I got the new Sofirn SP33 today, they changed up the old version to the XHP-50.2 and made some small changes, biggest of which is the boost driver of course but also an Orange Peel reflector. Mine had a horrid beam profile, so I sliced and diced the 50.2 to not only clean up the aura but also warm it somewhat, it started out very cool white, almost with a lavender hue. After removing the dome, there was still a discolored greenish center to the hot spot so I made a different centering ring work and raised the reflector about 1 mm, not completely right but much better and I can live with it. I think it’s now making a little over 2200 lumens, pretty decent.
I had put an 50.2 in a Utorch UT02, sliced and diced it this morning before the SP33 came in so it’s been a day of cleaning up flip chip aura’s.
I almost sat down to do my first proper mod – two driver swaps on my older Convoy S2 and my single C8. Unfortunately I found out (thankfully ahead of time) that I need flux to make good solders
I never could solder until I started working on flashlights. Got the Hakko 888 station and some .031 Kester solder and it suddenly got much easier. Before you know it I was stacking 7135’s…
Flux helped me a bit when i tried to use lead free as a beginner. Since i switched to leaded solder I dont even bother with flux. I dont care what it says it makes a sticky mess.
I may try lead free again now that i have a couple dozens mods under my belt, but maybe not. It just works
I use organic flux, the “washer fluid”-looking stuff. Works a treat. No idea what’s in it, maybe M-stoff and water, who knows.
Wiring up some small resistors to eliminate the dreaded “hyperflash” when using LED bulbs, and needed the Evil Third Hand to hold the wire and resistor against each other, sooooooooo precariously. Slightest jiggle, and they pull apart.
Wellp, a drop of organic flux to sizzle away, apply a blob of molten solder, and it’d flow nicely… but almost instantly skin-over and turn ugly. Needed a coupla more passes with flux+iron to get a solid (haha) connection without snapping apart.
Without flux, it’d turn butt-ugly and might not even be a good joint.
Then again, I was going easy on the heat, not cranking it up like I usually do. Didn’t want to turn the wire-insulation into “bellbottoms” (melting, pulling-back, and bunching up).
On, say, soldering a through-hole component on a peecee board, where you can press hard and get good heat transfer, the rosin-core in the solder is often enough.
I’ve always used lead free solder with no flux other than what’s already in it.
Not that difficult to get a good solder joint, at least now that I have a good quality soldering iron.
Eswitch wires on fet+1 boards are the hardest things ive run across and its prob cause i refuse to change tips mid project. The signal wires on L4P drivers are so easy and have huge durable pads.
I haven’t even owned extra flux for decades, although I soldered thousands of my self developed boards “professionally” in the first years of my business live, back in the 80s. There is plenty of flux in the middle of the solder wire, I just had to learn the proper technique. Not much different with unleaded solder nowadays.
It is much easier to sand a bit off the new board. I use a disc sander for that, but even by hand it should not take too long, you only need to go from 20 to 19 mm.
Main reason for it is that I damaged the inside of the head a bit.
But I didn’t want to wait till Thursday I looked around in my workplace what I could use, then I remembered I have a Dremel tool.
So I used the Dremel with a small drum sander the enlarge the inside of the head and removed the damage. Also sanded the board a bit smaller with a nice bevel on the underside so it will sit flush.
And, after replacing the springs for those beautiful springs from Blue, the light is assembled and is working.
Used the small spring on the driver and the big one on the switch. Have to say that the springs are a but large, you’d need to use some force to put the tailcap on.
With the LH351D’s there is a slight hint of green in the beam (as reported by many others), compared to the XP-G2’s 5500K that where in there before (RIP! )
I don’t find it to be that bad, probably not noticeable in real life use.
Extra flux really helps my rework, though more recently I’ve found that adding a bunch of fresh solder (and the embedded flux) works well too, and with the added bonus that it can heat multiple legs at once on chips like the 7135.
I never could solder until I started working on flashlights.
Same story in my case but it started just a year ago. My first mod was replacing a ref in S2+ with a shaking hands. A few months ago started soldering and that gave me the ability to assembly a flashlight from components which is great. I learn how the things work but there is still a lot to get know. I appreciate this forum a lot thanks guys!
Changed the Driver of my eagle eye X7 with Luxeon MZ 90CRI from original with resistor mod to Biatro Driver from Lexel.
Got 1800 Lumen instead of 1200.
and with bypassed switch and spring I got 2200Lumen.
Changed the Driver of my eagle eye X7 with Luxeon MZ 90CRI from original with resistor mod to Biatro Driver from Lexel.
Got 1800 Lumen instead of 1200.
and with bypassed switch and spring I got 2200Lumen.
And with fresh charged blue Liitokala batteries I got 2500 Lumen!
With Schockli (PLB55) only 2300 Lumen.
just a year ago. My first mod was replacing a ref in S2+ with a shaking hands. A few months ago started soldering and that gave me the ability to assembly a flashlight from components which is great. I learn how the things work but there is still a lot to get know. I appreciate this forum a lot thanks guys!
Dang a year in and you’re already soldering QFN16 packages? It took me years before I was willing to try QFN parts and even to this day I still have a relatively high failure rate on the first reflow (probably 50% need a second reflow). What’s the pitch on that part?
—
RIP SPC Joey Riley, KIA 11/24/14. Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.
Build a Manta Ray C8.2
- CSLPM1 (White Flat)
- 22mm AMC-based driver with slave board. 26 * AMC7135 for around 9,1A
- Bypassed springs
- soldered a copper foil between led and terminal-pad of mcpcb for a better focus
- sanded down a centering piece and opened it a bit. Before opening it is getting lose due tu the centering piece and had bad contact to the mcpcb, so the led turned a bit blue.
- addad a second O-Ring (one on each side of the glas) to keep the reflector down due tu the sanded centering piece.
Did some tint mixing with newly arrived Luxeon V2 5000K from DigiKey. I’m running out of lights with bad LED’s to swap but I picked my 1st batch D4. I also flashed the latest Anduril on it since I had it apart.
Before:
D4 VTC5D Nichia 5K 80CRI
3,650 lm
After:
D4 VTC5D L1V2 4K+5K
4,207 lm @ ~19.xx amps
D4 VTC6 L1V2 4K+5K
4,180 lm
Luxeon V2 4000K+5000K+dirty TIR
The hot spot is much more defined and throwy. The star pattern thanks to the non-rotated 1st gen MCPCB is even more obvious now. The tint in the hot spot is pretty good, not at all green like the 80CRI Nichia 5K. There is a bit of a pinkish/purple tint in the spill though. I think it’s partly due to smooth narrow optic and partly due to what I assume is both of these LEDs being below the BBL and now that they are mixed they are even lower.
Ahahaha
I like this 
It would be nice to open such thread…. Seriously… I think it could be very popular here.
I think there is one. I fifn’t remember the thread name.
Edit:
Here you go
Reviews: Olight Seeker2 pro, Lumintop GlowI, Sofirn SP36, Convoy 4X18A, Convoy M21C, Brinyte SR8 Rescue Angel, Astrolux MF01 mini, Astrolux FT03S, YLP Sherp S15, Sofirn SP40, YLP Panda 3R and Unicorn, Armytek Prime C1 Pro, Acebeam M50, Imalent MS18, Convoy M3, Nitecore TIP2, Imalent RT70, Wuben T70, Sofirn SP32A, Thorfire VG15S, Thorfire VG10S, Thorfire TG06S
Mods: Imalent MS18 dedoming, Astrolux MF01-20K, Small sun T08 MT-G2, Eagle eye X6 triple XPL, Ultrafire F13 MT-G2, Convoy C8 XHP70, Solarstorm T3 triple XP-L HI
Big flashlight measurement and beamshot collection
3D printing stuff for flashlights
My flashlight related Instagram
My Flashlight related Youtube channel called Zozzlights
Ah yes there it is
I got the new Sofirn SP33 today, they changed up the old version to the XHP-50.2 and made some small changes, biggest of which is the boost driver of course but also an Orange Peel reflector. Mine had a horrid beam profile, so I sliced and diced the 50.2 to not only clean up the aura but also warm it somewhat, it started out very cool white, almost with a lavender hue. After removing the dome, there was still a discolored greenish center to the hot spot so I made a different centering ring work and raised the reflector about 1 mm, not completely right but much better and I can live with it. I think it’s now making a little over 2200 lumens, pretty decent.
I had put an 50.2 in a Utorch UT02, sliced and diced it this morning before the SP33 came in so it’s been a day of cleaning up flip chip aura’s.
I almost sat down to do my first proper mod – two driver swaps on my older Convoy S2 and my single C8. Unfortunately I found out (thankfully ahead of time) that I need flux to make good solders
Glad I never found that out, I wouldn’t have been able to do the 500+ mods I’ve done as I don’t have flux nor have I ever…
You have trust in your skills, it works as a fine substitute
I never could solder until I started working on flashlights. Got the Hakko 888 station and some .031 Kester solder and it suddenly got much easier. Before you know it I was stacking 7135’s…
Flux helped me a bit when i tried to use lead free as a beginner. Since i switched to leaded solder I dont even bother with flux. I dont care what it says it makes a sticky mess.
I may try lead free again now that i have a couple dozens mods under my belt, but maybe not. It just works
I use organic flux, the “washer fluid”-looking stuff. Works a treat. No idea what’s in it, maybe M-stoff and water, who knows.
Wiring up some small resistors to eliminate the dreaded “hyperflash” when using LED bulbs, and needed the Evil Third Hand to hold the wire and resistor against each other, sooooooooo precariously. Slightest jiggle, and they pull apart.
Wellp, a drop of organic flux to sizzle away, apply a blob of molten solder, and it’d flow nicely… but almost instantly skin-over and turn ugly. Needed a coupla more passes with flux+iron to get a solid (haha) connection without snapping apart.
Without flux, it’d turn butt-ugly and might not even be a good joint.
Then again, I was going easy on the heat, not cranking it up like I usually do. Didn’t want to turn the wire-insulation into “bellbottoms” (melting, pulling-back, and bunching up).
On, say, soldering a through-hole component on a peecee board, where you can press hard and get good heat transfer, the rosin-core in the solder is often enough.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I’ve always used lead free solder with no flux other than what’s already in it.
Not that difficult to get a good solder joint, at least now that I have a good quality soldering iron.
The OPTOFIRE - 4.63Mcd aspheric LED flashlight The SYNIOSBEAM - 10Mcd recoil LED flashlight List of the farthest throwing flashlights
I’ve always just used butter.
- LEDs & Other Stuff - - UI CheatSheets - - CRX Flashlight Builds - - CRX Stuff for Sale -
Eswitch wires on fet+1 boards are the hardest things ive run across and its prob cause i refuse to change tips mid project. The signal wires on L4P drivers are so easy and have huge durable pads.
Here's the Convoy L2 with 1mm White Flat hitting a white Van at 480m.
I haven’t even owned extra flux for decades, although I soldered thousands of my self developed boards “professionally” in the first years of my business live, back in the 80s. There is plenty of flux in the middle of the solder wire, I just had to learn the proper technique. Not much different with unleaded solder nowadays.
BLF Q8 Janus --- Emisar D4 RGBW --- Green Lantern and HAL 9000
6th Annual Light Contest Entry --- 7th Annual Light Contest Entry
Time for a quick one before I put the dinner on and the beers start to take effect...
Added some 3K carbon fibre tube to the CRX SR4-Cu and an o-ring & CF stop to the end of the battery tube.
This covering gives a little buffer before cooking the hands with the light on full tilt
Copper, brass, carbon fibre & titanium construction
Quad Nichia 219C 5000K emitters
20mm Copper DTP MCPCB
20mm x 7mm solid copper heatsink
22mm x 2mm dual coated ARC glass
Green GITD glow bezel
Emisar D4v2 ramping driver
Copper, tritium & glass electronic tail switch
Lockout-able
Magnetic cell contacts
56, 2mm x 2mm magnets in tail
18650 cell compatible
Max 3400lm
Length – 97mm
Width – 27mm
Weight – 241g (with 18650 cell)
- LEDs & Other Stuff - - UI CheatSheets - - CRX Flashlight Builds - - CRX Stuff for Sale -
Nice addition, and good luck with the cooking. (I’m off-duty, we are going out for dinner this year in an hours time
).
Merry Christmas!
link to djozz tests
Merry Christmas
- LEDs & Other Stuff - - UI CheatSheets - - CRX Flashlight Builds - - CRX Stuff for Sale -
Main reason for it is that I damaged the inside of the head a bit.
But I didn’t want to wait till Thursday I looked around in my workplace what I could use, then I remembered I have a Dremel tool.
So I used the Dremel with a small drum sander the enlarge the inside of the head and removed the damage. Also sanded the board a bit smaller with a nice bevel on the underside so it will sit flush.
And, after replacing the springs for those beautiful springs from Blue, the light is assembled and is working.
Used the small spring on the driver and the big one on the switch. Have to say that the springs are a but large, you’d need to use some force to put the tailcap on.
Always nice to save a light!
Fijne kerst, thijsco!
link to djozz tests
What is the purpose of that rim that forces u to sand mcpcb? Ive assembled 3 or 4 of these and never considered it.
Yes it is!
With the LH351D’s there is a slight hint of green in the beam (as reported by many others), compared to the XP-G2’s 5500K that where in there before (RIP!
)
I don’t find it to be that bad, probably not noticeable in real life use.
Fijne kerst Djozz!
Extra flux really helps my rework, though more recently I’ve found that adding a bunch of fresh solder (and the embedded flux) works well too, and with the added bonus that it can heat multiple legs at once on chips like the 7135.
[WTS] HID host: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/68693
[WTB] Interesting LEDs:http://budgetlightforum.com/node/68968
Changed the Driver of my eagle eye X7 with Luxeon MZ 90CRI from original with resistor mod to Biatro Driver from Lexel.
Got 1800 Lumen instead of 1200.
and with bypassed switch and spring I got 2200Lumen.
And with fresh charged blue Liitokala batteries I got 2500 Lumen!
With Schockli (PLB55) only 2300 Lumen.
Dang a year in and you’re already soldering QFN16 packages? It took me years before I was willing to try QFN parts and even to this day I still have a relatively high failure rate on the first reflow (probably 50% need a second reflow). What’s the pitch on that part?
RIP SPC Joey Riley, KIA 11/24/14. Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.
Build a Manta Ray C8.2
- CSLPM1 (White Flat)
- 22mm AMC-based driver with slave board. 26 * AMC7135 for around 9,1A
- Bypassed springs
- soldered a copper foil between led and terminal-pad of mcpcb for a better focus
- sanded down a centering piece and opened it a bit. Before opening it is getting lose due tu the centering piece and had bad contact to the mcpcb, so the led turned a bit blue.
- addad a second O-Ring (one on each side of the glas) to keep the reflector down due tu the sanded centering piece.
Did some tint mixing with newly arrived Luxeon V2 5000K from DigiKey. I’m running out of lights with bad LED’s to swap but I picked my 1st batch D4. I also flashed the latest Anduril on it since I had it apart.
Before:
3,650 lm
After:
4,207 lm @ ~19.xx amps
4,180 lm
Luxeon V2 4000K+5000K+dirty TIR
The hot spot is much more defined and throwy. The star pattern thanks to the non-rotated 1st gen MCPCB is even more obvious now. The tint in the hot spot is pretty good, not at all green like the 80CRI Nichia 5K. There is a bit of a pinkish/purple tint in the spill though. I think it’s partly due to smooth narrow optic and partly due to what I assume is both of these LEDs being below the BBL and now that they are mixed they are even lower.
Petzl NAO 2 with Samsung LH351C 5000K CRI 90+ from Arrow 0,25$ action…
Low
High
CRI-2
Enlightened member of pl.rec.rowery
Light-Test.info – bike light’s & Headlamps comparison site. – In polish but picture says everything
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