Maybe bring along the little one along for a lesson
“Driver” is a pretty loose term since they are wired in series to use line voltage. I did some quick googleFu and it looks like I could convert half wave to full wave rectifier but I would need to re-string at least half of the lights (I dont quite understand all this though). If I did that I would end up just replacing the entire string and get a warmer tint along with it.
I can probably live with it as is as long as I keep it away from our other lights.
After completing my first simple C8+ build (w/QLITE REV.A 8*7135 and XPL HI 5D), I wanted to make myself a new EDC light.
After getting my Jaxman E3 it was time to take it apart and fit it with an H17Fx driver, DTPMCPCB, and LH351D!
All the pieces (didn’t take a picture before installing the driver ) ready to go! I used a dremel to sand down the inside of the retaining ring to make room for all those 7135s, trying to be careful to leave enough metal around the little grooves in the ring for easy screwing in/out.
I used my fly tying vice to hold the new MCPCB and put a dremel to it on one side to even out where it had been connected to its brethren during fabrication. I had accidentally sanded down the tips of the vise jaws in the process of using the dremel on the retaining ring but it worked! I then thought I would use a flat file to thin the DTPMCPCB to make the head assembly easier. I quickly gave up on that idea after 30min of filing and almost no change in thickness. I figured an extra O-ring would save me a lot of labor!
I reflowed the LH351D 5000k 90CRI to the DTPMCPCB, which surprised me by taking much more time than with a thinner aluminum board. But that makes sense. It works!
Soldered the driver to the MCPCB after cleaning and then adding thermal paste. My soldering leaves a lot to be desired at this point. Always room for improvement. In this case, a lot of room!
I had to use a small hand file to make a wider window on the stock butterfly spacer to fit around the new emitter. I then attempted to flat file the spacer to make it less thick. Of course I ended up breaking it expertly. So I grabbed a way larger spacer for a Convoy C8+ reflector and filed down its width and height to get it to fit and keep the reflector away from the LED and solder.
Due to the wonky spacer I ended up using, centering the LED was quite the task. After enlisting your help on the forum and tinkering for a while I finally got it centered “enough.”
The ultimate solution to that problem was a little DC Fix, as I wanted a nice floody beam anyway! It helped with the tint shift and looking at the slightly less than perfect LED centering. You can see the finished light with new(ish) not-quite-deep-carry-but-better-than-stock clip repurposed from an Olight Mini Baton.
Overall, this was a successful first mod and a great learning experience! I ended up swapping in a LH351D in 4000k a few days later for a warmer CCT which I find even more pleasant outside. The H17Fx is also fantastic! I love how customizable it is; I can get lower than 1lm all the way to “why is there so much light” and even make the bike flasher exactly as bright as I’d like. Truly wonderful!
Thanks for all your constant help here, everyone! This is a really wonderful and supportive place. Special thanks to MascaratumB for providing answers and lots support during my endless questioning.
More mods in my future soon!
Nice mod. I’ve thought about modding my E3, but a few factors have prevented it. First, the 5700K 219C is actually a good tint (if cooler than I typically prefer). No noticeable tint-shift and no green. Second, it was a gift. And third, the modes are excellent with NiMh. It does suffer from the typical AA/14500 light problem for me, though: it’s large enough that I often just grab the SC62w instead.
jon_slider wrote:
Modded Atom AL Mule w sw45 to Aspheric lens, for a more collected beam.
Looks great. Zoomies definitely have places and uses where I’d prefer them over reflectors or most TIRs.
contactcr wrote:
Going to try to sneak in my other hobby.
Flashed a smart plug (Sonoff S31) to use open source local firmware to control some (flickering LED ) Christmas lights:
Solder jumper wires to USB to Serial adapter to flash ESP8266 chip
Flash and setup device, web page is the local device IP with all configuration options. No more phoning home to the “cloud” and works instantly with my home automation (Home Assistant) running on raspberry pi.
Costco LED garland the wife really wanted hooked up to re-assembled plug. My 3yo daughter asked “why does it blink like that?” I guess she is already one of us..
!{width:40%}https://i.imgur.com/LZF3aZK.jpg!
Hey that is pretty cool. Especially preventing it from phoning home – my Pihole blocks so much crap these days…
But I’ve decided to overhaul my UF-1405 aspheric thrower with an Osram LED. So I pulled out the de-domed XP-G2 that was in it today.
The Osram W1 LED is here, but still waiting on a driver for it.
However I did received a 3.04A Qlite from Int’l Outdoor.
I also found an old Convoy S4 on the shelf. It was missing a lens (think it broke) and I’d evidently pinched the driver and LED out of it at some point. Think it used to be an XP-G2. Not sure what happened to it. Anyhow it was bought as a host originally. I found a lens from a Convoy S2+ in the box, where I’d fitted a TIR lens previously.
So I thought I’d build up the S4 with the de-domed XP-G2 and Qlite.
The S4 host is ok, but fit and finish is a long way off the S2/S2+ models. But they do have quite a nice deep reflector.
I’m pretty sure the XP-G2 is an S2 1D. It’s on a Noctigon star from Int’l Outdoor. In the UF-1405 it had an amazing golden coloured tint after the de-dome (think Nichia219A).
With my XP-L HI S2
Sadly the tint isn’t quite as golden in a reflector, but it is quite a nice neutral white.
Seems to work really well outside. More throwy than the XP-L HI but somehow doesn’t feel short changed on lumens and spill beam either.
If I may ask, how did you open it? I am thinking of opening mine to put some GITD tape inside but I don't wanna ruin it right away Thanks in advance :THUMBS-UP:
I have drilled optic and used hes to pry out bezel ring. Yajiamei 17mm TIR is the same dimension as this one in Olight.
If I may ask, how did you open it? I am thinking of opening mine to put some GITD tape inside but I don’t wanna ruin it right away Thanks in advance
I have drilled optic and used hes to pry out bezel ring. Yajiamei 17mm TIR is the same dimension as this one in Olight.
Thanks for the information! I guess that would be too risky for me, as I intend to use the same optic.
I assume the bezel is pressed, not screwed, am I right?
Thanks again!
Mod with XP-E deep Red Led Skywolfeye E-522 AAA zoom
Think I have made the smallest zoom Red light.
I like very much, smooth and decent made for below 2$,but coming with cool white Led.
The base of the head tube was filed 2mm to bring the lens closer to the LED and have more flood.Also the pill was sanded a bit
A few days ago member Nbabu send me a parcel with a lot of spare parts and lights. Some of them were working, others not. Two of those were hosts, as he called them, and they intrigued me a lot.
There was a “vintage” Convoy C8 (model with a pill) and a FandyFire STL-V6. And I started legoing a bit. And lo and behold what I got. For the time being I will call it a Fandyvoy. As you already guessed it: left is before, right is after. The “silver” Convoy C8 is only shown as a reference.
Though only 99% (give or take) matching, I managed to swap the tubes. And the Fandyvoy looked a lot more sexy than the ConFire (not shown)
Then the entrails: the package also contained a matching pill and driver.
(pictures “borrowed” from a thread in 2014 by member G0OSE)
The pill had room for a 25mm ledboard, and those are hard to come by. But in my box of parts I found a 25mm brass shim of wich I enlarged the inside diameter from 16mm to 21mm. Soldering it in was done with a frying pan. I laid the shim in the pill and when then temparature was high enough, I just put a solder wire in the gap (temporary fixating it with screws, afraid the shim might float away).
The led I used is a 1mm² White Flat I got from Neven. Since I had no centering ring that spanned the gap between the 3030 emitter and the rather large opening in the reflector, I made one myself. Found a piece of round nylon somewhere that I flattened, and widened the opening a bit. Then I glued it onto the ledboard and made it black with a felttip pen. The centering stub only takes care of the centering. For focussing I use a plastic ring around the centering stub. It serves two purposes: the thickness permits me to fine tune the focussing, and it prevents the reflector touching the solder blobs on the leads. Atm I use a “shim” I cut out of the bottom of a plastic coffee cup.
Then the other side of the pill. Since I hate soldering a driver, I filed down the rim of the pill that holds the driver to a fraction less than the thickness of the driver. So the driver protrudes a bit. But it is firmly held down by a 3mm Nylon shim I filed down until it exactly fits the inside of the head. And it is pushed against the pill by fastening the tube of the light. The driver itself is left intact. I was afraid to stick my soldering iron between the two PCB’s so I refrained to shortening the leads by some 50% and bypassing the spring with 20AWG.
The outcome is rather surprising: With only 1.5A at the tailcap, from two Efest 18350’s, the hotspot has more impact than that of a White Flat with 5A in the silver Convoy I used as reference. I have not measured this, it was done the redneck way. Both lights shining on a white surface, and looking wich beam prevails if the hotspots touch.
No beamshots. I have ordered a “Green” Flat 1mm², and when that arrives, I’ll organize a shooting match.
—
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
The KR4 is a great light, but the switch is a bit too easy to depress. I had done the o-ring mod on every FW3 series light I own so decided to give it a shot on the KR4. Here’s what I did:
Unscrew the tailcap retaining ring. It was stiff, but not glued. Needle-nosed pliers in the retaining ring coupled with some 3M grip tape on the outside of the tailcap for better grip and it came right off.
Remove the switch mechanism. Unlike with the FW3 series, the switch mechanism did not fall out of the light when the retaining ring was off. Fortunately, this mechanism was also quite easy to remove. Just grip the tailcap and press the button quite hard to push the switch guts out. The switch board wasn’t glued. It just had a stiff press-fit.
Pull the brass nubbin off the bottom of the switch boot.
Insert the o-ring. I used the same size o-ring I used for the FW3 switch.
This worked, but wasn’t reliable and required an unacceptably hard press. The o-ring itself didn’t provide enough pressure on the switch to actually cause it to cycle. Perhaps a thicker o-ring would work. Or maybe fill a bit of the switch boot with filler, such as a few layers of tape, to make it shallower.
I might try that later, but what I ended up doing was cutting a single tiny square of gaffer’s tape and sticking that on the end of the rubber post in the center of the switchboot where it depresses the switch. This provided just enough extra reach to make the switch reliably cycle. It now requires noticeably more pressure than before. I still have the extra o-ring in the switch, but I’m not sure it’s actually doing anything.
Note however that a piece of tape on the end of the thin rubber post doesn’t provide nearly the support of the original brass nubbin. The stock build will be more durable.
Guess I’ll give it a shot like this for a bit and see if it lasts and if I like it.
What’s the best way to sand down a CU board in thickness evenly?
I guess my question is then how to keep it even if that’s the best way. Rotate 1/8 or 1/4 turn for every few passes?
Can add some more advice.
It is not easy to manipulate such a tiny coin. If you are managing bare PCB (I hope so), and you need to remove more than a hair, take some bigger piece and superglue it to the PCB, this will give you more comfort in holding.
If you are tilting it too much and the sanding surface gets a little convex, you can both feel it and see it.
Find some time and make a small lapping place for such parts. (I have few commercial ideas about such a project, but as usual it will take few years to be ready for sale.) Such lapping plates can be used to finish parts after sandpaper, or for checking them for flatness.
Find some piece (the flattest that you are able to find around) of metal. And a piece of glass (thicker=better). Glue them together with superglue or UV glue. Now you have a lapping plate with a flatness that is far over any flashlight modder needs.
DO NOT use any super abrasives (diamond or CBN powder\grease). They will stack inside metal but won’t remove any material. Do not start with polishing greases. Use regular aluminum oxide abrasives (find them in a liquid state or make your own from powder).
Once you start lapping, you can feel everything. If the surface is already flat, you will feel how big is sticking force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_block#Wringing) between your plate and your part. Convex part does not stick to the flat surface. Also you see where is located freshly polished zone, and how big it is. After little practice you don’t need tons of towels around to clean parts every second stoke and see whats happening, you can feel whats happening with bare hands.
P.S. I do not use this technic for flashlight related parts
I see many great new mods in this thread, with lots of nice pics. Fun to read, and modding is still very much alive on BLF!
My mod this morning:
Last year I bought this little cheap travel clock in a local shop, out of nostalgia because these have been around for 30 years, but also because they are nicer IMO than the digital ones.
It works on a single AA battery and has a small bulb to light the display at night. But unfortunately the display lighting only works by pressing a momentary switch on the back, letting the switch go switches the light off again.
I was sure that it was a led but behold it turned out to be a mini incan bulb. The design is really 30 years old. But I guess it is also laziness, the battery is 1.5V so you would need a little boost circuit to light a led from it, that is why they still went incan.
I really want to light the display continuously, that makes for a nice beacon on the bedside table at night and saves clicking a button if I want to know the time. Having the incan bulb on all the time would drain the battery in no time, but I reckoned that a led at sub-moonlight level, which is what you want at night, should draw small enough current to have it lighted permanently.
This is the plan: a simple Joulethief circuit using a QX5252 component (ebay), an inductor (also ebay), and a 2300K 90CRI 5mm led bought from rngwn. As can be found online, this is the circuit (pin 1 is not used, it is for adding a solar panel to have the battery charged):
The current through the led is adjusted by the value of the inductor, higher value gives smaller current. As I want less than 1mA, I needed a very high value inductor, after experimenting I found what I needed: a 10mH inductor causes 0.260mA and 0.017 lumen from the led. 0.260 mA should drain a typical alkaline battery in over half a year, that is fine . That is 45 lumen/W btw, which is way better than I expected from this circuitry at such low level.
Opening up the clock revealed what was expected, some wires coming from the battery connected to the glued-in incan bulb via the switch. The bulb was easily pryed out.
The hole for the bulb was widened with a drill to fit the 5mm led. (not shown) the new hole as seen from the clock face looks quite neat btw.
The cutout in the display cover was widened too, this was not a great job as you can see but it is nice enough.
Here is the circuitry soldered in place. The switch was left out, the led runs direct from the battery.
And after closing the light it works nicely and the illumination level seems just right to me :-).
The picture makes the illumination of the face look more uneven than in reality, in fact the illumination is very nice and better than from the stock incan bulb. I measured 2260K, 94CRI and duv=-0.0017. I put in a new battery and let’s see if the runtime is indeed more than 6 months
Don’t I remember you modding another travel click before? EDIT: yup, here it is
It is this same one, the post that you link is about finding out that the bulb was not a led, so the mod was not as straightforward as bypassing the switch and adding a resistor. So I collected some parts and today I did the actual mod with the boost circuit.
The current through the led is adjusted by the value of the inductor, higher value gives smaller current. As I want less than 1mA, I needed a very high value inductor, after experimenting I found what I needed: a 10mH inductor causes 0.260mA and 0.017 lumen from the led. 0.260 mA should drain a typical alkaline battery in over half a year, that is fine . That is 45 lumen/W btw, which is way better than I expected from this circuitry at such low level.
Nice.
What would be the current when the battery is near-empty?
Nice.
What would be the current when the battery is near-empty?
Still 260 micro-amps I guess, the QX5252 is supposed to deliver a constant current and in this case I made it so low that a near-empty battery should still deliver that.
Don’t I remember you modding another travel click before? EDIT: yup, here it is
I was thinking this the entire time I read the post! “Didn’t someone do this already? Deja vu?” I’m glad someone else remembered it as well. Great spectrum on that original
Swapped a 4000K LH351D into a JETBeam Mini-One! Much better than the XP-G3. Wasn’t too bad but the bezel is definitely glued and was a PITA to get off.
“Driver” is a pretty loose term since they are wired in series to use line voltage. I did some quick googleFu and it looks like I could convert half wave to full wave rectifier but I would need to re-string at least half of the lights (I dont quite understand all this though). If I did that I would end up just replacing the entire string and get a warmer tint along with it.
I can probably live with it as is as long as I keep it away from our other lights.
Nice mod. I’ve thought about modding my E3, but a few factors have prevented it. First, the 5700K 219C is actually a good tint (if cooler than I typically prefer). No noticeable tint-shift and no green. Second, it was a gift. And third, the modes are excellent with NiMh. It does suffer from the typical AA/14500 light problem for me, though: it’s large enough that I often just grab the SC62w instead.
Looks great. Zoomies definitely have places and uses where I’d prefer them over reflectors or most TIRs.
Hey that is pretty cool. Especially preventing it from phoning home – my Pihole blocks so much crap these days…
If I may ask, how did you open it?
I am thinking of opening mine to put some GITD tape inside but I don’t wanna ruin it right away
Thanks in advance
MY REVIEWS THREAD /// My Flashlight Collection /// YouTube Channel
Mods: 1 / 2 // TIR: 1 / 2 // Others: Biscotti 3 + 1*7135 / Triple TIR w/ XP-G2 /// My Review's Blog (PT) /// OL Contest 2019 /// OL Contest 2020 /// GIVEAWAYs: 1 / 2 / 3
Nothing too exciting.
But I’ve decided to overhaul my UF-1405 aspheric thrower with an Osram LED. So I pulled out the de-domed XP-G2 that was in it today.
The Osram W1 LED is here, but still waiting on a driver for it.
However I did received a 3.04A Qlite from Int’l Outdoor.
I also found an old Convoy S4 on the shelf. It was missing a lens (think it broke) and I’d evidently pinched the driver and LED out of it at some point. Think it used to be an XP-G2. Not sure what happened to it. Anyhow it was bought as a host originally. I found a lens from a Convoy S2+ in the box, where I’d fitted a TIR lens previously.
So I thought I’d build up the S4 with the de-domed XP-G2 and Qlite.
The S4 host is ok, but fit and finish is a long way off the S2/S2+ models. But they do have quite a nice deep reflector.
I’m pretty sure the XP-G2 is an S2 1D. It’s on a Noctigon star from Int’l Outdoor. In the UF-1405 it had an amazing golden coloured tint after the de-dome (think Nichia219A).
With my XP-L HI S2
Sadly the tint isn’t quite as golden in a reflector, but it is quite a nice neutral white.
Seems to work really well outside. More throwy than the XP-L HI but somehow doesn’t feel short changed on lumens and spill beam either.
My Torch & Flashlight Reviews
My YouTube channel
Notable Reviews:
Convoy S2+ | Zeusray Domed & De-Domed Comparison | Maglite XL200 | Rofis TR18 XP-L HI angle and tube flashlight | H4 (HB2/9003) Car headlight XM-L2 | A8 BLF Edition
I have drilled optic and used hes to pry out bezel ring. Yajiamei 17mm TIR is the same dimension as this one in Olight.
WTB Titanium 4sevens 2xAA tube
Thanks for the information! I guess that would be too risky for me, as I intend to use the same optic.
I assume the bezel is pressed, not screwed, am I right?
Thanks again!
MY REVIEWS THREAD /// My Flashlight Collection /// YouTube Channel
Mods: 1 / 2 // TIR: 1 / 2 // Others: Biscotti 3 + 1*7135 / Triple TIR w/ XP-G2 /// My Review's Blog (PT) /// OL Contest 2019 /// OL Contest 2020 /// GIVEAWAYs: 1 / 2 / 3
Nice mod on the classic S4 Chicken Drumstick. I wish they still sold them so I could add them to my collection.
I’d rather use my flashlight around the house than turn on the lights.
Mod with XP-E deep Red Led Skywolfeye E-522 AAA zoom
Think I have made the smallest zoom Red light.
I like very much, smooth and decent made for below 2$,but coming with cool white Led.
The base of the head tube was filed 2mm to bring the lens closer to the LED and have more flood.Also the pill was sanded a bit
Have you tried Skywolfeye B16? It’s a much better host.
Nothing much, been playing Lego with my son: placing correct color LED in it’s C01 hosts
660nm
450nm
595nm
530nm
WTB Titanium 4sevens 2xAA tube
OSRAM CSLNM1.TG
My Torch & Flashlight Reviews
My YouTube channel
Notable Reviews:
Convoy S2+ | Zeusray Domed & De-Domed Comparison | Maglite XL200 | Rofis TR18 XP-L HI angle and tube flashlight | H4 (HB2/9003) Car headlight XM-L2 | A8 BLF Edition
Nice. That really satisfies my OCD
That was my thought as well. This is how they should be sold!
WTB Titanium 4sevens 2xAA tube
No maybe I will,B16 seem is 3modes,press fit lens and a bit bigger than E522
do you have both two?
Yes, I have both.
A few days ago member Nbabu send me a parcel with a lot of spare parts and lights. Some of them were working, others not. Two of those were hosts, as he called them, and they intrigued me a lot.
There was a “vintage” Convoy C8 (model with a pill) and a FandyFire STL-V6. And I started legoing a bit. And lo and behold what I got. For the time being I will call it a Fandyvoy. As you already guessed it: left is before, right is after. The “silver” Convoy C8 is only shown as a reference.
Though only 99% (give or take) matching, I managed to swap the tubes. And the Fandyvoy looked a lot more sexy than the ConFire (not shown)
Then the entrails: the package also contained a matching pill and driver.
(pictures “borrowed” from a thread in 2014 by member G0OSE)
The pill had room for a 25mm ledboard, and those are hard to come by. But in my box of parts I found a 25mm brass shim of wich I enlarged the inside diameter from 16mm to 21mm. Soldering it in was done with a frying pan. I laid the shim in the pill and when then temparature was high enough, I just put a solder wire in the gap (temporary fixating it with screws, afraid the shim might float away).
The led I used is a 1mm² White Flat I got from Neven. Since I had no centering ring that spanned the gap between the 3030 emitter and the rather large opening in the reflector, I made one myself. Found a piece of round nylon somewhere that I flattened, and widened the opening a bit. Then I glued it onto the ledboard and made it black with a felttip pen. The centering stub only takes care of the centering. For focussing I use a plastic ring around the centering stub. It serves two purposes: the thickness permits me to fine tune the focussing, and it prevents the reflector touching the solder blobs on the leads. Atm I use a “shim” I cut out of the bottom of a plastic coffee cup.
Then the other side of the pill. Since I hate soldering a driver, I filed down the rim of the pill that holds the driver to a fraction less than the thickness of the driver. So the driver protrudes a bit. But it is firmly held down by a 3mm Nylon shim I filed down until it exactly fits the inside of the head. And it is pushed against the pill by fastening the tube of the light. The driver itself is left intact. I was afraid to stick my soldering iron between the two PCB’s so I refrained to shortening the leads by some 50% and bypassing the spring with 20AWG.
The outcome is rather surprising: With only 1.5A at the tailcap, from two Efest 18350’s, the hotspot has more impact than that of a White Flat with 5A in the silver Convoy I used as reference. I have not measured this, it was done the redneck way. Both lights shining on a white surface, and looking wich beam prevails if the hotspots touch.
No beamshots. I have ordered a “Green” Flat 1mm², and when that arrives, I’ll organize a shooting match.
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
Quick and simple mod tonight:
O-ring mod to Noctigon KR4.
The KR4 is a great light, but the switch is a bit too easy to depress. I had done the o-ring mod on every FW3 series light I own so decided to give it a shot on the KR4. Here’s what I did:
Guess I’ll give it a shot like this for a bit and see if it lasts and if I like it.
Can add some more advice.
It is not easy to manipulate such a tiny coin. If you are managing bare PCB (I hope so), and you need to remove more than a hair, take some bigger piece and superglue it to the PCB, this will give you more comfort in holding.
If you are tilting it too much and the sanding surface gets a little convex, you can both feel it and see it.
Find some time and make a small lapping place for such parts. (I have few commercial ideas about such a project, but as usual it will take few years to be ready for sale.) Such lapping plates can be used to finish parts after sandpaper, or for checking them for flatness.
Find some piece (the flattest that you are able to find around) of metal. And a piece of glass (thicker=better). Glue them together with superglue or UV glue. Now you have a lapping plate with a flatness that is far over any flashlight modder needs.
DO NOT use any super abrasives (diamond or CBN powder\grease). They will stack inside metal but won’t remove any material. Do not start with polishing greases. Use regular aluminum oxide abrasives (find them in a liquid state or make your own from powder).
Once you start lapping, you can feel everything. If the surface is already flat, you will feel how big is sticking force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_block#Wringing) between your plate and your part. Convex part does not stick to the flat surface. Also you see where is located freshly polished zone, and how big it is. After little practice you don’t need tons of towels around to clean parts every second stoke and see whats happening, you can feel whats happening with bare hands.
P.S. I do not use this technic for flashlight related parts
Low-cost copper pills, spacers, optics, drop-ins.
I see many great new mods in this thread, with lots of nice pics. Fun to read, and modding is still very much alive on BLF!
My mod this morning:
Last year I bought this little cheap travel clock in a local shop, out of nostalgia because these have been around for 30 years, but also because they are nicer IMO than the digital ones.
It works on a single AA battery and has a small bulb to light the display at night. But unfortunately the display lighting only works by pressing a momentary switch on the back, letting the switch go switches the light off again.
I was sure that it was a led but behold it turned out to be a mini incan bulb. The design is really 30 years old. But I guess it is also laziness, the battery is 1.5V so you would need a little boost circuit to light a led from it, that is why they still went incan.
I really want to light the display continuously, that makes for a nice beacon on the bedside table at night and saves clicking a button if I want to know the time. Having the incan bulb on all the time would drain the battery in no time, but I reckoned that a led at sub-moonlight level, which is what you want at night, should draw small enough current to have it lighted permanently.
This is the plan: a simple Joulethief circuit using a QX5252 component (ebay), an inductor (also ebay), and a 2300K 90CRI 5mm led bought from rngwn. As can be found online, this is the circuit (pin 1 is not used, it is for adding a solar panel to have the battery charged):
The current through the led is adjusted by the value of the inductor, higher value gives smaller current. As I want less than 1mA, I needed a very high value inductor, after experimenting I found what I needed: a 10mH inductor causes 0.260mA and 0.017 lumen from the led. 0.260 mA should drain a typical alkaline battery in over half a year, that is fine
. That is 45 lumen/W btw, which is way better than I expected from this circuitry at such low level.
Opening up the clock revealed what was expected, some wires coming from the battery connected to the glued-in incan bulb via the switch. The bulb was easily pryed out.
The hole for the bulb was widened with a drill to fit the 5mm led. (not shown) the new hole as seen from the clock face looks quite neat btw.
The cutout in the display cover was widened too, this was not a great job as you can see but it is nice enough.
Here is the circuitry soldered in place. The switch was left out, the led runs direct from the battery.
And after closing the light it works nicely and the illumination level seems just right to me :-).
The picture makes the illumination of the face look more uneven than in reality, in fact the illumination is very nice and better than from the stock incan bulb. I measured 2260K, 94CRI and duv=-0.0017. I put in a new battery and let’s see if the runtime is indeed more than 6 months
link to djozz tests
@Tom, in your post #9543 two lines in the posted software are very long, causing this whole page to display extremely narrow on mobile devices
link to djozz tests
Excellent mod Jos! Very cool and practical.
Don’t I remember you modding another travel click before? EDIT: yup, here it is
It is this same one, the post that you link is about finding out that the bulb was not a led, so the mod was not as straightforward as bypassing the switch and adding a resistor. So I collected some parts and today I did the actual mod with the boost circuit.
link to djozz tests
Ahh that’s right. Thanks for jogging my memory.
Nice.
What would be the current when the battery is near-empty?
Still 260 micro-amps I guess, the QX5252 is supposed to deliver a constant current and in this case I made it so low that a near-empty battery should still deliver that.
link to djozz tests
You are the only one to comment on it, and that's a syntax issue. So to the trash bin!
Just a waste of time, sorry to say - gone.
Nice mod on the clock light, btw!
That is a thorough way to solve it, of course deleting the post was not my intention
link to djozz tests
I was thinking this the entire time I read the post! “Didn’t someone do this already? Deja vu?” I’m glad someone else remembered it as well. Great spectrum on that original
Been a while, hope everyone’s been well.
Swapped a 4000K LH351D into a JETBeam Mini-One! Much better than the XP-G3. Wasn’t too bad but the bezel is definitely glued and was a PITA to get off.
I realize this light has a glass lens that’s easily replaceable but i wanted to make a lens cap for it anyway so I lathed it up out of plastic.
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