Old lights - preserve or modify?

Thought I’d put this out to the community.

Do you think older lights should be preserved or would you modify?

Now I’ve been modding lights for quite a while, as well as buying hosts specifically to build a certain spec and often rebuild later down the line.

But modding has generally always been with newer lights bought for the purpose of modding or old Maglites. But the LED lights have now been around long enough that some are reasonably old. But also somewhat superseded. Should they be preserved?

This leaves me with a dilemma. Should I modify or should I keep it as is?

In this instance, the light isn’t all that special or expensive. It is a Jacob A60. Although it was more specialised than many of the lights I bought at that time period.

I think I bought it in 2013, so coming up on 10 years ago now.

At the time it was the most throwy light in my collection. Beating all of my LED converted Maglites and any other light I bought at the time. Remember 10 years back the LED selection was much less than today and high amp drivers and de-domed emitters where not the norm, not even in the modding community.

The Jacob has a modest spec. It uses an XR-E emitter (Q5) with a fairly low amp driver that has blinky modes and poor PWM on lower outputs. Tint actually isn’t too bad, but it is very much of the cool white variety. But it is white not blue, purple or green.

The host is of ok quality and quite a nice design.

Official specs are very vague for the light and it was of an era where lying was normal for outputs and nothing really quoted for any other attribute. I believe they where often touted as 310 lumens. But in reality that would be an extreme amount for an XR-E. My homemade light box says only 157 lumens OTF. Which would be what, maybe 200 LED lumens. Maybe a little down on output, but I suspect much nearer to what an XR-E actually puts out.

I also measure 36,000 cd, which is good enough for 378 metres of throw. Not a huge amount by todays standards. But do remember something like an XM-L C8 would have been lucky to break 20,000 cd. Output seems fairly stable in testing. For example an Astrolux EC01 with the SST-40 in on Turbo will match the 36,000 cd. But 30 seconds in the EC01 will have dropped to 19,000 cd and probably still on the way down. The Jacob remains rock steady at about the same 36,000 cd.

For those unfamiliar with the A60. It is slightly bigger than a C8, with a larger and deeper reflector. One of the main reasons it throws so well. And in its day and probably even today, it was rare for this size reflector in a single battery host. It is still a pocketable (coat pocket) light. But is about as big as I’d want to carry, it is quite a long light.



But it is lighter and less chunky than a Convoy L21A, although quite a similar length.

Beam profiles are very similar to what I get with the Osram W1 and W2 LEDs. Intense spot with some rings in the beam and wide spill. The spill beam is almost identical in size across all 3 lights. And hot spots comparable in size too. They all produce “pencil” style beams designed for distance.

Obviously in real world performance the Osram lights leave the A60 miles behind. Better tint, better drivers with better modes and no PWM. More output and more lux.

Convoy C8 OP reflector W1 with 555 lumens & 108,000cd
Convoy L21A W2 with 1028 lumens & 319,000 cd

So it begs the question. Should I retro fit a new driver to the A60 and a new emitter? An SST-40 would give lovely tint, profile and plenty of range. A W1 or W2 would offer max lux or maybe even some like an SFT-40 for somewhere in between.

But the reality is, I would only be modding it for the sake of it. I can think of no real world occasion when I’d pick up the A60 instead of a C8. The C8 does almost as well and is so much more pocket friendly and ergonomic. If I didn’t mind the size, then the L21A is going to wipe the floor with any conceivable setup I could put in the A60. So, it would remain nothing more than a shelf queen.

Modding isn’t hugely costly and can always be reversed. But you can’t buy XR-E LEDs anymore. And if I remove the one from the A60, it would probably get lost in a sea of other obsolete parts. But you also have to consider that a new quality C8 such as a Convoy, can be bought for about the same money as a buying a new mounted LED and quality driver.

Should I just keep the A60 as how it was when I bought it? So that in another 10 years time I can still grab it off the shelf and marvel at how things have progressed?

I sold all my old lights on BLF and upgraded.
If it has sentimental value that might change things, i have a few that i kept and use even though they are outdated, including some XM-L lights.

i would consider all that [any modding actually] not worth my time…

wle

You’ll be duplicating your torch “collection” if you mod to bring it up to today’s standards and a “useful” light. How about making it something you don’t already have, like, 2700K or cyan green, or deep red or IR thrower or something…?

Your preference. If you can think of practical uses for old lights modded, then go ahead and mod them! If you will barely use them, I don't see a good reason to mod--leave them as-is to show to the next generation. Another option is to mod them into specialized lights like UV, deep red, Osram color emitters, extremely high CRI, stuff like that.

BTW: SST40 would NOT give you a good tint the vast majority of the time. Super green hotspot and massive angular shift. SFT40 is superior.

I'd upgrade them, or like mentioned above build exotic lights, (uv, ir, colors...) not much point in them sitting useless and outdated.

I think you’ll want not only a new LED, but probably a new driver, too. Maybe Mountain Electronics has something nice with Crescendo? That would be something making the light really special. Build something you think is unique in your collection.

Not just led and driver, but high current switch which is very often ignored, i see folks go to great length to improve heat path, replace aluminum parts for copper, install high current drivers, yet still run stock switch that barely handles 2A at best,.

Well I fell into that as well. It’s not really worth it unless you like doing it and really like the old light. I modded a SRK 4x XML to sst40 and a SRK fet driver, but gave up after the driver wouldn’t work (tried 2 drivers, neither worked). I figured I could do better with a SP36 Pro…smaller, brighter, onboard charging, powerbank, Anduril 2 for about $50 (with batteries). It’s a no brainer especially if your time is $$$

Only because there are better lights today, this doesn’t make the older lights worse. They were superior in their time and they are still good lights. I’ll leave them as they are.

Wellp, newer lights have proprietary stuff like sideswitches, non-standard sizes/shapes of drivers and PCBs, other rot, so it’s hard to modify other’n hotplating the LED off to replace with another.

Other lights were more’n likely 16mm/20mm boards, 17mm drivers, regular tailswitch, etc., and you could pick’n’choose exactly what you wanted.

So if the mod isn’t so high-stress, why not? It’d breathe new life into a light that’d otherwise just sit unused, get thrown out, etc. Lots of older lights were just “comfy”.

Have at least 3 of the Jacobs in collection and one has been upgraded with an Old Stock good tint XM-L2 on copper with a BLF A6 driver upgrade and it just makes a nice alternative to a C8.
Is not a World class thrower or anything but rather a nice walking light or yard light with some decent spill and respectable throw.

When you can upgrade something old with parts you have in stock and not have to shell out new money it’s WIN WIN.

JMHO, your lumens may vary :slight_smile: