The Accidental Nichia: Securitying(SRK) 6 x Nichia 219

This is a mod I really hadn't planned on doing.

I had a Securitying 6 x XML with the driver modded like in Comfychair's thread. It's a nice light. Then an emitter went out. I reflowed another. No dice. The trace was fried. I repaired it with copper braid, but then the center emitter died.

Okay then. That's enough of that.

I hadn't done anything with Nichias for a while, so I decided on a quickie mod using 12 or 14mm aluminum stars. Then I remembered that it put out 2A per emitter which might be a little high for aluminum.

I guess I'll have to go sinkpad. The 16mm stars are too big, so I'll have to grind them down. This is where the simple mod became a project. I didn't mind though. Once you get into it, you enter into a kind of Zen state, trying to achieve modding nirvana.

What's this? A really feeble attempt at a heat sink?

No. I just needed to glue something on the back that solder would stick to.

There was a hole directly under the center emitter. I was going to ignore it and let the sinkpad carry the heat to the surrounding area, but I knew Comfychair would post an arrow pointing at a tube of JB Weld.

I didn't have any JB Weld, so I put a few drops of Kester liquid flux into the hole with some pieces of solder. I scrunched up some tag ends of copper braid and hammered them into the hole, added more flux and hit it with a hot iron and solder. I really got it smokin'.

Then I sanded down the whole mess until there was no hole.

Next I had to grind down the sinkpads.

Why didn't anyone tell me those sanding drums take down copper really nicely. I thought they were only for wood. They're easier to use with a dremel than the grinding stones, and they don't leave burrs.

I went into Zen mode and sanded away until I thought they were about right. It was hard to tell without the emitters, so I reflowed the Nichias on and had a look.

Not quite right. Removed the emitters and did some more grinding, then reflowed them back on.

I tried the centering discs that convert XPG to XML reflectors, but the emitter holes in the reflector are larger than normal, so they slid around.

I discovered that they popped right into the middle of the stock isolators, so I used them until I could get the emitters centered and glued down.

With the reflector upside down, I arranged the Fujik coated Sinkpads onto the emitter holes. Everything was wobbly and shifting. The Nichias dont seem to snap into the discs tightly like the XPG's do. I need to make sure there were two exposed holes for the retaining screws to hold the reflector tight.

I eyeballed the two holes through the emitter plate as I carefully lowered it down onto the Sinkpads. Once it was in place, I prayed, then I tightened down the screws

I let the Fujik cure for a few days. Hopefully, after the emitters are glued, I can remove the stock centering discs and the reflector will automatically center on the XPG discs when the screws are in place.

When I tested it, one emitter was out. I had to twist off the sinkpad and reflow another, then get it centered again with the others. I told you this originally started out as a quickie mod. ...zen mode.
All wired up with 26AWG 7 strand teflon wire. It's really nice wire, but tricky to strip.
Since I had twelve wires and only one color, I had to pay close attention.
I bridged all the pads with copper. I don't think it does anything, but I did it anyway.
Positive and negative bundles were soldered onto their respective pads.
I tested the driver with a battery and...nothing. I touched the leads to the wire bundles and got light.
Hmmmm.
I removed the negative copper pad and tried the bundle directly...nothing. What is going on here!
You idiot!!! It has a momentary switch. It won't work if you don't press it. I do that every time. Moron.
Yes it works! And it is beautiful.
This is the light you really want when taking a walk through the woods or along the shore of a lake. Six Nichia emitters really fill that Hi CRI hunger. You just want to eat it up.
My accidental Nichia
Ceiling shot of 6 x Nichia Securitying vs 3 x XML Securitying.

Awesome job!!! :party:

Gosh, that's beautiful beam pattern. Sometimes the trials just make a light better. Congrats man.

Nice finish to a stubborn mod. l'm surprised no hammers were involved.

Nice…isn’t that the driver you can pull the MCU and piggyback a OSHPark ATtiny board for more options?

Way cool though…alot of cool soldering…great job

Thanks guys. I actually enjoyed doing the work on this mod. Discovering that those Dremel sanding drums grind down copper fast, with smooth control will make future mods easier.

Its funny how this hobby has made me more patient person. A year ago, when everything was glued down and I found one emitter was dead, I would have been cursing and throwing things around. Now I don't react at all. I just look at it and say, "I'll have to fix that tomorrow". There's nothing on a flashlight that can't be fixed.

I also forgot to mention that I had previously copper braided all the springs.

Billiant and I’m already drooling!!!

Very cool mod. I have done a few of the 6x SRK’s with sinkpads and boy is that a pain in the back side. Sanding Drum? Good idea. Thanks for the pics and it’s looking like a nice rosy color. I know these nichia emitters pretty good now and they do have a great tint that really doesn’t tell the whole story at all when white wall hunting.

Outside they really make the colors just pop out at you don’t they?

Nice mod!

Great mod! There is only one thing giving more beautiful light than a Nichia 92CRI : 7 of those! And I mean that quite seriously, if it is that bright, it is a pleasant type of light that is not like something you have experienced before.

very nice mod!