DIY and Review of Convoy S3 (host)
I recently decided to give a shot at DIY’ing my own flashlight with a host, driver and emitter. After much consultation, I settled on the following list, purchased from Fasttech…
All in all, it cost a total of $24.50 (with the BLF discount code).
It took a few weeks before I had all my parts and thus began my first build!
First off, I added a drop of thermal adhesive to the bottom of the emitter and let it set.
The holes and the emitter cut-outs for the wires weren’t exactly perfect but (as seen later on) that wasn’t much of an issue.
I then got the soldering kit out and soldered the driver wires to the emitter (red to positive, black to negative). I had many issues with this, being my first time working with drivers and emitters and managed to damage the wires and had to resolder new wires onto the driver. After many patient attempts, I somehow managed to fix everything!
The plastic gasket was attached to the bottom of the emitter (which was kind of sticky at the bottom) and I checked to see if the emitter was flush in the middle.
Next up was bridging the driver to the pill. As you can see, it was a messy attempt and I managed to rip off some of the copper from the circuit. However, I maintained continuity within the circuit (somehow!?) and nothing seemed to be affected.
As you can see, the spring is compressed and I will explain this later on.
Finally, I screwed everything back in to place, put the battery in, and sure enough my first DIY flashlight worked like a charm.
Discussion
I decided to under-power (as some might see it) the emitter as the Convoy S3 looked like a relatively small host and I thought heat dissipation might been an issue. I used a driver that delivered 2100mA and I deemed that it would suffice for its intended use (dog walking at night, searching for stuff etc.).
The driver allows you to change between 2 groups of modes - I find myself using the Low - Medium - High setting the most.
The biggest downfall is the memory setting where it remembers the last mode used based on how long it has been on for. Whilst it is a minor issue, I still prefer off-time memory. I can also hear a high-pitched whine when on medium mode if I listen closely.
Heat dissipation is an issue, even when run at 2100mA. After about 5 minutes on the high setting, the flashlight heats up considerably. I would not say that it is too hot to touch, but I imagine leaving it on for a few more minutes (i.e. 10 minutes) would make it so.
Convoy S3 Host
The host is anodized black and is very well-built. It is shorter than a pen and about as wide as an Australian 10cent coin (sorry that doesn’t really help most of you). It comes with a green reverse clicky tail cap and features a glow-in-the-dark ring just below the lens. It comes with a spare spring and spare retainer ring for the tail cap.
Pros
- very pocketable/EDC
- well machined with decent knurling
- smooth threads
- can tail stand
- lightweight
Cons
- the lens does not fit flush against the top retainer ring (the silver head bit as seen in the photos) and will rattle
- access to the pill is via the top of the flashlight and can be difficult to access sometimes
- builds up heat quite quickly
- Biggest issue is fitting 18650 protected batteries.
I used a Nitecore NL188 battery (I believe it is the same as the 3100mAh Panasonic) and found that it was difficult to screw the tail cap back on. After I did, the spring on the driver became deformed and would short one of the chip’s legs, causing the flashlight to only display high mode.
To fix this, I removed the spring from the driver, used a pair of pliers to straighten and compress the spring and then soldered it back on. Now the spring acts more like an extension of the driver than a spring. I haven’t had any issues since this small modification and allows protected batteries to fit much more easily into the host. Width wise, the Convoy S3 provides adequate room.
So that’s that guys. If you have any questions, feel free to comment!
Look forward to posting some more DIY’s/Reviews soon!
