What did you mod today?

Great job there.

I always like watching your re-flow videos. Itā€™s like a thriller movie where you are just waiting for something to jump out at you. It must be the shaking :slight_smile:

Yes, the threads go in very deep, with the glass lens before the optic you can keep all the threads on the pill, without the lens the optic only just presses-in the o-ring.
These are my first S2+ lights and I bought them directly from Simon, this deep threading may be a recent change because I have not heard it mentioning before.

I like that you painted the mcpcb black, all of my triples look red. Nice mod!

Today I abused The Last Of The Boneycans. Well I copied the the suggestions of ReManG regarding the bullet-proofing of this Cockroach-light. Sanding down the LED, so it would not protrude any longer. It got very opaque so I polished it with Cif, giving it a very matte look. Then drilling a hole in the pill, for filling it up with glue (tonight). And just before assembling everything, adding an O-ring around the base of the emitter.

Almost any flashlight shining on a piece of typing paper from behind and held under the camera will provide frontal illumination with minimal shadow for a much better and clearer picture of small subjects. :wink:

Amazes me how many flashaholics, with plenty of lights to choose from, take dark ill-defined pictures unnecessarily.

Changed the driver in my stock L2 to a Fet +1 driver, also changed the led to a XP-L HI on noctigon copper board.
Using a Keeppower 5200mAh 26650 I get 5.6A.

After 12 min it is handwarm. Love this L2!

I modded a UV triple mule in a bare BLF A6 :

Leds and lens from here
3 mode 2100 mA driver, triple alu spacer.

Itā€™s a mule so itā€™s very floddy :

EE A6 single UV emitter @ 700 mA :

Nice, I was sure someone will made one with those great emitters !

Triple emitter for me too, on my SRmini II :

Stock emitters on the left, 4C on the right.

I fitted a BLF D80 with an MTN-17DDm driver running Bistro UI, using no additional parts.

The original driver PCB is 19mm, so the new 17mm PCB wouldnā€™t sit nicely on the driver shelf.

I drilled out the retaining ring slightly to allow room for the driverā€™s components and soldered the driver to the cellā€™s side.

The result ainā€™t pretty, but no one can tell while the light is running!


Moving the driver means less space for a cell. A 65mm flat-top HG2 cell now extends 3mm past the tail end of a ā€œlongā€ D80 tube. This setup works fine, but a ā€œshortā€ tube or protected cell will not.

With Bistro UI (my favorite!) and no more PWM, this D80 will get lots more use now!

I have a stack of drivers taken out of Lucky Sun D80 lights. Every single one is 17mm. I donā€™t understand your 19mm dilemma. I was on the testing team on those BLF Special Edition D80ā€™s, every sample, every light I bought, all 17mm drivers.

Hmmā€¦

I just pulled my other D80 apart. Head and driver dimensions are the same as the one I modded. I received both lights mid-March.

And just to show Iā€™m not ā€œcheatingā€ with the calipersā€¦ :wink:

The diameter above the shelf is ~19.50mm, and below it ~16.75mm.

Would you like a 19mm driver to add to your stack? Iā€™ll ship it free! :smiley:

Amazing. I donā€™t know why Iā€™m suprised, they changed stuff on Krono for a year before they finally shipped the BLF SE light. But geesh, a jump from a 17mm driver to a 19mm is a big deal! I double checked mine after I said that just to make sure I wasnā€™t remembering wrong (I have a knack for that) but Iā€™ve got A17DD-S08 drivers in several and an LD-2 in one. All 17ā€™s. And the stack I have in my kit, all 17ā€™s. Blows me away.

Edit: Ok, pull the spring off that driver, put a bit of a solder blob on it, should workā€¦ā€¦

Send me the 20mm driver and Iā€™ll piggyback an FET driver inside it, youā€™ll be able to put it right back inside same as before and itā€™ll look stock, but perform much better. :slight_smile:

I can even put that particular driver inside, or build you a new FET+1 with Bistro.

What would have prompted such a change? Seems like more work and more copper!

Does my 19mm driver look like yours with a wider margin added around the edge?

I should clarify, I already planned on running HG2 cells in this light. They fit fine with the ā€œlongā€ tube and driver spring in place.

I only mentioned the length issue as a caveat to others who may attempt my ā€œbass-ackwardsā€ driver configuration. :laughing:

19 mm here as well, but did not have any issues fitting 17 mm drivers.

Also managed to get rid of the beam rings and get decent focus (but not centering), on the one refitted with an XP-L Hi. Used a 0.9 mm gasket meant for an XM emitter with a 7 mm aperture reflector. (Think these are the ones: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1616/10001923/1581402 )

Geesh! That defined hot spot is what I LOVE about the D80! Nice shot!

Unreal. I have 5 drivers here that are still completely intact (I rob resistors and brass buttons and stuff then throw em away) only 2 of these 5 are of similar size.

1 is 16.9mm
1 is 17.5mm
1 is 17.7mm
1 is 17.8mm
1 is 18.8mm and this one I absolutely know is from a newer BLF SE because I marked it when I took it out of blueb8llz light.

I never paid attention to that before! Crazy.

Notice the calipersā€¦

Iā€™m thinking that Dale, DEL, and I have BLF D80s with slightly different dimensions in the heads.

Both of my samples from mid-March look like this:

17mm driver - 16.75mm width under shelf = 0.25mm total overlap

Divide 0.25mm by two, and a 17mm driver would have a ring of 0.125mm overlap with the shelf in my lights.