Chief_Wiggum
Enlightened
http://www.foxoutdoor.com/detail.asp?bid=727
I first saw this light used in a similar conversion over at http://www.candlepowerforums.com by jcciv. You can view his web page on the conversion here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jcciv/Fox123Xenon_mod.html
I bought the light from:
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com
for $21.99. With shipping it was around $30.00 When it arrived I tore the packaging open and was promptly disappointed. For $30.00 I expected a little more. It has a cheap plastic lens, thin aluminum body, and cheaply machined parts. But as with any mod, it's just a start /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Since I bought it with the intention of modding it, I wasn't too concerned with the beam quality. I did take a couple of beamshots, though.
Stock with tightest beam pattern
Stock with the widest pattern beam
The beam wasn't all that bright and was quite yellow.
I bought a 1W Luxeon Star bin Q3J and a Mad Max+ wide open driver board from http://www.anlighten.com/shop
The nice thing about this light is that it's very mod friendly. It has a screw in insulated positive contact, an aluminum screw in bulb module, and a screw in reflector (not textured, though).
Here's the bulb module from the top. Note the bulb module protrudes above the flashlight body.
Bulb module from the bottom
Exploded view of the module, spring and reflector
I started with the bulb module. Jiggle the bulb, and the whole center section of the module will fall out. Since I was going to mount the star board right onto the top of the screw in portion of the module, I just discarded the bulb and holder.
In order to fit the star board, reflector, new glass lens from http://www.flashlightlens.com/ I had to remove the raised portion of the screw in module. I just used a coarse file. Once it got close to flush with the body of the light, I sanded it flat using 220 grit sand paper.
Notice in this picture the bulb module under the star emitter board is flush with the top of the flashlight tube
After fitting the bulb module to the body, I epoxied the star board to the bulb module using Arctic Alumina Epoxy.
The bulb module makes a great driver board holder. In fact the original retaining ring can even be used! I drilled two 1/16" holes on either side of the emitter to allow the + and - wires to pass through. I then soldered leads onto the MadMax and dropped it into the bulb nodule. No epoxy required, just some Artic Silver.
Driver board with leads attached.
MM+ in place with retaining ring installed
Time for at test drive! Upon installing the factory reflector, I immediately noticed that the LED was not in the focal plane. I bored out the hole in the reflector to 3/8". This allows the emitter to protrude into the reflector and yields proper focus. The problem is that the emitter leads short on the aluminum reflector housing, so I counter sunk the hole to allow clearance for the leads.
Countersunk hole
I replaced the original plastic lens with a Borofloat lens from http://flashlightlens.com. Chris was kind enough to custom cut a lens for me. If you can think up a diameter for him, he'll cut it. Great guy to deal with. Here's a look at the mod from the front.
Finished mod.
Here's a beamshot after the mod. I adjusted the color because the camera's white balance setting was making the beam look too green. Otherwise, it's unchanged.
"After" beamshot
All in all, this is a pocket blaster /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif It's super bright, and very white. Whiter, even, than the beamshot suggests. The MM+ wide open should provide over 2 hours of runtime and the beam is phenomenal.
Playing with this light had led me to believe that maybe reflectors are the way to go. The optics for the Luxeons leaves a lot to be desired. Reflectors seem to provide a much better quality beam with fewer artifacts. For certain, my McFlood reflector and R2H 1W HD is one of my favorite combinations.
This is a very worthwhile mod. With the small form factor, the amount of light produced is amazing, as is the quality of the beam. With the threaded reflector, this light also retains the ability to function in candle mode without the reflector going AWOL. Also, the built in converter board holder is a bonus and makes life much easier.
I first saw this light used in a similar conversion over at http://www.candlepowerforums.com by jcciv. You can view his web page on the conversion here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jcciv/Fox123Xenon_mod.html
I bought the light from:
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com
for $21.99. With shipping it was around $30.00 When it arrived I tore the packaging open and was promptly disappointed. For $30.00 I expected a little more. It has a cheap plastic lens, thin aluminum body, and cheaply machined parts. But as with any mod, it's just a start /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Since I bought it with the intention of modding it, I wasn't too concerned with the beam quality. I did take a couple of beamshots, though.
Stock with tightest beam pattern
Stock with the widest pattern beam
The beam wasn't all that bright and was quite yellow.
I bought a 1W Luxeon Star bin Q3J and a Mad Max+ wide open driver board from http://www.anlighten.com/shop
The nice thing about this light is that it's very mod friendly. It has a screw in insulated positive contact, an aluminum screw in bulb module, and a screw in reflector (not textured, though).
Here's the bulb module from the top. Note the bulb module protrudes above the flashlight body.
Bulb module from the bottom
Exploded view of the module, spring and reflector
I started with the bulb module. Jiggle the bulb, and the whole center section of the module will fall out. Since I was going to mount the star board right onto the top of the screw in portion of the module, I just discarded the bulb and holder.
In order to fit the star board, reflector, new glass lens from http://www.flashlightlens.com/ I had to remove the raised portion of the screw in module. I just used a coarse file. Once it got close to flush with the body of the light, I sanded it flat using 220 grit sand paper.
Notice in this picture the bulb module under the star emitter board is flush with the top of the flashlight tube
After fitting the bulb module to the body, I epoxied the star board to the bulb module using Arctic Alumina Epoxy.
The bulb module makes a great driver board holder. In fact the original retaining ring can even be used! I drilled two 1/16" holes on either side of the emitter to allow the + and - wires to pass through. I then soldered leads onto the MadMax and dropped it into the bulb nodule. No epoxy required, just some Artic Silver.
Driver board with leads attached.
MM+ in place with retaining ring installed
Time for at test drive! Upon installing the factory reflector, I immediately noticed that the LED was not in the focal plane. I bored out the hole in the reflector to 3/8". This allows the emitter to protrude into the reflector and yields proper focus. The problem is that the emitter leads short on the aluminum reflector housing, so I counter sunk the hole to allow clearance for the leads.
Countersunk hole
I replaced the original plastic lens with a Borofloat lens from http://flashlightlens.com. Chris was kind enough to custom cut a lens for me. If you can think up a diameter for him, he'll cut it. Great guy to deal with. Here's a look at the mod from the front.
Finished mod.
Here's a beamshot after the mod. I adjusted the color because the camera's white balance setting was making the beam look too green. Otherwise, it's unchanged.
"After" beamshot
All in all, this is a pocket blaster /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif It's super bright, and very white. Whiter, even, than the beamshot suggests. The MM+ wide open should provide over 2 hours of runtime and the beam is phenomenal.
Playing with this light had led me to believe that maybe reflectors are the way to go. The optics for the Luxeons leaves a lot to be desired. Reflectors seem to provide a much better quality beam with fewer artifacts. For certain, my McFlood reflector and R2H 1W HD is one of my favorite combinations.
This is a very worthwhile mod. With the small form factor, the amount of light produced is amazing, as is the quality of the beam. With the threaded reflector, this light also retains the ability to function in candle mode without the reflector going AWOL. Also, the built in converter board holder is a bonus and makes life much easier.
