What did you mod today?

what is the trick to posting pics?

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/15452

You used Google drive and that just sucks…
Try uploading it on a regular photo upload site like photobucket.

thanks. I tried that but used google drive share options. doesnt seem to work. Will try photobucket.

will34: what a great performed mod! I wish I was in the hobby back then, I love that Nitecore!

CRX: another very cool mod. And quite a chunk of alu in there!

That EA4 mod will have me looking over to the shelf where mine resides. I’m assuming you left the driver as is. Definitely need aluminum for that heatsink, copper would weigh a ton.

Yeah, the aluminium balances out the four eneloops in the back a lot better. All i did to the driver was replace the LED wires.

Way back in post #592, KawiBoy1428 used this stuff: "Alum Fast Stick" for thermal potting

This looks really good for lots of applications, like fixing up pill-less budget lights, specially if you replace or build a shelf but need to add thermal mass, and get a good thermal connection to the body. I just ordered it on Amazon Prime.

KawiBoy1428 - can you or anyone advise a bit more on this stuff? It looks pretty good, better thermally than JB Weld I would think?

Never used JB weld on a flashlight. This works up like any 2 part putty epoxy, kind of thick and heavy. Machines really nice once fully cured. Make sure your surface (s) are roughed up and clean Transfer’s heat in the S70 rapidly, warm in about a minute or less and LUX is way more stable, not rapidly dropping like it was before, even after fixing the mcpcb shelf. I think your going to like it Tom! I purchased 2 more sticks of it. :wink:

Solarforce L2M shorty 18350 added A6 driver heavy solder to the cheap pill. GB XPL HI V2 1A used gold Thermal paste and did the vihn aluminum foil heatsink wrap. 4 inch heavy duty foil folded twice. Used a plastic mallet to finish the press in. I left the forward clicky in place for 7 moon through turbo. It is “cute”. Giggle factor: yes. You can hear the clicking a mile away. No stealth for sure! Hey… I had the host so why not.

Built a few builds today I have been meaning to get around to completing.

The first is my 18500 Convoy S2+ triple. I used a 1.4A driver with Guppydrv, cut the pill in half and soldered the Noctigon to the half pill. I stoked the Noctigon with 3ea of the 219C 70+ CRI LED's from RMM... Very nice light. I baked the body until I got this color, which is actually very nice. A sand or light bronze color. Whatever you call it, I like it and it looks good with the black clip and switch boot.

The other light I rebuilt was my K5. I had buried the thing in a flower pot outside for a week after bead blasting it. The finish was coming along nicely, I oiled it with coconut oil after a good rinse. I put another 219C 5000K, this one a 80+ CRI in place of the stock XPL-HI. I like the tint much better.

The color comparison from stock to baked on broil for 45 minutes...

Some more close ups of the aged copper look.

The last mod was a Supfire M2-Z from Mountain Electronics. This is a sideswitch C8 almost. Not a bad host at all. I stripped the components off the origninal driver board and piggybacked a 3A Qlite with Moppydrv (also RMM's store) on to the stripped board. I also replaced the stock emitter with a 3000K 80+ CRI XPL-HI I had in another light. Now I have a high CRI thrower... It is nice, but I messed something up in the mod, the light goes to a 1/2 moon mode instead of off... So for now, just a play around light. I will see what I can find to fix the no-off situation.

You and djozz keep chopping down your S2 18350 pills to make room for a bigger (18500) battery, but I’ve been thinking of going the other way and building a full size S2 and running the smaller 18500 so I can make a longer heat sink. Don’t know if that would make any sense, or if I’d just be roasting my cells inside the battery tube.

Makes sense to me, if what you are after is more heat absorption. What amp levels are you running your S2 for output? I felt comfortable with my 1.4A build and the increased run time from the 18500, which is what I was after…

It gets warm, but not hot on a 60 second turbo timer, with a 50 minute run on high alone. Not the runtime of the ever so slightly larger DQG tiny 18650, but much more useful than the 18350 size…. Plus all the modes of guppydrv in this one…

Right now I’m mostly playing around with triple and quad single cell DD FET drivers. Going for the gusto. Mostly I find the time consuming act of filing and shaping of my copper heat sinks by hand therapudic. For some reason the concentration involved takes me far away from outward pressures. Therefore, if I’m going to build big copper, I might as well have big heat to go with it.

You guys are all doing good stuff. ReManG you just gave me my next two mods. You got to love mtne. I’m also hunting copper.

Well, there has been some talk lately in other threads about the heat treatment for color change and if it has any effect on the actual aluminum strength itself.

I had mine on broil for about 45-50 minutes and a quick toast on the flames afterwards to keep it hot for a few minutes more.

Then when I am coming back from the store a little while after I posted the original mod, I go to open the gate. My light drops out, unnoticed, and I ran over it (dirt driveway) and didn’t figure out what happened until I went to close the gate…


I do not think it is negative to heat change the color on at least the convoy lights….

The head is ever so sightly out of round, especially toward the front, and it has a few scuffs, but it all works well, and did not even break the lens…. Ironically, I dropped the light earlier and broke another lens, so this is the replacement. I put lenses in front of the optics to protect the plastic, and in this case, to keep the space correct… I have no other damage to the light… Just a slightly oblong front end and a couple of gravel divots… The pill unscrews and the O-ring seems to be good… Here is an inadvertent mod for heat treatment of the Convoy S2+

lol. ditto.

Tank 007 TK-703 Green Laser powered by a 10180 cell :laughing:

(I blew smoke over it to get this image.)

I received my MTN package so I finished my S30RII triple 219C D320 :slight_smile:

The moonlight mode is loooow, here it is compared with my S2+ (A6 BLF driver) on moonlight too :

The frosted carclo triple (10509) makes it a nice flooder, and the Nichia have a nice neutral tint !

I made a pretty tame mod. The new triple 219C mtnelectronics had a promo on, in a Convoy S2.
Around 15 amps at the tail.