Classic Review and Modification: POP lite P632 steel TIR zoomy ★★★★★

[Fritz_t_Cat]

This is a light that is cheap at $42.97, with shipping. It is one of maybe three lights that I paid that sort of price for, not including mod. parts. Since it is beautiful and there is nothing else like it, it would be worth much more than that to one who wanted it and could afford it. Precise artistic smooth curves in stainless steel are hard to find at any price, and this is also a sophisticated two zone total internal reflection (TIR) zoomy that can put nearly all the LED’s light into the throw, and also has good flood. And it is uncommon, at least outside China.
My first one is from 39.87€ |Waterproof Rechargeable & Adjustable Focus High quality Stainless steel LED Flashlight P632|flashlight holster|flashlight fingerflashlight holder - AliExpress, but it is no longer available there. It is also listed here Loading... for US$38.96. I now (June 2016) have a second one from there, the first thing I have gotten from that store. The first thing I ordered from them turned out to be out of stock, so I emailed an inquiry before ordering this.

Commercial pictures, click for Web page:

More of my pictures, click for full size:

We know that this is an old design, because it has an XR-E and because it is still called a POP lite and not a Fitech. (There is a Datsun owner’s club in California.) POP lites of this sort have great detail similarity to LED Lensers, so much so that I think they must come from the same factory. This light has a Chinese users manual. Apparently POP lite was the Chinese branch of Lenser, somewhat like Coast is the American branch or licensee. The prices of Lenser and POP lights are also similar in the world market, though the Lensers of production intended to sell in less price sensitive countries are at least twice that expensive.
The POP lite T62 http://www.dx.com/p/158619 is another one that takes a single 18650 cell and has an XR-E on a post. It is cheaper and slimmer. But it is not stainless steel, and I don’t like the way the charging port was done.
The P632 was derived from the 3xAAA P32. They share the same battery tube diameter, which is wider than usual for 18650 lights. Some parts, including the hole tail cap assembly are interchangeable. The difference in length is less than the difference in battery length, because the pill is shorter. The similarity must have reduced tooling cost. The Coast Cutlery COA-19247 A25 appears to be derived from the POP lite P31, rather than from the P32. It must not actually share any parts with the P31, because it is 4xAAA instead of 3xAAA.

Here is a comparison with a well regarded slimmer light, in bare aluminum for a more direct comparison:

The POP is clearly a much more careful job, both in the design and in the execution. The aluminum is shinier but it won’t stay that way with wear. The A6 is all longitudinal and radial cuts, while the POP has compound S curves. It isn’t yet like hand thrown pottery, but it is like better developed industrial products. And the detail is much finer, even though the stainless steel is harder to machine.

Inside

Click for full size:

The LED is held down by a plastic cap and star screws, as usual for these lights. The pill screws onto the front of the battery tube and carries the single slide o-ring. The XR-E sits directly on the pillar, which is an upwards extension of the pill. The driver has a button that contacts the battery holder positive. The driver is held in by a (stainless?) steel plate that screws into the pill on the same threads as the battery tube. It has no holes or notches, but came out easily with snap ring pliers. The 22 mm. driver board fits loosely in a shallow space in the pill. Three lumps of solder on the back of the driver contact the plate, which contacts the negative battery holder caps.

This one has thermal compound between the pill and the LED. (I had an LED Lenser P7.2 with no thermal compound.)

Strangely, the single cell 18650 rides in a battery holder like those of the multi-cell Lensers. The switch is a simple forward clicky. The battery tube diameter seems to be shared with a 3 x AAA design (P32), but it is also very long, maybe needed to accommodate the battery holder design. The tube does not carry current (Would its resistance be too high?) The contacts on top of the battery holder are sprung gold platted caps. There are three negative and one positive contacts. The spring travel is only a millimeter or two.

It is not clear to me whether the battery holder design has any reliability advantage to compensate for it cost, complexity and volume, or whether it is simply a carry over from the multi-cell designs.

Pros:

• Beautifully machined stainless steel, even the switch cap.

• The same two zone Fresnel-like optics as LED Lenser: Most of the light goes into the throw.

• Good zoom capability.

• Well driven LED. I measured 0.9 A with a cheap multi-meter.

• Direct thermal path: no insulating layer between the LED and the pill.

• Unusual design, inside and out.

• Nice three modes plus slow blink, starting in high, forward clicky. Modes are set before the switch is clicked to stay on.

• Straight forward to mod. The LED and driver are screwed in place. The only complication of an LED update is filing down the pillar on which the LED sits, to make room for a (direct thermal) star.

• The included 18650 really holds about 2.2 Ah of charge, as marked.

• On consideration, I count the overall shape also as a plus. It is a German Modern shape, pleasant to hold and to look at, but it is not a Yezl T9 or an SS-5039.

Cons:

• Not really a budget light. They are sometimes listed for around $100.

• The battery tube is very large for the size of the cell.

• Little old XR-E LED.

• It has a budget type driver regulated only by resistors, and a shallow pill limits the choices for driver upgrades.

★★★★★

Conclusion
The optics partly makes up for the small LED, and it gives a run time / brightness in throw combination that can’t be equaled with any single zone optics. Some fixed TIRs are also two zone, but they do not provide zoom. What sets it apart from its TIR zoomy relatives is the smooth shiny stainless steel exterior, and especially the whole tail cap and the S curve of the bezel. My CNQ host with Nichia is brighter and smaller and just as well made, but the POP is prettier and will stay that way with hard use. The aluminum with fins dissipates heat better, so the trade off will not disappear when the POP is modified.

[Fritz_t_Cat]

Modification notes

The mounting of the LED is similar to that of a T62 and other older POP Lites and Lensers. I would like a Nichia 219C driven by about 8 x 7135, as the stainless steel and light construction won’t dissipate more heat than that. But the pill is too shallow to fit a Qlite type Nanjg 105C on an adapter board or ring. So I ordered a 22mm A22-7135 (22mm 7135) v022 OSH Park ~. It looks like that BLF driver will fit with 8 x 7135 on one side, but I am proceeding without it. I am filing down a Noctigon to fit a Nichia onto the pillar sticking up from the pill.

Nichia 219C LED swap

Filed down star, up side down in pressure cap. Some of the insulating layers is scraped off to expose more copper for the leads.

Here is the under side of the pill.

It has the same budget type FET and resistor driver as the T62. I might fill the Q2 slot, using a transistor off another FET and resistor driver, as I did with the T62. Since the Nichia has low forward voltage, and the Q2 spot is still empty, I will start with the resistors and thin wires still in the circuit, this time. I am hoping I can replace the whole driver later.

I am guessing that if I take 1.6 mm. off the pillar, to make up for the Noctigon thickness, it will focus about right. The focus also depends on the LED substrate thickness and the dome. My T62 has more than 1.6 mm. of o-rings under the bezel. I filed down the pillar of the Lenser P14: Classic Review: LED Lenser P14 TIR zoomy.

As with the P14, spacers are required under the pressure cap. The hand filed pillar seems nice and flat.

CNQ Host on left (Q Lite with 12 x 7135, mode 3 of 4), P632 with Nichia and stock driver on right (high).
Both have Nichia 219C, 80CRI, 4000K (Cutter-NVSL219C-20-E5).

The TIR optical zone around the convex lens helps the tint, as well as increasing the total output. (The wall is a bit pink.)

POP Lite T62 with dedomed XP-E2 on left, P632 on right.

The difference in spot size is probably mostly due to the XP-E2 being dedomed. The apertures are about the same size. Unscrewing the bezel to change the focus doesn’t make much difference to the spot size, my guess was about right. The greater total output must be due to the lower resistance of the Nichia.
Maybe they used a better FET, the modes change normally.

Half populated, BLF 22mm 16x 7135 driver, by wight (Alex Wells)

The back of the driver will have solid copper wires for the negative contact to the retainer plate, like the lumps of solder on the original driver. This will keep the plate from contacting other traces on the driver back. The center hole of the plate needs to be cut bigger to clear the components on the back. The center will get a brass pill.
The driver thread is: 22mm 16x 7135 driver for F13 flashlights - [released].

Driver contact plate trimmed for small components:

Driver, one side populated with controller and 7135s:

Driver back side with brass button and solid wire contacts. Small components still to assemble:

Small components on:

I shorted across the otc pads to ground pin 2, to imitate star # 4 on the Qlite. After fixing a bridge between one of the connection plate wires and the 7135 output pad (lower right above), it works, on the bench! Too bad my soldering isn’t neat like the machining of the stainless steel host.
In addition to four wires, away from the components, a connection is needed to supply a ground, across the two center pads for the missing 7135 next to R2. wight used the center bus of the 7135s to distribute ground. 8 x solid copper wire would be best because the 7135s were also part of the thermal design. But with half the power that won’t matter much.

Going back together:

Perhaps because of the thickness of the back contacts of the 7135s, the pressure plate won’t screw in all the way, which keeps the battery tube from screwing all the way into the pill.

Perhaps shortening the driver pressure plate threads and the battery holder would make it fit better and mechanically stronger.

CNQ with 12 x 7135 and Ahorton lens on left (mode 3 of 4), POP lite on right:

Modified POP lite T62 on left, POP lite P632 with Nichia and wight driver on right.

It seems not quite as bright as expected, but it is now regulated.

Here is the modified light, right, and the stock second example of the same type, left.

Left image: stock with protected Panasonic charged to 4.1 V, mod. with a POP included cell charged to 3.6V.
Right image: cells reversed.

[Firelight2]

Good luck with your mod!

FYI it’s not that hard to attach an LED post to any Noctigon. I tried it successfully with an earlier build. This method works great.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Take a sheet of copper and cut 4 small squares from it. These squares make up the “post” the LED will sit on. They will sit on top of the Noctigon and the LED will sit on them.
2. Tilt the squares sideways so the edges of the squares line up with their respective bondpads. The two center squares will be on the main heatsink pad. The two outer squares will serve as positive and negative contact.
3. The outer two squares must be insulated from the inner squares. I did this by applying a layer of Kapton tape with a thin layer of actic alumina adhesive. In retrospect I think the Kapton isn’t needed.
4. Once the post is fully assembled, test it with a multimeter to make sure the two outer squares are electrically insulated from the center square.
5. Place the post on the Noctigon with solder paste on the top and bottom edges. Reflow the entire package (star + post + LED) just as if you are doing a normal reflow.
6. It may take some trial and error, but you can change the height of the post by using different length squares or rectangles.

The beauty of this method:

1. Turns any Noctigon into a post-mount suitable for an LED Lenser TIR optic.
2. No need to file the Noctigon down to fit a tiny stock post.
3. All copper contacts so heat transmission is excellent.
4. Post can be made any height.
5. Absolutely nothing overhangs the LED.

Downside:

1. Since the light you have already comes with a post, you’d have to file or saw that off first. My method works better for converting lights that don’t come with posts.
2. Removing the LED from the post during reflow can be difficult if the post lifts off the board before the LED lifts off the post. Solve by holding the post in place with second hands or tweezers, or gluing it to the star with arctic alumina.

[Fritz_t_Cat]

Thanks Fire. Since I am better at filing than at reflow soldering, I am doing it the same way I did the T62 P14. I’ll remember your method if I try to convert a zoomy to TIR optics some time. Some Carclo and other TIR optics has a convex lens center part like the Lensers, but the tunnels are usually too small to fit the LED into.

[Fritz_t_Cat]

I feel like this were Motor Magazine and I had owned the same Riley for 50 years. Things develop faster here, so an XR-E is like using low tension ignition.

[Fritz_t_Cat]

We already know that:
The POP lite diving flashlights are now branded Fitech.
There are old lights with both LED Lenser and Coast on them or their packaging.
Lenser POP and Coast share the same optics and many other features.
There do not seem to be any new non-dive POP lights or Fitechs.
POP lite has claimed to have large manufacturing facilities — China LED Flashlights Manufacturer, LED Light, LED Torches Supplier - Yangdong POP Lite Gift Industrial Limited.

Now I find https://panjiva.com/Yangdong-Fitech-Technology-Ltd/24949900, which says that the largest customer of Yangdong Fitech Technology Ltd. is Coast Cutlery Co.

This all supports the notion that Fitech/POP manufactures some or all Coast and Lenser flashlights, as well as dive lights under the Fitech brand. Apparently the old POP lite non-diving production is now marketed as Lenser and Coast.

Apparently, they do still make stainless steel lights.