coool sky scraper LED mod i like it
Pulled out the grinding bit and started grinding the interior of the body tube last night. Should finish the grind tonight. (No lathe … I make do with a grinding bit and a hand drill) So far looks good. I didn’t break through the body at the o-ring slot so I’m not expecting further trouble.
The Sipik 58’s body tube is quite thick. This is an advantage in that it increases durability and provides lots of extra mass for heatsinking. The downside is that the body tube is thicker than might be expected given the relatively small battery.
With the extra space inside the battery tube I plan to install a conductive sleeve. The sleeve will be insulated from the body with paint or maybe an index card. The goal is to provide an extra electrical connection from the head to the tail without interfering with the battery. Once that is done I’ll rebuild the tailcap internals installing an e-switch. If all goes well, the light will have a FET driver with moppydrv e-switch firmware and a tailcap e-switch instead of a clicky.
If there is sufficient space in the battery compartment after doing the e-switch mod, then it would be nice if I could fit an Efest IMR 16500 cell in, but I’m not sure there will be room. I’m still waiting for my 16500s to arrive so I cannot test that yet.
Hopefully the reduction of metal in the body tube won’t cause overheating issues.
Friggin’ awesome mod Firelight, I love it. Great read with just the right mix of pics and text. Your pillar is a wonderful idea. Both Devcon 2-ton and JB weld can be cleaned up nicely with rubbing alcohol and Compound W Freeze Off comes with applicator tips that are great for lint free applications(box comes with way more than can be used), better than q-tips.
I’ll have to look at Osh for them. Anyone want me to grab extras?
CRX does a really nice mod removing the ano and filling the knurling with darkened epoxy then sanding it off flush to the knurling, very sweet. I did some testing with it and found you can tint JB weld (or clear epoxy) with spray paint.
Nice.
I might end up removing the Ano on this light. I modded a Sipik 58 five years ago and it looked great with polished bare aluminum.
I also received some Birchwood Armory aluminum black earlier this week. Might experiment with that a bit.
Cool build! Excellent idea with that pillar.
Thanks. I’m very happy with how this pillar design has worked out. 
Today I finished boring out the battery tube. It’s now wide enough to hold a 16500 cell. Or a 14500 cell and e-switch sleeves.
Since my 16500s haven’t arrived yet, I went ahead and started the conversion to a tailcap e-switch. I’ll have pictures up on the weekend of the mod. It’s a pretty complex mod involving the following:
- swap 15mm guppydrv clicky driver with 15mm moppydrv e-switch driver (both from Mountain Electronics). Boards are identical but have different firmware.
- drill a tiny hole through a bare area of the driver and run a tiny wire from the e-switch bondpad through the hole to the underside of the driver.
- solder this wire to a copper ring on the bottom of the driver.
- apply arctic alumina to anchor the ring in place. It needs to sit below the driver near the edges of the battery compartment, but cannot touch the body tube or negative connection on the driver.
- Make sleeves to fit inside the battery tube. The sleeves are simple rectangles bent into tube-shape. Wider tube is made from thin plastic. It insulates the inner brass tube, which serves as the electrical connection between the e-switch and the tailcap.
I completed all of the above steps today, and so far everything works. Still do:
- Cut sleeves to proper length for battery compartment
- Construct tailcap innards. Tailcap must contain a pass-through from ground to the negative battery contact. Also needs a microswitch with one end connected to ground and the other to another copper ring mounted near the base of the tailcap.
Where have you seen a 16500 cell?
> OSH
Sing out if you find them on shelves? I’ve looked at the OSH website several times and never seen them there.
I found them at Batteryjunction. Here’s the link .
Here’s a link to a review of the Efest 16500 . Seems superior to 14500.
Yes, I didn’t find them on the website either. Found them only on the store shelf.
I was surprised they aren’t available on OSH’s website considering these seem to be manufactured specifically for OSH. The packaging actually says “@2014 Orchard Supply Hardware” right below the bar code.
I was thinking at first they might be discontinued lights, but then my local store restocked them. So maybe not.
I think I’ll get a bunch more so I have extra stock in case OSH does discontinue them later.
Note that OSH has different sizes available, all with the LED Lenser style optic. This is the smallest one they have, but they do have a much larger light using 3xAAA or maybe 3xAA, but it sells for over $20. Much more expensive than these $8.99 cheapies, though still far cheaper than a comparable size Lenser.
Now you need to come up with a way to reuse the rest of the OSH flashlight after taking the lens out.
Maybe a triple?
I’m not a huge fan of the 2xAA battery format. The tube’s too long for anything else. I’m also not a huge fan of 2x li-ion in series. So turning this into an MTG2 or XHP host probably isn’t a good idea (that and there isn’t much heatsinking).
I suppose I could try the human lathe method to cut the tube to 1xAA. Not sure it’s worth the effort though.
On the upside, in addition to the optic I can salvage from the OSH light:
- tailcap switch boot - It’s black … and it fits into the SK68, 58 and #3 zoomies! I’m not a huge fan of bright orange tailcap switch boots so this is nice. It’s hard to find a reliable supply of switch boots in this size.
- o-rings - extra o-rings are never wasted. I find it very helpful having a stash of o-rings on-hand. Never know when one might be needed.
- body tube grip sleeve - the stock light has a ribbed rubber sleave around it to help improve grip. These are handy for slipping on other lights when more grip is needed. Easy to cut down to size.
Even the body tube isn’t a complete waste. I used one tube to practice applying knurling with my hand knurler.
My 16500 cells arrived from Batteryjunction today! :sunglasses:
When I finished grinding yesterday I concluded there was enough room for either a 16500 cell, or the conductive and insulating sleeves needed to provide electrical connection for the e-switch … but not both.
Now I’m wondering if maybe I can do both. Both should be the best possible mod for this light: (1) the increased capacity of a 16500, combined with (2) the enhanced UI and quiet switching only possible with an e-switch.
Perhaps instead of a sleeve wrapping all the way around the inside of the tube, how about a thin strip that runs down the tube. If I can dig a slot for this strip without destroying the tube, it might work. Even the slot penetrates the o-ring slot in the neck of the tube, the light might still work ok. Like all push-pull zoomies, this light isn’t waterproof. If it were, the zoom wouldn’t function properly. As such, hermetically sealing all the o-rings isn’t necessary or desired.
The Osh in San Rafael had around 8 of the lights plus 3AAA and 2C versions with successively larger optics. The AAA was $20 and the 2C about $30, both too much to pay for a host with mostly cheap parts. I picked up just one of the 2AA units. There’s not much travel in the zoom, only 3-4 mm.
Depending on the host and your needs the Efest 14650 has about the same capacity.
Great mod. I’m a fan of LED Lenser optics, just a shame that their lights are usually under-powered and over-priced.
Spent all evening working on this light.
I tried, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough room in the tube for me fit both the e-switch connection and a 16500 in the tube. Maybe with some additional grinding, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk that. At this point I opted against doing that. I might try that later with a spare battery tube.
On the upside, the tailcap e-switch is now fully functional with 14500s. It has very short travel distance and a soft touch. Moppydrv firmware so there are shortcuts to moon and turbo.
I have an sk68 on the way and I’m curious to find out how much it can be reamed. It seems the limitation is mainly the tail cap threads though I suppose a 5/8 compression fitting mod could allow bigger cells and sleeves allow longer ones too.