7W Golston® 2xCR123A Waterproof Super Bright

[lctorana]

Thanks NorthernLights, our posts crossed in the mail.

I agree with all you said, even down to the cutting my losses and buying a better torch. I now have at least two superior torches to the Golston already, and have decided to move on.

 

[Northern Lights]

I take everything apart. I even took apart AW C lithium cells to see how they were built and put one back together after some experiments. It is a compulsive disorder according to some people not inclined to do the same.
:thinking:

 

[pbs357]

Hi gang, I have a Q5 Cree mounted on a star and was thinking about putting it in one of my Golston lights. Since its mounted on a star, can I just desolder the current star and solder on the new one? Thanks, this would be my first mod as I'm sure you can all tell!
:thinking:

 

[Northern Lights]

The Vforward for the Q5 at 1amp is 3.75 volts. Typically the Golstons used luxeons or clones at 3.5volts. So yes, if that is the case you can drop in but you will not get the maximum out put. Use a meter and find the resistor in the slug and use a 3.45 ohm resistor. It should have a 3.7 ohm resistor in it if the Vf was 3.5 volts. You may only be able to get a 2 watt resistor to fit in the space. But if you can get a 3.45ohm 3 or 5 watt into it do so. This is based on a Vbat of 7.2 volts.
Because some Golstons were mean to run on Vbat=6.0 some had resistors as low as 2.7 ohms that I encountered. That would blow your q5 if you used rechargeables, 3.6 volt cells.

 

[lctorana]

Hi gang, I have a Q5 Cree mounted on a star and was thinking about putting it in one of my Golston lights. Since its mounted on a star, can I just desolder the current star and solder on the new one? Thanks, this would be my first mod as I'm sure you can all tell!
:thinking:

Just done this. Today.

A Q5 star and a 17670 protected battery arrived in the mail, so I soldered the new Cree star to a 1ohm, 1W resistor (yes, there's room in the cavity!) with leads suitably insulated, popped in a charged 17670 battery and voila! A cheap Cree!

Very happy with the result.

 

[pbs357]

Dropped in a SSC U binned star last night. Nice beam but only marginally brighter. Tried 2xrcr123's and woohoo! Well, until 30 seconds continuous on followed by permanent off! How are you guys opening that metal pill with the electronics in it? Is there a board or driver I can replace to get this thing running again?

 

[dulridge]

Dropped in a SSC U binned star last night. Nice beam but only marginally brighter. Tried 2xrcr123's and woohoo! Well, until 30 seconds continuous on followed by permanent off! How are you guys opening that metal pill with the electronics in it? Is there a board or driver I can replace to get this thing running again?

There will just be a resistor in there - it or the LED may have burned out. Probably the LED as they don't like 8 volts up 'em. Oh no they don't.

You'll need a fairish sized resistor to drop the current - see posts 410 on in this thread and especially https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1418835&postcount=414

Basically read P.14 of this thread to see how I and others have done it.

It isn't hard. You'll need to make up a resistor - I used 6 quarter watt ones in parallel and this has been rock solid reliable. Say you want to drive an SSC at 1 amp, say the voltage under load of 2 RCR cells drops to about 6 volts so from volts = current x resistance :- 6V = 1A x 6 Ohms.

Six quarter watt resistors is about the maximum you'll fit in the pill so you need resistors to make that up. The formula for paralleled resistors is 1/R = 1/R1+1/R2 and so on... So for 6 resistors of 47 ohms we get 6/47 = 1/R or 47/6 ohms = a bit more than we want as that's just shy of 8 ohms. If you can fit a seventh one in (I couldn't) you'll get close enough to 6 ohms.

These values are assumptions, not measured - try 2xRCR123 cells on the resistor and LED and measure the current to be on the safe side - but first check that the LED still works...

HTH

Donald

 

[FirstDsent]

The "pill" in later models can be opened by using any kind of small punch or even a pair of stout needle nosed pliers to bend back the three or so swages around the perimeter of the aluminum housing. These swages, or bent areas of the rim are what holds the battery contact board to the aluminum pill. There may be some kind of adhesive gluing the board there, but you can break the bond by pushing a narrow object like a small screwdriver through the hole in the top (under the star). Try to apply pressure gently to the outside edges, not the middle.

Most drivers available to flashaholics are smaller than this board. I have used them inside the pill by wiring them, and sandwiching them to the battery contact board inside the pill.

Bernie

 

[pbs357]

Thanks guys! We'll make something of this "old glory" flashlight yet! I'll try to get a 900mAh or 1A driver to replace the innards of the old Golston. Any recommendations would be very welcomed, and thanks again!

 

[lctorana]

Just done this. Today.

A Q5 star and a 17670 protected battery arrived in the mail, so I soldered the new Cree star to a 1ohm, 1W resistor (yes, there's room in the cavity!) with leads suitably insulated, popped in a charged 17670 battery and voila! A cheap Cree!

Very happy with the result.

As Gene Pitney once sang: "Only 24 hours from Golston..."

Just upgraded my dear old Golston once again.

With the above Cree mod :thumbsup:, the addition of a $4 DCX lens (stock code L5320) from Surplus Shed, turned the Golston into an aspheric!:twothumbs

W00t!

 

[flashnight]

Where can I buy a new "screw in" type led unit for a 7 watt Super Bright "Romison,Golston, etc." light? I bought my flashlight on ebay 2 years back and blew the led using rechargables several months ago, would like to get it into service again. I need a whole new screw in alluminum unit not just an emmitter as I ruined the original trying to make a modification, fix it. Perhaps something better than the original could be had that could handle rechargable rcr123's. Any help would be much appreciated as the vendor has been no help- claims the led is not replaceable.

 

[NigelBond]

You aren't going to find what you're looking for unless somebody sells you one out of their own light. This is a pretty old and outdated light and was never really that nice to begin with. It's time to move on and get something else.

 

[FirstDsent]

You aren't going to find what you're looking for unless somebody sells you one out of their own light. This is a pretty old and outdated light and was never really that nice to begin with. It's time to move on and get something else.

True dat!

For the same price or less than I spent for my first "Golston", there are some outstanding lights out there. The novelty of this light is that it was one of the first really bright, cheap Luxeon II lights that was really easy to mod. With no driver, but just a huge resistor instead it is primitive by today's standards even for cheap lighs. Thermal management is marginal also. I modded each of mine with a solid silver heat sink made from a silver dollar mint proof. The heat sink is more valuable than the light now.

That said, I may have a module laying around, but I'm out of town right now. I'll be back next week and I'll look. If I have one, I'll just send it to you. PM me but be patient.

Bernie

 

[FlashCrazy]

This is a pretty old and outdated light and was never really that nice to begin with.

Blasphemy! :lolsign:
Wow, when I saw this thread resurrected, I went back in time for a bit... to a land where there weren't any Cree rings, when lights would smell like they're burning after a few minutes use, and 100 lumens seemed like too much.

Ok, ok.. so maybe the Golston wasn't "all that", but we thought it was!