What did you mod today?

[djozz]

@wight

@djozz

The result (how to draw an owl )

-I love my new 80W solder iron, I use it for ledwire-to-copper-board soldering, done in a second: it is a beast!

It took me a second to remember the how-to-draw-an-owl joke. delayed lol, heh.

What new 80W iron did you get?

Nice (albeit abbreviated) build pics. The numbers sound nice too.

Thanks , the solder iron is a 80W Antex bought on Ebay, it is so hot that if you melt a blob of solder on the (massive) ‘tip’, it forms an thick oxide layer over it in a fraction of a second.

I do not have a solder station but have a separate 18W, 25W and now 80W solder iron for different uses.

[unknown00101]

I might have to pick up a 80W iron, my adjustable can’t quite handle 18awg on copper glued to a heatsink. I managed to make it work, but man it’s probably the ugliest solder job I’ve done.

[mattlward]

@khas

I made a JAX mini C8 with a BLF A6 driver and a XM-L2 T6 4C on a Noctigon.

I really like the little mini C8, I did mine with an XM-L2 4C and a FET+1!

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

jhalb, the BTU Shocker really rocks with 3 of the 9V MT-G2 emitters. These run an 11.4+Vf when pushed hard, so 3 18650’s in series is fine. Around 10,000 lumens and they look awesome in the Shocker.

Past few days, I started modding a MecArmy PT-16 by converting it to a quad Nichia 219C. Then I changed the driver to an FET, took a 15mm piggybacked onto the stripped OEM board… zip for room in this tiny light! So I carved out the emitter shelf on the lathe, doubled the quad mcpcb with a sanded down 20mm Noctigon, soldered those 2 together and they sit on the fairly wide ledge around the outer walls. Potted the driver and glued in the double copper star with Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive. Then removed the built in charger from the top of the 16340 tube, made it work as a stand alone charger complete with red/green charge/finished lights and magnetic leads to use with my power bank. Bored the tube for an 18350, made a delrin outer tube for a brass inner section for a spacer to take up the slack on the 18350.

The end result of all this in the PT-16? Went from 1100 lumens CW Triple XP-G2 to 2187 lumens Quad 219C, from 2.94A to 6.11A. The driver is flashed with TK’s ramping firmware, 64 levels, reversing, with last mode memory and instant moon/turbo from off. Way cool little light, or way neutral little light, mucho giggles.

Here’s the PT-16 driver, it was the old UI and not really very nice, the newer ones have a much better UI and I knew this from the get go, ordered it knowing I was going to sacrifice the driver.

Literally had to file a flat on the side of the 15mm pcb to sit against the switch, mounted it as flat down onto the stripped board as the 20 ga lead wire would allow. Since there wasn’t an adequate positive through the board (original power to mcu was on battery side of driver) I drilled through the brass button and soldered the lead wire from through the board. Works fine. Had to get creative though, tightest fitment I’ve worked on before, and that’s even considering modifying the driver to an FET in a ZL SC52!

Then, after finishing the Mec-Army on Monday morning, my Solarstorm SP-03 came in for the SRK driver from Richards group buy. So, straight out of the box, I modified it. I made a massive copper pill to attach to the big reflector, de-domed the stock emitters and put them on 20mm SinkPAD’s, used 20ga leads from the SRK driver and stacked 9 7135 chips for a total of 41. The light now weighs 2.25 lbs with cells, spring bypasses in the tail allow 3726 lumens with in excess of 235Kcd from the triple.

Here’s some of the work on the SP-03

[leroycp]

Easy carry D80.

!

Photo and Video Storage | Photobucket

!

[djozz]

@djozz

-the spacer was 1.5 mm too thick, so the head did not close fully, which would have been fine if not the threading is so loose (sloppy manufacturing) that the head pulls itself at a slight angle when tight :sick: . The only solution is disassemble and sand a mm off the spacer so that the head tightens over the rim. Someday I will do that :weary:

The day has come, had some sleep and got it done: sanded the spacer to size (1.5mm aluminium is almost an hour sanding) and while the light was open, decided to have a go at the red Noctigon with a black marker, I have enough triples with red front end, and this light is all black and silver so black suits it well. And the head closes perfectly now :heart_eyes:

[The_Miller]

OK after only removing 2 stars from a flashlight I wanted to bake the X5
The wires to the star need to be desoldered and thus also soldered back on
The space in the X5 is not very large but YAY I am proud of myself, I managed to solder them back on and the light is working while looking different.

@Ouchyfoot

025
And the specs of the Meteor clearly say it IS HAIII! Puzzled

True HAIII anodizing shouldn’t turn colour when baked. I don’t think there is any true HAIII that isn’t black. Time to question the specs. I’ve blasted real black HAIII with a blow torch with no change at all.

Well I thought the Kronos set is HA3 right?
I baked the X5 just now.
It took very long to change color, much much longer then the rest.
It shined bronze/golden very brief (too short for even tone) and well I didn’t dare take it further so here is the result:

[wight]

@The Miller

@Ouchyfoot

025
And the specs of the Meteor clearly say it IS HAIII! Puzzled

True HAIII anodizing shouldn’t turn colour when baked. I don’t think there is any true HAIII that isn’t black. Time to question the specs. I’ve blasted real black HAIII with a blow torch with no change at all.

Well I thought the Kronos set is HA3 right? I baked the X5 just now. It took very long to change color, much much longer then the rest. It shined bronze/golden very brief (too short for even tone) and well I didn’t dare take it further so here is the result: http://oi64.tinypic.com/21m5e6p.jpg http://oi65.tinypic.com/m8n4g1.jpg http://oi67.tinypic.com/2ugfer6.jpg http://oi65.tinypic.com/21c9r49.jpg

I didn’t bring it up at the time, but I didn’t really understand why black HAIII couldn’t be baked to a different color. I was under the impression that HAIII has a smaller pore size and thus is unable to be dyed lighter colors. I was also under the impression that HAIII required dye to reach a “black” color rather than the dark “natural” color. My understanding is that the dye is what changes when baking - why wouldn’t this also apply with HAIII?

OTOH baking HAIII to achieve a light color seems pretty questionable and may indicate that it’s actually Type-II anodizing.

EDIT: With that said about the “dark” colors, some fairly reputable folks have claimed to sell HAIII in some very light colors. I’m specifically thinking of PhotonFanatic and Fivemega.

[The_Miller]

It certainly acted different from all the previous baking sessions.
Those were done in a less then 2 minutes, this took longer, as if the alu struggled to make the change.

[wight]

I cross-posted an edit as you were posting your response The Miller. I’d forgotten about those CPF folks selling brightly colored HAIII.

[jhalb]

My God that SolarStorm is entirely off the hook! What talent, Jeeez! I definately need to get a mill and a lathe.

[Joat]

The X5 looks close to some of the pictures of non dyed HAIII I’ve seen. How hot did you have to get it to have it start changing?

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

I did my Solarforce M8 in the oven at over 550º, took FOREVER. lol Same military drab olive green look.

[The_Miller]

@Joat

The X5 looks close to some of the pictures of non dyed HAIII I’ve seen. How hot did you have to get it to have it start changing?

t was on the gasflames and after a mnute of 2 the change started.
The cheaper lights were all changed withn two minutes tops.

[CRX]

Got two finished today.

First my old SRK, now with a 32x 380mA 7135 driver, Noctigons, springs bypass, extra copper heatsink and illuminated aluminium switch.

Second was my Xeno Cube triple, now with 3x XP-L HI on Noctigon, Carlco 10507 TIR optic, handmade 5x19mm copper spacer, spring bypass, trit and 17mm FET driver. 6A startup from a Red Trustfire 14500 IMR cell.

[Fritz_t_Cat]

I modified a broken LED Lenser P14 by removing the (mechanical) driver, changing it to one mode direct drive.

[nitroz]

@djozz

A short mod, but one that I wanted to do for a long time already: replacing the led of a AAA cheapy (brand-less, from Fasttech, but it is exactly the same build as the Singfire/BLF 348) with a ‘led4power’ 365nm led and replace the lens with a 10mm ZWB2 UV-pass filter. I thought it would be great for banknotes, but it is actually too bright for that without protecting glasses, unless it is for checking for a brief moment. It is not as innocent as it looks…

That is very nice!

[nitroz]

NovaTac with Ti Flame bezel

This one is my favorite! Pulls 1.3 amps with regular cr123s, and 3 amps with IMR123s. Per the Cree product characterization that is good for 1100 lumes and 2300 for this J4 XPH-50. On the IMR batteries it will make you giggle!

Beamshot on low, 2 feet. This has no donut holes, just one sweet smooth beam. Oh, and exposure on phone is –2 for the shots. These are with just cr123 batteries

This one is twelve feet away

[AlexGT]

Today I decided to mod an old friend… guess the model and year of this light!

This pic might give you a hint as to how old is it…

Look at that cutting edge led (Back in the day!)

Had to drill that delrin retention disk to get it out

Yep that is an old led, do you remember what it is? Think hard now!

Now, what to put inside… Decisions, decisions, decisions!

One thing I never understood is why dafuq did jetbeam think this was a good idea! a frigging HOLE right in the center where the led goes!!! WTF!!!

We have a winner!

Here is the results!
Left is this Jetbeam Jet II IBS on highest setting, at the right is the Manker T01 on turbo, Not bad for an 8 year old flashlight!

[tru3s1lv3r]

Well, I took a Nitecore EA41 Pioneer, removed all the guts, made a custom heatsink from some copper, had Richard over at MtnElectronics make a momentary switch MtnMax driver running 12v at 2 amps, and stuck it all in the housing with an XHP-35 HI and 4x14500’s. Now I have an EA41 with an XHP-35 HI in it!