Super Premium SK68 (Pocket High CRI Zoomie)

[raccoon]

I can't see the pics either, and I have AdBlockPlus disabled on BLF.

[dchomak]

I am not seeing pictures on my iPad but they display on my PC. Never came across that before.
Great mod. Your EDC is your most used light and it SHOULD have high CRI.
I put an XP-G2 in one of my ’68’s and although it wasn’t high CRi It was a big improvement. Of course I lost that light within a couple of weeks. Gotta do it again

[dchomak]

@ghos

Ok, no MT-G2 or XHP50 emitters in this SK68 build, although it can easily be done (possible to run a AA sized MT-G2 as done in T10T build MT-G2 Thrunite T10T Ti "Micro Sunbeam" - Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts - BudgetLightForum.com)

Instead, in this build, I am focusing on turning a cheap and budget ZTF light into something actually useful and a daily carry that can be used for most situations.

Here is the end product

I’ve always been interested in ZTF (Zoom to flood) lights, as they have the advantage of a high spotless flood for area work and a focused thrower beam that can be switched on the go.

Unfortunately, ZTF lights tend to lose a lot of light efficiency due to the aspherics, a lot of light is lost to the side of the light (unlike reflectors or TIR, which “collects” the light from the side and throws it out the front), especially when the light is zoomed out, losses of 50% or more is not uncommon

Enter the SK68, one of the most iconic and recognised cheap and budget lights, with its many clones, this light cost probably like 8 dollars?

I happend to have one SK68 lying around, concidentally, this particular SK68 happens to be the very first light I bought years ago when I got into this hobby, so it has a sentimental value as well… it was collecting dust on my table, hence, it was time to “revive” it

First, begin the stripping of anodizing, the light came with cheap anodizing and was peeling, most anodizing can be striped by using drain cleaners (look for sodium hydroxide), it chemically reacts with aluminium to remove the anodizing, it took me 15 minutes (wear rubber gloves, you do NOT want to touch any of the liquid)

The light is then progressively cross sanded with 500, 800, 1000 and 1500 grit sandpaper, followed by polishing with autosol, the result is a mirror finishing of the original light, only some original tool marks were left

SK68s, compared with SK98 (18650 version), has a smaller useful flood, due to the smaller lens and further distance of the lens to the LED, also, due to the smaller lens, small LEDs with high surface brightness must be used, while big LEDs like XML or even XPG will work, the SK68 shines when small LEDs like XPE2 or dedomed XPGs is used

So I set out to improve the available flood and increase its throw slightly, doing some rough sketches and visuals, I figured that I could file off about 2-3mm of the top of the pill so that the sliding head can slide closer to the led, thus improving flood, concidentally, the driver itself took up almost 3mm of space at the bottom, causing the pill to fill up the gap when screwed in tight, thus equalizing the space used for sliding, the result, the LED is now closer to the lens.

I inserted a rubber o-ring on the outside and a glow o-ring in the inside of the head so that when the head is screwed in, makes the head protrude out slightly, increasing its throw slightly (it eats into the flood improvement above, but the net gain is still good), the graphic shows the before and after as well as simulated beam shots

The original AA driver was removed and replaced with a 8 x 7135 105c Guppydrv driver, giving it a total of 3a, the driver does not fit, so I insulated parts of the driver on the underside and taped the driver to the pill with electric tape

Unfortunately, like many SK68s, mine came with a hollow pill, I put thermal cubes into the void and stacked copper discs till it was flush with the “hole”. The thermal cubes are elastic, and hence provide a “springy” bed to press the star against

A noctigon star was cut to fit into the 15mm of space in the pill and press fitted into the pill, pictured here is with a XPE2 dedomed for testing

After testing with the XPE2, while it throws really well, its flood mood is very dim, and the flood beam is VERY weird, with many black zones in the beam, in essence, a very ugly beam.
I reflowed the new osram square 4000k 92 cri to the star, at 3a, it should be able to put out about 500-700 lumens? to prevent artifacts in the beam, I put a sandpaper “gasket” on top of the LED, as well as blacktaping ALL shiny surfaces in the head

To improve throw, the osram was dedomed by slicing it with a sharp knife. I sliced it as close as I could and left it there (no more spare to risk)

As with all my light, I very much prefer forward clicky switches, it was a PITA to get the original reverse clicky switch out, and I wrecked the plastic gasket trying to get the switch out.

Fortunately, the gasket was not needed, the forward clicky will fit with a little filing and rounding of the switch’s square profile, one of the leads at the switch must be insulated as it makes contact with the tail, insulate the spring side of the switch

Finally, the light is ready to go, next to the MT-G2 T10T
I replaced the original tail clip with the tail clip from the T10T, it is much better and does not “rip” your pants like the original clip does

The flood beam is very uniform, MUCH better then the original beam that came with the light (forgot to take before modding)
The zoom pattern is like an “H”, projecting the die pattern of the osram

Also, because the dome was sliced, there is little if no tint shift, resulting in high cri light, both flood and zoom!! Imagine a high cri spot beam

Thanks for reading!!

There is a space between the width colon statement and the percentage number for each pic. I removed that in this quote to see if the pics will now display on my iPad

EDIT:
That didn’t work, but I now realize that you are linking directly to another site. That is not a good idea, best to upload the pictures to photobucket or other like site and link to your pictures there.

[power911]

omg that extra shiny SK68 so pretty.

I should consider getting one of these osram. Where to get one?

[ghos]

[quote=dchomak]

@ghos

There is a space between the width colon statement and the percentage number for each pic. I removed that in this quote to see if the pics will now display on my iPad

EDIT:
That didn’t work, but I now realize that you are linking directly to another site. That is not a good idea, best to upload the pictures to photobucket or other like site and link to your pictures there.

Hmm I will test it on my ipad, the other site is my personal host and I host all my flashlight related stuffs there… I have a forum but its no longer in use… weird, i checked the HTML it check outs… might have to check my apache logs to see why the images aren’t loading

[ghos]

@power911

omg that extra shiny SK68 so pretty.

I should consider getting one of these osram. Where to get one?

I got my osram from rs-components from my country, you can go to the rs component from your country (if it has one) and search for “GW CSSRM1.CC-MQMS-5L7N-1”, I see there are options for 2700k, 4000k, 5700k as well, for mine they sell in packs of 5, you’ll need to reflow them yourself, it fits on a XPG-sized star, but bear in mind they are slightly smaller then the XPG so there will be a small 5-10% gap

See this excellent review from djozz : New Osram Oslon Square, testing a 4000K 92CRI typ. emitter

[ahirshy]

The problem is with your image hosting provider’s (edchub.com) DNS records.

Some DNS are resolving, whilst others do not.
When I use Tor (which routes via different countries) I can see the images. Locally, either through my ISP or mobile operator, they are unreachable.

This also explains why there is a difference between devices, countries and users:

[hank]

ZTF (Zoom to flood)

Huh, my zoomies all go “flood to zoom” — I’ve been using them backwards (grin)

Have you tried just cutting a bit off the slidey part, on the end opposite the lens? Someone suggested shortening that to let the lens come closer to the emitter — that has worked fine for me on several of these lights, getting a markedly bigger flood with no other issues. (If I cut off too much, an O-ring on the battery tube makes a nice rubber bumper stop so the lens doesn’t land on the emitter)

[power911]

@ghos

@power911

omg that extra shiny SK68 so pretty.

I should consider getting one of these osram. Where to get one?

I got my osram from rs-components from my country, you can go to the rs component from your country (if it has one) and search for “GW CSSRM1.CC-MQMS-5L7N-1”, I see there are options for 2700k, 4000k, 5700k as well, for mine they sell in packs of 5, you’ll need to reflow them yourself, it fits on a XPG-sized star, but bear in mind they are slightly smaller then the XPG so there will be a small 5-10% gap

See this excellent review from djozz : New Osram Oslon Square, testing a 4000K 92CRI typ. emitter

Thanks so much for the recommendation of rs components.
I’m glad they have them and the price is extra reasonable

ah mann, sadly they were unable to sell in low amounts
but still thanks for the links

[DanielM]

Great mod, turning useless into beauty.

[ghos]

@hank

ZTF (Zoom to flood)

Huh, my zoomies all go “flood to zoom” — I’ve been using them backwards (grin)

Have you tried just cutting a bit off the slidey part, on the end opposite the lens? Someone suggested shortening that to let the lens come closer to the emitter — that has worked fine for me on several of these lights, getting a markedly bigger flood with no other issues. (If I cut off too much, an O-ring on the battery tube makes a nice rubber bumper stop so the lens doesn’t land on the emitter)

Hmm i’m not sure what the actual term is, I just use it :bigsmile:

I’ve attempted something like that on my cofly zoomie, unfortunately, while that increases flood, it essentially kills the zoom as it gives even less room for the head to slide, so the max zoom now becomes unfocused

The only way to increase the flood further without killing the zoom is to either use a lathe to bore out the inside part of the sliding head (the part where it “stops” the head from sliding out further), or vice versa to file off the pill, where the bottom lip below the o-ring makes contact with the head, this let the head slide further from the pill, in retain the zoom and to let it go closer to the lens, basically to increase the travel

[ghos]

I bought 5 of them at one go, thats the minimum quantity needed to purchase, being local, they did next day delivery via courier, their customer service is good as well

5 is good since that lets you mod up to 3 lights (with 2 for spare for “accidents”)

I used one to make this SK68, 3 for v10r triple and the remaining one for the T10T initial led before switching to the MT-G2

@power911

@ghos

@power911

omg that extra shiny SK68 so pretty.

I should consider getting one of these osram. Where to get one?

I got my osram from rs-components from my country, you can go to the rs component from your country (if it has one) and search for “GW CSSRM1.CC-MQMS-5L7N-1”, I see there are options for 2700k, 4000k, 5700k as well, for mine they sell in packs of 5, you’ll need to reflow them yourself, it fits on a XPG-sized star, but bear in mind they are slightly smaller then the XPG so there will be a small 5-10% gap

See this excellent review from djozz : New Osram Oslon Square, testing a 4000K 92CRI typ. emitter

Thanks so much for the recommendation of rs components.
I’m glad they have them and the price is extra reasonable

ah mann, sadly they were unable to sell in low amounts
but still thanks for the links

[ghos]

Perhaps there is something wrong with my server’s upstream provider, I know they were messing around with their DNS servers a few days back (they did an ip change), this might have caused some of the records to not propagate correctly yet

In any case, will drop my host an email regarding the issue, thanks for the heads up!

@ahirshy

The problem is with your image hosting provider’s (edchub.com) DNS records.

Some DNS are resolving, whilst others do not.
When I use Tor (which routes via different countries) I can see the images. Locally, either through my ISP or mobile operator, they are unreachable.

This also explains why there is a difference between devices, countries and users:

[ghos]

Ok, I’ve re-uploaded it to another server, its running on a separate network and separate isp, should be able to view now while the other server is being cleared up

@twin towers

I can’t see photos

[JohnnyMac]

I wish I could see what you did. DNSreports.com doesn't even show any results for edchub.com. As fr as they can see it doesn't even exist. NSLookup shows an IP address though (111.221.44.235) for the domain. Really odd. You need to lose edchub and host your pics at Flickr or something.

[ghos]

Try again? Its been edited

@JohnnyMac

I wish I could see what you did. DNSreports.com doesn’t even show any results for edchub.com. As fr as they can see it doesn’t even exist. NSLookup shows an IP address though (111.221.44.235) for the domain. Really odd. You need to lose edchub and host your pics at Flickr or something.

[djozz]

Nice mod, and with a great emitter! It so appears that the 92CRI Nichia 219C is not going to be produced after all, that leaves this Osram led the best performer in the 90+ CRI category.

[ghos]

Yes its a really versatile emitter, I actually found out about this emitter through your brilliant osram review thread, when I saw that there was finally a worthy competitor to the high cri field apart from a Nichia I was all but excited

If its not sliced, the shape of the projected die is actually circular, but for sake of throw, had to slice it, might try putting it back and doing a comparision

@djozz

Nice mod, and with a great emitter! It so appears that the 92CRI Nichia 219C is not going to be produced after all, that leaves this Osram led the best performer in the 90+ CRI category.

[MRsDNF]

Sweet mods and thanks for showing us, well some of us.

[JohnnyMac]

@ghos

Try again? Its been edited

@JohnnyMac

I wish I could see what you did. DNSreports.com doesn't even show any results for edchub.com. As fr as they can see it doesn't even exist. NSLookup shows an IP address though (111.221.44.235) for the domain. Really odd. You need to lose edchub and host your pics at Flickr or something.

Nice on the fix. Awesome job on the light! Pretty darned impressive!