X6 Mod: Replacing a SST-90 with an XM-L

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hey everyone, today I’ll be sharing a small mod I did.

I had a TrustFire X6 originally with a SST-90. It was severely underdriven at 6.5A. :frowning:

So I manned up and replaced the SST-90 with an XM-L.

The star of the show (pardon the pun) was a Noctigon MCPCB:

The LED was a XM-L U2 cool white tint from FastTech.

First, I tried to dedome it, but it wasn’t too neat and somehow I blew it inside the light.

It worked for a few seconds, and when I turned it on again… well it didn’t. :~

So I decided to leave the dedoming until later until I could safely get my hands on some gasoline.

Thankfully, I was able to use the screw down mounts with this star as well:

I used some Arctic MX-4 (overkill) between the star and the heatsink.

Soldiering the leads to the PCB was pretty difficult as the copper + heatsink absorbed the heat pretty quickly.

More pics:

Without the plastic insulator:

With:

Beam profile was not too shabby, but it did have a green ring around the corona:

I’ll add some beamshots tonight. Thanks for looking!

2

Nice mod. Did you use the standard driver? You may be able to get rid off the ring by adjusting the height of the led in the reflector.

3

Yup, I used the standard driver. It’s not too bad, as it has a decent mode memory (actually works!) although the PWM frequency is distractingly low.

I’m pretty sure the LED is too low, so I need to add a copper piece under the PCB… I’m cutting a copper chunk out of an old CPU, I’ll let you know how that goes. Thanks!

4

Excellent mod,I know a member here used a reamer to open up the reflector's bottom(x7 I think)with good results.That would clean the beam up some and allow adjustment in the reflector.Great job and love to see the beamshots from this beast!

5

Nice mod. Looking forward to watching it’s progression and results. If you don’t want to cut up the old cpu, you could pound out a pre-1984 US penny and then lap it flat. Don’t know if you have any of those.

6

Thanks for the kind words, I just finished up cutting the CPU (and cleaned up some copper dust out of my eye).

I’m not sure if I have those pre-1984 copper pennies, let a penny! :stuck_out_tongue:

Unfortunately Korea doesn’t use any copper coins anymore.

A 10 Won coin, equivalent to a penny, costs more to manufacture than it is worth. It’s now a copper color coin:

The middle is silver colored and is pretty darn light, almost weightless. Not quite sure of its actual composition though.

7

Now the XM-L has died too. Epic fail. :frowning:

I guess I’ll be looking for a new driver. :party:

I think there are current spikes when the driver if first turned on…

8

It’s well-placed. Good job.
:wink:

9

Thanks, the centering was tricky, as the reflector would shift to different places whenever I screwed the head in.

10

Replace it with XM-L2, I think they can handle the high current better.

11

Got it, I just ordered some XM-L2’s, so I’ll post my results in a week or two. :slight_smile:

12

Nice! Let us know if you dedome that bad boy.

13

Will do.

Does anyone know how to get a safe amount of gasoline from a gas station?

I only need something like 200mL. :smiley:

14

Do you know anyone with a petrol lawn mower or boat? Even two stroke fuel will do the same thing.

15

No one around 20Km of here has lawns or boats unfortunately. :stuck_out_tongue:

Buildings after buildings… :smiley:

Thanks for the suggestion though!

16

What about someone with a moped/scooter/car? Ask someone to take a little in a jar or something for you. It´s no biggie for people who has to fill their tank every week. Thats what I´d do anyway. BTW: Diesel will also work.

17

Thanks. Would they have to pump gasoline directly into the jar? Or siphon it out of their tanks?

18

With a bike, if you can access the outlet tube on the on off tap you could drain it from there.

19

Interesting, I’ll try that out. I don’t think any of my friends own motorcycles though.

I’ll try asking a neighbor. :slight_smile:

20

It should handle the current no problem as long as you have a very good thermal pathway and your emitter is correctly soldered onto the star. Make sure your pill is as flat as you can get it. There is a thread on here about lapping and that should help a lot. Also remember that less thermal compound the better, too much and it actually works as an insulator. You will get a much tighter hotspot if you drill out the hole in the reflector. I use a round file and do it by hand. You can drill out the base of the reflector completely if you want to. When you have it de-domed and the reflector drilled out and focused properly you are going to be flat out blown away by the results. Mine actually puts a large perfectly round hotspot on trees 500meters away. A full kilometer is what it can reach out to.

Good luck and I can't wait to hear about your results.