Newbie: Looking for general info and beginner modding threads

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hey everyone, I’m new to the forum.

I’m working as a wildlife biologist in Thailand. At the research station I’m working at we have many different studies going on at once, most of these are on nocturnal species which requires us to do a lot of work in the forest at night.

I have purchased a handful of inexpensive “as seen on tv” style headlamps and handheld flashlights that preform fairly decent. I believe in the USA they are marketed as “Atomic Beam” lights.

My question is if its possible to swap out the old LED with a brighter LED in these lights? And what factors do I need to consider in doing this? Obviously, temperature with the 18650 battery is the big factor that I immediately think of.

Really I’m just looking for any insight on if this is even feasible? And if so any feedback on where to start doing research and seminal threads on the forum I should look over to get me started.

Thank you to everyone in advance!

2

any LED swap on the as seen on tv lights will always be a huge improvement but whether it’s worth doing so I usually would just opt for a decent light like Convoy s2+ to save time and hassle.
The zoomie military light can be improved with any LED with 20mm mcpcb and a 20mm LED driver of your choice.
It’s a common mod found on Sipik SK98

Headlamp however may be a tad difficult if it is a propietary shaped LED star

3

Thanks for the feedback!

I’ll look into those lights and it gives me a starting point. I prefer any light that has the zoom function because a lot of times my work requires I shine into the forest canopy looking for eye shines.

I believe the headlight shouldn’t be too difficult it seems to have similar mechanics to the flashlights of the same brand.

4

You can’t make a sow’s purse out of a silk ear, so trash the Atomic Crap and get a decent light.

Those generic zoomies are not terribly moddable, the LED held in by a crappy press-fit disc which is essentially ruined when you even think of prying it out. Drivers are crap, and I think the Atomic Crap has a “smart switch” in the tail, ie, it’s a momentary pushbutton on the tail that’s like an e-switch on the side on most other lights. That said, the one that mum got :person_facepalming: isn’t that horrible, but they’re still crap.

For a headlamp, a Boruit D25 is cheap and good. There’s a Sofirn version, I think, which uses SST-whatevers, but I can’t recall details right off. I’ve got both, and they’re both great.

Zoomie? Jaxman Z1. You won’t regret it. I’ve got the cheaper clone version of it, the Cometa, which is awesome but discontinued, and the Jax is even better.

Otherwise, if you want compact throw, a GTmini is nice, else any of the 3796 flavors of C8-based lights.

Modding? One of the easiest lights to mod is the Convoy S2+. They’re great off-the-rack, but they come apart easily, and modding them is as easy as falling off a toilet. Any 17mm driver will do, and any 16mm board for the LED.

Get the 4C tint, and replace the reflector with a 20mm TIR lens, and you’ll have nice warm sunlight coming out the business end. TIRs come in anything from 5° to 90° and even 120°, so you’re covered from spot to flood. And swapping TIRs takes all of 2min with pointy tweezers or a set of ring-pullers. You can get TIRs individually or as assortments if you look around.

Just avoid the lights with “3/5 modegroups”, as that has the evil blink-on-low which’ll drive anyone to drink. Get, well, anything else, biscotti or whatever comes-with.

Plus, you can get shorty tubes to take 18350 cells to make the light even shorter. And they come in designer colors like orange, violet, and teal, as well as red, blue, green, silver, black, gray, another gray, and yet another gray.

Go crazy…