DQG tiny 4 18650 triple mod

Absolutely outrageous! I have two Tiny 18650’s, have wanted to mod one forever. This is a little beyond my present skill, but I enjoyed your post immensely.

Awesome job Dutchee!

Question: How do you reflow an MCU from a driver board? I tried it once on a Nanjg 105c and ended up destroying the pins. Do you just apply the iron to the plastic package and hope it melts the solder? What kind of iron do you use?

@ rmkline: Thanks for your enthusiasm!
Just order all parts x2 and see how far you can get. You already have 2 hosts :laughing:

Firelight2 is part that got me into this mess :person_facepalming:
Just like his nice build review on #3, I hope this opens doors for more mods on the DQG 18650. I haven’t found a better host so far… It actually drives the heat out better than I expected. I usually EDC titanium lights, but these suck at thermal conductivity.

@Firelight2: Thanks!
I place the driver on the two wooden blocks, like in the pic’s.
MCU side up, solder tip between the blocks under the driver pushed against the + battery pad, just slightly lifting up the driver. I had some solder on the + pad, guess that helped in the heating process. Not needed though I think.
After about a minute or two you can pick off any component with a tweezer. You can see it’s ready when the solder turns shiny. Don’t drop the driver at this point :smiley:
I cleaned off the excess solder with copper unsolder wick, working from the top.

I bought my iron at a local hobby shop at around €20, will let you know wich type. I’m not home at the moment. It’s got an analog temp. selector wich I use on high most of the times.

Edit: I used this solder tin paste for the reflow of the AT85:
Ebay solder paste

Wow thanks for the tip! So all I need to do is apply my soldering iron to the + pad on the underside of the driver :sunglasses:

I figure my 40w cheapie soldering iron should be hot enough. But if not I suppose I could swap to my 60w iron.

Hm… wonder if I should learn how to flash driver firmware.

Haha, that’s not a question, is it? :beer:

:smiley:

I wish someone would come out with an e-switch driver with temp sensor. Something like the H17F, but for e-switches would be perfect. Hint, hint …. if you’re reading this thread DrJones :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face:

I wonder if I should mod my DQGIV into a triple.

I like the stock DQG IV much better than the DQG III, but I still find the UI annoying. The light would probably be better as a small triple!

Alternatively, I could mod my BTU mini titanium into a triple. It looks like a slightly longer DQG mini, but made of out of titanium. It would actually be possible to make this one into a non-triple with a different driver and emitter since unlike the DQG this one has an actual separate star for the emitter. Downside is the titanium. The head gets too hot to touch even with just the stock 2.8 amp driver.

That would be very nice indeed!

Maybe someday we wake up, and Tom E, DrJones, TK or some other code magician saw the light to get BLF the holy grail of e-swith with thermal regulation FW :innocent:

Really, with this output and firmware, it’s a completely different light than the stock DQG.
It’s no longer a dumb light, it’s programmable. Tint is way better, superlow moon, MAX…
My uv-s5(SRK) ceilingbounce is 156lux compared to 233! on the DQG :disguised_face:

I really like the looks of that BTU mini titanium, but the material is not suited for a FET DD triple IMHO. Single emitter might be oke for short use I think.

Don’t you use your DQG 3 triple anymore? That looked nice!
Did you go back to a lower output EDC light, while you’ve spoiled yourself with such a small powerhouse? :question:

Maybe I’ll throw my DQG into a sodium hydroxide solution one day and give it a polish… I think the knurling is a bit too agressive and love bare lights… Maybe…

These days I’ve mostly been grabbing my 18500 powered Sunwayman C10R when I want a superbright triple. On an Efest 18500, the Sunwayman is as bright as the DQG Tiny III triple on a Samsung 30Q (both lights use the same FET driver). It’s actually even a tiny bit throwier due to the lack of extra lens in front of the optic.

Unlike the DQG, with the Sunwayman there is no heatsink slug under the star, but on the other hand, with the Sunwayman my hand does not sit directly on the hottest part of the head and the head has heatsink fins. I can’t run it at full power as long as I can my heatsink modded DQG, but the light makes up for this with its much smaller size.

Of my two DQG Tiny III triples:

  • FET Driver version. The one with a FET driver and external heatsink works very well and feels very good in the hand. But I put some Sugru around the button and as a collar around the base of the heatsink. This fixed a couple of my problems including making it so I can hold the light substantially longer at max power before it gets too hot to hold. And unlike the metal switch I was using this one is waterproof. Downside is the Sugru looks pretty ugly. I’m thinking of replacing the Sugru with green stuff epoxy and then painting the entire light with Duracoat for a much more uniform appearance.
  • 3.8 amp Mokkadrv driver version and no external heatsink. The exterior of the light looks absolutely beautiful. But since output is capped at 3.8 amps it’s not a pocket rocket (Mokkadrv has no turbo timer and always comes on in max). Also, the metal switch isn’t waterproof. I suppose I could replace the driver on this one with something better.

Nice job on the sunwayman! I can see why you like it. You modded a nice couple of small lights.

Today I removed the anodisation of the DQG using sodium hydroxide (declogger)
I don’t really like the ano on the DQG. It looks a bit cracked and had some scratches. The light had some sharp edges and the knurling is too agressive.

Before:

Dissolving the anodisation in a lukewarm solution:

A bare light:

I polished the knurling and some surface parts. The knurling now feels very nice. And all edges are more “refined” now.

The weight was reduced with 1gram to 45.1gr.

This light couldn’t be better…
Nice work for one more time :wink:

That bare polished DQG looks great! Awesome job!!! :sunglasses:

Great looking mod.
I like it that much I’ve got a dqg tiny 4 host on the way to copy it.
Couple of questions.
What size is the driver and how is it held in place?
The switch, is it sitting on top of the copper heatsink you put in?
Thanks for your help.

Sorry, I'm wayyy overdue to get thermal regulation into Narsil. Been putting it off, busy with projects. I have to get back to it though. A few guys have been bugging me for it, and should have enough memory in the 85 left to add it without sacrificing anything. I know they want it in the BLF Q8, and a while back even Richard was asking for it. He might be interested in offering it if it had thermal regulation - he seems uninterested at this point because he says e-switch drivers are a small part of his driver sales, so there's not much interest out there.

DEL has a great and simple implementation of it, so was gonna use his as a baseline.

Thanks guys :+1:

@RJD Nice to hear, I really still like it a lot.
I used a Fet+1 17mm driver, but original is about 18mm if I remember correct. It is glued in place with thermal paste, but that can quite easily be removed. I soldered the driver in place on the brass ring.

The switch is not on top op the heatsink, it’s besides it. That’s why I filed away the rectangular shape. Make it fit snug, or use thermal paste (I ended up using Sipik) to secure it in place.
I hope you get it all done!

@Tom E I’ve been too busy to mod anything lately. And I actually don’t think I can find anything I would use more than my current lights. I do look forward to the Q8, looks promising!
When you include thermal regulation, that would change things. I will have to flash that to my DQG mod offcourse!
I also allmost burned my fingers on my UV-S5 once, so it would be nice in either formfactor.
No hurries, but when you feel bored do give it a try :+1:

This is what happened when my SupFire M6 was activated on hi (I believe) in my case. The M6 was wrapped in a small towel:

It took a long time to cool down (think'n 30+ mins) - I was barely able to turn it off without burning my fingers. Results? No damage to cells, LED's, driver, light - nothing. Still in use til this day, and that was a couple years ago.

You’re lucky it didn’t catch fire! With my DQG mod, I get smoke from a black towel on high within a few seconds… Quite amazing to see. I’ve got a few towels with these nice yellowish circles burned in them laying around as well :smiley:

The UV-S5 works still fine as well. These well built flashlight parts are more resilient than one might think.
For firehazards and burned-skin’s-sake it would be nice to have some stepdown ofcourse.
I have had a few unpleasant thermal surprises in my pocket allready… I won’t be carrying these overdriven lights without physical lockout in a bag.

According to

the bezel shouldn’t shroud the optics, but in your light it does. Is is actually a washer? Is your bezel slightly smaller? Any other reason?

This is my

I haven’t been around this thread for a while, but
@ AGRO: I don’t know exactly what you mean. There is a glass lens on top of the carclo optic. This secures it in place under the bezel.

@ Serp: Nice job and great tint!

I’ll have to find time to mod it to the new Narsil with temperature regulation. Have to look into it, because it looks promising. My Q8 should be here within days now, so I can test its function.
But I’ll have to find out if it works with the X6 driver with Attiny85. Don’t know if it needs any further mods on the driver to be able to use it in the DQG.

Still works like a charm, and a bit scared to ruin it.
I use it daily with a lumintop usb rechargeable cell, great for on the go!

Thanks for sharing Dutcheee. I completed my DQG 4th yesterday following pretty much everything you listed. Like you said this thing heats up fast with a Sony VTC6. It gets so hot so fast I’m about afraid of it. Heats the whole body up in less than a minute and the heads hot enough to burn you in 30 seconds. Its only 3 XPL V5 but I’m pretty sure it’s brighter than my D4 4-Nichia’s running the same battery. I measured about about 13.5 amp draw from the battery. Great pocket rocket mod. :+1: