Crelant 7G5 driver&emitter swap: Success, finally!!

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

EDIT 16/12/12: disassembly with pics start on post # 3

EDIT 27/01/13: driver swap mod and upgraded emitter, post #13

Original post:

Reached the point I hate the stock driver so much, I need to find a way to swap it with something that has NO strobo and, possibly, have decent modes and memory.

Problem one, disassembling: the big hex portion that houses the pill looks hard to disassemble without breaking anything. Any experience in opening this? The plastic centering ring is completely pushed inside and offers no gaps, holes or edges to leverage it out. Would like to not destroy it in the process...

Second: any suggestion on driver? Must be multi-cell capable so that rules the nanjg105 out, and that is the only driver I have experience on. Would like similar modes and spacing.

Help please?

2

Nobody?

Really?

I can't believe nobody has disassembled or modded a 7G5 'till now!...

3

Looks like it! Try disassemble it as far as you can, then take pics. Hopefully someone with expertise may be able to help you out.

4

Well, finally had to bite the bullet and start the real disassembly of the pill portion.

Have to say this was real PITA, especially when you do it on a perfectly working flashlight.

The plastic disc holding the emitter is pressed deeper than the alu edge of the pill, so cannot be just leveraged out. Drilled three small equally spaced holes in the external corona portion, drilling only the plastic (you feel when the drill bit hits the alu underneat)

From there, with a thin needleplier, carefully leveraging one hole at a time, the disc came out unscated and perfectly reusable.

The main disc has a big round hole, and a smaller plastic centering ring is actually holding the emitter. This small centering ring is easily removed by finger after the main disc is removed.

The emitter is then accessible for desoldering the wires and removal. There is thermal grease under it, grey colour. The alu under the emitter is thinner than I thought, about 2mm only. It's part of the body, so thermal path is direct. Anyway it's clear that the heat will reach the hex shaped body part, which has no fins. The fins that are milled on the head will not help that much, IMHO.

After removing the emitter, I was able to use a small flat screwdriver through the two wires holes, to carefully push the driver holder out. The screwdriver blade must push on the very external edge of the holder, to push on the brass and not on the driver pcb. After some hammer taps the holder came out.

Here ends the easy part of the disassembly.

Close up of the driver, if anybody knows what it is and how it works.

Desoldered the two big blobs of tin, I was hoping the pcb could be just pulled/leveraged out.

Not that easy. The damn thing is potted with something that looks like hard silicone, and leveraging the pcb out had as a result that the coil on the inside was ripped from the board.

So the driver is now dead.

I wanted to swap it anyway, but I would have liked to keep it insteda of destroing. Too late...

The pics show the brass holder and the driver after removing all the nasty potting stuff.

The driver diameter is 19mm, and the holder has quite a lot of space inside (7mm height inside)

Now I need to find a new driver.

Please help me find a driver, something that at least three levels (hi-mid-low), no blinkies, push at least 3A to the emitter and works preferably with 2-3 cells, but also 2 cells only is ok, as I usually have it with 2 18500 cells and never used with 3 123A.

5

this is very close to your specs

i’m thinking of getting one to see if I can mod it to higher current for 7g5v2

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/ld29-28a-12-cell-circuit-board-p-416.html

6

A modified 20mm driver would work! Good luck and thanks for the pics.

Maybe a U3 xml also! Might need to measure the mcpcb thickness if you replace the led so that the focus wont change.

Edited

7

Damn...

Finding a suitable driver is harder than I thought...

The one suggested above by Dthrckt (thanks!) is the only one which has suitable size and voltage, but 2,8A only... I'd like some more current

This one instead is sold out at I.O. but specs would be perfect! Wonder if it's out of production or if it's available on request or somewhere else...

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/xml-multicell-circuit-board-35a-ouput-55126v-p-543.html

I will try dropping a mail to Hank to see if he can do something...

8

http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1481
but you lose 1 cell capability, and probably still not enough current

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1699/10001998/1143104-2-3-lithium-5-mode-3a-led-flashlight-driver
same but better price?

this one would be great, since i’m looking to do the same but w/ xm-l soldered to copper heatsink
http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S020121

BUT, I emailed kaidomain and they’re no longer offering customized driver (unless ordering 500pcs) w/ no low voltage protection (for single cell use)

9

Uhm, nice! The Cnqg one has 3A and 3 modes Hi-med-low. I like it, who knows if has memory or not?

The one from KD? Did you maybe paste the wrong link? it's 24mm diameter (too large for 7G5 body, unless you're really good with lathe). This one is available, which one you said was customized and not available anymore?

10

in the question section for the kd driver someone (that i think is a member here) asked if they would make them w/o low voltage protection. they said yes. when I asked them, they said yes but minimum 500pcs

i’m not too bad on a lathe, but unfortunately I don’t have access to one.

my calipers are still packed from moving, but I set a quarter on the bottom of the pill and they’re very close to the same diameter.

my thinking is:
-desolder/remove upper board from lower
-solder the brass ring to the lower board
-shave upper board enough to fit in the pill
-reconnect boards and insert

a few obstacles:
-the raised portion on the inside of the brass ring might have to be shortened, so that the boards can get close enough to reconnect them
-the two boards might have connections other than the posts, which could be difficult to disconnect/reconnect
-the posts might carry current and might contact inner edge of brass ring, causing a short

potential benefit - being able to see the chip on the board and figure out if it can be reprogrammed or not

since I can’t find a driver that is at least 3.5 amps with both single and dual cells, I need to decide whether to attempt this driver or just go w/ a nanjg and about 14x7135

11

Hank at I.O. is great!

I asked him about future availability of the 3,5A driver and he immediately updated the availability!

Ordered!

This is a great driver in 19mm, multi-cell and 3,5A high, no blinkies, and also has thermal management.

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/xml-multicell-circuit-board-35a-ouput-55126v-p-543.html

Order while they last

12

Hi Rockspider, I replaced my 7g5v2 driver with that 3,5 A one from intl-outdoor a few months back. It’s a pretty good driver, my only issue with it is that there’s a pretty audible whine on the low modes. It’s also quite tall, it barely fit in the pill on the v2.
It would seem though that there is more room on the v1 for the driver, just by looking at the pictures.
On the plus side there’s no blinkies and it sure puts some amps on the led. I measured 1,75 A at the tailcap with freshly charged cells. My v2 is pretty bright now :slight_smile:

13

Thanks for the positive comment JH

Whine is not a problem, this is a flashlight that gets used outdoor, so the low mode whine shouldn't be really audible in open outdoor, or at least I hope so!

For the height, that is my little concern too. In the worst scenario I'll have to keep the brass pill not completely pressed in, maybe with some alu spacer ring... will have to see from real to evaluate.

Good thing you measured 1,75A, that means the claimed 3,5A to the emitter is real!

Now for me it's waiting time. Hank just sent me an email with tracking, shipped yesterday.

It'll be a full month to arrive here (5 days to arrive to Italian Custom, and another 3 weeks to clear the Customs... )

Will keep the thread updated as soon as I have it here!

14

Yesterday a package from I.O. arrived, a lot of goodies and all the parts needed to complete the 7G5 upgrade:

The 3,5A driver, a new U3 1C emitter, some shims and o-rings, thermal paste.

I'm used to the Nanjg drivers, but this one with the two boards and the big inductance coil is definitely a big one!

It's immediately clear that the driver cannot just go in the same place the old one was, it's too high. But I got a plan.

The stock driver was seated on the upper lip of a big brass pill, which in turn was pressed in the alu flashlight body. The brass pill is 10mm high, the seat in the head for the pill is 14,8mm deep. The new driver, after removing the large secondary board (it's only for the + side spring) is 14,5mm high.

Now if I shorten the brass pill and cut a new lip in it to seat the new driver much lower than stock, it should fit just right.

After some careful working with the faithfull Dremel, the brass pill is cutted 5mm high, and a new lip cutted on the inside to seat the new 19mm diameter board.

The pics show the stock pill and after the shortening. Note the relieved inner lip. That was the hardest to do with just a handheld Dremel, but the fit of the new driver board is perfect.

Pressing the new modded pill back in the head was easy, with help of a 1/2" socket and a soft hammer.

It's not clearly visible, but note in the black wire hole how close the coil is to the emitter mounting plate

The nice touch is that the brass pill still looks perfectly stock from outside, with the original Crelant spring plate.

Then the new XM-L U3 1C emitter is installed and perfectly centered thanks to the stock plastic centering holder.

The rest of the reassembly is pretty straightforward.

I like the 7G5 in the shortest configuration available, with 2x IMR18490.

The only complaint (my fault) is some dust particles found their way to the reflector. Will try to clean with a compressed air can (for electronic cleaning) but the can is empty, have to buy a new one. Ok, no big deal.

Time to hit the switch: Geez, it works! was a bit scared, I admit it...

Driver is great, the 3 modes are perfectly spaced, low is actually lower than the well known Nanjg105, med is bright and very usefull, and high is... HIGH! A nice tight hotspot, very very bright, and nice tint too. More neutral than stock.

Memory sets in very quickly, it's very handy.

PWM on low and med has an audible whine, but thanks to the very high freq 3.9KHz it's not noticeable to the eye.

Measured Amp: High 1.74A (aestimate 3.48A at the emitter), Med 0.54A, Low 0.05A

Testing in comparison with other lights I had compared with before, the output is higher.

Hotspot was smaller and brighter than HD2010 even before, but now it makes you wonder if "maybe" the 2010 was on med instead of high, so much is the difference!

As expected, it's still below the TN-31 XM-L2, but hotspot size is similar.

Have no instruments for light measurement, but given the Amp draw and the figures for the U3 emitter, the otf lumen output could well be somewhere 1000lm

I'm very happy for these results, and my 7G5 has become a very usable flashlight!

Gone are the days of random level selection and strobe kicking in every now and then.

Now this is a flashlight with great modes, throw and output, going to make me smile when I hit the switch

Note: english is not my own language, so I apologize for any grammar mistake...

15

Looks good Rockspider, I got very similar results in my v2. If I remember correctly the driver went inside the brass part of the pill on the v2. So I didn’t have to cut a lip for it or shorten it. You did a good job on that though, looks like a stock part.
Yeah the whine on low mode can be irritating indoors, you don’t really notice it outside. With the U3 you put in that thing is gonna throw FAR. My v2 throws almost as good as my BTU (neutral) with the stock emitter it came with. I’m gonna put an XM-L2 in it when I can get one at a reasonable price.

16

With an XM-L2 it could be a contender to TN-31 then! Yeah I'll be keeping an eye to the prices of those emitters too...

Anyway today evening I tried it in a park here nearby, I know from Google Earth from the road to the big buildings across the park it's 430m, and there's road lighting, so not at all in complete darkness. The building was lighted up with authority, not just a shade of light. I was impressed.

Outdoor the whines are not audible at all, so that's not a concern.