Thanks. These were what I thought. I can take always out the ring hold the LED (by destroying it ) and put a new one in if I really want to replace the LED. I probably wonāt use the charging port as you said. I am afraid to damage the battery also.
Thanks anyway.
Im going to try to pry out that led because it is simply pathetic. If i destroy the light it will be for science.
I did something like that before on SK68 clones. You wonāt destroy the LED. The only difficulty is to find a good way to put the retaining ring back or put a new one in to secure the LED nicely.
Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread already:
UltraFire branded SK98 - $4.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sk98-Adjustable-Focus-Zoom-Cree-Xml-t6-Led-Waterproof-Flashlight-Torch-3-modes-/171986549926
Claims to be an XM-L T6, from a US-based seller. Not sure what to expect; hollow pill and LB-tastic cool-blue emitter? Iāll let you know in a few days!
Oneās on the way. Hate to be looking for the Q5, but I have a little zoomie in this price range that has a Q5 and is actually pretty good. Iām thinking better than LB, but I havenāt tried LB yet, I donāt think. Plus with the solid pill, it would be worth dropping a better emitter in.
Definitely let us know! I like the 68āS and 98ās
Maybe you could push out the led together with the silver disc from the backside. Usually the driver is only press-fitted too and can be easily removed. If itās a hollow pill, take a screwdriver or similar and knock the LED towards the top to remove it. On my cheapos the ācharging portā is directly connected to the cell. Donāt expect any charging controller or circuit. Very dangerous! The āchargersā that come with these lights are in the best case power adapters with 4.2V output, I got 5V adapters too, charging the cell to neverland.
I took out the retaining disk already by drilling a small hope on the side then pried it out. The disk damaged a little bit. However, through the lens on the front, it is hardly noticeable after putting back.
The LED is marked as an LB. By replacing it with an XP-G2 R5 that I bought from FT, the (LED) lumens increased from about 140 to 200 with 3 AAA (at 400mA). With 18650 it increased from about 220 to 500 (at 1A). All these numbers are from an uncalibrated IS, so only their relative values may be more meaningful.
Won auction for $3.84.
Half the brightness of my preon2. Very blue. Good build quality. Nice threading. Fits preon2 threads. Fits maratackAAA threads. Will drop a better emitter in there.
Check out this little Olight i3S clone for $3.69
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Mini-1000Lm-CREE-R5-LED-Flashlight-Pocket-Keychain-Handy-Lamp-Torch-Gold-US-/161867913789?hash=item25b0145a3d:g:LfUAAOSw~bFWKacD
Besides the knurling on the head, and i suspect a little smaller reflector & only 1 mode driver, it looks very similar.
I am betting they are using the same pill design, so if they are crap i hope to be able to reuse the pill for my i3S.
the black one is even cheaper.
Received this light on Friday; I think itās worth $4.99, but it did not fail to meet my expectationsā¦ Iāve never had a SK98 before, so:
(Iām at a site thatās blocking photo-sharing sites today, so no pics)
Hollow Pill? Check! (Only itās not bad; it still has a wide/thick base for the emitter to rest on. No thermal compound though.)
LB-tastic cool blue emitter? CHECK! (Different than the other LB emitters Iāve seen; this was an obvious XM-L clone, but obviously not original Cree. All the hallmarks: white substrate, smooth green surface, smaller die size, but unlike my other LB XM-clones, this had phosphor āoversprayā extending off the sides of the die under the dome.)
Light also had dry threads (easily fixed) and a stiff negative-contact on the tailcap that needed attention. The light has a threaded in switch retaining ring, so the switch can be removed/cleaned/adjusted/replaced if needed. It uses a 20mm PCB and 20mm driver. Retaining ring is the standard aluminum bronze-colored plate Iāve seen on other cheap zoomies. I like this light more than the smaller SK-68. The light is larger, but still compact. The scaled-up size makes the tailcap easier to remove as well. Iām still not a fan of the design, as the aggressive cut-out in the body combined with the pocket clip lessens the viability for pocket carry. I prefer a pocket-sized EDC to have a smoother profileā¦
Needless to say, this light didnāt stay default for long. After I checked the awful tint of the emitter, I immediately stripped the pill of the offending counterfeit LED and the factory driver. The emitter was quickly replaced with a surplus XP-L HI, and the driver replaced with a Nanjg 105d 105e I had in my parts box. I then filled the pill with JB-Weld to help improve heatsinking due to the cutout in the pill. Finally, I was able to modify the large OD XM-sized centering ring to fit the XP-sized emitter (and am fairly proud of how that turned outā¦ :bigsmile: )
I started with the original centering ring and bored it out with rotary tool until I could press-fit the OD of a FT-purchased XP-to-XM centering ring into the center. I then sanded the base of the inner ring down until it was nearly flush with the outer ring. Finally, I used the rotary tool to bore out the ID of the inner ring until it was the right diameter to fit around the XP-sized die.
(Iāll need to take some pictures of this process to post; it worked out very well and Iāll probably use this technique again on a couple of my other lights.)
As a last step; I spray painted both the aluminum retaining plate and the centering ring flat black to eliminate rings in the output.
Now itās a much more viable light; 2.8A high from the de-domed emitters gives a nice W-I-D-E flood that lights up an entire room, while zooming into throw turns it into a fair lightsaber.
Look for more about the fate of this light soonā¦
Interesting and thanks for providing the details.
Is your 105D 17mm? How do you fit it in the 20mm pill? (Sorry if you already said and I missed.:laughing:
Also, at 2.8A, will it get too hot?
Sorry about thatā¦ I meant to say the 105E; thatās the 20mm variant.
http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023811
Thanks. Any overheat problem?
None that I can tell. Iāve left it running while tailstanding for several minutes on high with the lens removed specifically to let it heat up to help flash any remaining volatiles left from the spray paint. It gets nicely warm and doesnāt seem to overheat the emitter.
Thanks. Thatās nice to know. I have one here also just waiting for a 17mm to 20mm adapter so I can use my existing 105c driver.
Sounds good, been wondering, can you just put a new emitter on the LB star, or do you have to replace the star, too? Looking forward to hearing more.
I cut out a circle from many layers of tinfoil and used that as a heat sink. Not sure how much it helps, but I think it helps some. Really like these.
I think you have to replace it. Thereās no way you can put the new LED star on top of the old one.
You can re-use the LB star if you wish, but itās just a cheap and thin aluminum PCB. No need to reflow onto this board unless you donāt have a spare on hand. The LB emitters have the same base sizes as the emitters they copy, so they are just standard Cree-sized PCBs.
In the case of my SK98, I had to replace the PCB as I was going from an XM-sized emitter to the smaller XP-sized platform.