Deleted cause I’m sure you knew it anyway. Lol.
(This was to hank saying to use Fujik or drill and tap it, but that was before I read the name and realized you already knew that)
Yes you are right that it would have taken more time & communications of course, BUT i don’t believe at all that i would have to result in a $70 light.
They need an actual omten switch, unfortunately it looks like they have cheeped out & used a clone instead.
- thicker wires 18awg
- FET driver, we have everything needed here at the forum, it would maybe raise the cost a bit but not more than a couple of bucks over the stock driver. But even an of the shelf solution like a ~4A FET driver that we know is available in china would still raise the performance over stock a lot.
- copper 16mm DTP mcpcb, most likely ordered from Maxtoch.
- dedomed LED, have been done before Olight uses one in there Javelot. But even without the stock dedome, that is something a lot can do on there own, with a simple solvent bath.
- Copper beryllium springs or wire bypassed springs.
Most of these are substitutions for lesser part, but shouldn’t really cost many multiples of the stock versions or cost much more in work on the actual light (remember the stock light cost $15 in bulk before shipping from them), besides procuring the needed components before production starts, and that is what would take some effort to sort out on there part.
But if they want to push the envelope and get some notoriety for making killer lights that slays the competition for cheap, thats what is needed 
Reality is, specialized lights like that are a niche group. I would not buy one because modding is the fun part. Many would not buy it for that reason. Why pay somebody else to do the work. Also, from their standpoint why fix what isn’t broken. They obviously sell quite a few lights. Most of their buyers aren’t here. Most are uneducated about the real potential of these lights. Most are probably buying ultrafire batteries too. I was frustrated they were not interested in making their product better, but I also understand why they wouldn’t. They are in business to make money, not make a small group of people happy.
I just blackened the pill, mounted a 4a driver, put a dedomed xpg2 on a copper sink pad and threw it all together in the uf1504. Only drawing 1.9a :_( but it is still much brighter than my 2.8a driven xpg2 in my jax z1 so next on the agenda is finding the weak link so I can get as close to 4a through that led as possible.
Unfortunately I have no means of measuring its output but it’s already pretty impressive. Ringy as mentioned though.
If it is a true buck driver, then the current should go up as the voltage goes down. You need to measure the current through the emitter, not just going into the driver.
You are right it is somewhat of a niche market, but it is a niche market they can corner if they make something really good. I don’t think they actually understand the true potential of what they can do, and i would be buying such a light because they can build it cheaper in volume, than i can build just one and i think many would, the A6 GB is very much evidence of that a “hot” light sells.
And i would rather mod some other light if i could get one of these already made, + it would be great gift lights. And i plan to experiment with some collars on the 1504 also and if i had been able to buy it already hotrodded i could have put more time & energy in that part of the mod
But just so we are clear i don’t mean this discussion as criticism on you n10sivern, or expect anyone to do this now. But more as a discussion on how we can be hopefully be more successful in future GB’s.
I think as i said the are blissfully unaware about what there light can do, maybe if we would send them a fully modded light, so they can see it with there own eyes the difference the right components can do, we could make them see the light
We know that Chinese manufacturers have an tradition of be able to copy something good, maybe they have an hard time just blindly following instructions because they are conservative.
If we start to send a prototype of the lights we want upgraded, so they can play with it themselves i think it would straighten out a lot confusion & miscommunications beforehand.
Being an electronics newbie, I honestly will say the only way I know how to measure draw is at the tail. With that being said, this is the driver I am using:
Cajampa, I didn’t take it personally. I know I talked to Uniquefire and the “engineer” said that the LED’s couldn’t run at the current we are running them. I said that I could provide proof that they could handle it. The response was that it would shorten the lifespan of the LED, and they would have to worry about warranty issues. I for one didn’t know these lights had a warranty other than to work. Also, I don’t care if my emitter doesn’t have a 100,000 hour lifespan. It’ll be lucky to get 100 hours of use before I change it. They are given specifications for the LED’s and they want to work inside of those specifications. I explained the benefits of a DTP pcb and that was basically unknown to them. This may not be true of all Chinese companies, but I would guess a majority of them are only worried about the bottom line, high sales volume, and limited defective products. I know if I paid $80 for a light that promise 6A to a XP-G2 I would expect it. Imagine those that would return lights when it only ran 5A. Hell, they still put XR-E’s and XM-L’s in lights because a majority of people just want a light with an advertised “Cree” LED. Doesn’t matter if it is 2-3 generations old and obsolete. As long as it’s bright to them and looks cool they will buy it. Trust me, I understand what you are saying. There are few companies that try to go the extra little bit, especially Chinese companies. They refuse to adapt because theoretically it’s not supposed to be done. Just like dedoming. There will be rejects to dedome mass amount of LED’s and that cuts into the bottom line. Their mentality is why risk it. They were baffled by why I have so many lights. There are some companies that are more receptive to this, one being Maxtoch, but I bet few outside of hunters and flashlight enthusiast have heard of Maxtoch. They are probably just seen as an overpriced flashlight. Why pay $70 for a light when a C8 for $10 has a Cree LED too.
Yes, this exactly is my point, they don’t know it is even possible or how to do it even when told how to, they can’t reconcile what they though they knew with how we do things to improve performance. And just fall in to the default thought, “if i don’t understand it it can’t work”.
Thats why i propose that the next time we at BLF try to do a GB with strange demands (for them) we try to send the proposed manufacturer a prototype of it, i suspect that among other things, that when they actually see what there light can do they might actually get exited about the possibilities.
We know how exciting a hot light is thats is why we build them, but they have no idea thats why they state uniformed opinions like it is not possible or it will burn out, they say that because they haven’t even seen a DTP mcpcb with there own eyes. On aluminum non DTP they would be correct.
I agree with most that you are saying, but the return a claimed 6A light because it only shows 5A is wrong. Every light that is sold with an low resistance good FET is most often sold with the explicit understanding often even in writing, that the top end output is dependent on the strength or capability of the battery, like for example the A6 GB, the battery on a low resistance DD modded or manufactured light is always the biggest determinant of performance.
No company or modder would need to honor such a warranty claim, if you use an ultraturd battery & try to make claim because you can’t get 6A out of it it is a matter of informing your customer for there benefit to get the most out of their new light.
+ 1 on n10sivern, and add production time. A lot of fiddling on one light...
They would not use solder to pill method, neither AA(because they did not heard for that and it is to expensive to them), so emitter would be glued with fujik which sucks. Not to mention different springs or bridging existing ones... Laping, taping, potting, stacking, Or changing wires to 18 AWG(to big imho) + testing.
Thing that you could ask further is our own laser engravings design or to send us hosts without any laser engravings so we can finish that local. I saw a lot of UF T20 with custom laser engravings design.
Same here. Ordered 4/14 - Shipped 4/15 via Royal Mail to USA.
My tracking number appears to be a valid number but has not shown up at royalmail.com yet.
I chose the “Auto” shipping method…
Just an update, the extra pills I ordered have been paid for or have pending payments. I guess I should have ordered more, but likely won’t happen as it would be cost INeffective as their shipping is astronomical.
Don’t forget that you would have to explain to each average buyer that their brand new super powerful 4800mAh UltraFire battery will not go even close to 5A, hell, it won’t do 3A either.
mizjif, that driver looks to be wrongly advertised. It may well be a 1.9amp driver. You might see if it fluctuates as the battery reduces voltage. Regardless, it isn’t doing what it says is can do. If you want known outputs, have a look at the BLF custom drivers at Mtn Electronics. You will have much better luck with those FET drivers.
n10sivern, thank you for putting this together. I ordered my host last night.
So my light shipped via Netherlands Post. They still shipping relatively quickly to the U.S.?
The Eagle has landed!
Got my heavy box of hosts today. I’ve started the process of building the first one. Here’s a picture of the stock brass pill, and one that I’ve opened up and painted with high temp paint. I should have it done today. If I get frisky it’ll have reduced nubs too.
Looking great! Nice work (and machine work)
I hope you get frisky, lol
I am going to paint my pill with plasti-dip. We’ll see how that goes once I get it.
Lucky for you, I always feel frisky.
