I'm honestly ashamed of myself. Another day spent modding lights when its the last thing that l should be doing. At least the sheds not falling down around me. Big sigh.
I bought a total of twelve of these SKYEYE F13 lights in the BLF group buy intending to keep one for myself. This is a quick story about the one I kept. Some lights I love straight out of the box and others are begging to be hot rodded. This is one of the ones begging to be hot rodded with far to much money in parts thrown at it.
In its favor is the solid shelf the led sits on in the head, ample finning for any heat generated and the ability to run a 26650 battery. The mods were carried out in stages starting with the stock light having a my corrected figure of 15,750 Kcd with a current draw of 1.9 amps at the tailcap. With the very tall plastic isolator filed down so it did not stick through the reflector the reading rose to 16497 Kcd.
Next up was a large step with the driver replaced by a 3 amp 7135 driver which RBD had soldered on a couple of extra chips for me which with a fully charged Keeppower 26650 4500 mAh battery was pushing 3.7 amps at the tailcap, copper star under the stock led and all springs having a 22 AWG wire soldered to them. The stock plastic isolator was refitted for an initial test which was 23,888 KCD. With the standard modded isolator refitted Kcd rose to 25,000. With a lower isolator fitted purchased from FT Kcd again rose to 25,978.
The next mod was the single biggest gain in light output. I had recently bought from Cutter electronics some (there are none left in their stock) XML-2 U3 2C leds. This led replaced the stock one and surprised with a reading of 33,590 KCD.
During testing the same battery was used throughout. Rechecking the tailcap draw current had dropped to 3 amps. With the battery charged up to 4.15 volts the tailcap reading rose to 3.5 amps and Kcd rose to 36,950.
Left to right isolators. Stock. Modded. FT.
And the beam shots in the same order keeping in mind that the last one is the XML-2 U3 led.
The two ends after the mods.
Mouse out F13 low .46 amp. Mouse over F113 low .09 amps (F113 is modded and all currents taken at the tailcap at the time the pictures were taken).
Mouse out F13 medium .9 amps. Mouse over F113 medium 1 amp.
Mouse out F13 high 1.75 amps. Mouse over F113 high 3.7 amps.
The only other mod I would of carried out would be fit an AR lens but I dont have one that fits. I like this sized light compared to the thin 18650 barreled items as they are just two small for my hand. The wife doesnt mind which sized light she has in her hand as long as it works.
Was the mods worth it? Yes. Its a little ball terror.
). 
