Modding... What do I need to know??

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

SO guys

AM looking at modding a flashlight or 3, what should I know? what are the pit falls I need to be aware of?

I have no clear idea of what or where to start I suimply what to have a go and see where it leads.

Any advice and links would be very helpful.

regards
Lohtse

2

Buy a cheapie HOST. plus LED/Driver.
get on UTube and watch some of the demo’s on there.
THEN.
Like me. do it a coupla times on that one. just to get “the touch” with the iron.
USE LIQUID flux and a small syringe to apply
Everything else. Basically. is fairly easy.

I’M still trying to get “the touch” shhhhhh.

Have fun. It’s addictive.

PS. I went the Host way. Cause I thought, IF I strip one I have. then rebuild it. and it don’t work.

WAS it in the stripping stages that stuffed it. or the reassembly.

3

Dont short out the driver while assembling the unit.
Spring bypasses lower resistance. A good lumen sphere and lux meter is helpful when trying to find the efficiency of your mods. Many mods have been done already. Seems like you will always have to sacrifice something when it comes to modding runtime, output are the two main ones that come to mind

4

Any recommendations on drivers etc??? possibly provide a link of 10?

5

Mod for tint and color

it's easy and a mod you can actually see .

A 30% gain in lumens Is like bad spacing on a dumb driver .Meh ..

High cri is like black and white tv vs. a high def.

6
  • Temperature controlled soldering iron.
  • 67/33 SnPb rosin core solder
  • Liquid rosin flux on any joint you are reworking/soldering twice
  • Use a multimeter to check for shorts after soldering any subassemblies (driver, wires & springs to driver, leads to MCPCB, and after assembly but before inserting a battery. The negative and positive output of a driver should always have resistance between them. The same goes for the negative and positive inputs to a driver.

I agree with boaz, mod for tint and color, I’d add that replacing or reflashing drivers can be worthwhile, too, for the UI improvements.

7

Ok so how would I go about all this what would be a good flashlight to start all this with? and how do I reflash drivers etc??

What is the best youtube video to watch to start of with regarding this?

Apologies for all the questions Guys but if I do things right then I will want to continue so for me information is the key as the start…

regards
Lohtse

8

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Richard’s (RMM, he’s a member here) store but if you haven’t then start Here

9

Some good tips here, thank you. I got this a starter kit. Not expecting a lot out of the iron but will help to get my hand eye coordination in then get a better one locally

10

What you need to know is “It can get Expensive”. Modding is a lot of fun and allows you to have a light just the way you want it or as bright as reasonable possible.
.
The downside is you’ll end up spending as much or more in tools and leds, MCPCB, drivers, pills, wire, lenses, reflectors and host than you would if you had just bought several factory lights. But hey, what fun is that. :smiley:
Happy modding!

11

That’s a given. I used to water cool my overclocked pc. The money put into that over time would have paid for a better cpu to start with.

12

Cool and not worried about cost…

is there a recommended first time driver for playing with flashing firmwares???

13

The old tried and true amc7135 drivers, that’s the drivers that started it all. How To Build a Flashlight With Perfect Modes (picture heavy)
The Nanjg 105C with the attiny13 is probably the most common.
There are several guides here on BLF that can be very useful using the search box up in the top left corner.
The thread I linked above is just where it all started, they are way more up to date info now. You can start here.
Guide: how to flash ATtiny13a based drivers (NANJG, QLITE, etc.) with custom firmware

14

Convoy are another nice place for good value hosts and parts to start out with:

https://convoy.aliexpress.com/store/330416

They don’t sell things like high CRI LEDs, though, so you’ll need to look to people like International Outdoor for that:

https://intl-outdoor.com

Places like Fasttech and Kaidomain also get talked about here on BLF, but I’ve never used either of them myself.

15

so can we use these? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/150pcs-lot-Best-price-20mm-1W-3W-PCB-for-LED-lamp-1W-3W-LED-Aluminum-plate/1891522991.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.136.539d54cfH46gf4&s=p&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10065_10068_5724113_10130_10547_10059_10548_10696_100031_10192_10190_10084_10083_10103_10618_5725013_5724313_10307_10820_10301_10821_10303_5724213,searchweb201603_1,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=541ff15c-fbb5-4f09-bbe7-18966335c186-19&algo_pvid=541ff15c-fbb5-4f09-bbe7-18966335c186&priceBeautifyAB=0

we have a load of the with and load of LED (unattached) is a box already…

and which of these would you recommend?

https://intl-outdoor.com/components-drivers-c-57_88.html?zenid=6452ced086a03317c271a983dd28a05a

16

is this driver any good and programmable? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Cree-XM-L-LED-T6-White-Light-with-20mm-star-pcb-3-7V-5modes-led-Driver/32847323756.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.22672e0e8xfVNu

17

You will want to stick with CREE style emitters at first…those 1W really aren’t good modding boards.

http://flashlightwiki.com/Main_Page

18

That appears to be a mosfet type module

Here are the “stock” New style BLF drivers, mosfet and AMC7135’s w/ stock community driven firmware…a wee bit expensive…but VERY good option to start with
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20180827015357&SearchText=blf+driver

19

hmmmm could we use them just to mess about with?

20

so could I use the one I linked too to mess about with before using the BLF one?? rather break those than a blf…