I did... just bought it!
Rich
That's awesome. I know that in the future I will also support the modifyers or local sellers instead of buying a foreign light.
I would love to learn how to do this. Is there a learning resource on the site that teaches about drivers, wiring, etc? I saw some threads that detailed mods, but didn't see a general learning thread.
If that is considered a hijack, please just ignore me.
It’s ok.
No there isn't a general learning thread. All I know to tell you is to start reading all of the threads in the Modding Forum. Then ask specific questions of people. Usually you will get an answer that way. Look at people's sigs on the bottom of their posts too. Sometimes they link to more information.
Sounds good. Thanks a lot.
"Modding" the internals actually isnt the hardest part. Those drivers are really simple. Anyone with some soldering skills can do that. Building your own dropins is a good way to start (at least thats what I was told several times, but I soon found that rather boring). You can get into driver programming (or pay people that actually know what they are doing). I started with ripping apart a 7$ light from ebay. Took a look at the driver, tried to understand it, fried the driver, replaced it. Improved the heatsinking, swapped the emitter.. stuff like that. Cheap lights are great for such! :D
What makes OL so special are his ideas.. well, also that he does it all by hand.. but imo he couldnt be much better with a lathe or mill. Faster maybe.. but you still gotta have it in you. I mean, srsly, look at that battery holder. Tho OL always refers to himself as a "hacker" (in sense of hack job) that thing looks better than most all the chinese retail battery carriers!