I've taken my first step into the BLF modding world. I wanted a light with an XM-L 4C tint and gords1001 offered to build me one for the price of the parts. I thought, hell, I want to learn how to do this too. Gords and I decided to purchase the same host and parts, and he could tutor me through my first build. I got the last Roche F8, so Gords picked up its doppelgänger, the D5.
We never did get in sync, because I had to wait for extra parts when I realized the driver was too small to fit into the host. Gords1001 went ahead and did his build and posted it, giving me time to study and watch.
gords1001 builds the D5 https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/16514
In the meantime I attempted a P60, and botched it badly. I begged the forums for tips, and bought a better soldering system.
My soldering station arrived today...so here I go.
I chose the Roche F8 just because it looked cool. I wanted a nice looking host so I could feel proud of it if I ever got it built.
The first thing I needed to do was install a 20mm contact board into the fitting ring so I could adapt a 17mm AMC7135*8 5-Mode 3.04A Nanjg driver.
The wise ones all told me to tin everything, and use flux, so I did. I tinned the hell out of the fitting ring first, then installed the 20mm contact board and laid more solder around the ring on both sides. If this doesn't secure my negative connection, nothing will.
There aren't any circuits to harm on this board, so I had my iron set to 740°F and the solder just ran down into the crack between the board and the ring. The ring was smokin hot, so I could just paint the solder on.
Now to attach the driver to the contact board. First I removed the unnecessary spring and attached two short pieces of 20 AWG Teflon wire to the pos. and neg. on the driver, and then soldered them to the contact board.
As you can see, I didn't do a good enough job bridging the third star, because I still ended up with strobe and SOS.
The driver is now good to go.
Sorry. I was doing a lot of concentrating, so you'll have to take my word for it that I then applied thermal paste to the underside of the MCPCB and soldered on the wires. (pads and wires tinned first)
Cross your fingers. Will it work? I touched the leads from a battery holder to the pos. and neg...Yes...Glorious Light!!!
Now that I know it works, I fit the driver, contact board and retaining ring firmly into the head. It's a really snug fit, so I used a mallet with plastic end caps to firmly seat the driver ring. This sucker ain't comin' out. No need for any more solder.
Oh yeah. I should show you a pic of the slot that's cut into the threads on the head. This slot is not on gords1001s D5. It's there in case you want to pry the driver back out. Mine is in pretty darn tight. I'm not even going to try to remove it so I can fix the bridge for the strobe. I'll live with it.
Hmmmm? Oh yeah, the spring. I installed one spring, and then removed it and replaced it with a shorter spring. My protected Panasonics were to fat to fit inside the Roche F8, and protected Eagletacs fit, but were too long. I ended up using an unprotected Panasonic and a short spring. My AW flattops should fit...maybe.
i have three Roche lights and all of them are hard to match up with proper batteries. I wonder how gords1001s D5 is for fit?
Well. That's my first build. I think it went well. I have some more hosts in the mail, and I plan to reflow a Nichia219 into a D25A mini, and an XP-G2 3D into a D25C mini. I think I'll be looking over all my torches to see what can be improved.
I absolutely love the 4C tint in my Roche, and love the output. I planned to take some beamshots and tint comparisons, but its way too late for me tonight...and cold with driving ice pellets outside. I'll try to put some up tomorrow.
Id like to thank gords1001 for helping me get started on my new hobby. And thanks to everyone for giving me all the good soldering tips on this begging thread I started. https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/16877
..and Scaru, for answering all my stupid PMs that went like...
"if I did this to that with this...would that work?"