For color-matching with the grey body parts I decided to just mix black and white Sugru. I should be able to get a more exact color match if I also mixed in a tiny bit of blue and yellow Sugru to get a very slight greenish tint, but for cost reasons I decided to not do that.
The individual use packets of Sugru cost around $4 each. If I mix 4 of them it would be $16… and I’d have to make sure to get everything right on the first try with no need for touchup.
On the upside, Sugru does allow the flashlight modder to make custom switch boots and flashlight grips with relatively little effort and no special equipment.
Worked over my cheap little magnified head light. It had ice cold 5mm LEDs and gave me a headache if I used it for very long. A member here supplied me a couple of hi CRI 5mm LEDs and I swapped them out tonight. It is so much better now!
A hot dedome on a LB XML clone that is in a 502B. I sliced around the dome, ran it on high without the head for a few mins and then lifted the dome off with a blade. It left a small sliver behind, but after running it on high again I managed to remove it. The colour is much nicer although it has a slight hint of green, unfortunately the hot spot is slightly out if focus.
The original plan was to use the LB as an experiment then replace the emitter and driver but the threads are of such poor quality I don’t think I will bother.
Think someone did do work with the 84 a while back, not sure. No flashlight board designs available I’m aware of - I don’t know Eagle. Would be interesting to look at, but if we go the 84 route, could also go the PIC route - think better MCU’s, more pins, not sure though. We also have some published PIC source code, but not sure if in C - I’d hate to go back to ASM.
It took about 7 hours of frantic paced modeling, even with the parallel version as a reference model, but I finished the 3S version of my AA holder design. What can I say… I tend to draw in wireframe line by line so it takes me a while. (parallel version in post #258) The center rod just acts as a stop to help with insertion of the cells and will be made from tool steel “drill rod” for rigidity. The design concept was to make a holder by sandwiching thinly machined components together.
Last night I re-tested/recorded the fully modded BLF SD10 (Lumintop) with a FET+1 driver. I took off the protection circuit from a TrustFire 32650 and got incredible results with it! All measurements done with a clamp meter at the tail w/heavy gauge wire loop:
TF 32650 @4.09v: 6.67A
SAM 30Q #2 @4.21v: 6.60A
SAM 30Q #4 @4.20v: 6.53A
EFEST 26650 4000 #4 @4.22v: 7.03A
BASEN 26650 4500 #1 @4.22v: 6.82A
BASEN 26650 4500 #3 @4.22v: 6.93A
BASEN 26650 4500 #4 @4.22v: 6.89A
TF 32650 @4.22v: 7.58A
The "unprotected" TrustFire 32650 must have incredible IMR power to beat those other cells, and it beat them significantly.
With the stock XM-L2 U2 3C on a 20 mm Noctigon, and the unprotected TF 32650 @4.22v, I got:
TrustFire TR-A9 (where available - FastTech says in stock if you believe them ) and Lumintop SD10 (obsolete now, maybe still available somewhere). Both have issues with heat mgt, poor pill designs unfortunately, TR-A9 could be worse.
Ahhh - or have Dale make a 32650 size tube replacement for a Convoy L2 or L6, or a EE/Manker/BLF X6
These #'s from the unprotected (ripped off) TF 32650 are pretty sic. Richard sells them already unprotected - wondering if my 32650 is "golden" or from a "golden batch" - love to see if repeatable with one from Richard.
I'll be testing my 32650 with a FET based XP-G2 light I got around - simply holding the cell to the driver spring, but want to see if I can get a good bump on XP-G2's as well - that would be the ultimate use for it. Also think'n if the BOSS1 could be adapted to 32650's - might need creative mill/lathe work of course... Dale?
I’m taking pictures as I go. I might make a build thread when I finish if the light looks ok. Right now it looks pretty beat up.
Last night I replaced the black Sugru with grey Sugru. As expected, just mixing black and white Sugru gave a neutral grey. It does not match the bronze-grey coloration of the anodizing on the light. I’m undecided if I want to buy colored Sugru and give it another shot.
Colored Sugru costs $18 a pack at the local hardware store (includes 1 packet of each of the primary colors plus black and white). $18 for one attempt with only a half-hour mixing and application time for the project sounds rather expensive.
Alternatively, I could try painting over everything except the switch button using my method with acrylic paints and super-glue. That would give me a much better color-match. But I’m not sure the paint would stick well. Sugru is a fairly hard rubber, but it’s still far more flexible than other surfaces. A little bending and flexing would cause my paint to break off.
A crude mod today, a hanging hook for my BLF-A6 bare 18350, made from a piece of iron. This light gets beaten up against my keys all the time, the finish does not have to be or stay pretty.
It was a stiff iron pin from somewhere, chromed at first, but I heated it to orange colour with a blow torch to make the bends, then the chrome flaked off. Actually I think I could just as well have used a common nail.