After some thought, I’ve decided on what to do for my first-ever Old Lumens contest entry (modified light): A hybrid S2+/TS10!
I know we all love these two lights but have you ever wondered what their offspring would look like? Haven’t we all wanted an S2+ with Anduril? And the TS10 - great light, but a little petite and you wished it came in orange, right?
Summary:
- On the outside, it will look like an unusually short S2+. There will be no body tube, just the head and tail.
- Anduril 2 (TS10 driver) with aux, triple emitter. E-switch in the tail.
- Powered by a 16340. Sadly, an 18350 just won’t fit with the inner tube needed for this design.
Top: S2+ with 18350 tube.
Middle: My project concept (pocket clip is TBD).
Bottom: TS10
I figure I’ll break this into manageable pieces. It will help me as I find time here-and-there to work on it, and hopefully it will make it easier for you to follow along with the build.
I think these are more or less the key steps (in no particular order:
- Modify the pill. Remove the lip so the MCPCB will sit flat (edit, instead going to use a spacer to make the top flush with the lip). Remove some threads so it will screw-in all the way (edit, remove as few threads as possible, hopefully none). Remove some of the base to give extra clearance. Drill a center hole for wires, and a hole for the TS10’s driver retaining screw.
- Get the head and tail to screw together. I lied when I said there would be no body tube - it will actually get modified to be glued inside the tail, leaving the tail to screw-in to the head. What I have in mind will be easier to explain with a pic when I get to that step.
- Reflow some emitters. 5000K de-domed? Maybe beautifully-rosy XP-P 3000k? SST20 2700k JA3 (below bbl)?
- If there’s room, which I think there will be, I will make a custom triple optic using three individual TIRs. This will give a bit more throw give more space in the optic area, which will make the aux LEDs easier to install.
- Make the current-carrying inner tube (the e-switch signal goes to the driver via the flashlight body with the TS10 driver). I have some 18mm OD, 16mm ID copper pipe I’ll use for this. I will need to bore out the ID a bit so the battery can fit. Hopefully a power drill with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel will work without too much effort…
- Modify the switch. I’ll remove the clicky bits and need to enlarge it for the inner tube to fit. Then I’ll get the e-switch in there.
- Modify the driver. The contact ring for the inner tube is too small since it’s made for a 14500 light. I think a copper washer soldered on there should do the trick.
- Modify some kind of clip. I like the clip used on the S2+ in my pic above, but I think it will look a little odd on this shorter light.
- Wire up the aux LEDs. I will be using an “aux ring” made from a 0603 LED strip. The LEDs are red but I might want to change them to a different color.
I have almost all the parts. I expect to be getting the e-switch soon, but there’s nothing stopping me from beginning anytime. I’ve taken measurements and everything should fit with a couple mm to spare. Additionally, I think I’ll gain a few more mm once I change over to an e-switch. If that’s the case, I think I’ll be able to do a taller custom triple optic but I’m not 100% sure yet so that will be one of the last steps.
Before I begin, my biggest concern is the inner tube. I know those can be finnicky and tolerances must be tight, which as a hobbyist, concerns me. So that will likely be one of my first steps. Hopefully I’ll have an update in a few days.
1st Update, Nov 6th:
I was excited to start the project today, so excited that I immediately just about sanded through the top of a pill while removing the lip. It’s now a little thin so I’ll switch to a backup and work more carefully now.
I did some measuring. For available internal space, I show 58.5mm.
I figure I need the following:
1mm o-ring
1.5mm lens
8.75mm optic (custom) and board. If I use a standard optic I need 6.25mm (which considers no glass lens).
8mm pill with driver
34mm battery
3.5mm spring (when compressed)
1.5mm switch board. I don’t have the switch yet so I’m hoping the switch itself is short enough to fit in the S2+ rubber boot (metallic switch).
58.25mm total
Obviously this is very close and if my measurements are wrong, or I’m forgetting something, I’ll run into trouble; however, I could use a smaller optic or change how I’m addressing the pill to get more room.
I changed my plan with the pill. I was going to remove the lip, so the triple board will sit flat, which would require removing some threads from the top of the pill so it could screw-in all the way with the MCPCB/optic up to the bezel. That would be fine, except to make room for the inner tube, I’ll need to remove all the pill below the driver (the driver gets attached to the shelf of the pill with a screw). Thus, I would be left with basically no threads on the pill.
Instead, I’ll keep the lip and all the “top” threads on the pill, use a spacer to fill the gap inside the lip, and take advantage of the taller custom optic, plus a lens, to fill the space up to the bezel. I may still bottom-out the threads, though, when I screw in the pill. If that’s the case, I could use a spacer between the pill and the MCPCB. At any rate, this will allow me to keep usable threads on the top of the pill and cut away all the pill below the driver, freeing up space for the inner tube.
2nd Update, Dec 16th
Unfortunately I haven’t made much progress on this project. I got frustrated trying to reduce the ID of the copper pipe I planned to use for the inner tube; however, that got me thinking of perhaps a better design… I’m now toying with the idea of making it a piston drive (I think I’m using that terminology correctly).
Basically, I’d solder an e-switch on the underside of the driver and do some other tweaks to the current paths. The tail switch would then serve as a piston to push the battery against the driver spring, eventually making contact with the e-switch. To make this work I’ll have to do some careful soldering (not my strong suit) and get the tolerances just right. The potential upside is no inner tube needed, thus I could use an 18350.
I think this would be a really cool light if I can pull it off. I’m going all or bust on this new design.
3rd Update, Dec 21st
I made a little progress this week. I did some measuring and I should just barely have enough room for an 18350 if I mod the pill. In addition to removing the outer ring where the MCPCB sits, I’ll need to make it so the driver sits deeper in the driver cavity. Converting the switch to a plunger will free up some space, too. I’m not 100% sure how I’ll do the conversion but I have some ideas.
I soldered a spring to the driver as well as a micro switch from a dead driver (RIP Wowtac A6). The driver is upside down in the pic. The outer ring is where the inner tube of the TS10 would normally make contact. This circuit powers the driver. On a normal TS10, the switch signal circuit is carried through the body and connects to the driver via a screw through the shelf in the head (you can see the screw if you’ve ever taken the optic out of a TS10). That threaded post conveniently goes through the driver and you can see I soldered the middle leg of the switch onto it.
So the idea is the battery will be between two springs. When you push in the tail “switch” (now just a button with a plunger/piston), it pushes against the battery, compressing the spring at the driver until it engages that switch. Thus there will be no need for an inner tube like with the TS10… if it works.
I’m really running out of time here. The two big steps are making the body pieces thread together and getting the plunger to work. Minor steps are modding the pill, making an aux ring, and installing the main LEDs.
