Are you ready to take the two dollar light challenge ?
everyone has an el'cheapo light they bought and a few touches here and there would make it a more interesting light .
Lets see what you can do with your 2.50 cent sk68 clone ...
or your 1.99 wallbuys xpe zoomie .
or maybe your 2.99 edit p14
At these prices we can afford to get creative with a file , sandpaper,a wire brush a dremmel tool a hammer .. a scewdriver ,oven cleaner , baked in the oven etc ..
Lets see these lights with new grooves and sharp edges all knocked down ..at these prices they can't be screwed up .
Last year I took a searated steak knife to a brand new out of the package 6$ sk68 .. that alone will start the ball rolling and give you a warm feeling inside.
November is national mod month so feel free to list your upcoming mods in that thread all month
I got a 2.99 mxdl 3w I got from some sale a couple years ago that I am waiting on parts. Stock driver, stock pill, noctigon with nichia 219 will be going into it... Something like $8 for a tiny ass hi cri light? Wish I bought 10 of them lights at that price. Stock up on primaries and stash them everywhere
This light was a pocket rocket hit a couple years ago with a p60 pill, xml, nanjg, glass lens and metal reflector.
I'm a slacker and let mine sit in a cupboard stock unused
It got more purpley...needs some tint help..119 Nichia ??
I'm thinking about doing some cross hatching on the xpe lights head .As a zoomie it needs some grip at that point.I question the odd shapes in the middle too
That’s no cheap PVC tape or so, it’s made out of 2k epoxie and this is then plastidiped. If I would have grinded it and plastidiped with a thicker layer it might be really beautiful…
If you still not convinced that this is high tech look at the copper bolt in the picture…
I ruined the edi tailcap and the only replacement I had laying around was one of the police lights I got gifted from banggood or fastech, the driver is a 2 mode I got refunded in former times because it is not what I ordered and the led is a XML I got as a sample from cree. So it’s all recycled and cheap. Even the epoxie was a0.89$ Syringe :bigsmile:
I’m not sure if this counts as a mod, but I got a couple of the MDXL 2xAAA lights from the WB deal, and I decided to risk one for this, using a dummy AAA battery in with protected 10440:
the good news is that it didn’t kill the emitter (yet).
The light is visibly brighter than with the 2 x AAA alkaline batteries, but it’s not a huge difference.
I have a bunch of the Nichia 119 emitters, and would try those, but I haven’t figured out how to take the head apart without destroying the head. It looks like it’s just a plastic “pill” that is shrink-wrapped?
You need to solder “legs” to your N119 emitter if you want to put it in MXDL. The MXDL light uses the leg to contact the body and driver. Thick copper wire would work fine.
To open the driver, just pull it out, it uses rectangle boost driver squeezed in plastic pill.
Well.....I broke a file on my 1.99 golden zoomie .
I don't like the north south lines on the head ....(too slippery) I have some east west ones coming via old lumens idea using the pipe cutter to score the lines and a thin file to dig them out. I just want to change the look and feel of the light ..probably will strip it and polish it if it ever gets to the point of somewhat acceptable ..If the body works we'll consider tint and driver modding it .
I don’t know what the hell it is. You got a future on some space program boy! They need that kinda ingenuity when meteor sh*t hits space stations and stuff.
I want someone like you on board if I ever visit the moon!
I agree with the lines on the head. Should have been the other way for better grip. I lubed mine a little bit to get less resistance when zooming..
I tested a XB-D 3C (80+ CRI) in the same light. Modified the MCPCB to 14mm. It was OK, but there was less spill (ring was not as wide), and throw was sacrificed too (full zoom showed a larger LED).
Emitter amps seemed to be down after the emitter change. And even stock this light was slightly down compared to a good sipik..
I put a 20k resistor on the capacitator near the toroid. Removed next mode memory. Then I went back to stock emitter. The UI is nice now! Ill probably give the light to someone... Or else I have to try a WW Nichia 119 in it..
Because the light you linked is the worst available, not even worth 0.10$…
I have some got for free or 0.01$ and even for this money they are bad. Especially compared to the 2$ zoomie which is 50 times brighter…and can be used with a lion cell.
:davie:
