Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4 *This may offend Incandescent A2 enthusiasts*

[greenpea76]

Hi everyone.
I was feeling a little ambitious Saturday afternoon and found a brand new SSC emitter and stared at the A2 sitting on my desk. I love my A2's in both red and white leds, but always wondered what it would be like if Surefire had an LED only version of the awesome Aviator.

I've read through so many threads for the A2 and see why many people love it including myself, but I had to do something to be accepted as a "flashaholic" by *******izing my beloved A2 aviator. I know there are some die-hard A2 members and I hope I don't offend by showing my LED only Aviator.

Well, I've snapped some pics of what I got finished Saturday night. There are some things I still want to tweak and test, but so far everything works ok. The original "high beam" incandecent feature no longer works because I can't use the LVR unit that can switch it on/off properly. I wanted to see if the LVR module would work with the LED driver, but didn't bother because there just isn't enough space. So it just has a low that turns on all the leds limited by the tailcap resistor and a high setting that is much brighter and whiter of course than the orig incandecent. I would like to figure out how to open up the insides of the tailcap for a resistor change resulting in a lower "low". It is now basically a longer 2 cell, brighter, and floodier L1 without the optic.

There will be more pics and details soon.....

Boring a little too close to existing Nichia LED holes

SSC P4 :twothumbs

Bored out head for SSC P4 emitter campared to stock head

Original LVR guts of A2 Aviator

Added original (-) spring washer and made a new brass spacer ring for (+) battery end.

New driver module

Lights on low, but still too bright. Does anyone know how to take the innards of the tail cap assembly apart and change the resistor(s)?

 

[LA OZ]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

This is exactly what some of us A2 owner dream to have and you are the only one that is brave enough to create it. Well done.

 

[FrogmanM]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

SWEET! call up surefire NOW for employment!

Mayo

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

Blasphemy!

 

[Illum]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

@#$%!?

you've just turned the A2 into an ordinary flashlight! how could you?!

care to post the pics of the A2 body gutted?
how exactly did you manage to take the "driver bay" apart?

 

[yaesumofo]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

Cool.
How is the beam?
Yaesumofo

 

[greenpea76]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

Moderators, I'm not sure if this thread shoud now be placed in the Modified lights section as the progression of photos and updates may seem better suited there. My apologies for my brain not functioning at 3 am last night. :sleepy:

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement! :twothumbs

I have updated some pics with the bulb/ emitter unit. Please excuse the poorly lit and grainy photos. I was up pretty late last night and wanting to get to bed.

The emitter was placed on a machined tapered aluminum slug that I found at work. We have lots of these in many sizes available. I think they're used in motorcycles. But I found one that fit the diameter of the SSC base perfectly and used it as a mount and heatsink. There are grooves cut into the sides to accomodate the input leads. They aren't pretty as I am not a machinist and didn't want to invest time and money into such a small protypical part.

I then proceeded to dissect the original lamp unit. The bulb was potted so poorly on this one, it gave such a oval beam, it didnt hurt too much to cut it up. I just cut the upper section off and bored out the base to accept the aluminum slug and wired/ soldered up the input leads to their proper locations on the metal ring (+) and the pointed center base (-).
There is Kapton tape surrounding the emitter in some of the above reflector pics, hence the yellowness around the emitter. This was done while I was setting the depth for beam pattern and focus. The final one was wrapped with chrome tape to blend in with the reflector. The lower portion of the tapered aluminum slug was left exposed to create the heat conducting path to the head with aid of some thermal compound to touch the head. I may do another one with better tolerances at a later date, but so far its not overheating or showing any tint shift.
Yaesumofo, the beam is nicer than my E2DL with a KL4 head. The KL4 now looks like it doesn't have a focused hotspot, whereas my SSC'ed Aviator has about the same amount of flood, but with a nicer hotspot. I'll try to get some beamshots and light readings as darkness sets and time permits.

The dissection......... Things aren't pretty. You have been warned!

Lead extensions soldered in place for emitter and insulated from aluminum slug with kapton tape (the yellow that is visible down the sides of the alu slug. Could've used teflon wire, but didn't want to deal with the thickness. These leads were cut off from the upgraded Nichia LED's that I installed on the low beam ring. Emitter has thermal compound applied in the center and a mixture of thermal compound and epoxy as the bonding insulating material.

Emitter was placed at about the same height from the base from where the original filament was located and height tuned accordingly.

Fitment is the same as the original, but there is some thermal compound added inside for heat conductivity.

No changes to the inside of the body tube, except some scratches from removing module.

 

[greenpea76]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

Blasphemy!

@#$%!?

you've just turned the A2 into an ordinary flashlight! how could you?!

Sorry guys, its called boredom. I still have my red A2 Aviator that I won't touch. I still have a few incandecent lights that I will never change. But this white A2 was asking for it. :devil:

 

[carrot]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

This mod is useless without beamshots!!!!

Please show us some comparison pics?

 

[TMorita]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

This mod is useless without beamshots!!!!

Please show us some comparison pics?

Yah!

We don't care what the flashlight looks like...you're not looking AT the flashlight when you're using it anyway.

(just kidding, for the humor impaired...)

Toshi

 

[BSBG]

I find it both blasphemous and intriguing at the same time...

Good job!

 

[MarNav1]

Nice work!

 

[seery]

Great work!

Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. :twothumbs

 

[greenpea76]

Ok, to fulfill some requests. BEAMSHOTS!!!
These were taken in the darkest room possible during the daylight hours. Had to borrow some of my wife's boot boxes to sit the lights at the proper height. The walls are a medium gray-blue hue, so I don't know how much it has an affect on the final color representation for the cooler emitter tints. Sorry, I don't have a white wall in the house that isn't coverd.
These were all taken exactly 1.5 meters from the wall from the head of each light. Camera settings were at F2.8 setting. I've never done these type of beamshots before so I'm not sure if they were done correctly, but its just to prove that the mod works. I will try to fulfill any other photos if requested when time permits.

Some quick info with lightbox readings.

Original A2 Aviator
900Lux (low)
Nichia LED upgrade 1430Lux (low)
6300Lux (high incandescent)

Modded A2 SSC P4
2800Lux (low) Updated tailcap 10/11/2009 It now reads 470Lux on low (installed a 62ohm resistor in place of the original 10 ohm)
9200Lux (high)

Surefire E2DL with KL4 head
8100Lux (high only)

Here is the first shot with high and low settings. Some strange reason, they don't look much different.

 

[tsask]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

This is exactly what some of us A2 owner dream to have and you are the only one that is brave one to create it. Well done.

Yes! I've been dreaming of such a light for years!!!

 

[KDOG3]

Re: Surefire A2 Aviator meets Seoul SSC P4

Wow. I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat. What are the runtime/current draw specs on that thing?

 

[Crenshaw]

thats one heck of a high low...maybe you can PM milky for advice, he does the tailcap thing right?

Crenshaw

 

[greenpea76]

thats one heck of a high low...maybe you can PM milky for advice, he does the tailcap thing right?

Crenshaw

That is correct. Maybe if I'm lucky he'll chime in here. If not, I'll have to PM him. I can disassemble the tailcap from the tailcap body on only one of my lights with the L series 2 stage tailcap.
I'm not sure if the switch buttons are glued on all of them. I have the most trouble popping that off with fear of scratching the HA using a pair of pliers prying up. There must be an easier way.

 

[carrot]

This is blasphemy. But still pretty cool.

 

[greenpea76]

Final pics of outdoor beamshots