Glad it worked out! There's solder jumper options (Turbo, moonlight) I believe. Have to check his LD-1 threads - one has all the details in the OP I believe.
Just checked here in the OP: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/29455. You can disable moon mode via a solder jumper, so that should help.
Impressive!
rub it in modders, heartless.
Modding a light is hard if you have trouble getting it open. These lights have no glue. Get the parts and a decent soldering iron and you can pull it off pretty easily, I think. Practice on some scrap copper wire and an hour later, you’re done.
Now to find that hour.
Exactly right. This was my first mod besides wiring a tailcap spring or two. My skills are rough and my hands shaky. My soldering iron is cheap (but does have a fine point tip) and in bad shape. Even with 3x magnification I could barely see what I was doing, thought along the way that I’d desoldered a component or melted something. But to my amazement it worked and was simple 5 or 6 steps. Beginner level project really, which is why I was able to do it. My previous experience is not much more than soldering speaker wires together.
Man…that sounds eerily familiar :bigsmile:
Good job! Now look at what you have, a really nice hot rod with a unique driver and custom work done by…YOU! 
Sweet, isn’t it? 
Right! Nobody gets there if they don’t start. I’m certain we all began with something along those lines. I sure am glad that I decided to take the hatchet to a few things until I was on the bike and pedaling. … so to speak.
I’ve done it, and as said above, when it worked I felt like I just was lucky. I don’t want to goof up this one, but it would be awesome if it was brighter.
The maximum damage potential here seems rather low. Are you worried about a specific aspect/scenario?
Testing again tonight, I was able to get as high as 4.8A on the same HE2 cells with this LD-1 driver!
Maybe I’m not doing it right. When I push down on the battery to take a reading I get a range of results depending on how hard I push down. So I just find a repeatable number with firm pressure and go with that. But if I press down really hard, completely mashing the driver spring flat, I can get the highest reading, like the 4.8A tonight. So which is correct? Just how much does that spring get compressed? It makes a big difference in amp reading.
You’ll have to physically measure your parts and find out! Spring compression certainly depends on the length of the cell you install.
When the top of the spring firmly contacts the bottom resistance is lower. I’m not sure whether it’s normal for a braided spring to show such a wide variance between compressed and uncompressed though… 0.24A seems like a lot to me.
My batteries are flat top with big round solder blobs. I need to see if button top do the same thing.
The spring being compressed really shouldn’t matter. I always get this fluctuation measuring amps depending on haw hard I press, no matter what is being measured or what leads used.
Good Day Angler, 
Make sure the DMM's battery is good.
Also if You compress the spring enough, then the current path/circuit will be shorter, therefore less resistance (as the spring coils touch each other).
Also check your soldering of the driver's spring.
Regards,
George
Disclosure: I am not yet a modder, but some day soon.... 
Some fluctuation based on contact pressure is normal too, no surprise there. I haven’t noticed a variance like what you have reported on my (similar) setup, but I’ll play around again and see what I find.
I’m having George build me a hot rod, can hardly wait! :bigsmile:
A braided spring should read essentially the same regardless of the pressure you put on it. When measuring a non-braided cell I like to guesstimate how much compression the spring will have when the light is put together with the intended cell and compress the spring accordingly for a pretty close real world reading. Of course, if you take the reflector off and measure at the emitter this will be a moot point.
Got it. I’ll try this next.
Nice mod. I put copper alligator clamps on my test leads, gives a good connection and can free up a hand or two.
BTW, I think you may be using nice alligator clamps. Care to point us in the right direction?
Add me to the list. Someone linked to copper alligator clips and banana plugs a few weeks ago and I've never been able to find it again.