bluecrow76
Enlightened
After seeing darkzero's Novatac & HDS SSC P7 D2Flex Mods thread, I knew I had to build one. I obtained a damaged Novatac head so I could get a light engine to mod (thanks to the CPF member that sold this to me!), a P7 DSWOI (from photonfanatic), a d2flex from taskled.com, and a McR-20 reflector from the Shoppe.
I decided on the D output and I voltage binned P7 as I would be driving it with IMR123 cells most of the time, so this would give me the highest output and best use of battery.
The reflector had to be machined to fit in the Novatac head and bored open a little more to fit the P7.
I just took this light camping last weekend and WOW!!! It is a blazing wall of light. You can see the beam profile below.
Enjoy the pictures and the current measurements at the end of the post.
This is the original beater Novatac I obtained for the mod. Notice the damage to the signal contact and threads. If you look closely at the full image, you can see that the vias are still intact.
This is the d2flex and contact board ready to be installed in the heatsink.
The body on the left is the original beater. The threading was so chewed up that I was unable to remove the retaining ring manually. It was put in a lathe and cut down to the retaining ring, which then popped off and allowed us access to the light engine for modding. I wish I had taken pictures of the removal of the contact board and potted contents of the light engine. It involved the use of my little Dremel drill press to literally eat out the inductor and other circuitry that was potted inside.
The body on the right has the finished P7-d2flex light engine installed. Note the amount of signal contact surface that was removed. This was due to the damage it had incurred. Thank goodness there was enough of the contact still glued to the contact board and the via had not been damaged. I was concerned that there might be a chance for the signal spring to lose contact with the smaller signal contact, but so far I have not been able to make it happen. Unfortunately this will keep me from using Hogo's 18650 mod with a 17670 tube.
The light engine in front is the original LE from the light the P7 LE is installed in, which will eventually be reinstalled when I get another body for the P7 LE.
Down the barrel of the Novatac P7.
Down the barrel comparison of a stock Novatac (sans lens and bezel ring) to the Novatac P7.
Side shot of the two.
Beam comparisons of the two. Both lights are on max driven by AW RCR123 batteries.
These are the batteries and Harbor Freight DMM used to obtain the battery current measurements.
Thanks for looking!
EDIT:
Note that the current on level 5 when using an AW RCR123 is out of spec for the cell.
The max discharge rate for the cell is 2C, which would be 1.5A. Thanks for bringing that up jar3ds. :thumbsup:
I decided on the D output and I voltage binned P7 as I would be driving it with IMR123 cells most of the time, so this would give me the highest output and best use of battery.
The reflector had to be machined to fit in the Novatac head and bored open a little more to fit the P7.
I just took this light camping last weekend and WOW!!! It is a blazing wall of light. You can see the beam profile below.
Enjoy the pictures and the current measurements at the end of the post.
This is the original beater Novatac I obtained for the mod. Notice the damage to the signal contact and threads. If you look closely at the full image, you can see that the vias are still intact.
This is the d2flex and contact board ready to be installed in the heatsink.
The body on the left is the original beater. The threading was so chewed up that I was unable to remove the retaining ring manually. It was put in a lathe and cut down to the retaining ring, which then popped off and allowed us access to the light engine for modding. I wish I had taken pictures of the removal of the contact board and potted contents of the light engine. It involved the use of my little Dremel drill press to literally eat out the inductor and other circuitry that was potted inside.
The body on the right has the finished P7-d2flex light engine installed. Note the amount of signal contact surface that was removed. This was due to the damage it had incurred. Thank goodness there was enough of the contact still glued to the contact board and the via had not been damaged. I was concerned that there might be a chance for the signal spring to lose contact with the smaller signal contact, but so far I have not been able to make it happen. Unfortunately this will keep me from using Hogo's 18650 mod with a 17670 tube.
The light engine in front is the original LE from the light the P7 LE is installed in, which will eventually be reinstalled when I get another body for the P7 LE.
Down the barrel of the Novatac P7.
Down the barrel comparison of a stock Novatac (sans lens and bezel ring) to the Novatac P7.
Side shot of the two.
Beam comparisons of the two. Both lights are on max driven by AW RCR123 batteries.
These are the batteries and Harbor Freight DMM used to obtain the battery current measurements.
Thanks for looking!
EDIT:
Note that the current on level 5 when using an AW RCR123 is out of spec for the cell.
The max discharge rate for the cell is 2C, which would be 1.5A. Thanks for bringing that up jar3ds. :thumbsup:
Last edited:
:wave:
:sick2:
