wquiles
Flashaholic
A forum member had a custom 2C light that was giving him some problems with the batteries being too long, so we agreed on a slightly longer new C host for the project.
Here on the left is the new 4C host that will be the new body for the current 2C light:
Here is the work done by the original moder. Here is the LED side:
Here is the reflector:
and this was the solution for the negative contact when driving 2x protected 18650 cells:
One very good thing the original moder did is to use these quick interconnect plugs between the driver (TaskLED's bFlex) and the LED module. But note that the heatsink has no thermal paste to the body:
I tested the LED, it still worked OK:
Everything looked OK, until I started to look at it in more detail and found that all but one of the solder connections were done so bad, that two were cold solder joints, and two were intermittent:
In the end, there was so much damage, that when I was finally able to remove the old driver, it would not work any longer. Luckily I had an extra bFlex and I was able to rebuilt the light with the new driver:
I tested the LED, it still worked OK:
Unfortunately more work was needed, and I also had to rework the switch's electrical soldering contacts, specially the positive contact, which now is much more reliable and will work better now with flat-top cells:
Instead of requiring magnets in between cells, and since the owner also wanted a custom battery sleeve, and since we now had a custom body to cut to our needs, I decided to machine a new Al disk to fit in between the two cells, to be held by light friction between the cells inside of the tube:
Of course the disk is machined to be used either way, and will work with flat bottom cells on both sides:
Here I am assembling the new battery pack with the custom disk:
Now cut the new 4C tube to the right length:
and try everything before re-threading:
then machine the inside of the tailcap to provide electrical contact:
and use Silver two-part conductive epoxy to attach a short spring to the inside:
redo the reflector (new on left - you know me by now, attention to detail!):
here is the final assembly - you can see the disk inside the battery sleeve:
Final light on the left, original host in the right:
Will
Here on the left is the new 4C host that will be the new body for the current 2C light:
Here is the work done by the original moder. Here is the LED side:
Here is the reflector:
and this was the solution for the negative contact when driving 2x protected 18650 cells:
One very good thing the original moder did is to use these quick interconnect plugs between the driver (TaskLED's bFlex) and the LED module. But note that the heatsink has no thermal paste to the body:
I tested the LED, it still worked OK:
Everything looked OK, until I started to look at it in more detail and found that all but one of the solder connections were done so bad, that two were cold solder joints, and two were intermittent:
In the end, there was so much damage, that when I was finally able to remove the old driver, it would not work any longer. Luckily I had an extra bFlex and I was able to rebuilt the light with the new driver:
I tested the LED, it still worked OK:
Unfortunately more work was needed, and I also had to rework the switch's electrical soldering contacts, specially the positive contact, which now is much more reliable and will work better now with flat-top cells:
Instead of requiring magnets in between cells, and since the owner also wanted a custom battery sleeve, and since we now had a custom body to cut to our needs, I decided to machine a new Al disk to fit in between the two cells, to be held by light friction between the cells inside of the tube:
Of course the disk is machined to be used either way, and will work with flat bottom cells on both sides:
Here I am assembling the new battery pack with the custom disk:
Now cut the new 4C tube to the right length:
and try everything before re-threading:
then machine the inside of the tailcap to provide electrical contact:
and use Silver two-part conductive epoxy to attach a short spring to the inside:
redo the reflector (new on left - you know me by now, attention to detail!):
here is the final assembly - you can see the disk inside the battery sleeve:
Final light on the left, original host in the right:
Will
