A while back I modded a FandyFire SP03 with 3 SST-40 N4's from KD, and a HQ SRK v3.5A driver in a FET+1 configuration. I used 2.5" 20 AWG wires but extended them with 3" of 26 AWG wires to add resistance. I still hit 8092 lumens at start, 6834 at 30 secs, and 257 kcd (manufacturer lumens) .
Also modded a SupFire L1 with 5 SST-40 N4's from KD. This time I used 3.5" of 25 AWG LED wires, a Q8 driver modded with an Infineon FET. Measurements were a little strange between 35E's and 30Q's. The 35E's actually hit the highest numbers: 12510 lumens at start, 10780 at 30 secs, 134 kcd (manufacturer lumens).
Is 10K possible in a Q8 or any quad using SST-40's? Sure is, based on these #'s with higher resistance LED wires. Springs are bypassed to avoid melting.
Today I finished a thrower project with Nicolaas’ TN31. It was already converted to an aspheric thrower by Kenji, now it has a new led on a 20mm board and a wavien collar. I did not make a lot of pictures because it was a mod for Nicolaas and I did not think about posting it before now.
The steps:
*a XP-G2 S4 2B old style was refowed on a 20mm DTP boardcand hot dedomed.
*the board was glued with Arctic Alumina Adhesive centered on the shelf in the TN31 (after the previous conversion the TN31 has a (sort of) flat 35mm diameter shelf).
*a contraption was made from soldered together brass rings for the collar (from Enderman’s group buy) to sit on the correct height, while clearing the led wires (the ring is upside down on the photo). The 4 posts were bit by bit sanded down until the focus of the collar was perfect, as tested with the led in moonlight mode.
*To handle the collar during all the adjustments deep inside the cavity (in-out-in-out etc.) I glued a copper handle on top of the collar with Norland64. The handle is not in the light path and was simply left in place inside the final modded light.
*after the focus was established as correct, the brass ring was glued on the shelf with a very thin layer of Arctic Alumina Adhesive to not alter the focus.
*two very small drops of Norland 64 were applied on the edge of the collar, the collar was placed on the brass ring, it was shifted until the reflected image of the die was perfectly projected on top of the die, then the Norland was cured with lots of 365nm UV light.
*With everything lightly glued into position, the TN31 was assembled with the aspheric lens to check if the beam was correct and as expected, which fortunately it was.
*Then the head was opened again and three generous blobs of hot glue (the hot 180degC version) were applied for a more permanent fixation of the wavien collar.
*made an effort to clean the aspheric lens as well as possible and closed the light.
We measured the modded TN31 as well as possible, even checking it against other modded throwers that I measured before to see if the setup was still correct, and we got 1.31 Mcd after 30 seconds, measured at 7 meter distance ( ). That is an almost exact doubling of throw compared to before adding the collar (650 kcd).
Having used my own collar on a White Flat, my catious conclusion is that the gain of the collar on a dedomed XP-G2 is a bit higher than on a White Flat, possibly close to cancelling out the higher luminance of the White Flat. Of course the combined dedoming and collar effects cause the XP-G2 S4 2B emit a very green tint. But with 1.3Mcd out of a TN31 size light I begin to like that tint
That's outstanding Jos - 1.3 mcd from a big classic thrower! Wonder if the conversion to an aspheric made much difference. From what I recall, a good dedomed XM-L2 in a TN31 with resistors bypassed did ~600 kcd at best, but of course you can't collar a reflector.
I totally missed the group buy on the collars - would have been in on it.
That’s outstanding Jos – 1.3 mcd from a big classic thrower! Wonder if the conversion to an aspheric made much difference. From what I recall, a good dedomed XM-L2 in a TN31 with resistors bypassed did ~600 kcd at best, but of course you can’t collar a reflector.
I totally missed the group buy on the collars – would have been in on it.
And I would have bought 2 of them now that I have some experience (two succesful mods) in how to use them and see how well they work.
The quality of Nicolaas’ lens is ok but not great btw, I reckon if a lens of the quality of the JaxmanZ1/Cometa was used (better optical quality plus coated), the results would be even significantly better.
Yeah well, not too many aespheric light in which the collar fits.
What remains is to completely customize a big reflector light, but it’s a tall order to find a fitting lens with the correct focal length of a decent quality at a fair price.
……………
Come to think of it, I still have a Thrunite TN42 lying around……………..hmm……………
Should correct my post above, but by today's standards, the TN31 is a medium or moderate size thrower, but back then, it was "the" thrower.
Interesting bout the quality of the lens... Reminds me of the MEM custom builds, and his persistence with finding the ultimate quality lens. Still wish he was still around - wonder if they legally slammed him or something, banned or gagged from using his own invention.
All the crap, and why we can't get simple technology, like an upside reflector, that will double the candela. Reminds me of the cursor patent - yes, the cursor on all our screens was patented, and legally, everyone who implemented one had to pay a royalty fee... What would you expect to pay for a small upside down reflector from China? $3? $5? Hhmmm...
Since my FF PL47 didn’t live up to the expectations, it was scrapped.
But I had to give those lovely 219B emitters a new home. So I finally pulled the trigger on the Titanium version of the Emisar D4.
Then I gathered all my courage and gave my first ever reflow a go.
Here is my setup
Old teflon frying pan, IR thermometer for hitting the right temperature on the stove.
And then it happened, the emitters came loose, and i swapped them over to the empty 4XP V2 MCPCB. Added way too much paste, but it spilled out when giving them a little squeeze.
That was easier than i imagined
Did a quick test with my DMM, GREATSUCCESS! All four emitters lit up.
Then the usual procedure of D4 driver disassembly, flashing Anduril to the driver.
Swapped in the new MCPCB
Not my finest solder job, but I was eager to power it up.
Was excited to see if my reflow would hold on full power. And it freggin did, yay!
Great job! My first ever reflow was also with the help of a skillet/stove. Then graduated to electric stove (without skillet) and eventually hot air rework station.
Once you get the hang of it, it can be really fun.
My recent MOD: changing a malfunctioning driver of a friend's caving light with a new driver, eventually I also hat to change one LED (and considering changing the other LED and optics )
i42dk – I think it’s unusual for someone who can easily flash drivers is just reflowing leds for the first time. Not saying it’s good, bad or otherwise. I just have the mindset of coming from the other direction, I’ve reflowed leds but never flashed a driver
This may but be a huge thing to many, but I finally got around to setting up an Anduril build environment yesterday. An Ubuntu VM running on Windows. I downloaded TK’s repository, and started figuring out how to use it. I couldn’t find any guides, so I just winged it, downloading dependencies as they came up.
After some time, I got a basic standard Q8 hex to build! I was ecstatic! I started fiddling with the settings, and managed to add/remove features with ease. Even figured out how to change the rythm of the new fancy button blink with a hint from TK herself. I was super stoked. I had put a few hours in tinkering around, and decided to take a break.
Then later, I knew what I wanted to do. After modding me and my buddies H03s with a Lexel TA driver last year, we wanted Anduril, but a 3 channel + aux LED version hadn’t been built yet. Zeroflow was kind enough to build me one, and gave me the documentation and modded build files of I ever wanted to try it myself.
I wanted to try it myself, to get the new fancy button blinking on my H03.
I spent about 2 hours trying to make it work. A few things have changed in the Anduril code since then, so while I could see what Zeroflow did in the old code, matching it in the new code was difficult for me. And many edits to several build files, and fruitlessly searching the forum for information on where the heck “#define USE_STEPPED_RAMPING” went, I decided to try building it anyway and just leave it in. Last year, we couldn’t leave it in because there wasn’t enough room with the extra channel added. But with the new code, it worked! It built, and it flashed, and here it is working: https://youtu.be/SysSGzQVAfM
So that is my latest modding story. I know I’ve got a long way to go, and more to learn about how all this Anduril code works, but I’m making progress! And I’m extremely happy!
Thanks to everyone here for all your hard work! None of this would be possible without all of you. I really appreciate you all.
Just fyi, I've built Anduril successfully in Atmel Studio on Windows - you don't need a Ubuntu VM on Windows to build it. It's a much more comfortable environment for me, but of course I work in VS 2017 every day, and Atmel Studio is based on an older version of Visual Studio.
My recent MOD: changing a malfunctioning driver of a friend’s caving light with a new driver, eventually I also hat to change one LED (and considering changing the other LED and optics )
Cool, would like to see the finished light as I do have a friend that’s a avid caver…
Just fyi, I’ve built Anduril successfully in Atmel Studio on Windows – you don’t need a Ubuntu VM on Windows to build it. It’s a much more comfortable environment for me, but of course I work in VS 2017 every day, and Atmel Studio is based on an older version of Visual Studio.
Thanks!
I did try atmel studio last year during the first go around. But I couldn’t even get standard unedited files to work. They would build, but had strange problems, and if they even flashed they didn’t actually run.
I’m fairly comfortable in a Linux environment, used to use it more often than I have in the last few years. But I’m more comfortable in a command line than I am in a powershell. I think TK actually recommends a Linux environment, and it works pretty well.
Just fyi, I've built Anduril successfully in Atmel Studio on Windows - you don't need a Ubuntu VM on Windows to build it. It's a much more comfortable environment for me, but of course I work in VS 2017 every day, and Atmel Studio is based on an older version of Visual Studio.
Thanks! I did try atmel studio last year during the first go around. But I couldn't even get standard unedited files to work. They would build, but had strange problems, and if they even flashed they didn't actually run. I'm fairly comfortable in a Linux environment, used to use it more often than I have in the last few years. But I'm more comfortable in a command line than I am in a powershell. I think TK actually recommends a Linux environment, and it works pretty well.
i42dk – I think it’s unusual for someone who can easily flash drivers is just reflowing leds for the first time. Not saying it’s good, bad or otherwise. I just have the mindset of coming from the other direction, I’ve reflowed leds but never flashed a driver
Haha, thanks man
Sure I did a lot of research; how hot it should be, tools to use etc. And the new MCPCB surface text changed color due to too much heat.
But hey, gotta start somewhere. Lessons learned
And now I have ordered a little 200W hot plate for future endeavors
So I got some Black Flat… and a new Olight M22
So naturally, I measured the stock M22 : 2,9A and the advertised 23kCd from the XM-L2.
I swapped it for a BlackFlat, now it makes a nice 76kCd
While I was at it, I also put one in my GT Mini… 4,5A and 220kCd, not as good as my D1S (260kCd) but the reflector is known to be far from perfect so I’m quite pleased with that result !
—
"-X3-, is there any place in your house without a flashlight ?"
Firmware: TK’s Anduril as modified by Pobel, with aux LED support.
Emitter Swap: two XPL HI 5D combined with two XPL HI 3D. Very bright and high output, without looking greenish like SST-20.
Main thing different between this and my last D4 mod was that I used 0.5mm Silicone sheet as the backing for the metal button boot. In my 2 prior builds I used 1mm thick Silicone sheet.
0.5mm thick Silicone sheet is thick enough for this purpose and allows the entire button boot to be thinner. With the new backing, the metal button is recessed below the level of the stock switch retaining ring, which further reduces the risk of accidental activation and makes it easy to find the button in the pocket.
The switch is not lit in this mod. Would be nice to do, but doing so is complex and would almost certainly result in the switch button being higher.
I broke my opus charger. The pin that goes into the charge port whe t to far and cracked the plastic(bottom picture). I cut of the 12v plug and solderd the cables straight to the board. The little pin inbetween red and black was connected in the original plug but i only had two wires and didnt really see the use for it. Does anyone know why its there? It works just fine now.
—
"It wouldn’t be so bright if there wasn’t a shadow every once in a while." - Jason Mraz
Nice CK, you did it!!
A while back I modded a FandyFire SP03 with 3 SST-40 N4's from KD, and a HQ SRK v3.5A driver in a FET+1 configuration. I used 2.5" 20 AWG wires but extended them with 3" of 26 AWG wires to add resistance. I still hit 8092 lumens at start, 6834 at 30 secs, and 257 kcd (manufacturer lumens) .
Also modded a SupFire L1 with 5 SST-40 N4's from KD. This time I used 3.5" of 25 AWG LED wires, a Q8 driver modded with an Infineon FET. Measurements were a little strange between 35E's and 30Q's. The 35E's actually hit the highest numbers: 12510 lumens at start, 10780 at 30 secs, 134 kcd (manufacturer lumens).
Is 10K possible in a Q8 or any quad using SST-40's? Sure is, based on these #'s with higher resistance LED wires. Springs are bypassed to avoid melting.
SST-40's for the SP03:
SP03 driver:
For the SupFire L1:
UCLp lens:
Cool work C_k&Tom!
Today I finished a thrower project with Nicolaas’ TN31. It was already converted to an aspheric thrower by Kenji, now it has a new led on a 20mm board and a wavien collar. I did not make a lot of pictures because it was a mod for Nicolaas and I did not think about posting it before now.
The steps:
*a XP-G2 S4 2B old style was refowed on a 20mm DTP boardcand hot dedomed.
*the board was glued with Arctic Alumina Adhesive centered on the shelf in the TN31 (after the previous conversion the TN31 has a (sort of) flat 35mm diameter shelf).
*a contraption was made from soldered together brass rings for the collar (from Enderman’s group buy) to sit on the correct height, while clearing the led wires (the ring is upside down on the photo). The 4 posts were bit by bit sanded down until the focus of the collar was perfect, as tested with the led in moonlight mode.
*To handle the collar during all the adjustments deep inside the cavity (in-out-in-out etc.) I glued a copper handle on top of the collar with Norland64. The handle is not in the light path and was simply left in place inside the final modded light.
*after the focus was established as correct, the brass ring was glued on the shelf with a very thin layer of Arctic Alumina Adhesive to not alter the focus.
*two very small drops of Norland 64 were applied on the edge of the collar, the collar was placed on the brass ring, it was shifted until the reflected image of the die was perfectly projected on top of the die, then the Norland was cured with lots of 365nm UV light.
*With everything lightly glued into position, the TN31 was assembled with the aspheric lens to check if the beam was correct and as expected, which fortunately it was.
*Then the head was opened again and three generous blobs of hot glue (the hot 180degC version) were applied for a more permanent fixation of the wavien collar.
*made an effort to clean the aspheric lens as well as possible and closed the light.
We measured the modded TN31 as well as possible, even checking it against other modded throwers that I measured before to see if the setup was still correct, and we got 1.31 Mcd after 30 seconds, measured at 7 meter distance (
). That is an almost exact doubling of throw compared to before adding the collar (650 kcd).
Having used my own collar on a White Flat, my catious conclusion is that the gain of the collar on a dedomed XP-G2 is a bit higher than on a White Flat, possibly close to cancelling out the higher luminance of the White Flat. Of course the combined dedoming and collar effects cause the XP-G2 S4 2B emit a very green tint. But with 1.3Mcd out of a TN31 size light I begin to like that tint
link to djozz tests
That's outstanding Jos - 1.3 mcd from a big classic thrower! Wonder if the conversion to an aspheric made much difference. From what I recall, a good dedomed XM-L2 in a TN31 with resistors bypassed did ~600 kcd at best, but of course you can't collar a reflector.
I totally missed the group buy on the collars - would have been in on it.
And I would have bought 2 of them now that I have some experience (two succesful mods) in how to use them and see how well they work.
The quality of Nicolaas’ lens is ok but not great btw, I reckon if a lens of the quality of the JaxmanZ1/Cometa was used (better optical quality plus coated), the results would be even significantly better.
link to djozz tests
Djozz,
You might be able to persuade me to hand my second collar over to you……….
And thanks again for this fantastic modd!
The light output is green as hell but 1,3Mcd from a light in this size……who cares!
Cheers,
Nico
I’m alright Nico, it is more greediness than that I have any idea what mod to do with it.
link to djozz tests
Yeah well, not too many aespheric light in which the collar fits.
What remains is to completely customize a big reflector light, but it’s a tall order to find a fitting lens with the correct focal length of a decent quality at a fair price.
……………
Come to think of it, I still have a Thrunite TN42 lying around……………..hmm……………
Cheers
Nico
Should correct my post above, but by today's standards, the TN31 is a medium or moderate size thrower, but back then, it was "the" thrower.
Interesting bout the quality of the lens... Reminds me of the MEM custom builds, and his persistence with finding the ultimate quality lens. Still wish he was still around - wonder if they legally slammed him or something, banned or gagged from using his own invention.
Dontcha just love lawyers?
Huh? Who’s “they”?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
the illumenati
The lawyers (meadowstar) that own the patent, here: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/42635, and here: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/60921
Meadowstar: http://www.meadowstar.com/, over 200 patents, mostly bought (cough, cough).
Here, originally Waiven but bought out by Meadowstar: http://wavien.com/patents/, think the top one listed, here: http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7976204.html
All the crap, and why we can't get simple technology, like an upside reflector, that will double the candela. Reminds me of the cursor patent - yes, the cursor on all our screens was patented, and legally, everyone who implemented one had to pay a royalty fee... What would you expect to pay for a small upside down reflector from China? $3? $5? Hhmmm...
Oh, patent trolls?
Someone should declare open-season on alla them. All those parasites do is hinder progress, the exact opposite of what patents are supposed to reward.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Replace rubber boot on Surefire G2 into blue one and add GITD tape inside several flashlight’s heads.
Sorry for crappy cellphone pic.
Blog: https://lumenzilla.com
I did my first ever reflow today
Since my FF PL47 didn’t live up to the expectations, it was scrapped.
But I had to give those lovely 219B emitters a new home. So I finally pulled the trigger on the Titanium version of the Emisar D4.
Then I gathered all my courage and gave my first ever reflow a go.
Here is my setup
Old teflon frying pan, IR thermometer for hitting the right temperature on the stove.
And then it happened, the emitters came loose, and i swapped them over to the empty 4XP V2 MCPCB. Added way too much paste, but it spilled out when giving them a little squeeze.
That was easier than i imagined
Did a quick test with my DMM, GREAT SUCCESS! All four emitters lit up.
Then the usual procedure of D4 driver disassembly, flashing Anduril to the driver.
Swapped in the new MCPCB
Not my finest solder job, but I was eager to power it up.
Was excited to see if my reflow would hold on full power. And it freggin did, yay!
Quick beamshot: XP-G2 S4-5D 4000K / 219B 4500K / 219C 5000K
XP-G2 is a little less yellow IRL, but the nichias a pretty spot on. Look at that rosy goodness.
So I have pretty much built my grail-light. The nicest emitters, and awesome firmware; Freggin awesome
Well done i42dk! Reflowing is indeed much easier than you would think. Hopefully this motivates more people to do their first reflow.
Great job! My first ever reflow was also with the help of a skillet/stove. Then graduated to electric stove (without skillet) and eventually hot air rework station.
Once you get the hang of it, it can be really fun.
My recent MOD: changing a malfunctioning driver of a friend's caving light with a new driver, eventually I also hat to change one LED (and considering changing the other LED and optics
)
My hand Made Class, 7th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
My modification Class, 8th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
I cannot see pics YuvalS
i42dk – I think it’s unusual for someone who can easily flash drivers is just reflowing leds for the first time. Not saying it’s good, bad or otherwise. I just have the mindset of coming from the other direction, I’ve reflowed leds but never flashed a driver
And now?
My hand Made Class, 7th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
My modification Class, 8th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
I can see them now, awesome!
This may but be a huge thing to many, but I finally got around to setting up an Anduril build environment yesterday. An Ubuntu VM running on Windows. I downloaded TK’s repository, and started figuring out how to use it. I couldn’t find any guides, so I just winged it, downloading dependencies as they came up.
After some time, I got a basic standard Q8 hex to build! I was ecstatic! I started fiddling with the settings, and managed to add/remove features with ease. Even figured out how to change the rythm of the new fancy button blink with a hint from TK herself. I was super stoked. I had put a few hours in tinkering around, and decided to take a break.
Then later, I knew what I wanted to do. After modding me and my buddies H03s with a Lexel TA driver last year, we wanted Anduril, but a 3 channel + aux LED version hadn’t been built yet. Zeroflow was kind enough to build me one, and gave me the documentation and modded build files of I ever wanted to try it myself.
I wanted to try it myself, to get the new fancy button blinking on my H03.
I spent about 2 hours trying to make it work. A few things have changed in the Anduril code since then, so while I could see what Zeroflow did in the old code, matching it in the new code was difficult for me. And many edits to several build files, and fruitlessly searching the forum for information on where the heck “#define USE_STEPPED_RAMPING” went, I decided to try building it anyway and just leave it in. Last year, we couldn’t leave it in because there wasn’t enough room with the extra channel added. But with the new code, it worked! It built, and it flashed, and here it is working:
https://youtu.be/SysSGzQVAfM
So that is my latest modding story. I know I’ve got a long way to go, and more to learn about how all this Anduril code works, but I’m making progress! And I’m extremely happy!
Thanks to everyone here for all your hard work! None of this would be possible without all of you. I really appreciate you all.
Just fyi, I've built Anduril successfully in Atmel Studio on Windows - you don't need a Ubuntu VM on Windows to build it. It's a much more comfortable environment for me, but of course I work in VS 2017 every day, and Atmel Studio is based on an older version of Visual Studio.
Cool, would like to see the finished light as I do have a friend that’s a avid caver…
Thanks!
I did try atmel studio last year during the first go around. But I couldn’t even get standard unedited files to work. They would build, but had strange problems, and if they even flashed they didn’t actually run.
I’m fairly comfortable in a Linux environment, used to use it more often than I have in the last few years. But I’m more comfortable in a command line than I am in a powershell. I think TK actually recommends a Linux environment, and it works pretty well.
Yea, TK doesn't do WIndows
Haha, thanks man
Sure I did a lot of research; how hot it should be, tools to use etc. And the new MCPCB surface text changed color due to too much heat.
But hey, gotta start somewhere. Lessons learned
And now I have ordered a little 200W hot plate for future endeavors
So I got some Black Flat… and a new Olight M22
So naturally, I measured the stock M22 : 2,9A and the advertised 23kCd from the XM-L2.
I swapped it for a BlackFlat, now it makes a nice 76kCd
While I was at it, I also put one in my GT Mini…
4,5A and 220kCd, not as good as my D1S (260kCd) but the reflector is known to be far from perfect so I’m quite pleased with that result !
"-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 just love the Emisar D4!!!
Here’s a white one I modded with:
Main thing different between this and my last D4 mod was that I used 0.5mm Silicone sheet as the backing for the metal button boot. In my 2 prior builds I used 1mm thick Silicone sheet.
0.5mm thick Silicone sheet is thick enough for this purpose and allows the entire button boot to be thinner. With the new backing, the metal button is recessed below the level of the stock switch retaining ring, which further reduces the risk of accidental activation and makes it easy to find the button in the pocket.
The switch is not lit in this mod. Would be nice to do, but doing so is complex and would almost certainly result in the switch button being higher.
I decided to use the original flood led and only changed the malfunctioning driver and spot led
My hand Made Class, 7th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
My modification Class, 8th Annual BLF/OL contest entry
I broke my opus charger. The pin that goes into the charge port whe t to far and cracked the plastic(bottom picture). I cut of the 12v plug and solderd the cables straight to the board. The little pin inbetween red and black was connected in the original plug but i only had two wires and didnt really see the use for it. Does anyone know why its there? It works just fine now.
"It wouldn’t be so bright if there wasn’t a shadow every once in a while." - Jason Mraz
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