Hi. Some lights I have/had

Another member recently said he'd like to see me start a thread for a build I was doing. I've been reluctant to post builds on cpf because I feel they are just dodgy back yard hacks. I thought about it and it seems to me that I'm no longer a complete newbie. Of course, I'm no full bottle either, not by a long shot. Anyway I thought I would post about most of the lights I have, some are modded by me some are care of cpf members (you will see the difference).

These are my current lights. I have 1 or 2 others but they're not worth showing.

Left to right - homebuilt deft, 1D mag, FM copper D26 host, FM cooly, FM copper redfire, SF Z2, ultrafire lego 1, ultrafire lego 2, SWM v10r ti





I'll outline all the details but this is how I got hooked. The first ever mod that I did was a 'download' xpg upgrade for the minimag (I still have it but I think I should give it away, I never use it). Not sure how I came to cpf but I kept nosing around. I had no intension of doing anymore until I found a cheap chinese flashlight that looked exactly like a deft (only different colour). So became my first self modified light, complete with duct tape holding the lens in. That light is the most impractical, useless fun light I have ever owned.

The 1D mag sports a Der Wichtel triple xml neutral, with homebuilt tail switch, homebuilt battery pack and voltage alarm squeezed in with the driver. The battery pack is charged through the balance tap at the base.

The FM D26 host is the most recent build. I have an MT-G2 mounted on copper and running direct drive from 2x A123 cells (26650 size, 3.6v max). I used to use these cells for my rc cars but am no longer interested in that hobby. I haven't yet tested the amp draw with fully charged batteries but with some charge left in them I got a reading of 5amps at the tail. With lion batteries (3.9v each at rest at the time of test) I got a reading of about 8 amps. I know that'll shorten the life of the led but I just wanted to try it:devil: the A123's will stay with this light now.

To make the copper heatsink I ordered up a short piece of copper bar being sold as a flint knapping tool. Using a drill, dremel, grinder I cut what I need off it.


Copper star soldered to heatsink. I had a little mishap whilst drilling which left some scratches on the dome. I let out some expletives then A while ago I had a similar copper set up in the Z2 but contact with the host was really poor. I think that led to the demise of the led.

The FM cooly runs an sst-90 also on copper, only I tried to reflow the led straight to the heatsink. This exact led came with this light when I bought it but amp draw was only about 3-4 amps. I don't know if it was my battery or resistance in the electrical path or....?? Anyway, the led was in another light but I reinstalled it in the cooly on copper. I was going to try and find a driver(s) to run it at 6-7amps with A123 cells but I found with a single lion it was much brighter than I remember. I checked and it was pulling 7-8 amps The only down side is when I reflowed the led I did a **** poor job and nearly broke it (like literally, the board is cracked at one end). Also it is seriously out of centre so I if I try to straighten it now I'm sure that will be the end of it.

The FM copper redfire has a Kerberos quad nichia which I recently bought from 'justanotherguy' (good guy to deal with). I swapped out the wide lens and installed a frosted wide lens, floody and smooth. Of course, I have a left over redfire body after making this, but ooh isn't it pretty


The surefire Z2 has a dereelight module 6z round bezel and clicky tail (z59?). Nothing too special, but still nice.

The next 2 lights have the heads swapped over. It is a uf2100 and wf-501A. The uf2100 needed minor filing so the other head could screw on decently. It is rather tight inside and cannot fit protected cells. The module is an EDC triple xpg. Quite a bright light for it's size. The wf-501A body and tail I ground back so they were relatively smooth. I took out the xml module and replaced it with shrike's RBGW mce module (the kids like playing with this one).

Lastly is the SWM worked on by jhanko with kuku switch (and just the other day a raised switch). I would love to have the skill and know-how to be able to do stuff like that myself.

I've had other stuff in the past, a 3D aspheric (similar to a mag) with an sst-90 and Der wichtel's driver. I fitted the potentiometer where the switch was at the neck and made a tail switch. A 7x xml that I cut open and made a custom heatsink. Some lights I sprayed with auto paint and glow powder. The powder blocks up the airbrush a lot.

I also have in the pipeline a search light made with 3x sst-90's in deep reflectors. I ordered up some heatsinks that looked to be the right size and shape I just need to spend a bit (HA! a bit!?) of time making it all go together. The reflectors don't naturally fit in the heatsink I got so it may be a real PITA. I don't have a battery holder either so I am hoping to find a suitably sized lipo pack.


C8 size reflector for comparison



Not my complete life story but I hope I didn't bore you too much:duck:

When I learn how to use a camera I might get some beam shots, till then sorry:fail:

I borrowed the wifes camera tonight. I had to ask her to change the language for me as it was in Japanese :thinking: :shrug:

So hopefully this gif I made will show up properly, never made a gif before.

Lol, not worth commenting on hey? My builds must be too ghetto for this forum.

I don't find your work dodgy. Or your work too ghetto... Erm maybe except for that home made battery pack. Nothing negative about ghetto.

Crafters craft, makers make, modders mod. There are some awesome artisans and makers in these here forums. So long as you're happy and enjoying tinkering and modding lights, who's to say any average Joe flashaholic can't have fun in his backyard? Thanks for sharing your backyard exploits.

Hehe, that ghetto battery pack powers the brightest light I have. I think you're right, I seem to fit 'backyard tinkerer' catagorie best. Thanks for the comment :thumbsup:

The FM cooly is my pet favourite at the moment. I just don't know if the switch is restricting the amps.

I popped the sst-90 in the cooly

I had previously connected the light to 2s A123's for a second or less. Because I was just testing I just ran it through some wire I had laying around and I think the wire had enough resistance to stop the led from popping in insta-flash. Though it did start smoking from the short burst of overdriving.

I completely didn't think about it when I connected the 2x A123's again and connected my amp meter to the tail....

So anyway, I had another sst-90 with cooler tint to replace it with. Turns out a kind of blessing in disguise. I get more amps through the led now with the same single lion battery I was using before :rock:Though I think the switch is gonna hate me and I really don't know if it is restricting the current. Also I have not dedomed this led so the hotspot and lumens are marginally greater.

Tail measurement




This is the before shot




This is the after shot

pinkpanda3310 said:

Click to expand...

What kind of clip is that on the C2? I like the looks of it.

That is actually an ultrafire c1. I didn't want to screw up a sf c2 if my paint job was too crappy. So the clip is rather crappy mild steel (at least that's what it felt like).

Lately I've been getting right into my white cooly but being me I can't stop screwing with it. I pulled the sst-90 I had in the cooly and replaced it with an MT-G2 and added a battery extension tube. With the sst-90 I put it in an FM 26650 host with an FM turbo C head fitted. I like to mount the big emitters on lumps of copper and direct drive them, It's just easier for me.

One thing I like about fivemega is the lego'ability. Everything in the following shot is FM barr the mag head. I did this lego just for kicks, there is no light engine in it.




So this is what they look like now. Cooly with MT-G2 DD on 2x A123's




26650 host sst-90 DD l-ion (new sony one, rated for 50A)







As you can see my skills are not honed enough to get the emitter perfectly centre. I modified a surefire incan reflector to go at the base as the turbo head was built around that reflector, P60 led reflectors have a different parabolic shape so they don't seem a good fit (having said that I did not try that combination).




I tried to make a solder pad for the LED+ but it turned out to be a failure when I tried to reflow the led.




I ended up using braid to go from the battery to led. This following shot is the led and heatsink inside the copper inset of the FM host.




A quick test before heading out to take some beamshots. Nearly 6A on the MT-G2 and 14A on the sst-90. I added another spring to the McClicky (only in the black host) in the hope of opening the gate for all the current. There seemed a notable visual difference in output after that.







Beamshots! Sorry I'm not a photographer so all I did was disable the flash, the rest is all auto stteings. The bush is about 40 metres and the tree behind is about 80 metres

I put together another cooly. This one has a dedomed sst-50.



This next shot you can see the reflector is a little off centre to the host. That's to try and centre the led.


I used a copper heatsink that I had made previously for another build. On the right side of the copper you can just make out a slither of alu that I used to fill the gap. It worked very well, maybe a little too well because it is quite a firm fit and I didn't want to take the heatsink out to take a pic of it.


I also used a reflector from the original build. Honeslty it is not in the best shape now, still good enough for me Because I cut it wrong I need to use a spacer to keep it off the led.


I was hoping for a few more amps but not a bad result.

I did some ceiling shots so you get an idea of the beam. I reduced the exposure as much as this camera would let me.

First is a regular cheap chinese P60 xml


Next is the cooly sst-50


Next is another cheap chinese light, a uniquefire uf-f3 xml (reflector is slightly bigger than a P60)

Is that some greenish-blue outer ring for the cooly beamshot?

Honestly I don't see it. Though I'm probably not the best person to give a reference since I am colour blind to some light shades of green, not lots, just a little. Having said that I do see green from one of the xpg's in my EDC+ triple so I'm guessing it's the poor camera shot:shrug:

Here is a shot at normal exposure

Cool, thanks for sharing.