the threads in the s2+ must be deeper into the housing than the plain s2
as ive had to remove the threads from pill to do mine and hold in place with a sleeve
under the battery tube .
Yes, the threads go in very deep, with the glass lens before the optic you can keep all the threads on the pill, without the lens the optic only just presses-in the o-ring.
These are my first S2+ lights and I bought them directly from Simon, this deep threading may be a recent change because I have not heard it mentioning before.
Today I abused The Last Of The Boneycans. Well I copied the the suggestions of ReManG regarding the bullet-proofing of this Cockroach-light. Sanding down the LED, so it would not protrude any longer. It got very opaque so I polished it with Cif, giving it a very matte look. Then drilling a hole in the pill, for filling it up with glue (tonight). And just before assembling everything, adding an O-ring around the base of the emitter.
—
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
Almost any flashlight shining on a piece of typing paper from behind and held under the camera will provide frontal illumination with minimal shadow for a much better and clearer picture of small subjects.
Amazes me how many flashaholics, with plenty of lights to choose from, take dark ill-defined pictures unnecessarily.
Changed the driver in my stock L2 to a Fet +1 driver, also changed the led to a XP-L HI on noctigon copper board.
Using a Keeppower 5200mAh 26650 I get 5.6A.
I modded a UV triple mule in a bare BLF A6 : Leds and lens from here
3 mode 2100 mA driver, triple alu spacer.
It’s a mule so it’s very floddy :
EE A6 single UV emitter @ 700 mA :
The original driver PCB is 19mm, so the new 17mm PCB wouldn’t sit nicely on the driver shelf.
I drilled out the retaining ring slightly to allow room for the driver’s components and soldered the driver to the cell’s side.
The result ain’t pretty, but no one can tell while the light is running!
Moving the driver means less space for a cell. A 65mm flat-top HG2 cell now extends 3mm past the tail end of a “long” D80 tube. This setup works fine, but a “short” tube or protected cell will not.
With Bistro UI (my favorite!) and no more PWM, this D80 will get lots more use now!
I have a stack of drivers taken out of Lucky Sun D80 lights. Every single one is 17mm. I don’t understand your 19mm dilemma. I was on the testing team on those BLF Special Edition D80’s, every sample, every light I bought, all 17mm drivers.
Amazing. I don’t know why I’m suprised, they changed stuff on Krono for a year before they finally shipped the BLF SE light. But geesh, a jump from a 17mm driver to a 19mm is a big deal! I double checked mine after I said that just to make sure I wasn’t remembering wrong (I have a knack for that) but I’ve got A17DD-S08 drivers in several and an LD-2 in one. All 17’s. And the stack I have in my kit, all 17’s. Blows me away.
Edit: Ok, pull the spring off that driver, put a bit of a solder blob on it, should work…..
Send me the 20mm driver and I’ll piggyback an FET driver inside it, you’ll be able to put it right back inside same as before and it’ll look stock, but perform much better.
I can even put that particular driver inside, or build you a new FET+1 with Bistro.
19 mm here as well, but did not have any issues fitting 17 mm drivers.
Also managed to get rid of the beam rings and get decent focus (but not centering), on the one refitted with an XP-L Hi. Used a 0.9 mm gasket meant for an XM emitter with a 7 mm aperture reflector. (Think these are the ones: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1616/10001923/1581402 )
Unreal. I have 5 drivers here that are still completely intact (I rob resistors and brass buttons and stuff then throw em away) only 2 of these 5 are of similar size.
1 is 16.9mm
1 is 17.5mm
1 is 17.7mm
1 is 17.8mm
1 is 18.8mm and this one I absolutely know is from a newer BLF SE because I marked it when I took it out of blueb8llz light.
Today I built myself a Jax C8 mini with LD-2D 6Volt driver, XHP50 and two 18350s. It took some improvisation to get the 20mm driver with 13mm height into the 17mm pill with 6mm deep cavern! And I still had to get the two 18650s inside.
Finally everything is inside, the torch works and it pulls 2.6 Amperes
Funny little thing burns a hole into the night…
—
"A black bulb which, when switched on, turns the room dark"
(Gyro Gearloose)
I’m thinking that Dale, DEL, and I have BLF D80s with slightly different dimensions in the heads.
Both of my samples from mid-March look like this:
17mm driver – 16.75mm width under shelf = 0.25mm total overlap
Divide 0.25mm by two, and a 17mm driver would have a ring of 0.125mm overlap with the shelf in my lights.
To be honest my replacement drivers overlap the shelf my very little, but I do not see them falling in. For electrical contact, the overlap with the retaining ring is important, and that is more generous.
I use a steel pair in the workshop, but keep one of these at my desk.
So much safer to measure lithium cells with
To my credit, I had enough forethought to NOT measure the HG2’s length with them!
I’ll get a set with plastic jaws for my electronics toolkit. Thank you both for the safety reminder.
DEL wrote:
…my replacement drivers overlap the shelf my very little, but I do not see them falling in. For electrical contact, the overlap with the retaining ring is important, and that is more generous.
I was afraid that with such little overlap, the pressure from the cell might punch the driver into the recess under the shelf.
I will try your method with the other D80 and another 17mm driver and report back.
Spent a solid day doing some small stuff with the bulk focused on a D01 mod. Reinforced positive contact ring, bypassed springs and traces, mounted a FET driver onto the stock driver, sanded the copper heatsink and the maxtoch mcpcb to 1500. All that is left is to solder the leads to the mcpcb and the switch wires to the driver.
Speaking of switch wires… Is there a particular orientation to connect them to the sides of the OTC on the FET driver or does it not matter?
You could do with a simple led-tester, saves you some time I use this one, it even works with 3 leds in series because it is powered by a 9V alkaline. It comes with small alligator clips that are very handy, I just swapped the momentary switch for a small clicky switch to be able to use both hands.
You could do with a simple led-tester, saves you some time I use this one, it even works with 3 leds in series because it is powered by a 9V alkaline. It comes with small alligator clips that are very handy, I just swapped the momentary switch for a small clicky switch to be able to use both hands.
Thank you for the kind word, I saw the tester in one of your videos and it seems prctical.
I was too confident in my skills so I waste some time but eh, that’s how you learn things !
The second time I checked them with my DMM, one by one and everything was ok.
I guess one solder joint was not good because orientation were the same before/after…
—
"-X3-, is there any place in your house without a flashlight ?"
Bored the driver bay of a Convoy L2 out to take a 22mm MtnMax Buck driver, threaded the bay and made a new threaded brass retaining ring, de-domed an XP-G2 S2 0D emitter on a 20mm Noctigon and used Simon’s new XP centering ring. With a 26650-18650 adapter and 2 Efest 18350’s it makes 2.53A at the tail (about 5A to the emitter) for 306.5Kcd and 1107.25M throw. Nice!
Gotta love JB Weld. The Stick formulations, especially Water Weld, are fast set up and I love the jelly-roll layout. Slice off a piece, knead it till it’s mixed and plug-n-play. A few minutes later you can drill and tap it. It’s white though, sometimes that matters. I haven’t tried a Sharpie on it, hmmmm….
Had a Sunwayman C10R laying around. Purchased it a few weeks ago from Illumn on clearance. Sunwayman used a single head for many different lights including the 1x18650 C20C. The C10R is the 1xCR123 version. Nice shape, crappy output due to its low power driver and old cool white XML1 LED.
I wanted to turn this light into a small triple-XPL HI light. However .... 1x16340 just isn't enough power for me. I wanted more! I removed the guts of the light and examined the available internal space. I ended up performing the following mods:
Mounted a new internal momentary switch in the button well. One side of the switch is connected to the head with conductive epoxy. The other side is soldered to a small brass strip that passes through the LED platform to a small wire and then to the driver.
Added a 17mm BLF17DD FET driver with moppydrv momentary firmware from MtnElectronics.
Mounted the driver on top of the LED platform where the LED star used to sit. The driver is not glued in place, but is instead held down via tension fit with a surrounding spring-loaded copper strip. A piece of a spring is soldered to the outside of this strip and presses into a small spot in the head where I ground off the anodizing. The strip then presses the side of the driver for negative connection.
Added a 20mm triple Noctigon with 3xtriple XPL HI (2x5000K and 1x4000K). The star sits on top of the spring loaded copper strip.
Added a Carclo 10507 optic.
I soldered a small copper disk to a short piece of wire passed through a small hole in the center of the emitter platform. This wire is then soldered to the positive battery terminal on the driver. When the light is assembled this wire is folded up under the driver.
I used arctic alumina to pot the LED positive and negative connections on the driver.
Essentially the driver, emitters and optic all sit where the original star and reflector used to sit. The space where the original driver sat is completely empty. The new switch is very flat so a longer battery slides below it. The light now fits an Efest IMR 18500 cell.
Powered it up and it works! Took a couple tries to figure out the best way to get positive and negative connections. Output is VERY high. At a guess maybe 2500 lumens with a beautiful neutral tint. Not bad for a light that in its stock configuration was rated by the manufacturer at 190 lumens.
However, this light has pretty limited heatsinking. The LED is not mounted on a star and I didn't use thermal grease where the sides of the star meet the head. I figure if it becomes a problem I'll notice when the star desolders itself. If that happens I'll add the thermal grease and learn to live with the hotter head.
Yes, the threads go in very deep, with the glass lens before the optic you can keep all the threads on the pill, without the lens the optic only just presses-in the o-ring.
These are my first S2+ lights and I bought them directly from Simon, this deep threading may be a recent change because I have not heard it mentioning before.
link to djozz tests
I like that you painted the mcpcb black, all of my triples look red. Nice mod!
USB power meter/tester thread
Today I abused The Last Of The Boneycans. Well I copied the the suggestions of ReManG regarding the bullet-proofing of this Cockroach-light. Sanding down the LED, so it would not protrude any longer. It got very opaque so I polished it with Cif, giving it a very matte look. Then drilling a hole in the pill, for filling it up with glue (tonight). And just before assembling everything, adding an O-ring around the base of the emitter.
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
Almost any flashlight shining on a piece of typing paper from behind and held under the camera will provide frontal illumination with minimal shadow for a much better and clearer picture of small subjects.
Amazes me how many flashaholics, with plenty of lights to choose from, take dark ill-defined pictures unnecessarily.
Changed the driver in my stock L2 to a Fet +1 driver, also changed the led to a XP-L HI on noctigon copper board.
Using a Keeppower 5200mAh 26650 I get 5.6A.
After 12 min it is handwarm. Love this L2!
I modded a UV triple mule in a bare BLF A6 :
Leds and lens from here
3 mode 2100 mA driver, triple alu spacer.
It’s a mule so it’s very floddy :
EE A6 single UV emitter @ 700 mA :
Nice, I was sure someone will made one with those great emitters !
Triple emitter for me too, on my SRmini II :
Stock emitters on the left, 4C on the right.
"-X3-, is there any place in your house without a flashlight ?"
My Flashlight public album (mods, emitter swaps, eye candy)
My reviews channel (French language, Olight, Thorfire, Sofirn, Lumintop : 60+ lights tested)
My personal channel (including Olight SR mini, S1, S2, S1A and S-mini disassembly)
M4DM4X blog, saves you $$$
I fitted a BLF D80 with an MTN-17DDm driver running Bistro UI, using no additional parts.
The original driver PCB is 19mm, so the new 17mm PCB wouldn’t sit nicely on the driver shelf.
I drilled out the retaining ring slightly to allow room for the driver’s components and soldered the driver to the cell’s side.
The result ain’t pretty, but no one can tell while the light is running!
Moving the driver means less space for a cell. A 65mm flat-top HG2 cell now extends 3mm past the tail end of a “long” D80 tube. This setup works fine, but a “short” tube or protected cell will not.
With Bistro UI (my favorite!) and no more PWM, this D80 will get lots more use now!
I have a stack of drivers taken out of Lucky Sun D80 lights. Every single one is 17mm. I don’t understand your 19mm dilemma. I was on the testing team on those BLF Special Edition D80’s, every sample, every light I bought, all 17mm drivers.
I just pulled my other D80 apart. Head and driver dimensions are the same as the one I modded. I received both lights mid-March.
And just to show I’m not “cheating” with the calipers…
The diameter above the shelf is ~19.50mm, and below it ~16.75mm.
Would you like a 19mm driver to add to your stack? I’ll ship it free!
Amazing. I don’t know why I’m suprised, they changed stuff on Krono for a year before they finally shipped the BLF SE light. But geesh, a jump from a 17mm driver to a 19mm is a big deal! I double checked mine after I said that just to make sure I wasn’t remembering wrong (I have a knack for that) but I’ve got A17DD-S08 drivers in several and an LD-2 in one. All 17’s. And the stack I have in my kit, all 17’s. Blows me away.
Edit: Ok, pull the spring off that driver, put a bit of a solder blob on it, should work…..
Send me the 20mm driver and I’ll piggyback an FET driver inside it, you’ll be able to put it right back inside same as before and it’ll look stock, but perform much better.
I can even put that particular driver inside, or build you a new FET+1 with Bistro.
Does my 19mm driver look like yours with a wider margin added around the edge?
I only mentioned the length issue as a caveat to others who may attempt my “bass-ackwards” driver configuration.
19 mm here as well, but did not have any issues fitting 17 mm drivers.
Also managed to get rid of the beam rings and get decent focus (but not centering), on the one refitted with an XP-L Hi. Used a 0.9 mm gasket meant for an XM emitter with a 7 mm aperture reflector. (Think these are the ones: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1616/10001923/1581402 )
My OSH-Park boards
Geesh! That defined hot spot is what I LOVE about the D80! Nice shot!
Unreal. I have 5 drivers here that are still completely intact (I rob resistors and brass buttons and stuff then throw em away) only 2 of these 5 are of similar size.
1 is 16.9mm
1 is 17.5mm
1 is 17.7mm
1 is 17.8mm
1 is 18.8mm and this one I absolutely know is from a newer BLF SE because I marked it when I took it out of blueb8llz light.
I never paid attention to that before! Crazy.
Notice the calipers…
Both of my samples from mid-March look like this:
17mm driver – 16.75mm width under shelf = 0.25mm total overlap
Divide 0.25mm by two, and a 17mm driver would have a ring of 0.125mm overlap with the shelf in my lights.
Finally everything is inside, the torch works and it pulls 2.6 Amperes
Funny little thing burns a hole into the night…
"A black bulb which, when switched on, turns the room dark"
(Gyro Gearloose)
I use a steel pair in the workshop, but keep one of these at my desk.
So much safer to measure lithium cells with
My OSH-Park boards
To be honest my replacement drivers overlap the shelf my very little, but I do not see them falling in. For electrical contact, the overlap with the retaining ring is important, and that is more generous.
My OSH-Park boards
I’ll get a set with plastic jaws for my electronics toolkit. Thank you both for the safety reminder.
I was afraid that with such little overlap, the pressure from the cell might punch the driver into the recess under the shelf.I will try your method with the other D80 and another 17mm driver and report back.
"-X3-, is there any place in your house without a flashlight ?"
My Flashlight public album (mods, emitter swaps, eye candy)
My reviews channel (French language, Olight, Thorfire, Sofirn, Lumintop : 60+ lights tested)
My personal channel (including Olight SR mini, S1, S2, S1A and S-mini disassembly)
M4DM4X blog, saves you $$$
Spent a solid day doing some small stuff with the bulk focused on a D01 mod. Reinforced positive contact ring, bypassed springs and traces, mounted a FET driver onto the stock driver, sanded the copper heatsink and the maxtoch mcpcb to 1500. All that is left is to solder the leads to the mcpcb and the switch wires to the driver.
Speaking of switch wires… Is there a particular orientation to connect them to the sides of the OTC on the FET driver or does it not matter?
Great video, X3, I enjoyed that very much!
You could do with a simple led-tester, saves you some time
I use this one, it even works with 3 leds in series because it is powered by a 9V alkaline. It comes with small alligator clips that are very handy, I just swapped the momentary switch for a small clicky switch to be able to use both hands.
link to djozz tests
Thank you for the kind word, I saw the tester in one of your videos and it seems prctical.
I was too confident in my skills so I waste some time but eh, that’s how you learn things !
The second time I checked them with my DMM, one by one and everything was ok.
I guess one solder joint was not good because orientation were the same before/after…
"-X3-, is there any place in your house without a flashlight ?"
My Flashlight public album (mods, emitter swaps, eye candy)
My reviews channel (French language, Olight, Thorfire, Sofirn, Lumintop : 60+ lights tested)
My personal channel (including Olight SR mini, S1, S2, S1A and S-mini disassembly)
M4DM4X blog, saves you $$$
Bored the driver bay of a Convoy L2 out to take a 22mm MtnMax Buck driver, threaded the bay and made a new threaded brass retaining ring, de-domed an XP-G2 S2 0D emitter on a 20mm Noctigon and used Simon’s new XP centering ring. With a 26650-18650 adapter and 2 Efest 18350’s it makes 2.53A at the tail (about 5A to the emitter) for 306.5Kcd and 1107.25M throw. Nice!
JB welded a side switch to a Novatac Special Ops. 219c dedomed, Q-lite star firmware driver.
Gotta love JB Weld. The Stick formulations, especially Water Weld, are fast set up and I love the jelly-roll layout. Slice off a piece, knead it till it’s mixed and plug-n-play. A few minutes later you can drill and tap it.
It’s white though, sometimes that matters. I haven’t tried a Sharpie on it, hmmmm….
Had a Sunwayman C10R laying around. Purchased it a few weeks ago from Illumn on clearance. Sunwayman used a single head for many different lights including the 1x18650 C20C. The C10R is the 1xCR123 version. Nice shape, crappy output due to its low power driver and old cool white XML1 LED.
I wanted to turn this light into a small triple-XPL HI light. However .... 1x16340 just isn't enough power for me. I wanted more! I removed the guts of the light and examined the available internal space. I ended up performing the following mods:
Essentially the driver, emitters and optic all sit where the original star and reflector used to sit. The space where the original driver sat is completely empty. The new switch is very flat so a longer battery slides below it. The light now fits an Efest IMR 18500 cell.
Powered it up and it works! Took a couple tries to figure out the best way to get positive and negative connections. Output is VERY high. At a guess maybe 2500 lumens with a beautiful neutral tint. Not bad for a light that in its stock configuration was rated by the manufacturer at 190 lumens.
However, this light has pretty limited heatsinking. The LED is not mounted on a star and I didn't use thermal grease where the sides of the star meet the head. I figure if it becomes a problem I'll notice when the star desolders itself. If that happens I'll add the thermal grease and learn to live with the hotter head.
Pages