Yup. Hoops pills are the cats pajamas.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use it on an experimental build, but then I figured with four emitters burning away it was best for a solid copper pill rather than a brass one with a copper spacer plunked on top.
Wow! Nice mod. Making that quad looked painful just reading it. Putting the “OUCH” in Ouchyfoot! :smiling_imp:
It would be nice if Banggood sold the copper boards to go with the optics they’re selling.
assembled S2+tripleXP-G3
Jewelers sell stuff called anti-flux you can put onto any area to which you really, really don’t want solder spread.
The stuff just dries out but doesn’t scorch while you’re soldering, just rebuffs any flowing flux/solder from where it’s been painted.
And it washes off in warm water after everything else is done.
Well, the quad is toast.
I saw a little flicker at work today and realized I was down to three emitter. I think the pill and optic had been screwed in and out of the head one to many times and the emitter got crushed. I had to blast the rest of it out of the optic hole with compressed air.
I tried to flow the damaged LED off its board in situ, but there’s just too much copper. I actually had the hot air reflow nozzle Right on top of the emitter, but it wouldn’t release. The wires all started falling off though.
It was nice while it lasted.
Sad…but as they say…you’ll have that from time to time
So whats plan D? 
There isn’t one. I’ll have to scratch the board and start all over again. Won’t be any time soon.
I have this black S2+ with nichia led, same as the one in BLF 348 for a few months but it always bothered me why the output is so bad even with 2.1A at the led. On my primitive ceiling bounce tests it showed 25-27lux, i expected a bit more, S1 baton on high reads 52lux on startup. Driver is some nanjg that came with 2 350mA chips plus i added 4 more.
The centering ring i had there was kinda bad so i thought lets change the setup a bit, so instead of the stock reflector with that bad centering ring i installed 25 degrees TIR optics.
Old setup:
New setup:
Now it seems a bit better, my test is not scientific so there might be some error but in the same condition as before the lux meter shows 44lux, where S1 Baton on high is 52lux, with this setup the flashlight probably produces about 400-450 OTF lumen, so i guess that centering ring managed to block good portion of the light.
Also i swapped the body with a gold one, just for laughs and i actually like it.
I Couldn't get my Convoy L2 to turn-on and stay on, modes didn't work at all, drove me up-a-wall for weeks, so I finally decided to take a look at the tail cap switch, a really good look.
After re-building/replacing the switch, it was finally alive!
Figured I might as well give it a (wire) spring bypass at the same time-
Gave the driver a (wire) spring bypass as well-
Applied thermal compound to the Noctigon, assembled, and it now turns on-and-off and cycles thru modes correctly-
Now maybe get a better driver...
BobbyMK, I’m glad you got that Nichia focused so your happy with it.
What kind of optic is that? I just got three that look just like that with the checker texturing. They may be Ledil, I’m not sure. I was going to use one today.
How is the beam profile with that optic? I was wondering if the texturing might even out the profile on a multi die RGBW. I was also thinking of a single Nichia EDC to use one on.
aL1.
Isn’t it great to get a niggling problem fixed? The best part is that while your at it, you make all kinds of other little improvements.
And I learn things as well!
Ouchyfoot, if you cut a strip from an aluminum can and wrap I around the pill and mcpcb’s with some wire(bag tie with the insulation burned off) it will restrict the floating without adhering to the solder. Works in the center hole of noctogons as well as a pin guide. I also use 1/4” copper tubing to align layers of hole saw cut discs when I want the pin guide to be a permanent part of the pill.
Thanks 
Not sure either, i got them from intl-outdoor last year for a mini maglite mod.
I haven’t had chance test it outside but it seems more flood oriented than the stock reflector, it is not perfect but good enough, when pointed to a wall you can easy see that the outter shape of the beam is pentagon shaped and it has some weird shadows ( i don’t know how to describe those) but i guess that is expected because of the texture on the top of the optics.
I tried to take a picture but not possible to show real shape of the beam on picture, but here is the best one i got.
Thanks for the tip Rufus.
I knew every step in that mod was fraught with with devastating problems. I was really surprised that I made it to the finals.
That mod involved a lot of concentration stress, so I need to let it sit for a while before I start all over again. It’ll give me time to rethink the big bicture.
Ain’t that the truth. Sometimes hindsight leads to insight but mostly just the circular file. The difficulty of soldering to aluminum has to be useful somehow. Sometimes the host itself can be used as the jig. It’s disappointing to say the least to see it go from bad to worse after so much effort was expended and it’s even harder to start over knowing what lies ahead. Clever tips don’t change that. Was this a case of not wanting to wait for the new tpad boards?
I don’t think this Manker optic has the same footprint as the Tpad. I did place it on a Tpad (without LEDs) and it appears to be off by just a hair. I’ll feel really stupid if I find out it fits fine with the emitters installed. That’s on my list before I begin again.
After seeing FMC’s SRK I thought the front looked cool. This was a really difficult mod that took about 30 seconds. :sunglasses:
Are there more detailed instructions for this? This is such a cool mod!