Coast HP1 Upgrade

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hello peoples! Last night I finished a project I was putting together for some time. Working on parts of it as they came in the mail.

First, lets start with the subject of this mod, the HP1, that I bought on Amazon for 9.99 with free shipping (for orders over $35):

The light is very solid and well built. Anodizing is good, and the threads operate fairly smoothly. But even on a 14500, there’s one thing it can definitely be. Brighter. However, that’s not going to happen much with the XP-E that was in it.

Taking the head apart, we can see Coast’s pillar design, with the led mounted on top. This light did have threadlock around the pill, but I managed to break it by holding the light in one hand, clamping pliers down on the pillar in the other, and twisting.

I will not be using this design, so it has to go.

There we go, much better. I also drilled a hold in the middle part for wires to go through, but forgot to take a picture of that.

So for this, I needed a GOOD 20mm heatsink. I didn’t want to screw around with melting solder, and having a hollow piece of copper tubing, or anything like that. So after searching on ebay, I managed to find this:

1 x 8oz Solid Copper Bullion Rod Half 1/2 Pound lb Shell Round Bar

And oh yes, it’s heavy.

After much work with a hacksaw and my drill (snapped the cheap drillbit, but still used it to finish), I now have my heatsink. For anyone wanting to make one of these into a triple, I made the heatsink about 11mm thick. I would recommend 12mm, as I had to get creative with getting everything fitting tight as I will mention later.

I also bought some 0.2 x 100 x 500 mm copper sheet, and cut 2 strips to each go around the heatsink. When you “zoom” the light over the strips, it holds it snug, and will be like so:

Now that this is done, I can start installing my LED and driver. For the driver, I used the 15mm 5x7135 driver from Mountain Electronics. I had him add 5 additional 7135 chips, and flash the Star Off-Time firmware. Output is Moonlight - 2% - 25% - 100%

For the LED, I had to go with a triple. I didn’t have an EDC triple flashlight, so it had to be done. For fun, I decided to use 3 of the cool-white Samsung LEDs, and I reflowed them onto a Noctigon triple star, with the Carlco optics. The LEDs are 1.28 each shipped on ebay.

Ebay link for LEDs for those unfamiliar:

Samsung LED

I used Arctic Silver to attach the LED star to the heatsink, and then to attach the heatsink to the stock heatsink that I cut down. I now have a pretty clean, complete module.

After I screwed it back into the body, I put the strips of copper sheet around the heatsink, coated the outside of the sheets with Arctic silver, and pulled the flashlight head up over it. Forever bonded as far as I’m concerned.

The lens I used fit very well. It is a 20.8mm x 1.0mm Water White AR Coating Glass from Kaidomain.

I mentioned earlier that I made the heatsink a touch too short, even at the thick 11mm it is. So to make sure everything is held tight, I cut 2 20mm circles from a screen protector I had, and stuck them both to the Carlco optics. Problem solved. Do keep in mind, that in the head of this light, it is not designed to have the standard method of o-ring, and then lens. There really isn’t room for an o-ring before the lens, unless you have a very slim o-ring, which I did not.

Nevertheless, I am very happy with the results, and to see my project a success. Shot of the business end:

It settles at around 3.2A at the tailcap on high from a fresh red Efest 14500.

Thanks for checking it out, and for all the help you guys have given. If it weren’t for digging through the forums, looking at build threads and everything, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this.

——Update 6/10/2015——

Took some beamshots at the nearby bike trail tonight.

Control shot (Trees are probably 25-30 yards):

Moonlight (pointed at ground):

Low (pointed down, little farther up):

Medium (between ground and trees):

High:

For comparison, my BLF SE X6 with de-domed XM-L2 U4 1C. It’s actually only running at less than 3A since the driver is un-modded (for now):

Another of the BLF SE X6 much further away:

Control:

High:

2

Nice to know how you got it apart. I might want to put a bigger LED in mine some time. I think triple optics does improve performance, but it must be tricky to do with such a small light.
To me, the nice thing about that light is that it is the only cheap light available with lighthouse-like optics. What you did with it is very nice, but I would have started with a better shaped host.
How about beam shots?

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Actually not anymore.

I was at Orchard Supply Hardware a week ago and noticed they had several different no-name budget flashlights that were all sporting LED Lenser style optics. Cheapest was $9 and the most expensive was maybe $20.

I do agree that the Coast HP1 would make a much better host though. It’s better built than those OSH Cheapies, and much better sized for EDC.

To the original poster: Great job on the mod! Especially good work on the heatsink.

4

Nice work. A big chunk of copper is fun to drill through, isn’t it? :beer:

5

Very very nice work. One day I will get into the triples scene...

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I’ll try and take some beam shots sometime. There’s a lot of light pollution around my apartment so I might have to go to the bike trail nearby. I was originally going to make the light in a convoy host, but wanted to do something different. I personally like the shape, and it’s a solid light. It would definitely be an easier job without a zooming style light though.

Thanks! It was a new experience, that’s for sure lol. Since I was just doing it manually with a cheap drill bit, it seemed like I wasn’t drilling the copper out, but moving it to the top of the hole and fusing it there instead.

Thanks! The only other multi-LED light I have is the 3xXML2 FS-King I bought from OldLumens. That is a beast.

7

What kind of runtimes are you getting with this setup?

8

Took some tailcap measurements:

Moonlight - 0.01A
Low - 0.1A
Med - 0.82A
High - 3.4A (drops off to about 3.2A before settling)

I could probably do some modifications to the switch to pull more amps, but it gets hot FAST on high for obvious reasons so I won’t mess with it.

I have other lights with much better runtimes. On high, this light is just amusing for a 14500 cell. This was fun to make, and I imagine I’ll probably make another triple light in the future with an 18650 cell next time.

I’d mainly use it in low or medium.

9

So you’ve definitely fixed the low output. Heat and run time are what modes are for.

10

Exactly :slight_smile:

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Added beamshots in the original post. Enjoy!

12

Nice mod. Thanks for sharing.

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I ordered three pieces of Carclo optics to look at. like LED Lenser and Fresnel, they have a TIR outer ring around a converging lens. But Carclo has a flat front with a backward bulging lens, while Lenser has the lens bulge forward, like in a zoomy, and a steep cone around it, setting the lens back from the aperture. Fresnel used multiple reflectors and multiple lens zones, arranged not to shadow each other and to leave space to work on the lamp.
It seems the Carclo configuration with the convex side of the lens facing the LED might not work as well in a zoomy as the Lenser configuration does. Though they weren’t designed for zoomies, Fresnel’s lighthouse lens shapes would work well in zoomies. The cylinder space in the Carclo and other TIRs refracts the light out toward the reflecting surface. The hollow cone around the lens in the Lenser optics defocuses as the light leaves the device.
The clever thing about the modern designs is that they work with only two zones. But I don’t see any advantage to that, other than maybe looking prettier.

14

Thanks!

Uhhhhhhh ok….lol. Kind of have to use Carlco optics with a 20mm triple set up unless you want to make a lot more work for yourself with tiny reflectors. Although a triple with tiny reflectors, like in the SingFire AAA sounds pretty cool now that I think about it.

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I think the Carclo must get more light out, but I don’t know if it makes as tight a beam as a reflector the same size would.
How did you adjust the height? Different LEDs have different effective heights off the star. It must be a watchmaker’s job to get everything in the right place. I see Carclo has mounts for specific LEDs, but not all in stock at once. And how is it held together?

16

This guy I met on my walk liked my flashlight as well.

17

I just bought 2 of these HP1 flashlights and plan on doing some modding myself. Thanks for the reminder.

IMHO they are worth the price difference over the SK68s I see all too often. Right now you can get them for $8.50 on Amazon (if you have prime shipping).

18

Just swapped the LEDs for 3x Nichia 219C (Thanks Richard! :p)

Brightness increased somewhat, as “High” now draws 3.7A instead of 3.4A, but the tint is the biggest improvement.

19

Does it still have any zoom capability?

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Man, you really love coast lights, and the zoom lol. Not understanding the obsession honestly.

It’s a triple Carlco optic. There is no zoom. It sits right against the LEDs, and creates a uniform beam much nicer than the one that the original optics created with the XP-E LED. I put it up to an XM-L and it still looked bad to me, so I much prefer the triple. Was never planning on using the zoom lens in the first place.