Well, since the tear down thread already got fairly long, I figure I will start the modding thread and see where it goes.
So here's the body, tail cap, head, reflector and heat sink to start with. Wait.... that head doesn't look right.
Well, it looks a little different than it did a day ago. There's a little story about that. Heating the light was the only way I could think of, to get the head off, since it was loctited on. Unfortunately, it was still so tight that I could not get it off. I finally lost my short temper after melting the switch cover off... and said F it and got out the pipe wrench (no I don't own a strap wrench). At this point I didn't care if it broke off, it was coming off and I had written it off. It came off and the wrench marks weren't "that bad", so I did a little sanding and now it's a partially polished head. It came out well, considering.
The reflector is one I use for Maglites. It's a CNQG 52mm by 27.5mm (I think), but it did not fit right into the head, so I had to take off about .050" in diameter, to get it to fit in. I did that by holding and turning the reflector against an end mill bit, turning at 3200 rpm, while hoping that I didn't loose any digits.
I'm not going to use the stock driver and I'm not even going to strip it and use it for the contact plate, so I cut a piece of PC board from Radio Shack to use for the upper contact plate.
It fits in the body where the original board sat. It's upside down, I know.
I may reuse the original springs on the home made contact board, or I may just use new ones and leave this driver complete.
I will not be using the original switch either. I have some small switches I can use, if it works out that way.
So, here's the problem. My lack of knowledge has put a stop to progress, until I can find out which driver I can use.
I want to use one of the smd switches, but the only driver I know of that will work with a momentary switch like that, would be one of the 7135 linear drivers programmed by DrJones. If that's all I can do, then this will be an XM-L light.
I do not know of any buck drivers that would work with the MT-G2 led and also work with an smd switch as well. If anyone has a clue, speak up. I am lost.
With 8xAA NiMHS, I can go 4S/2P for 4.8vdc "nominal" or I can go 8S for 9.6vdc "nominal". I would rather go 4S/2P, but boost drivers are not very efficient and a buck driver would be better? Again, I am lost right now, not knowing how I could use any of those drivers with an smd switch. There is absolutely no room for a bigger switch unless I want to make a new hole and I am not doing that. It's already hacked enough.
Any thoughts?
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04-20-2013
Since it may be a week or three before I am able to do anything with this light again, I thought I would finish off the cosmetics and leave you with that.
That's all for now.
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Well, as the saying goes, the only sure thing is change. I've been working on figuring out the 8S battery configuration and I had to remove the contact plate in the tail cap.
My question is what the heck are these?
I was expecting just a solid bridge, but what do these components do??
Whatever they do, I imagine I will just remove them and make a solid bridge across.
Here's how the upper contact plate will go together.
The back side will have one bridge and the Positive and Negative will both be on top. (even number of cells, the + & - are always on the same end, odd number of cells, they are on opposite ends.).
I also got a start on the copper star that the MT-G2 will go on. It's a 1" diameter by .050" thick copper plate and the center pad is 6mmx9mmx.050" thick. The led will be reflowed to the center pad, which will be soldered to the star. The wires will go thru the star and be soldered direct onto the led contacts.
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I ended up changing the smd switch to a 12mm XM-L star.
I decided to do a couple of them, for when one fails, or I fail.
It even works.
Mounted to the side of the heat sink and drilled for wires.
Here is where the taskled driver will sit. The heat sink is not going to be thick. The driver is taking a lot of space, so I will have a thin heat sink that touches against the body. If Nitecore can do it, I can do it.
I'm showing the pictures now, because once I get the led, I will just wire it all up and stick it in the light and there won't be any more pictures, cause I'm tired of waiting.
Copper star has been drilled and heat sink tapped, for screws.
The top contact plate for the batteries is finished and in the light, so I can't show any photos of it. It looks like the photos I showed above, of the plate before soldering, except it's finshed.
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04-30-2013
Well, as the saying goes, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. The light is finished with some alterations.
The copper star ended up being a flop. A total flop. Now the 4,000k MT-G2 rests on it's original star and on the aluminum base. Hey, it's still better than the original method.....
The switch is wired.
The driver is in place.
Last two connedtions to the battery contact plate.
OMG It Works!
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Glamour Shots
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The switch cover is the top section of a Judco cover, since I melted the original one. It's not as nice as the original, but it's what I had.
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Beamshots Tonight!!
Lowest setting
Highest setting
100% crop of the shot above.
100% crop of the hot above.
Enough said??
It's a monster! It's still a good thrower, even with the MT-G2 led. It has more spill than the XM-L did, but it is still not a huge floody spill and it throws quite a ways. Of course it's a huge hot spot, but I like that.
I am impressed at only 3 amps. I can imagine it at 5 amps on a well cooled slug of copper.