Help me with SST-90 zoomie mod? Well, backed up, removed the SST-90, used XM-L2 instead.

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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Update 07-05-2015. Well, I decided to scrap the idea of running a SST-90 off 4X AAA cells. The Eneloops just couldn’t give the emitter enough power. I also was not going the route of Li-Ion cells, because I didn’t want to do that to my Father-In-Law. So, I had to back up and change the whole idea. I put a XM-L2 U3 emitter in it and called it a day. It looks pretty good, makes good light, and my Father-In-Law is pleased with it. If I were doing it for myself, I’m pretty sure I would have ended up modding the 4S AAA carrier to be 4P, in order to put 10440’s in it and get more power to the SST-90. But, hey, I consider this a success anyway. :slight_smile:

Update 06-17-2015. See post #7 below. I put a FET driver and a SST-90 in the zoomie, and it still needs some help. I just can’t get enough light out of it!

I have a Lux Pro Focus 630 zoomie that I bought from Lowe’s a while back. It runs on 4XAAA in a carrier and uses a XP-G2 on a cheap 20mm aluminum star. The XP-G2 is conservatively driven, and the zoom lens never brings it into focus. (despite the name of the flashlight, ahem!) However, the light is fairly well made and I think it would be a good mod host. The pill is large and thick, and screws into the shell which is also fairly thick. The pill has a solid shelf on which the star sits, that is over 3mm thick! The driver seems to be well made, is on a 19mm pcb, and sits in the hollow bottom of the pill, held in by a retaining ring.

I was going to upgrade to a MT-G2, since I just got four of them in the mail, which I bought on sale from Intl-outdoor.com. I think he still has some, if you’re interested. :wink: But, I’d bought two on 16mm Noctigons and two on 25mm Noctigons. I could make the 16mm fit, but don’t have any easy way to ensure it stays centered. I’d probably have to break down and buy a tap and die set, which I should do anyway. Also, the battery carrier configuration doesn’t really give me what I need power-wise. I could keep alkaline AAA’s and have exactly 6V, but no current. :Sp Or, I could re-work the carrier to 2S2P and use 10440’s (but I don’t have enough to fill the carrier, I’d have to buy more). I could use a piece of tubing and a couple 18350’s, but I don’t like leaving wasted space inside the battery tube. Also, there is another thing. I’m going to be giving this light to my Father-In-Law, who doesn’t know anything about Lithium cells and doesn’t own any cells or a charger.

So, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. I really wanted to use the MT-G2 for this. But, I just remembered that I have a couple of WW Luminus SST-90’s on 20mm stars that have been sitting around waiting to be used for something. I bought them way back near the beginning of last year, and one of them was supposed to become a projector bulb, but I decided that was too hard, and probably wouldn’t work out too well anyway. So, they’ve been sitting. The SST-90 is a ~3V 30W emitter. So, this is what I’ve got in mind. I was thinking of keeping the 4-cell carrier as-is and replacing the alkalines with Eneloop Pros I bought from ChibiM right before he quit selling them. I could buy my Father-In-Law a NimH cell charger from Wal-Mart and hook him up. The Eneloops have a nominal voltage of 1.2V and full charge voltage of 1.4V each. I could replace the driver with a Qlite with extra chips added for impressive output, and have it programmed with a turbo timer to protect my Father-In-Law’s fingers.

What do you think? Is the MT-G2 worth all the extra work to make it happen? Or, should I go with the SST-90 on this? What would be the best use of the space inside the battery tube if I go with MT-G2? I want this thing to have a great WOW! factor, but I also want to squeeze out as much run-time as possible. For Christmas, we got my Brother-In-Law a Courui D01. It has a very impressive throw, as most of you know. I’m hoping that even with the not-quite-complete focus of this zoomie, the extra lumens will let this be a pocket-rocket that would compete with the Courui when zoomed in. The Father-In-Law would like being able to out-shine his son, especially with a smaller light. :wink: Is this even possible, or am I dreaming?

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The MT-G2 is an array, so if you ever do get that lens focused on it, you’ll see tons of spots (18 I think?) in the beam made by the individual dies.

The SST-90 is one single chip, so i would say use it for that reason alone.

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Yeah, I was going to leave it not-quite-focused anyway. I don’t see my Father-In-Law as someone who could appreciate a clean die image, no matter how Purdy it is. He would just want it to be bright. :bigsmile:

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my SBT70 is much better in a zoomie/aspherical lens than a mt-g2 was .

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Yeah, I wish I could get a SBT-70! Those are very pretty! But, I wouldn’t waste it on my Father-In-Law. Not that he’s not worth it, but he wouldn’t appreciate the true beauty of it. Besides, I already have the other two emitters in question!

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yeah mouser only had 3 left when i bought mine. probably all gone now.

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I wanted to know how close I was, so I’d know how far I need to go with this light to even be a close runner to the Courui. So, I de-domed a XP-E2 on 20mm aluminum star and stuck it in with the stock driver. I loaded the 4XAAA carrier with Eneloop Pros. Then I pulled out the lens and held it in front of the bezel at the full focus point. Without doing anything else, it gives the Courui a run for its money, to my untrained eye. This Courui has a warm white de-domed XM-L2 inside, so it isn’t stock.

With a huge emitter (either the MT-G2 or the SST-90) and the lens inside the bezel, not fully focused, I’m not so sure. Either of those two LED’s will have to be giving all the lumens it can to even stand a chance, I think. Both of them are rated at over 2000lm, but the MT-G2 requires almost 6.5 volts to get there and the SST-90 would require only 3.7 volts, but at 9 Amps! There are three sense resistors on the driver - 2X 1.0 ohm and 1X 0.5 Ohm. I might be able to stack those, but would the driver survive that much current?

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Well, I’m still trying to figure this out. I did a search of the BLF archives for SST-90 and found out that they are easy to de-dome. So, I de-domed one of mine and stuck it in the light. I changed the driver out for a FET driver, so I could get all the amps to the LED that the little cells can give. But, the 4X AAA Eneloops just aren’t enough. I tried a 18650 in it, and it’s a little brighter. But, I just can’t get enough light. If I modded the 4X AAA carrier to parallel, and beefed up the traces by replacing them with a thicker copper, and wire bypassed the springs, and used 4X 10440 cells, would all that be enough? The “spot” size is several feet across when shining on a wall about 30 feet away. I know that I could get a lot more kcd by switching to a XP-G2 or something, but the light has to be useful for lighting up an area, not just for pointing out stars in the sky.

The SST-90 is rated for over 2000 lumens, but I don’t think it is producing nearly that yet. I did learn that a Efest red IMR 26500 that Richard sells will just barely fit in the tube if you remove the anti-counterfeit label from the outside of the wrapper. I had to stack almost an inch of magnets to get it to reach end-to-end and make contact, and when I finished testing it, the magnets were super hot! That particular 26500 is actually narrower than 26mm. I can’t find a 26650 that is narrow enough to fit, because they are all over 26mm wide. Maybe I can use something like a flap-wheel to open the tube up a bit. I don’t know. Anybody help?