Aspheric w/ secondary optics?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

New flashlight modder here. My latest project has been a cheap AA light from Tractor Supply. They were recently on clearance for $6.99 for a pack of 3. It has a small aspheric lens made of plastic and originally came with a cool white 5 mm LED with an output of maybe 5 lumen (10 lumen advertised). The light has a nice weight to it and the tail clicky actually feels solid unlike most other $2 cheapies that I've tried. It has a pill, although hollow, and the lens has a neat "zoom" feature. In other words, the head of the light can slide forward 5 mm to tighten up the beam. Oh, and it also has that wonderful smell of fertilizer, just like everything you buy from TS. :)

Anyways, I thought I could make a nice light out of it for EDC. The LED was replaced with a 4500K T5 XM-L that I reflow soldered onto a copper plate. Then the boost circuit was swapped out for a parallel AMC7135 board for a drive current of 700 mA and to power it, an unprotected 14500 is being used.

Here's a couple beam shots on a very foggy night. The shed is about 40 feet away.

Oh, and I mixed up some glow powder just for fun.

Now on to my questions. Since the lens is so small, I have to assume that a majority of the light is lost inside the head of the flashlight. I shaved down a reflector and was able to make it fit pretty well, but found that it caused a bright ring around the outside of the beam, while the center didn't change much at all. It's sort of looked like a doughnut.

I've done some searching on collimator lenses being used with an aspheric, but can't find any beam shots. Would a frosted lens work best to keep the beam smooth? XM-L optics aren't easy to come by, but I did find a 37° clear lens with a 16.3 mm diameter that would fit nicely (I think) into this small flashlight.

Also, does anyone know of an IC chip that can be purchased individually for controlling flashlight modes. Something as simple as High and Low would be perfect, but if it must have strobe, SOS etc... that's fine too. I've seen the photos of the AMC boards on DX and it looks like modes are controlled by a single 8 pin IC with and additional 2 resistors. There's also a cap, but I think that might be the 1uF filtering cap for the AMC's. I tried to google the numbers on the DX chip, but didn't find a datasheet or a supplier.

Thanks.

2

it might, try a piece of the frosted scotch tape and you'll have a good idea if it is worth buying a lens.

as for the drivers, this might help

http://flashlightwiki.com/AVR_Drivers

3

Great, thanks for the help. That looks exactly like the IC on the DX boards. I did not expect it to be programmable. That adds a little more difficulty, but might actually be better in the end since there's less components. I'll continue to look into it.

4

I'm just starting to also.

btw, I bought a set of those but just robbed some parts from them. nice job modding one. try an xre, in one, you might like it more...

5

Cool, I thought these might have been too cheap even for the budget forum. :P

The XR-E is worth a try. It would be interesting to see how it works with a more narrow viewing angle. Maybe it will make up for the lower efficiency?

6

yes, i think you'll be surprised, that lens is kind of low diameter for an xml

too budget? I took the tailcap off the black one and put it on an autozone 1xAA light w/ side switch - it cost $2.50 :)

the switches and lenses were worth the $7 imo