The black one on the right above is how the light started out. There are many mouse-overs here to save space.
Decided to mod this light because I need to make a non-lithium, multi-emitter light for a gift and was inspired by Old-Lumens build here. It's not near as nice as his as I didn't have the the same type of materials or skills. Also, I needed to spend as little as possible by using scraps and leftovers as much as possible. This light is going to a non-flashaholic.
Eneloops are a snug fit. Almost too snug. 26650's fit nicely with no modification due to a cup inside the tail cap. Spring compresses well for it.
Here are some of the parts I fabbed for the build. Discs were cut from .021" copper sheet. I used 2 additional disks for the top of the pill. They were sanded flat and soldered together with silver bearing solder. Below is just one disk before sanding. The pill is thick to increase run time on high.
Lined walls in head and top of battery tube to help move heat to the tube as fast as possible. Not as good as a solid copper pill, but this is a true budget build. Work great. You can feel the heat moving nicely.
Added 6 more chips to the 2.8 amp Nanjg 105C. Used wire to hold them together. I just have fried a couple of them because I am only getting 4.3+ amps to the emitter and at the tail.
Used a 1/2" coupling to hold driver. Fits over 1/2" copper pipe piece attached to driver. Allows future easy access.
Used copper around TIR to help move heat faster from pill. Didn't bother focusing. TIR rest directly on the emitter bases. Since emitter will only be driven around 1.5 amps each, I used those copper bases from FT. Gouged a thin line to the base in the center of the thermal pads to give some direct path.
Cell holder has terrible springs. Fabbed connectors/holders from .021" copper sheet.
The beam has a little throw, but mostly flood. Has some artifacts. Guessing around 10kcd. Will measure soon.
Runs around 5 minutes tail standing at room temperature before it starts getting uncomfortable to pick up.