$5.50 Ristoft from DE is a GREAT Cree host!

[mmmflashlights]

I finally modded one of these newer Ristoft lights with a Cree and 18650, the Ristoft with the pill in the head. I used one of these regulator boards - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3256 (about 800ma board) Since the newer ristoft's star sits without anything behind it, I made a thin disk from .016 aluminum sheeting for the back of the star to rest onto, and put Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound between them. There is just barely, barely room for regulator board inside the pill, in terms of height. I ground a washer to size to fit into the back side of the pill after removing the original 'board' that had the positive lead attached. Then drilled out the inside of the washer to fit the regulator board. I need to Epoxy the regulator board into place yet, but I ran the light for 15 minutes and the light barely even got lukewarm so Artic Silver + aluminum disk seems to be doing their job very well. The original reflector works great with the Cree and needs no modifying except that the pill cannot be threaded into the head all the way . I boiled the head to get the reflector and lens to press out, but it gave a rainbow effect to the surface of the reflector - I'm using one of the Cree optics from KaiDomain instead now, they work great. I can't do a direct comparison to my first modded Ristoft that is direct driven (it does have a resistor in the pill), but brightness levels seem about the same. And this 2nd mod doesn't heat up near as much. Both lights blow away the DX/Kai Cree'd Elly light in output, yet still put out about 3 hours of runtime with an 18650 based on tests I did with my first modded Ristoft, and physically the lights are almost identical in size. Definitely a worthwhile mod though you may need a bench grinder or dremel if you want to add regulation and better heatsinking.

I'll try to take a couple of photos eventually, hopefully this helps anyone looking into this sort of mod though.

 

[X_Marine]

Great mods and helpfull pics.
I have yet to do mine but will time allowing.
I have one of the older ver with button on barrel which I like vs tail clicky.

Keep it up.. :wave:

ThanX
X.

 

[mikeh]

I finally modded one of these newer Ristoft lights with a Cree and 18650, the Ristoft with the pill in the head. I used one of these regulator boards - http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3256 (about 800ma board)

Thanks for all that. I should use those regulators. The comments at DX say they are very efficient. And I think the Cree has lost lumens already, in the first Ristoft I modified. It must have suffered from amps or heat, which I was hoping to avoid.

You say "the light barely even got lukewarm" - Do you mean the emitter/star temp, or the casing? Its worth noting that at equilibrium, the case temp depends only on the lamp power. Poor thermal coupling will mean the same case temp (ignoring any thermal effects on current drawn), but higher temp at the emitter.

With the reflector, I had to drill it slightly to fit the Cree in, but didn't need to remove it from the head.

Those Dremel sets look great, but expensive for something I'd use very rarely. Are the cheaper (chinese made I guess) copies worthwhile?

And nanotech17, thanks <blush>

 

[nanotech17]

My ristoft with SSC P4 USWOJ/cree optic/Elly head with 18650 cell turn blue as well.
But after i add some AA at the base of the star still overheating.
Than i put in the unprotected 17670 with a small magnet wrapped around it with small o-ring
the angry blue didn't appear at all even after 5minutes of use.Great!
Here are some photos.
The Elly is run by 14500 unprotected & the board has been changed to AMC7135 700mA.
The ELLY with Ristoft head and Terralux tailcap.I like the new look of the
Elly Cree Turbo Head
http://shw.fotopages.com/14961902.html
http://shw.fotopages.com/14961903.html
http://shw.fotopages.com/14961905.html

 

[mmmflashlights]

You say "the light barely even got lukewarm" - Do you mean the emitter/star temp, or the casing? Its worth noting that at equilibrium, the case temp depends only on the lamp power. Poor thermal coupling will mean the same case temp (ignoring any thermal effects on current drawn), but higher temp at the emitter.
With the reflector, I had to drill it slightly to fit the Cree in, but didn't need to remove it from the head.
Those Dremel sets look great, but expensive for something I'd use very rarely. Are the cheaper (chinese made I guess) copies worthwhile?
And nanotech17, thanks <blush>

I'm going only by the body of the flashlight itself when I describe it's temp. With my older light, I could run it with the head off to feel the pill, with the newer Ristoft you can't do that since it's mounted in the head itself. I did just stick my finger onto the star itself through the top of the head after it had been on for about 10 minutes, and even now it's really not even warm, neither the star or the bezel around the LED itself (no reflector or optic in the head obviously). This is even using the same star that was in my first Ristoft. The 18650 I'm using doesn't have a full charge right now, it's at about 3.73V at the moment but it's still putting out a lot of light. Apparently I've just gotten fortunate in that my heatsinking was very effective - the thin aluminum disc, plus the Artic Silver which applied a little heavier and spread it across the entire bottom surface of the star. I didn't use a ridiculous amount of the Artic Silver though, just enough so that you can see a little past the edges of the star.

As far as the reflector, the bezel fit inside the reflector of the newer Ristoft perfectly, but the issue was that the pill could not be threaded all the way into the head to where it presses against the 'stop' about in the middle of the head. If the pill does not rest against that 'stop' point, that may prevent the pill from dissipating heat as effectively as well I'm guessing. I wonder if using a small amount of Artic Silver on the pill's threads would help as well, haven't actually tried that but if you're having heat problems it might be something to consider I suppose. With the Cree Optic, the beam is nice and because it's a fair bit shorter than the reflector, I could actually take off probably about 1/8" or more off the front of the head to make the light even shorter, and still have a lens - probably stupid to bother mangling the light just to make it a hair shorter, but it'd be nice to make it even more compact. Too bad the battery tube wasn't narrower for the 18650, but it's still very compact for a light using an 18650.

Regarding Dremel sets, yeah the actual Dremel brand sets are a little expensive, I actually have a black&decker brand with infinitely variable speed that I got on clearance and it works great. But you can just buy a cheapo Dremel-type tool for about $10 here in the U.S., the cheap ones have only 1 or 2 speeds but it would still work fine for occasional use and would be enough for modding one of these lights.

 

[mmmflashlights]

I just wrote a 30+ minute reply with hosted photos, detailed descriptions, etc. The Piece of Shet website didn't keep me logged in though so it was all gone when I tried to submit the reply. Thanks for the great 'updates' to the website, my other browser won't even let me log in at all.

I'll try to re-upload the photos here in a bit, with no details this time after typing it all of the first time. Lost all the links to the first uploads...

 

[mmmflashlights]

Here are some photos, with brief descriptions if you click the links. The photos are all of the newer modded Ristoft except for the last, that's a closeup of the older Ristoft pill. The closeup of the back of the pill looks like a mess, it's because I was trying to solder some copper wires to make a ground from the regulator board to the edge of the pill. I wish I had some Artic Silver Epoxy for that. I need to put a couple of dabs of Epoxy or something to hold the board in place, though it works as is decently. The ring between the board and the pill is a steel washer, ground down and bored out to fit.








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