I spent some time on this over the weekend. I sanded down the outer pill surfaces to try and make the pill insertion/removal easier. I somewhat succeeded - it's easier, but I messed up the MCPCB shelf a little, but sanded it all down to smoother than it was, getting rid of the typical circular machine marks on the shelf surface.
I dremeled down a 20mm Noctigon to replace the poor stock non-DTP MCPCB of 1 mm thickness. The new Noctigon fits, can be screwed down with the stock screws, and is thinned down to 1.25 mm. Hope the 1/4 mm will do ok when re-assembled.
I really like this light but they went cheap with the pocket clip and MCPCB - these are not components you find on $60 lights, not even on most $30 lights. It's pretty ridiculous actually considering they are over-driving the light at 3.6A (over-driven for stock lights) and not using a copper DTP MCPCB. You lose a considerable amount of lumens and can't get the heat out, so thermal sag has to be killing what this light can really do - super thin non-DTP, cut down shelf, what were they think'n? Makes you wonder if they do this stuff intentionally to keep the light from getting hot in the hand, or are they just that cheap?
Still have to decide what LED to use - think'n of a dedomed XPL W2 1A, or least a V6, and/or possible domed NW XPL. Though it has a OP reflector, a dedomed XPL should still get some decent throw - a good downsized match up with the U21 I have now, dedomed, FET+1, Narsil that does ~240 kcd, 1,600+ lumens.
For the driver/electronics, for now will just try 22 AWG LED wire upgrade, bypass springs, and see how it does.
I do want to check some things out for driver replacement. Thinking a 20 mm driver w/trimming and attempt to mount the vertical switch board to it, stripping the electronics, but seeing if I can re-use at least the RED SMD LED's w/Narsil control. Best solution would be a custom laid out OSHPark board, though not sure if you can get enough precision for the vertical board mount - OSHPark tolerances aren't that good. I'll lose the USB charging, but no great loss.
I took pics, hopefully will post them up soon.
Edit: Here's my break down and mods so far. Didn't get the LED mod done yet:
I trimmed down a 20 mm Noctigon to fit (rotary tool w/sanding drum), using the soldered on wire to hold it to sand down the thickness to get close to the 1 mm thick stock MCPCB:
Before:
After:
Sanded down the shelf. I mangled it a little while trying to manipulate it with heavy needlenose. This pills fits very tight in mine. The surface scratches and mangled edges are all sanded down so not much interference with the MCPCB mounting. Probably a better bond than it was stock with the circular machine marks, still showing on the outer edges:
Pretty much perfect fit now. Had to extend the wire cutouts to get the screws to fit well, and with the cut top, the wires can pass thru as before. I'll probably angle file the edges of the PCMCB at the pads in order to avoid an erroneous contact with the pill housing: