Tear down of the UF F13 from GearBest

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Here's a video showing a little about the light and some of the breakdown of it. Also a bunch of meaningless dribble that eats up your time.

So, as I said in the video, a simple mod would be an XM-L2 on a Copper star and a 3-4 amp driver. Add Copper braid to the springs and you're all set for a nice bright light.

Of course, you can do mods to the stock driver if you wish, but I will let others here chime in and tell how to do it correctly.

Here's a photo of the stock driver.

f131a

From what I understand, you can use a pencil or a resistor on top of the capacitor (highlighted in BLUE), to remove next mode memory. As far as a mod for higher amps?? I don't know. I thought you might be able to shift the Positive led wire over to the spot highlighted in YELLOW, but that might make it direct drive. Someone else needs to say what really needs to be done here.

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For my mod, I am using some of the guts out of a reflex/recoil light and turning this light into a reflex/recoil light.

f131b

I stripped out the stock XR-E and brass pin from this reflex light housing. I inserted copper rod, (has to be cut yet), in the hole where the brass rod was. I also drilled from the side, into the center and ran copper wire into that. I will solder all that together, to make a better connection of the two.

f131c

I also soldered on a thin copper plate, where the 8mm XM-L star will sit. Hey, it's not going to be much help, but every little bit should be better than nothing.

f131d

I bored out inside the head, so the reflex/recoil housing would fit in. I also removed the led shelf, so that the bottom piece of the housing will sit down inside.

f131e

It fits together, but I cannot set the reflex/recoil housing down in enough to be flush. It's because of the body getting smaller at the ID, due to all the fins.

f131f

It will leave a sizeable gap, but I can cover that with a copper or brass ring.

f131g

The 17mm NANJG will sit into the pocket of the reflex/recoil housing and the stock driver will be a contact plate, to cover everything up.

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To be continued...

Modfail - New BLF word Laughing

2

Thanks, Old-Lumes!

3

Thank you, very clear and precise explanations.

4

Nice mod in the making :-)

Moving the led+ to the yellow blob will just bypass the array of current-limiting resistors (easily done and always a good idea with this driver), which will increase the current. This driver is direct drive with or without the resistors, on one I measured that bypassing the FET (the big component with 8 legs is a FET) increases the current much more, so this type of FET has a pretty high resistance.

5

I can’t wait to see what it does with an XML in a recoil setup, I was planning to mod mine but I broke the mirror.

6

Thanks for the video. You could see a blueish reflection of the lens in the video at different places. Good luck with your odd ball mod.

7

Oh wow…excellent review!

Let’s hope these are highly tweakable and heavily moddable…

Most importantly let’s hope it handles heat well! :smiley:

I would definitely like beam shots and to know if it’s a thrower for sure…and if it throws better with a XM-L(L2) or a XP-G(G2)

Thanks OL!

8

Well, there's not much more to tell about the mod. I "thought I had" an XM-L 8mm star, but I did Not. I did have an XP-G star, so I threw on an XP-G2 R5 on it, but I only went with 5 chips on the driver, for 1900mA. It does 1900mA, funny how that works. Anyhow, it came out as an "almost" focused square die. I dunno, I imagine it's the difference between the focus point of the XR versus the XP. I will put up an ugly beam shot sometime, but it's not really much of a light. Very odd light at that.

9

And going by your job description built by a very odd man. I see a pattern emerging here.

10

Since your now using a star (originally there wasn’t one correct? That’s how my ultrafire was) did you shorten the pillar to account for the added thickness and keep the die the correct distance from the mirror?

Did you dedome the R5?

Also, tho I don’t need to tell you this, wrap the entire “reflector” in aluminum/copper tape so it fits the body tight.

11

The XR-E was soldered to a brass pin. The head of that brass pin is just about the height of a thin aluminum star. Did I worry about the distance? Nope, the distance is different from an XR-E to an XP-G anyhow and it’s substantial, so it will not be correct and the housing can’t be changed without modification.

In order to "do it right", one would need to make a totally new one, with all the distances correct for the individual led. They are all different and need different distances to the mirror. Anyhow, it's in the filing cabinet at work, so I don't have to **** with it any more.Laughing My patience has gotten thin on doing mods. Can't think of anything interesting to do, (within the "new smaller budget"), and don't want to really screw with anything too involved any more. Kind of a love/hate relationship right now, hard to let go, but need to. I'm hoping after the contest is done, I can wean myself off this stuff... somehow.Undecided

12

For a recoil mod, it is best to use a led with narrow emission angle because of the limited mirror diameter, the xre was 90 deg half intensity, that was ok, but the xml/xpg is 120deg, so apart from the bigger die you also loose too much light. (The oslon ssl80 might be a very good choice, but at blf there is not much interest in osram leds).

13

I am interested in Osram leds. I wonder how far you can push the ssl80…
This led is also somewhat difficult to center properly sometimes, smaller than XP-G.

I put ont in a Fenix E25 with good results. To refocus on the topic. I am currently trying to mod an Ultrafire WF-008, and I have to thank Old lumens for his knowledge and pictures!

14

I tested a very high CRI ssl80 here, it is not that efficient and does not go very far (but there is a newer version of the ssl80 that I did not test), maximum is at 2.5A, but at 2A it is already 90% of max. I would only use it if advantage is taken of that specific narrow angle.

15

I find it a bit funny. When you finally get a light with proper heatsinking, no hollow pill or anything. You drill a hole in it.. :D

16

Yep, never can let things go, but since I have several more coming, those will be more normal, with XM-L2 leds and 4 amp drivers.