DIY parts and problems. Economics/difficulty of modding

Lick · 2018-06-27T04:16:40.000Z

I'm not sure how to ask this, but I feel that this is a problem that I noticed when I was doing DIY. It seems that there are very little resources for DIY in terms of drivers and of host parts.

In terms of drivers, I noticed that if you want to get something beyond a 17mm linear 7135 driver, it is severely lacking. If you want a small driver, you would be better off getting a flashlight with the driver in it and taking it from there since there are simply almost no options for getting such parts. Aliexpress has very little in terms of unique drivers, and the ones that I see on kaidomain honestly suck. Heres an example. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Flashlight-led-Driver-17mm-Cree-XM-L-XM-L2-XP-L-1-Mode-3v-12v-Circuit/32741486221.html It seems the only way to get decent driver is to buy the parts yourself and get a PCB to solder them onto, but its a lot more involved. There are no good options for DIY AA/AAA from what I see. Thanks to great members like ToyKeeper and the cost of flashing clips, there are plenty of options for flashing linear drivers.

In terms of hosts, they never sell the head of the light only, they will sell hosts, tails, and battery tubes, but never the head of the lights. I'm a bit disappointed at this, since sometimes I don't need more parts and at that point the hosts will cost nearly as much as the flashlight itself or more in some cases so I just get a new flashlight anyway. There are also very little cheap hosts of good quality. If you want AAA, you're going to see a crapload of terrible lights on ali and decent ones are not much cheaper than ones that don't need modding, so there is very little incentive to buy them. It just seems not worth it to buy them. So far I've just looked at clones of decent lights and buy those instead since the other offerings are terrible hosts with terrible drivers and terrible LEDs for just a little less.

Can anyone prove me wrong? I'd love to be wrong! A lot of modding or making lights seems to be more of craft of love than anything else. Is it all simply the economies of scale?

Firelight2 · 2018-06-27T07:43:25.000Z

Goto Mountain Electronics . They have a great selection of flashlight drivers in various sizes down to 10mm.

FPV · 2018-06-27T09:24:46.000Z

Parts of a product combined (+ shipping) pretty much always cost more than a finished product. Just look at car parts, the sum of all parts is more than a regular car (with good lease or discount).
A low cost product like a flashlight is cheaper assembled - I was planning on building my own quad mini flooder and the parts were way more expensive than just buying the D4 on intl outdoor (especially now since they are on sale as well).

CRX · 2018-06-27T09:53:12.000Z

It’s certainly a labor of love

Lick · 2018-06-27T19:10:58.000Z

Firelight2:

Goto “Mountain Electronics”:http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=67 . They have a great selection of flashlight drivers in various sizes down to 10mm.

Aside from their tool pulls, the drivers are pretty expensive, and they're all for high drain batteries. They don't have a single driver with moonlight that works on AAA/AA.

Lick · 2018-06-27T19:12:41.000Z

Any reason you wanted a D4 instead of the astrolux s41? I heard so many problems with the D4, although the ramping UI looks good.

FPV · 2018-06-27T19:29:34.000Z

I wanted the D4 because I purchased the S42 - it has the worst light UI I ever laid my hands on. The build quality itself is fine though. Therefore I was hoping the Emisar D4 is a better solution in a similar price range. Maybe I should look for other lights or really build my own, already have a Noctigon 4x and would only need the host. I build my own drivers now and have plenty.

Lick · 2018-06-27T21:22:51.000Z

I heard the S41 has none of those problems. Did you swap the host on the S42?

I suggest an E2L https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/JAXMAN-E2L-HOST-for-BLF-DIYers-without-driver-not-a-compeleted-flashlight-Only-Parts/1812094_32798763548.html It says it can't be delivered to the US for some reason http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=831

You will bypass the need of a spacer like you need for a S2+ and be able to swap lens much easier.

The convoy M2 might be a good host too. https://www.fasttech.com/product/1277300-convoy-m2-diy-edc-led-flashlight-host

Firelight2 · 2018-06-27T22:47:43.000Z

Lick:

Firelight2:

Goto Mountain Electronics . They have a great selection of flashlight drivers in various sizes down to 10mm.

Aside from their tool pulls, the drivers are pretty expensive, and they’re all for high drain batteries. They don’t have a single driver with moonlight that works on AAA/AA.

Ah… that’s because us flashaholics are lumen fanatics and tend to go for maximum loomins!!! We want to take the budget light we just bought for $5 and add $50 worth of parts while increasing the output 10x. :smiling_imp:

Much less demand for a low-powered 1xAAA driver with moonlight. :weary:

Your best bet for getting a small 1xAAA boost driver with moonlight is probably to start a thread on this forum or start sending whispers to some of the modders who make and flash their own drivers. Maybe you hire one of them to make you a custom driver with your choice of modes.

Lick · 2018-06-28T04:55:45.000Z

Yeah I like the 18650 lights but I don't use them as often. For modding I'll probably stick to the larger lights but I just have some small lights I'd like to give away as gifts.

I'll probably just end up buying an astrolux a01 or thrunite ti3 for a small light with moonlight. I have clips coming in so I should be able to program larger lights soon anyway.