Mule from a 9-LED cheapie and the generosity of BLF members

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

First off, I just want to say this is the best forum ever. I don’t do much to contribute at all since I feel as though I am subpar compared to the great gurus here. In any case, since I so avidly real the forum, I have been fortunate enough to receive some stuff at the generosity of out members.

For this mod, I got the XP-C module from a 2-AA LED mini mag from Old Lumens.
I then got an 18500 LiFePO4 cell from mattthemuppet.

So, thanks guys for your kindness, and here’s what I did with the parts.

Everything before I started.

The host was a cheapie 9-LED direct drive from 3-AAA light. The module modes are high, low (with nasty PWM), a slow blink (which might be nice for a bike), and SOS.

I got the cell since I thought it would be a good replacement for the holder. The dimensions are close. The 18500 is just a bit skinnier.

The 3.2 V powered the stock light up as is, but it still is as weak and as blue as ever. Since the mag module is designed for 2-AA, I thought LiFePO4 would be a perfect substitute.

Here’s the head after I swapped out the LED board. I had to flip the “reflector” over so that there was enough space for the whole module. It had enough depth to it so that the “lens” could go back on and not touch the led dome. Everything was just press fit. A bit of copper wire squeezed between “reflector” and tube wall on one end and squeezed between retaining ring and module side.

Here’s a shot into the tube. I added some TP roll to keep the battery from wiggling too much. I also bent the tab a bit on the module to make sure it contacted the positive terminal well.

It works!

It’s a pure flood mule.

Thanks again O-L, MtM, and BLF!

2

Nice one! I would not have thought to keep the original reflector and struggled trying to make something to space it properly :slight_smile:
:beer:

3

Nice work on modding a cheapie host. :slight_smile: i like to see the low cost “real budget” lights modded to perform better.

4

Glad you found a use for that led.Wink

5

I love the mod HBomb. Well done. I agree with you that there are a lot of champion members here. Whats next on the mod calender?

6

Nice mod, what made you choose that host?

Id like to see it in one of thes cheap single 5mm reflectored lights. The all plastic ones.

7

Cool

8

+1 :-)

9

that’s awesome hbomb, looks like a great little light now - small, nice tint and plenty of close in light. Glad to hear you made use of spare parts - one man’s trash is another’s treasure :slight_smile:

10

Thanks for the kind words everyone! It’s my first mule and I like having one in the collection. Makes the flood mode of an SK68 seem small now by comparison.

@MRsDNF - Haha, I can assure I have no mod calendar to speak of. As you can see, I really lack any skills to do cool stuff, like make an AA-powered C8 or anything :wink:

@TrakTuned - I only had a couple of hosts that were all multi-LED with a 3-AAA holder. The 18500 is a simple straight swap though. nickelflipper did the same for his 3-AAA costco techlites with the addition of a spacer magnet.

11

Before I joined up here a driver sat behind a steering wheel and a pill was taken orally. Keep looking up OL, Matches and a few other members builds and before you know it. :bigsmile:

12

couldn’t have said it better - everyone has to start somewhere. The key is to realise that there’s very little on this board (other than driver design and code writing!) that is particularly complicated - the lovely shiny lights you see are just the result of practice, experience and, most likely, lots of mistakes :wink:

13

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I think there’s one more ingredient to the successful modder, and that’s the guts to try (and fail). I think that’s where I have to take my next steps and see what goes from there. That, and I think we all could use some more free time and excess funds :smiley: