I cut the triple reflector to fit. Several dimensions kept it from fitting into the head of this F3X so I carved it until it went in. There was a lip at the top edge that also had to come off, standing proud of the reflective flats. Cutting this off let the aluminum shavings rub on the top flats and scratch em up, but thankfully they stayed out of the reflector cups.
I bought a bunch of flashlight kit from Justin (Old-Lumens) and this triple reflector was in the stuff. As such, I haven’t a clue where it came from.
Beam is nice, maybe a bit smaller hot spot than the factory one, but I really like how the cups are evenly cut, the emitters are on a wider radius than the original. Plus, the base of each reflector cup has a little protrusion, they left about 3mm clearance on the bottom where the OEM was flat and really tough to mod without an mcpcb that fit all 3 emitters.
I just came in from doing a little fine tuning. I beveled the bottom edge of the reflector so I can try to use teflon 20ga on the negative leads around the outer perimeter (all the Noctigons have the positive contacts at the center for a piece of copper plate to lay on them, the positive lead comes through the plate and solders on top). I also tweaked the areas that were holding the reflector up a little high, now I’ve gotten rid of a ring caused by the emitters not quite being inside the reflector enough. Now I can see the 4 flat sides on the XP-L’s, reflected in the cups.
Also cut down the brass retaining ring on the Cu pill above the driver so the big contact on the 26650 has less chance of touching. I’m using an insulator cut from a sheet of stencil material, but still, it has more play now and is surely safer. While I was at it, I put a spring bypass in at the tail.
This thing had a fixed distance convex lens and cold white circle spot for a beam.
replaced with S2 lens and OP reflector swapped 20mm board with unknown XP pull that’s warmer tint. Driver is integrated on the board running under the electric lighter. Has micro usb charge port and can be used as a USB power bank. It’s a flashlight, powerbank and lighter.
Aluminum housing was Gold anno but aI couldn’t stand it. Stripped and polished now. Installed a fully charged pulled 18650 and tried the onboard charger, led went green drawing no current. Hope it actually charges to 4.2V, no more.
Maybe y’all have heard me talk about the LiNiMnCo cell from Powerizer in the past, I got Tom E on them and he loved em, both of us wish we’d bought more while they were available… they’ve been discontinued for a couple of years. Anyway, I got the Efest 3500mAh cell charged back up and tested the F3X again, this time I got 7.06A for 2701.35 lumens, better with the reflector down onto the emitters, but still relatively low.
So I charged up one of my last remaining LiNiMnCo cells from Powerizer (Battery Space, but like I said, they no gottee). With this particular cell, the F3X pulls 9.95A and makes 3256.8 lumens. A 555 lumen increase by swapping cells! I do believe I’ll take it!
I don’t usually buy lights I can’t mod easily as I don’t have a huge need for them, and really only enjoy modding and building them. That said, I did get a Lumintop tool TI recently because I couldn’t resist the incredible price that gearbest was selling them for. I knew the head was glued and the e-switch, according to Rey, wasn’t going to handle a linear driver swap. I thought I could live with the MLH mode order, but quickly realized it just wasn’t for me.
I cracked open an Astrolux A01 and started doing some measuring. It’s a tight fit as the A01 uses a 2 board stack for the driver, and the tool uses a single board. The driver diameter of the tool is also much smaller than the A01. It look some time with a file, but I’m very happy with the result. I now have a Tool TI with the mode order I wanted and a brilliant moonlight level.
Thanks, yeah i’m just experimenting, i thought it would be cool if i can basically fit the whole light in the diffuser and have it lit up that way for compactness.
Still working on it.
If I don’t win it :disappointed: in your 1000 posts GAW, please consider if you’d be willing to make me a similar one. I really appreciate the unique personality of DIY handmade flashlights (& stuff in general) and love brass/copper (and wood) as material.
Was about to finish a 3up XP-E2 Convoy S3, but my cheap china-programmer refused to work…
Connection test gives me : “could not find USB device with vid=0x16c0 pid=0x5dc vendor=‘www.fischl.de’ product=‘USBasp’ ”
It’s strange because I didn’t change anything. Had it working on Windows 10 some days ago. Tried two different drivers, both with the above result… Don’t know if I need a new programmer or if it’s a software/driver related problem.
I have been tweaking my light canon, and I’m ALMOST at 1.5Mcd!!!
Sooo close… 61000 lux at 4.9m = 1.46Mcd…
I will post pics when I get to the magical 1.5!
Truly awesome Lux numbers, looking forward to seeing pics of the light and set up.
For what it’s worth, Canon is a registered trademark of a camera company, your use of the word would be cannon, as in long thrower. (just a bit of OCD coming through, right is right, after all)
Wouldn’t a light “cannon” project a large diameter beam, like the old aircraft search lights? Maybe I need coffee… sorry