What did you mod today?

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

Someone said a mod is a mod, right? So today was not a flashlight day but still a project on the lathe involving titanium and bronze and aluminum.

I got a Benjamin Steel Eagle Pellet gun a couple of weeks ago. What with my neck and shoulder issues the break barrel is a bit tough to deal with repeatedly so I decided to modify it. I removed the barrel shroud and silencer, made a new adapter to step up to bull barrel size out of silicone manganese bronze and cut the shroud down to fit onto another adapter threaded to the end of the barrel from the same bronze. Then I made a Titanium tube to screw onto the bronze barrel adapter and threaded the end for the factory silencer, modified the silencer to thread into the ti tube. The net gain is a titanium 1” barrel that adds 5” to the length of the barrel making it much easier to break the barrel to cock it.

This is a .22 caliber pellet rifle that uses the new gas piston technology to propel the pellet between 700 and 1000 fps depending on the pellet used. (as clocked by me on a chronograph) About 21-26 lbs ft. of energy which is plenty to knock the pesky squirrels clean out a tree!

In the process of getting this up and running, I upgraded to a 3-9x 40mm AO Hammers scope and a Weaver one piece picatinny mount. Seems to pretty much be a tack driver so far.

After a lot of testing with some 9 different pellets, it likes the H&N Barracuda Extreme Hunter hollow point at 18.52 gr.

So now you see what I’ve been doing that’s kept me away from lights. (not that I haven’t still made a few lights, but you know…)

[steel_1024]

Complete steps:
” Modified Nitecore EC4 with Naichia 144 LED 5700K R9050”:Modified Nitecore EC4 with Naichia 144 LED 5700K R9050

Nitecore EC4

All parts after dismantling

TA driver, 2-ounce copper process, 17mm x 0.8mm
NarsilM V1.3 firmware

two blue LED, to be used as a power indicator
both buttons available and have the same function

Nichia 144 Series 6V LED, 5700K, R9050

smart now, test first
Made a simple test platform, tested successfully

weld the wire and prepare for assembly

new driver sealed in the original circuit mezzanine

the other side

install the switch, and solder the wiring

blue LED brightness settings very low, can reduce power consumption
In addition to indicating that the power is on and indicating the location of the flashlight in a dark environment

Orange peel cup

Moonlight

colors look good

[Hemionline]

Underwater Kinetics Q40 mini eled, modded by XP-E Amber

[ZozzV6]

Heat colored my Astrolux MF02 Stainless steel bezel:

[KawiBoy1428]

[quote=ZozzV6]
Heat colored my Astrolux MF02 Stainless steel bezel:

Pretty SWEET! :+1:

[g_damian]

Put together Jaxman E2L, triple XP-L HI V2 4500K, gold illuminated tailcap and Bistro HD driver. It draws ~10A at startup, so around 3000lm.

Album with pictures

Build process: kaidomain’s PCB has to be filled to fit the host, also their optics has too big legs and they have to be trimmed. Added fatter oring between bezel and the glass. I was surprised by throwiness of kaidomain’s optics, seems to be different (more clear) than carclo 10507:

[PrestonEDC]

My first mod:

I removed 4 of the 7135 chips from my Convoy S2+ in an attempt to get a dimmer low, and a cooler (less warm in hand) high mode. But more than that, I just wanted to see if I could pull it off and notice the difference in the output!

I’ve since added the Convoy illuminated tailcap, but I find it too dim to be noticeable with the steel-type tailswitch button:

Maybe I can change the factory SMD resistor values on the tailswitch to increase brightness?

[luminarium_iaculator]

@DB Custom

Someone said a mod is a mod, right? So today was not a flashlight day but still a project on the lathe involving titanium and bronze and aluminum.

I got a Benjamin Steel Eagle Pellet gun a couple of weeks ago. What with my neck and shoulder issues the break barrel is a bit tough to deal with repeatedly so I decided to modify it. I removed the barrel shroud and silencer, made a new adapter to step up to bull barrel size out of silicone manganese bronze and cut the shroud down to fit onto another adapter threaded to the end of the barrel from the same bronze. Then I made a Titanium tube to screw onto the bronze barrel adapter and threaded the end for the factory silencer, modified the silencer to thread into the ti tube. The net gain is a titanium 1” barrel that adds 5” to the length of the barrel making it much easier to break the barrel to cock it.

This is a .22 caliber pellet rifle that uses the new gas piston technology to propel the pellet between 700 and 1000 fps depending on the pellet used. (as clocked by me on a chronograph) About 21-26 lbs ft. of energy which is plenty to knock the pesky squirrels clean out a tree!

In the process of getting this up and running, I upgraded to a 3-9x 40mm AO Hammers scope and a Weaver one piece picatinny mount. Seems to pretty much be a tack driver so far.

After a lot of testing with some 9 different pellets, it likes the H&N Barracuda Extreme Hunter hollow point at 18.52 gr.

So now you see what I’ve been doing that’s kept me away from lights. (not that I haven’t still made a few lights, but you know…)

I like it very much. :+1:
I am also into this hobby and I can say after changing several types of PCP rifles that I like and prefer classic break barrel(springers, gas ram) rifles over PCP anytime.

I hate pumping with stirrup pump and other reason is that I can’t get any air for fill station and third is that PCP requires a lot more of fiddling, fine tuning, additional equipment and money. You can buy very, very fine rimfire for that money and just shoot and enjoy in power and accuracy strait out of the box.

If air rifle than my vote goes to break barrel type(gas,spring,nitro piston).

[VrestoTaylor]

@g_damian

Put together Jaxman E2L, triple XP-L HI V2 4500K, gold illuminated tailcap and Bistro HD driver. It draws ~10A at startup, so around 3000lm.

Album with pictures

Build process: kaidomain’s PCB has to be filled to fit the host, also their optics has too big legs and they have to be trimmed. Added fatter oring between bezel and the glass. I was surprised by throwiness of kaidomain’s optics, seems to be different (more clear) than carclo 10507:

no spacer needed?
i use this same KD triple and very soon all wires are disolved….the mcpcb is not good material or this 10 amp…only the one from intloutdoor sadly…

[Dutcheee]

@CRX

Changed the reverse clicky in the brass kubatan to a forward clicky.

Installed a 10507 optic and magnetic tail in my brass triple Nichia 18350 light.
These are 2mm x 2mm magnets, 25 of them. It was not too easy a task :laughing:

Previously the light was a mule.

Nice one! What fwd clicky did you use? They are hard to find in a somewhat small formfactor.

[g_damian]

@vresto

no spacer needed?
i use this same KD triple and very soon all wires are disolved….the mcpcb is not good material or this 10 amp…only the one from intloutdoor sadly…

did you trim too long legs of optics? kaidomain’s mcpcbs are only 1mm, legs have to be adjusted.

What wires do you use? Mine are from intl-outdoor 22 awg, so far, so good.

[VrestoTaylor]

well i used the one soldered on fet driver:))
optic is the same from kd…

[CRX]

@Dutcheee

Nice one! What fwd clicky did you use? They are hard to find in a somewhat small formfactor.

These , disguised as reverse clickies

[djozz]

Today a mod that gave me one of my best flashlights ever (but not perfect of course )

Yesterday I received a Sofirn SP33 single26650tubestyle flashlight and I could not believe how nice it was, I love the design, it is built very solid and as vestureofblood already noticed in his video-review this form and size feels incredibly gooood in the hand. I even do not mind that it is somewhat bigger than my DQG26650, it looks better and has more to offer (like a proper beam that goes a distance instead of a wide flood). The UI is ok but not perfect (1100 lumen high, the low, 16 lumen, should be lower of course and has no direct access from off, and I’m not too fond of memory), can’t notice PWM, the used XP-L has a very nice neutral tint, the beam from the perfect smooth reflector is as perfect as an XP-L can produce.
This is a proper flashlight!

Today I got the 4000K 90+ CRI Samsung LH351D leds from BLF-member AEDe. After a jubilant report about this led from maukka, and remembering TA’s very promising test of another version of the LH351D I wanted to use it in the SP33.

Of course you loose considerable output when going high CRI, so to compensate it somewhat the SP33 got some extra modifications:

*as said, the XP-L led was swapped for the Samsung. I found the stock MCPCB to be DTP so I used it again (Dale in his review of the SP33 said that his stock board was non-DTP)
*ledwire thickness went up to 20AWG
*0.1Ohm was soldered parallel to the .068 Ohm current limiting resistor (=not a sensing resistor as Dale mentioned in his review)
*both springs were bypassed. Managed to break open the tail cap btw, it was a tough job, a kind of hard golden coloured rosin was in the threads, not normal threadlock.
*the switch button did not engage the switch very well, had to press deep and hard to get contact, so I lengthened the switch a bit by letting a drop of Norland-64 UV-harden on top of it.

Result: this my new favorite camping light, everything said about this led is true: output very good, tint great, CRI wonderful, beam in a smooth reflector great (one of the best ever with little tint shift and certainly better than the beam from the stock XP-L).
Current is now 3.8A on high, output 950 lumen at 30 seconds, very useful numbers for this size flashlight. The output stepdown at 5 minutes from the SP33 driver is appropriate.

I’m sorry to not have taken pictures from the modding steps, will do better next time

[ZozzV6]

@ZozzV6

I modded my Skilhunt H03 earlier with Andúril and a Fet+1 driver.
But I couldn’t make the switch indicator led run so I soldered two blue leds between switch legs and they draw 0,2mA current so it is good for me. They are always on except when button is presed. And don’t mess with the firmware at all. On the left it is the stock red led. Maybe later I will use it for something.

Now I found the problem with goshdogit’s help.
I uploaded an Andúril which hex made for Emisar D1 and therefore it doesn’t control the indicator led. So I changed to the Q8’s Andúril hex and modded the switch board a little.
Cutted the red led trace to put there a 4,7K resistor and now it is working both two blue leds soldered to the switch and the red controlled by firmware.


The blue leds are always on except when switch is pressed. The red led controlled by Anduril so I can set off-low-high mode separately to flashlight’s OFF and Locked status.
I set mine that way:

After that picture was made I changed the lockout red level to low so it looks the same as On state 7135 only.
Now I only need to look at the switch and if I see red in it I know it is locked.
The parasitic drain and standby times are:

OFF/ Lockout is the same results.
Blue always on

red off: 0.174 mA /Aspire 18350: 311 days /Sanyo 18650GA: 838 days
red low: 0.224 mA /Aspire 18350: 240 days /Sanyo 18650GA: 651 days
red high: 0.596 mA /Aspire 18350: 90 days /Sanyo 18650GA: 244 days

[NeutralFan]

@djozz

I’m sorry to not have taken pictures from the modding steps, will do better next time

Sometimes it’s hard to stop and take pictures when you’re having fun!

[goshdogit]

@ZozzV6

Heat colored my Astrolux MF02 Stainless steel bezel:

Very nice! :heart_eyes: I may need to try this on one of my Q8 bezels.

Can you share a bit about your technique?

Also good to hear you got your H03 with Andúril running properly. :+1:

[ZozzV6]

@goshdogit

Can you share a bit about your technique?

Thanks!
I want to make the most color so I put in the gas fire like you see on top right pic until it started to glow. Than rotated to the opposite side. I putted it in the fire where the bezel has ha bumps. So heated it on 6 sides. Next time I try to rotete the C8 bezel to get even color circles.

[HarleyQuin]

@djozz

Yesterday I received a Sofirn SP33 single26650tubestyle flashlight and I could not believe how nice it was, I love the design, it is built very solid and as vestureofblood already noticed in his video-review this form and size feels incredibly gooood in the hand.

+1
That was my first thought when I held this one two days ago. Closest I had up to now was the Ultrafire F13 (longer, and clicky light) but this one feels juuuuuuuust… right. Got it dirt cheap from Sofirn during the Aliexpress anniversary sale and I’m really glad I took it.

Good mode spacing, nice tint, protected 26650 fit well. It’s even a good light out of the box.
But the driver has… say… potential. I really want a ramping firmware on that one.

[djozz]

@HarleyQuin

@djozz

Yesterday I received a Sofirn SP33 single26650tubestyle flashlight and I could not believe how nice it was, I love the design, it is built very solid and as vestureofblood already noticed in his video-review this form and size feels incredibly gooood in the hand.

+1
That was my first thought when I held this one two days ago. Closest I had up to now was the Ultrafire F13 (longer, and clicky light) but this one feels juuuuuuuust… right. Got it dirt cheap from Sofirn during the Aliexpress anniversary sale and I’m really glad I took it.

Good mode spacing, nice tint, protected 26650 fit well. It’s even a good light out of the box.
But the driver has… say… potential. I really want a ramping firmware on that one.

With a ramping driver you do throw away what seems real current controlled modes: in the stock driver I can not detect PWM at all, and that I see the led tint shifting with every mode change also supports that.
And current control is always highly valued by flashoholics, only a few tint snobs dislike it because of the tint shift.