I’m looking for a good recommendation for a great mod friendly thrower project. I know that there are a lot other threads of the same kind but the kicker is I want a USA seller. I’ve dealt with overseas a few times and I just would rather give my money to an American seller not only to help him/her out but to keep shipping time quick. ( I can be rather impatient at times) I say mod friendly because of course we are never satisfied with stock lights. I am very cabale of modding a light if I can follow a build thread or something. I can’t really look at a driver and figure out what’s what as far as what to mod goes. So there you have it. If you would try to give me the best moddable thrower project from a USA seller. Battery config doesn’t matter to me 18650, 26650, even 32650 is fine. I just want the wow factor.
My current favorite thrower is my olight SR51, its extremely modded (new emitter on copper, new driver, battery carrier converted from series to parallel with custom OSHpark boards), its doing 192kCd and over 1300lumen. Everything comes from the US (but like all custom printed PCB’s the boards take about 14 days to receive)
All in all it’s pretty much satisfied my desire for a 200kCd light with a very useful beam pattern, I’ve had a couple other 200k throwers (a UF-T20 [zoomie] and a A60) and while they throw far they’re not that useful with their pencil beams, the SR51 has a large hotspot and a good amount of usable spill. No build thread but check it out here. Unlike cheap lights and/or zoomies there is no question about it still being water tight and its extremely high quality, not only is it my favorite thrower its one of my all time favorite lights.
beamshot thread here- someone even described it as a “helo searchlight”!
I was thinking more along the lines of 500kcd+ maybe. I know that’s a stretch but I can stomach the price and I can do the mods. I just want a superb thrower. ( idk why I just do). A nodded tn32 or something similar is what I had in mind perhaps
For 500k your gonna need a LOT of money and keep in mind you should probably start lower on the modding ladder. If you take a high end light (like a TN series / Kx0) and try to mod its driver and you get a little solder bridge going to one wrong pad and it kills it you’ll be screwed, they dont usually give out new drivers. Start modding something less $$$ so when you mess it up your not as screwed and your wife isnt as pissed you converted hundreds of $$$ to trash…
I know you say your capable of following along with a mod thread but I highly highly suggest getting yourself setup with a few cheaper (but still really good) lights (such as the $48 SR51) and practicing on them, get to where you can mod stuff on your own, figure out what parts are what and what each of those parts does. It will make you a lot happier (and a lot better at it for next time) in the long run to actually know what your doing and know what and why doing certain things effects the output than if you just solder part A to pad 3B4 cause someone on the internet told you thats what to do. Get my drift.
I’m not saying dont get a TN32/ whatever else and not to mod it as showm in a thread here, all I’m saying is it’ll be better for both your personal satisfaction and for your overall skill to take the time to figure out exactly what/why changing things like resistors/FET’s and resistance modding the springs and stuff does and why. Take it slow, actually figure things out, at the end of it you’ll actually learn something and next time you want to mod a light you may be better able to figure it out on your own and even do your own mods instead of just doing what joe schmoe on the internet posted that HE did.
Take a look at the Couru (sometimes spelled Courui), its not from the US and the quality isnt nearly what a name brand is but if something goes wrong you’re out less than a 1/4 the amount of $$$ as you would be if you start with a high end light.
What is the current farthest throwing light you have? Unless you have some ~200k lights you WONT at all be dissapointed with one, especially not a SR51 with its smaller 62mm O.D. head, its a very easy to carry light that [when correctly modded] throws way more than anyone expects from a head that size and being 2P it has nearly 5000mAh capacity of high discharge capability or >6800mAh when running at 4.8A (2 NCRB’s), with the 4s / 3s lights and running high discharge 2500 cells you only have 2500mAh (series adds voltage, parallel adds capacity) so you take a major runtime hit.
BTU Shocker 5A Driver (you might also try a custom programmed FET driver for a little more. I haven’t read much into them, but they are apparently the bee’s knees. XML2 U2-1A
It’ll cost quite a bit ($140 roughly), but the result is around 500kcd and 4500lm… or you could buy one already modded from RMM for about $167.
I certainly get where you are coming from and I agree with you. I would definitely like to become as good as you or TomE, OL, Comfy, etc etc. I’m just no where near those levels. And for some dumb reason I want a rediculous thrower. Right now my two best are a XinTD pushing almost 5A and a Jayrob replica I built of his 2D maglite running at 3A and powered by 32650s. Both lights use XML2 U2 1A.
