What did you mod today?

Received a Securitying 1xAA flashlight from Amazon today.

Initial impressions:

  • It’s a bit smaller than an SK68. Slightly longer than the Sipik 58 I recently modded, but thinner in the body.
  • Anodizing looks superb. Best anodizing I’ve seen yet in a 1xAA cheapie zoomie light. Very even matte colored black. Not glossy like SK68s. Still probably type II though so I expect it will wear quickly. The silkscreen writing “Securitying” on the side is extremely sharp and crisp. Well done.
  • This is a twist zoomie. Focal length was way too long for the zoom mechanism too. Flood mode was fine… very even and wide. However, the bezel doesn’t extend far enough to get a focused spot mode.
  • Driver is tiny: It’s only about 13mm or so. And when I opened it up that was just a contact plate. Actual boost driver inside is maybe 10 or 11mm. Driver wires were tiny.
  • Star is maybe 12 or 13mm aluminum. It’s not the usual thin star though. This one is as thick as a Noctigon.
  • Hollow pill: Good thing the star is so thick as the pill is hollow. There’s a partial shelf for the star to sit only. It’s maybe 3mm deep, so much wider than the ledge on a typical hollow pill… but this is still a hollow pill.
  • Emitter appears to be a CREE XPE2 (or maybe Latticebright equivalent…. I didn’t look too closely at it).
  • Entire light is manufacturer rated for just 100 lumens on 1xAA, and it was probably producing less than that. Output was quite dim. It got brighter on 14500, but as expected, running it on 14500 instantly burned out the boost circuit. It still worked, but only on 14500.

Did a quick and dirty mod to this light tonight:

  • Replaced stock driver with 15mm 3.0 amp, 3-mode driver I had laying around. Had to modify the pill so the driver can fit. Driver floats below the pill, but the light came with a bent c-ring for driver connection which fits between the pill and the driver. Driver installation was much easier than I expected it would be with zero connection issues.
  • Upgraded to thicker driver wire.
  • Replaced emitter with a 4000K XPL HI 4C I had laying around. Didn’t want to spend time filing down a 16mm Noctigon so I just reflowed it into the stock star.
  • Solder braided the tailcap.
  • Since it didn’t focus anyways, Just for fun I decided to swap in a glass lens I got several years ago. This is an 18mm aspheric lens with 15mm focal length, AR coated from Thorlabs. Unfortunately, the lens is weird… it actually has 2 focal lengths. A spot in the center of the lens has a separate focal length from the rest of the lens, making it rather useless for maximum throw. In this “quick-n-dirty” mod it’s fine though. Gives a very bright even flood mode. And in spot mode… well, one of the focal zones is in focus.

I’m still evaluating this light for possible modification to LED Lenser style optic like I did with my recent SK58 mod . Doing that mod on this light would be much more difficult than what I did tonight, but it might be worth it. Comparing my modded SK58 to tonight’s mod is like night and day. The SK58 is brighter in flood mode and enormously brighter and throwier in spot mode. Those LED Lenser optics are a lot more efficient than aspherics.