Supfire L5 mod with A20LDX

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I was given a Supfire L5 for Christmas. It is a good all-around light. It is is high quality, feels good in the hand and has a momentary side-switch. It is also my first 26650 light, which should provide great runtimes.

However, the standard driver needed to go, and I just so happened to be testing one of Wight’s new drivers, the A20LDX. You can read more about it ->” here.“:[retired] [WIP] 20mm single sided & 17mm double-sided ?-amp linear driver - surprisingly good!
STAR needed to be tweaked to run on this hardware, so while I was messing with the code I figured I may as well cook up my own flavor. I wanted it to be very easy to learn and also have instant access to moon and turbo. Here is my code: ”Link”:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9SrVcc_YRi-bk8zVnJSWXNJWUU/view?usp=sharing

The UI:
Moon > Low > Medium > High
From Off
Click = moon
Long press = High/turbo
From On
Click = Next mode (L->H, ‘off’ and ‘moon’ are not in the cycle)
Long press = Off
*Long press = 1/3 second.
……………………
The emitter was originally an XM-L2 but it was a cool white, so I swapped it for an an XM-L2 3C on a Noctigon.
The tailcap and driver springs were bypassed with 22awg silicone wire.
The LED and contact board power wires are 20awg teflon, and the e-switch wire is 26awg teflon.
The original driver was an odd size and the e-switch was mounted on it, so I scraped it down and used it as a contact board. The new 20mm driver barely fit in the pill cavity with all the wires.
I measure right at 4.3amps on High/Turbo, and 0.001amps on moon (at the tailcap)
………………….
This was definitely the most time-consuming mod I have done so far, but hopefully there will be many more.
Thanks to Wight and others that helped with tips on various aspects of this build.

imgur.com/a/RhEhs/embed

2

I love these mods where other BLF members are involved. Nice build and well done. Cheers.

3

You sell to me? You sell to me

4

Looks like a winner! Too bad you didn’t get the full current it should deliver w/ that sense resistor.

What cell are you using?

I love absolom’s switch from the interrogative to the imperative. It’s like the strength of the build struck twice and really lit a fire the second time! :wink: :wink: :slight_smile:

5

Very nice build :beer:

6

That was on a 25R that measured 4.02v before I put it in. It was too late last night to wait for it to charge. I’m beginning to suspect my meter is faulty. It consistently reads half an amp lower than what I think I should be getting.

I’ll retest today with a fully charged cell

7

That is a great mod! And I'm jealous of your programming skills. And your UI is IMO about the best there is. It sounds like the UI of my S20 Baton.

8

Thanks!
The programming wasn’t difficult, just a little time-consuming. I knew what I wanted, but Wight and Toykeeper helped me get there.

9

Nice build. Totally made that L5 yours. Congrats

10

It gets up to 4.3amps on a fresh Samsung 25R

11

Ick! Any chance you could measure the Vf during 4A+ operation? (Just stick your DMM probes on the +/- on the MCPCB and fire it up w/ the DMM set to 20v DC.)

12

I can try. I’m not sure I can get to the emitter without breaking something. I’ll probably end up blinding myself trying to find the contacts :cowboy_hat_face:

13

Thanks. If you find soldering easy you may want to just solder a pair of wires on to the star to hang out the front of the light and get voltage measurements from once you turn it on.

14

It is hovering around 3.5v

15

Ouch. That reflects quite badly on the driver… around a 0.4-0.5v loss in the driver?

16

I wouldn’t put too much weight on my measurements

17

Our all time favorite now comes with metal button. Thinking of getting one to try out pilotdog68's FET piggyback method.