What did you mod today?

Are those glued to the heat sink? Or does the reflector keep the mcpcb’s in place? Nice solder connections, I have to work on getting them cleaner.

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The reflector is screwed into place through a hole in the shelf. You can see the screw in the picture with the old XM-L2 LEDs. The screw is tightened from the driver side and really secures the MCPCBs onto the shelf.

Here are some pics on the driver side (and the screw) and the old reflector:

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Wow that is some serious spaghetti

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519a 5700k DD in a TS26

HUUUUUUGE improvement!

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Nice! I just DD some 519a 5700k in one of my FW3A lights that I was gonna swap emitters on. I’m keeping them in. Very close to 4500 in my eyes.

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Yeah. My other light that has a DD 5700k read at 4800k on my Opple (so take that with a grain of salt lol)

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I just ordered some 5700K 519As for my FW3A since I can’t stand the low CRI and tint of the XP-L HIs anymore. I think I will slice them instead of DD since I already have an S2+ triple with them DD.

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I did a revival of this old light I bought back in April 2011 from cnqualitygoods.
I believe this was one of the first 26650 flashlights at the time.
It came with an xml and something like a 1.4amp driver.
It never worked properly.

Everything is off standard. Tailswitch board, driver diameter etc.

Fast forward 15 years, I ended up modifying a 20mm to 17mm brass driver adapter ring to barely fit into the gigantic brass pill, and flowed it into place on my hot plate using about 4 feet of solder. Lol.

Modified the switch board and replaced the switch. I had to use some nylon spacers so the tailcap would support a better switch.
Added a new spring and bypass.

Installed a fet driver.

Soldered in an LHP531 and viola!

New breath of life for a classic old host.

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That’s a neat host. Like a 26650 M21B.

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Funny, I never thought about that until you mentioned it.
It definitely does.

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My older boy came to me the other day with a request. Dad, could you make the switch to be lit? Both kids got T8 with SFT-25R 5000K. I was honestly impressed with those.

Sure, why not. Not much of a hassle. Until I remebered how that went down with my T6. Light started acting funky and would come on on the lowest setting and when halfpressed the button it would switch to medium power and stay there until turned off, it s8mply wouldn’t switch modes anymore. So obviously the boost/buck driver is having issues with the lighted switch. Well, I have bunch of 17mm drivers on hand so decided to swap it for an 8A buck driver. The original driver doesn’t have a spring, it has a small brass post. Desoldered that

And removed the spring from the 8A buck

So I could solder the brass post on to the “new” driver. Also applied a small blob of solder paste prior to doing so then heated it up and centered it

And voilà, it works as it should wit all the levels



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Also found a noname 7070 led on ali with a round die and 18A drive current. Went for the 3000K

So put it in the L21A with a 20A buck driver

So far it works good but im waiting for the battery to charge and the night to fall.

The downside is the copper mcpcb is bent from stamping so when mounting it it’s a bitch to tighten the screws, keep it centered and not strip the threads.

Edit:

I can’t for the love of me, center this thing right. Once I get it done, it will probably look just fine.

XM-MR 5700k on the right.

Edit 2:

Both 50Pl fully charged




Compared to XM-MR with a “12A” FET driver this rig gets hot fast and puts out way less ligh although it’s apples to oranges with 5700K Vs 3000K.

Might try the same driver XM-MR is running off and kill one for the sake of science :rofl:

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From the photo it looks like you’ve got a red lighted switch–these lower Vf colors are known for this issue and require a resistor swap to reduce the current. Did you experience the same problem with higher Vf colors (blue, white, pink, purple)?

Its a RGB switch

I see, that makes sense. The red part draws too much current, and I find the blue part almost invisibly dim.

I don’t think my 10yo really cares :wink:

Also in my other lights those RGB switches work just fine with with pretty much equal intensity.

Thanks for the info! I just tested my RGB switch with 4 drivers: 3V 5A buck, 3V 8A buck, 3V 5A linear, and 6V 5A boost. All of them have a much, much dimmer blue than the other colors. I wonder what’s different between our 8A buck setups…I’ve got it in a C8 SFT25R.

Perception maybe. Never paid any attention to this matter to be honest.

I crammed 3x FFL909A 4000ks into a Convoy 3x21A with a Convoy 3x21B reflector. Machined a spacer by drilling and soldering 40mm and 50mm copper blanks together and then soldering mutliple 9090 MCPCBs to it. Lots of trial and error for questionable results, but it kept me busy and was fun.







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Holy smokes. That’s awesome! Nice work.