Well looks like I am going to learn to solder. This will be my first mod, can you post a step by step guide? Basically what terminal goes where, how to open the light?
$39.00 shipping anything anywhere this small and lightweight is way too high these days. Maybe they think most people will place a good-priced item in their cart and not even look at the shipping and handling price and just go for it.
Here is the Mod steps for this Pailide GL-037-13 with the Neutral White emitter.
- First carefully push the reflector, lens, plastic pill and driver from the front of the light head out through the back. (with thumb) and dissemble the components as seen in image # 1 below.
( Note the replacement N/W Emitter next to the original Straw-Hat generic LED & board.)
- Next unsolder & remove the original LED,( Imagte # 2) then drill two 1/16” holes roughly 1/4” apart as seen in Image # 3. Bend the tabs on side of the emitter ( # 4 and # 5)
and re-solder the driver wires to the tabs of the emitter on the otehr side of the star-board.
As the driver is only drawing 0.60 Amps and puts out only 45 to 55 Lumens, the emitter is not driven hard enough to require an aluminum or copper star, though if you with to upgrade the driver to a more powerful multi-mode boost driver (as in the 20-mode 7880 Driver) you will need to mount the emitter on a metal star for more heat dissipation. (and maybe a custom metal pill for better heat sinking)
In Picture # 2 below:
- file or sand down the base of the reflector roughly 1/16” of an inch, and drill out the opening to roughly 3/16” inch, to accommodate the larger emitter. (Image # 1. and 2.)
Re-assemble the flashlight head, ( image # 3.) (note that i placed two blobs of solder opposite of each other on the negative ring of the driver for better contact points for turning on.)
There you have it.
(image # 4)
A simple mod that costs less than 2 bucks in total to get a simple, EDC light with a great Tint, with just enough output for close range work that tail stands and not a big loss if you loose one.
For a little more time and cost a multi-mode driver can be added, for more output and modes. ( as in the 7880 driver possibly. )
If those lights are similar to some cheap AA lights I’ve modded, and if you need/want a pill instead of the plastic collar, take a look at the series of threads that ImA4Wheelr did like this one: