I just found an old Trustfire Z5 which I haven’t used in over a year. Seems pretty worthless next to my C8. I’ve never modded a light before, so I figured this would be a good one to try. Any recommendations for my first time?
I can either de-dome the XML or buy a new emitter. What I’d like to do is make this a thrower. Being a zoomie the flood is not very good anyway. It’s a 2-cell light, so I’m not sure what to be looking at as far as a driver.
Is it worth it to change out the lens? I think it has a 29 or 30mm lens on it.
Like I said, I’m new to this, so it will be a learning experience. Thanks in advance.
Dedoming will nicely enhance that light. Your driver should look like this. The 2 closest emitters resisters in the picture below control current. I haven't tried to increase current on this driver yet, but it looks like it can be at least modestly boosted. I have increased resistance (replaced the stock resistors with higher resistance resistors) to decrease current for a laser build. Laser diodes are sensitive and the driver is doing a good job regulating. I recently LPM'd the laser and it's still performing good as new.
The picture I found looks like the lens is good size for the head size. The other important choice is the focal length. Longer focal length, which is visible as a thin lens, gives a small spot and more throw. Shorter focal length (thicker lens) gives a bigger spot and less throw, but for common lenses, more increase in total light output than decrease in throw.
