Done a few mods recently. Mostly re-modding or finally modding some lights I’ve had a long time.
First up was my EagleTac D25LC2. I bought this a few years back, it was my ‘first’ modern proper LED torch. When EagleTac first launched the D Series.
It had a very cool white XP-G in it. It was a really nice light, but the tint was not for me, it also had quite a noticeable tint shift on lower outputs.
I had a spare XP-G2 R5 3C on a Noctigon, that pulled from an F13 (never really liked it in that light). And set to fitting it to the EagleTac.
First up, I did not want to mess with the driver (or break the light). On getting the bezel off and removing the lens and reflector, I found the head was quite deep and narrow to get down to the LED, so a bit of a fiddly soldering job.
Also the stock star must have been around 14mm sitting in a 15mm recess. So the 16mm Noctigon was too big. After much filing by hand the Noctigon eventually fitted. And all back together again. Now I have a nice more modern D25 EagleTac with NW tint, slightly higher output than before and the tint shifting on the lower modes seems to have mostly vanished.
Having completed the D25LC2. I moved to modding a zoomy I’ve had for ages. It’s an Ultrafire ZB-006 and is my most compact 18650 zooming light. I originally bought it, because it was meant to have an XP-G in it (years back….). However it turned up with an XP-E in it.
It was ok, bigger flood than an SK68 and slightly better throw. But it never really hit the spot for me. Tint was way too cool and while the throw was quite good for it’s size, it was a pencil beam. The driver was also horrid, H-L-Strobe with next mode memory and PWM.
This host is really thin and lighweight. So I knew it’d never be a complete hotrod, just doesn’t have the thermal mass. So I ordered up a 3.04A Qlite and an XP-L HI V2 3B on a Noctigon from Int’l Out door.
Sadly this turned into more of a pita than I thought it would be. The pill turned out to be hollow (I thought it had a shelf :person_facepalming: )
And the fatter wires from the Qlite driver mean the led would not sit flat. So I’ve had to file out some channels for the wires. Then get it all installed.
End result, nice flood output and tint. But it really didn’t throw very well. The taller Noctigon must have moved the Led just out of focus at full zoom.
Ran it like this for a few days and just found myself annoyed with it. Eventually pulled the XP-L HI out of it and chucked in a de-domed XM-L2 that I had been running in a Convoy S2. Nothing fancy, it was a CW LED (I think from a Convoy S2+ so probably a 1A or something). Tint ins’t too bad de-domed, not brilliant, but acceptable. And for some reason the throw is much better than the XP-L HI and it focuses better now too (aluminium star).
Still not sure how much I like the light overall, but at least it’s a usable light now.