drop the parts in…

I built mine very similarly and mentioned them here. In my case I soldered the triple to the pill. Heat transfer doesn’t seem to be a problem from the emitters to the host as it gets hot very quickly. I run FET+1s in them with no problems other than the usual heat-induced timing issue.

These seem to be one of the few mods I’ve done repeatedly that work out well.

I should find some cheap hosts. I’ve got a bunch of Luxeon Rebel triples I got for a song. They don’t take much power, 1A max, so a 3A quite would be more than enough to drive them. Add some big protected Panasonic 18650s and they would be great to have in a drawer for power outages. Lately I’ve been looking at my modded lights realizing that they would all blow up or run out of juice within twenty minutes, so I’ve been digging up my AA lights and charging my Eneloops…just in case.

To make it easier still, can you make a shopping list? With possibly, links to RMM’s shop? That way we can see the items costs and total in a list format.

All I need are the hosts. I’ve had the triples for ever. I’ve got tons of Qlites I rarely use any more, and 18650s all over the place. All stuff that’s sitting around doing nothing. Once I build the lights, they’ll sit in drawers doing nothing.

That is a great idea!

US stuff… Mountain Electronics links (non affilliated of course)

Triple mounted LED’s

Nichia 219B

Nichia 219C

XP-G2 S4 2B

XP-G2 S2 5A3

Driver (select your own firmware, I love me some guppydrv!)

Optics

Narrow

Narrow frosted

Medium

Wide

[Elliptical](10510 Carclo Lens - 3-UP Elliptical shaped beam for bicyclists)

For International orders intl-outdoor.com

Driver

Optics Narrow only, the most useful one anyway in my opinion…

XP-G2 S2 2B

XP-G2 S3 3D

XP-G2 S2 5A3

Nichia 219B

Nichia 219C

The cheap route, but will take time for shipping

Driver Fasttech (my current staple driver, always good to have a few on hand)

Triple boards from Kaidomain, THESE COME WITH OPTICS…

Nichia 219A

XP-G2 R5 4C

XP-G2 S2 1A

Sounds like you need to start giving away some lights…. Hit up your local volunteer organizations like Rescue teams or Red Cross…. The pet shelter people need lights too… LOL, not my lights, so I have plenty of ideas….

Seriously though, I will have to take some of my own advice…

That is cool, I did not think of soldering the noctigon… I am not laying claim to this of course, I was just tickled that a 1.4A driver is sufficient for a decent EDC triple in the short S2+… Thought I would write it up to inspire others… Now I want to paint my optics too…

I’m always waiting for a power outage, but it never seems to happen. I’m ready though. I have lots of eneloops powered lights to lend my apartment neighbors. They all come knocking at my door when they need lights. I don’t tend to lend out LiIons.

I’m interested in any output gains you may notice. I worry a little about tint shift with different paint colors. Maybe silver on the cones and something else on the flat. How about a coating of glow-in-the-dark paint? That should blow away any mere o-ring.

Perfect! Thank you!

If you look on the triple in the OP, there are big curves of the Glow On tape (strontium aluminate) and they leave much more glow than any Oring (see my avatar)…. The middle section is some of the Glow on paint in the center of the optics on the inside.

I have been experimenting with epoxy and strontium aluminate powder from THIS buyer on the ’Bay and just mixing it in. It works, but I have less than a stellar record for getting epoxy where I want it and having it stay there before it sets… I have a feeling this would work for any clear drying glue… The greens and yellows are the brightest and longest glowing, if you are going to get some, the bags are small, but you do not need much to add to the epoxy or other clear glue. I think Epoxy is not best on the optics and will try some clear acrylic or water based craft paint when I get around to it.

Do you have any idea how the powder you referenced compares to this stuff on amazon?

From what I have read, the larger the grain size of the strontium aluminate, the better the glow… Up to some size of course. I do not think you will go wrong with the stuff you listed. I was looking for cheaper to play with the colors and so I selected what I linked. The Glow On brand paints are good too, but much more pricey. As long as the glow stuff is strontium aluminate, it should all be pretty darn good. I would try the paint version HERE if you did not want to mix your own, but the powder would go in any kind of glue that you mix it in, so that has its advantages too….

ReManG. This thread got me going on a whole new line of projects. I started thinking, low amps and civilians with Li Ion batteries...this could solve some problems. Power failure = neighbors in my building coming to me for flashlights.

I won't lend out my moded Li Ion lights to civilians. You can explain about them getting hot and running down the cells fast, so should be turned down to lower modes.

Civilians = high mode...just high mode. Whatever you told them will be forgotten immediately and the whatever light they have will always be on high mode. It's a fact.

I always keep a supply of Rechargable AA lights as loaners. This way they can't hurt the lights, or themselves. This thread got me thinking about civilians and Li Ions. I found a couple cheap $3 S2 knockoffs me and ohaya picked up a couple years ago, along with clearance Luxeon rebels. ($3 cheapies really do cause more work than the real thing)

Anyway, to get back to the point, I took your advice and built two low amp lights. A single emitter @ .75A, and a triple @ 1.4A (neutral Luxeon rebels). These are the Li Ion lights that I will lend to civilians. Lots of illumination without heat and power drain. I have them loaded with 3400 protected cells. I also discovered that I love frosted optics for indoor illumination. Nice even light without an annoying hotspot. There's not much real difference between the triple and the single. Maybe a bit wider spill. I might try some of the wider angle optics as well...in frosted.

Back to the civilians. I've ordered a bunch of those magnets that fit in the tail of convoy type torches, so I can locate two or three lights magnetically to existing ceiling fixtures, providing low amp illumination throughout the apartment. I would also supply them with an AA "walking around light. I have a bunch of convoy S2+, regular and shorties, on order, to build several more.

Of coarse, my own personal indoor ceiling mounted illuminators will be highly modded because I'm responsible, andknow how to use modes, but the civilian loaners will be 1A with protected cells.

My, that Ouchyfoot can really keep yakking, can't he.

I really like those luxeons for indoors, I might order some newer type rebels to try out. I'm going build some of these with nichias and osrams too. If you have a power failure, you might as well have nice lighting instead of just walking around the house with a bright hot spot.

Realy cheap $3 host flashlight. I don't recommend them. Way too much work adapting them for anything. Just ask ohaya, he'll vouch for me.

A filed down noctigon so I could fit a 20mm star. The luxeons were on non DTP aluminum boards, and the pill just drops into the empty head, so a little extra copper doesn't hurt, even at 1A.

This board is designed for series, so I removed the linking resisters so I could rewire in parallel.

The only way I could make things fit was to drill a hole through the center of the triple board and bring the wires up the center.

Note the wire in the front that's not soldered to the pad. (I picked up my new glasses three hours after this pic was taken. Did most of the soldering with one eye closed so as not to see double)

As usual, before installing, I hooked the triple up to a battery to make sure it worked. Of coarse, when testing LEDs, you face them away so as not to blind yourself. Okay, it worked.

After I took this picture and saw that front wire, I hooked it up again and sure enough, only two emitters running. With triples in parallel, sometimes you have to blind yourself to make sure all three are running. Taking this picture saved me a lot of work.

Nice and frosty.

The end results. Real nice lighting at low amps. Waiting for my tail magnets so they'll become real ceiling fixtures.

single @ .7A & triple @ 1.4A

Okay ReManG, thanks for letting me blather for so long in your thread...but...you started it.

Ok, now that is some good stuff right there Ouchyfoot! I like the idea of the loaner lights for emergencies and I too would feel comfortable doing that with LiIon in these low amp triples. The idea for the magnets on the tail to attach to the ceiling fixtures is excellent, it would also work for the metal registers for the HVAC and would allow much better light direction than just putting it on a table or wherever.

This is the kind of motivation I had hoped to inspire, thanks!

I just received a package from KD and got the Nichia’s and the XP-G2 R5-4C triples that you recommended.
Installed the Nichia into a Convoy S2+ and put the XP-G2 into a cheap Ultrafire S5

I am just running the stock 2.8 amp driver in the Convoy and it works real well, I usually use medium anyway so I am at the 1.4 amp mode and still have high for a short burst. Amazed at how well the heat transfers even over that small ledge. Used thin layer of Arctic Silver.

The S5 also is using the stock driver but with upgraded wires. Pulls 1.29 amps high, crappy 5 mode with next mode so that will have to go in the future.
But all in all a dandy little light for under $12 for all parts and host.

Thanks for the great idea. It looks like this setup may also work in the Thorfire TG18 and the Trustfire TR801

Love those low budget BLF Mods:)

Give that S5 a new driver !

Ordered too some triples from KD , and one is going to be a low amp one :wink:

Don’t paint the optic. TIR depends on a clean, uncontaminated surface with zero contact. Anything touching will allow light to transmit through the parabolic surface at that point of contact rather than reflecting off. Better to mix the glo powder with epoxy and paint the mcpcb or interior of the host head. It would increase output slightly to also ream the bezel to allow more of the optic to show since it’s slightly covered where the reflector surface isn’t.