ZuluWhiskeyFox
Enlightened
Awhile back I tried unsuccessfully I might add to remove the electronic module from an arc4. The intent was to change the emitter to a LuxIII T-bin. Well to make a long story short in spite of much effort I couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. So was born plan B. I elected to install a bbflex. The bbflex for those that don't know is made by Georges80. However if you want one of these boards you have to buy it from MrBulk as he has all the bbflexes that were made. The bbflex is a buck/boost board, differing from the bflex mainly in that the bflex is a buck only board. It is similar to the rest of the flex line in that it has multi-brightnesses selectable through a user interface that uses a single button. Being a buck/boost it makes a great circuit to be used with a single Li-Ion cell for power.
I happen to own one of the few 2 x 123 tubes made for the arc4. So it was the perfect candidate for such a mod. I'm using a single 17670 1600mah Li-ion battery bought from AW.
The arc4 module is truly a challenging item to remove. From what I can gather few have been successfull. In the end the electronics came out of mine in little bitty pieces. I fashioned a tool made from a steel rod. I filed 4 flat sides onto it at one end to fit into a square recess in the bottom of the can. The recess was intented to give clearence for the inductor coil.
Once the can came out a little clean up and this what I had to work with.
The bbflex board has a switch on it that has to be removed in order to fit into an arc4. In it's place I used the original arc4 switch such as it is. On the bottom side of the switch board there are 6 capacitors (part of the arc4 circuit). I elected to leave them where they were and hooked them up as part of my circuit. They are in parrallel to the battery and the bbflex board input. With the light in the off state the drain on the battery is 34uA. My thinking was that first I didn't need the space and second they might help to relieve some of the pulse strain on the battery. There is a capacitor on the bbflex board that is mounted on top of a chip on the board. To fit into the arc4 can it had to be moved. So with the original switch removed it left space to move this cap to.
The bottom of the head cavity looks like this. You'll notice in the center you can see the blue background of the surface it was sitting on.
And of course the obligitory beam shot. I guess I should also mention that the emitter used is a Seoul P4. I find the hotspot is not as pronounced as the original. Maybe because the side spill is much brighter.
cheers,
zwf
I happen to own one of the few 2 x 123 tubes made for the arc4. So it was the perfect candidate for such a mod. I'm using a single 17670 1600mah Li-ion battery bought from AW.
The arc4 module is truly a challenging item to remove. From what I can gather few have been successfull. In the end the electronics came out of mine in little bitty pieces. I fashioned a tool made from a steel rod. I filed 4 flat sides onto it at one end to fit into a square recess in the bottom of the can. The recess was intented to give clearence for the inductor coil.
Once the can came out a little clean up and this what I had to work with.
The bbflex board has a switch on it that has to be removed in order to fit into an arc4. In it's place I used the original arc4 switch such as it is. On the bottom side of the switch board there are 6 capacitors (part of the arc4 circuit). I elected to leave them where they were and hooked them up as part of my circuit. They are in parrallel to the battery and the bbflex board input. With the light in the off state the drain on the battery is 34uA. My thinking was that first I didn't need the space and second they might help to relieve some of the pulse strain on the battery. There is a capacitor on the bbflex board that is mounted on top of a chip on the board. To fit into the arc4 can it had to be moved. So with the original switch removed it left space to move this cap to.
The bottom of the head cavity looks like this. You'll notice in the center you can see the blue background of the surface it was sitting on.
And of course the obligitory beam shot. I guess I should also mention that the emitter used is a Seoul P4. I find the hotspot is not as pronounced as the original. Maybe because the side spill is much brighter.
cheers,
zwf
