My nephew got a “Vizeri” zoomie, which looks like a re-branded Tank007 TK737, and I told him that I’d try to “improve” it for him.
The stock light has 5 modes (hi-med-lo-strobe-sos), and I think that he’d want to retain that, or maybe have groups, but basically, I’d like to make it a bit brighter but also keep it reliable. Also, the beam seems really ugly, so it’d be nice if that could be improved.
So, I was wondering if anyone here has modded one of these, and if so, what would the recommended mods be?
About the only improvement you can do on these is to machine the bezel ID bigger to put a glass lens in there. I have done a lot of Tank TK-736 clones this way and it helped a lot.
I suspect the driver is under-driven as the advertisement of the VZ230 boasts the fact that output is only 230 lumens to keep it from getting hot. You should be able to put just about any driver in there. Can you ID the emitter? Probably an XP-G? You can drive that to 1.4 amps.
I wonder if maybe the reflector around the emitter should be blackened, or maybe the two holes at the edge of the reflector are what makes the beam so ugly?
An XM-L2 would work also then? And then a 7135-based driver? And remove the reflector completely?
Yes, he has the 18650, but I don’t think he got the 3xAAA carrier, but I’m planning to add that in the package if I have a carrier that works when I send it back to him.
This one needs an extra 7135 to get 1.4A but they are not always 101-AK… I have received 047-AK before (1.05A).
Of course, you could reflow the MP onto any of the Atiny13a drivers.
Otherwise Mtn. Electronics has a nice collection of driver solutions and selectable firmware.
The reflector is what is causing the beam issue. All it is doing is holding the emitter on the Fujik. For the replacement, use an thermal epoxy. …or JB-Weld
That I wouldn’t know. Look from the inside and see if you see any glue spillage. You might try the nose of some fine point needle nose pliers. Sometimes they can be stubborn. A little heat won’t hurt either.
I was looking at the pill today, and noticed some clear “gunk” around the edge of the emitter/ring, around the dome, so I tried to clean that off, and the dome fell off :)…
Also, it turns out that the reflector around the emitter actually screws off (threaded). Here’s what the front of the pill looks like now after I unscrewed the reflector:
I still can’t get the pill to turn/budge though :(…
I think that I do see some whitish residue around the pill in the space between the pill and the side of the head, but haven’t been able to get to it.
It is unfortunate that the pill traps the sliding part of the body. Not knowing if it is glued really makes it frustrating. Mine don’t even have the two holes but I could easily coax the pill out by pulling up on the head and creating the friction between the head and the pill while turning.
It looks like the pill also screws out. It will break the wires but so what. Once you get all the “flammables” out of there, you can try baking it to loosing things up. But you do need something that will take some force to turn out the pill with those two holes. When you get desperate enough, you’ll get it
I have a lot of the little stock lenses if you need one. Funny how that one just self destructed.
Will the zoom advance of the head thread of the backside of the body?
Let me see if I can find the various parts of mine to remember how to separate it. It is almost assuredly glued in, I know mine was.
The driver on mine had absolutely no TIM under it and was only transferring heat via compression. It ended up dying via all the magic smoke escaping. If I can remember where I put all the various parts, I would like to rebuild it as I really like the formfactor size and (despite being in the minority) screw to zoom.
Thanks! If this was my own light, I wouldn’t mind taking more destructive measures, but since it’s my nephew’s and he assumes that he’ll be getting a working light back, I kind of hesitate.
I’ve tried freezing and heating so far, and that pill won’t budge still.
I really should ask before this: Has anyone see any major improvement with a new emitter like an XM-L2 or XP-G2? I kind of think that he’d be looking more for “brightness” as opposed to throw, i.e., if the thing got way brighter he’d notice that more quickly than if it threw better.
If I could get the pill out, I was thinking of taking an incremental approach, i.e., I’d replace the emitter with either XM-L2 or XP-G2 on Noctigon, as you all suggested, and maybe replace the emitter wires with something heavier and maybe wire on the tailcap spring (and maybe the driver spring). Also maybe come up with some kind of blackened disk around the emitter rather than the SMO one that it has already.
Then, see how it works.
I measured tailcap current on the stock light, and it’s pulling ~1 amp with the stock XR-E or XP-E emitter (whatever it is), and the head does get a little warm already.
My nephew is not a flashaholic yet, so really want something that he can use and will be reliable (but “better” than stock).
If you plan to stick with the 18650 drive, consider the NANJG 101-AK board with 4x 7135. You can short pins on the MP to make it 3 mode if you want. This will set the light apart from what it was.
Can you pull the insulator off and show a picture? That will let us ID the emitter for sure. You will probably also see that the brass slug is removable. It could be that the driver is actually attached to the brass slug and not the pill.
Looking forward to what Adragontattoo finds in hos parts box.
I've tried removing the pill from a couple of the Tank007 TK737's and cannot budge it. Tank007 is notorious for glued parts, famous in fact for it. I didn't go too heavy at it - maybe tried some heat.. I should try drilling out the holes more to use a heavy duty needlenose. I have one and gifted a bunch of them early on, before I got in to modding. Couple guys who I gave them to asked me to mod them. I also kept one or two and tried it on my own.
You might be in luck. Does it look like the brass piece is threaded in or pressed in?
My thinking is that if it is pressed in, you can push it out from the backside. And it is probably the actual pill.
And yes, that’s an old XR-E probably Q5. The only thing I don’t like about those is that they start to drop off pretty quickly when driven at 1A. XP-G requires a lot less Vf to stay in regulation
