new style Infinity Mod.(pics)

[Robocop]

I was able to fit a Dorcy AA board into the head of a new style infinity and it is powering a low dome lux. This is completely reversible to go back to the factory 5 mm LED at any time by simply un-screwing the bezel and replacing the factory part. I polished the bezel and it gives a good flood type beam and I later hope to find a better High Dome Lux to replace this donor Low Dome. The light keeps all the original functions with the twisting of the tail cap to activate it.I simply soldered a positive and negative wire to the Dorcy board and then potted it nice and flush with the top lip part.I then filed down a dime for a heat sink and attatched the negative lead and positive lead.The Dorcy board just fits perfect and makes good contact with the inside of the bezel for the ground contact.I did have to drill out the bezel opening a little to fit the Luxeon however when replaced with the original 5 MM LED it works just fine.I know have an Infinity Lux that I can switch at random back to factory specs.The photos are a little crappy as my cam is not the best but you can get an idea of just how cool this little mod was to make....I just have found so many uses for these little Dorcy AA boards....In a few of the pics you can see the factory board and 5 MM LED.You can see that the Dorcy board is almost exactly the same diameter and height of the factory part....easy mod to do and a lot of fun.

 

[Hallis]

all that and no beamshots? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Shane

 

[Robocop]

Hey Hallis...good to hear from you. I am working on the beam shots but sad to say my camera really does not do so well.I am going to get my friend to try some with his camera and I will try to get them up later.I am thinking of using an optic inside the bezel if I can find a way to make one of my spare NX-05 smaller and still work.
For now I will say it is a good flood beam that fills up an entire room pretty well with usable spill light.I like it best with Energizer Lithiums but have also tried it with a 3 volt AA size cell(this works great)...I am also anxious to find a better Luxeon(high dome)as I feel this would improve this mod greatly....All in all this took me about 2 hours and is a very usable and easy mod.

 

[Hallis]

well its looking good so far. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Shane

 

[Robocop]

If I am looking at this little board correct it appears it will fit inside the bezel of the old style Ultra also.I have several of the old style and by looking at the bezel I think this board will fit inside the head with a thin heat sink attatched.I have never tried to remove the insides of the old Ultra but I may try this idea next.....I know there are many Lux mods out there for the old style but I am curious if anyone has attempted this mod with a Dorcy AA board......If anyone has an empty old style Ultra head and a Dorcy AA board could you maybe test fit the diameter and see if it will even fit??...Thanks for looking

 

[Xrunner]

Very nice work... what is the casing of the lux capsule made of?

-Mike

 

[Robocop]

Xrunner I think it is just a thin type of metal and is bendable with a little pressure.The Dorcy board comes already surrounded in this casing and all you have to do is attatch the wires for the lux leads and it is ready.I potted it just for a little strength as I always seem to break off that little copper coil thing every time I get to playing around with these boards.

 

[greenlight]

Neat mod idea. Why not use the infinity pcb?

 

[Xrunner]

Thanks for the info, I was thinking of the Dorcy AAA and not the AAA. Now it looks like I will have to buy a couple of those to part out too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

-Mike

 

[Robocop]

Greenlight I did think of using the infinity board however I did some searching here and found a few small things need to be changed with this board to run a Lux very well.My soldering skills are not that good so I substituted this Dorcy board as it runs well as it is. I simply removed the 1 ohm resistor and soldered across the pads and it runs a Lux nice and bright from 1.5 volts and even better at 3 volts input. The Dorcy board is already nice and compact in the metal round casing and puts out more power to the Lux than the factory board. The AAA Dorcy board is also great for mods with Luxeons however the long shape of the board limits its applications. The AA board has a positive contact in the center of the inside casing and I solder a small wire to this place and leave it sticking straight up. I then solder a small wire to the inner side of the case and also leave it sticking up as the case is the negative contact for this board.Then I put some form of potting material on the inside and it surrounds the wires sticking up and hardens to make a pretty solid little sandwich.I use some kind of 2 part mixing epoxy that hardens like a rock and it works well. After it cures you can then add a small,flat heatsink with slits cut on opposite sides for the wires to contact the Luxeon.Bend the wires down and solder to the Luxeon and there you have it.I leave the positive side slit pretty big to keep the wire from touching and it works out pretty good....If I can get a better camera I will try to get some pics up soon. The entire mod could be done in about 30 minutes and is completly reversible.

 

[Robocop]

Any Idea how to get an optic to fit nicely inside the bezel.My NX-05 does kind of fit but needs a little removed from the bottom side.Any idea what this will do to the beam if I remove some material from the bottom. I have heard of people polishing an optic after sanding the top however my skills are not that great.I would rather go from the bottom and leave the top of the optic alone.

 

[greenLED]

My guess is you'd be changing (ruining? I don't know.) the focal point of the reflector if you went at it from the bottom. I'm afraid that'd be harder to fix than polishing the top part.

 

[Robocop]

So this can be done with sanding and polishing the top of the optic?...If I remove some material from the top with light sandpaper can it actually be buffed and polished back to where it is clear again? When I test fit the optic down into the bezel I have a small gap between the body of the light and the bottom of the optic.It would be easier to start at the bottom but I am afraid that I would shorten the section that actually holds the emitter too much. If I can sand it and polish it back clear what is the method or items needed to do this?

 

[greenLED]

I haven't done it myself, but mike101 gives a nice description in this thread. Scroll towards the bottom to where the hand-drawn instructions are.

 

[Robocop]

That was just what I needed GreenLED and thanks for the link....I am going to try this in a few minutes and I will try to post some additional pics later...Thanks

 

[greenLED]

OK, so after frying my last sammie and feeling really grumpy, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/Christo_pull_hair.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif 'cuz I am making a special gift /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/au.gif for my brother, I decided to take it out on the only NX-05 I have (ahem... had). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif

Edit: I was wrong, I had a FraenLP!! The Fraen optic has rounder outside edges and a hole in the middle; the NX-05 has a flat top and straight sides.

I sanded first with grit 60, and later used finer grades (220, 600, 1200). I finished (yeah, right!) with toothpaste. Here are the pics: Ta-da! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/clap.gif

Top view,a few passes after having started. Notice the marks from the sandpaper.

"Finished" sides (?) I couldn't get my camera to focus properly, sorry about that.

Anyway, there's my first polished down NX-05. I made it to fit the reflector of a CMG Infinity. It's still a bit too large and I have slightly less than 1mm sticking out of the head on the "business end" of the light. I'm really not sure how to affix this to the Infinity's reflector. I've read people use epoxy, but I am not sure where and how much to apply because I've also read that anything touching the outside of the optic will mess up its reflective properties.

The hardest part was grinding down the sides of the optics. The unmodified optic has slightly concave side, and I sanded then 'till they were straight, as per mike101's instructions. How this affects the beam, I do not know. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

I am also not sure if I did other things right. The unmodified NX-05 has a thick base (+-1mm width) that sits on the black base of the Lux. I sanded that lip to a hairline, and I'm not sure how that affects the focus. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

On second thought, the hardest part was trying to polish the outside of the optic, mainly because of the curvature of the optic. The last pic doesn't show it so well (see below), but I'm not done polishing the damn thing. Although the sides of the optic look very nice and transparent, when I look through the top, I can see many scuff marks still remaining (they ain't call'em "internal reflection" for nut'n, huh?) So, I'll have to go back and use some more toothpaste, I guess. Here's the pic (not completely in focus); the marks I'm talking about are more noticable (in the pic, at least) towards the top of the pic.

Polished front end. I did not clean the optic all that well before the pic and I couldn't focus properly.

 

[Robocop]

very nice...so you have to change the shape of the sides of the optic to get it to fit? I just noticed that if I sand down from the top of mine it will not fit anyway as the optic is not big enough to fill in the new style bezel.It will fit but will have to be re-shaped a good bit in order to do it.I am hoping the old style is a little different.
Let me know how it turns out

 

[greenLED]

Don't touch the sides of the NX-05!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Or, at least 'till I figure out how badly (if) I messed up. Upon careful reading of mike101's post (should've done this before starting right?/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif), it seems like he shaped the Infinity's reflector to fit the curve of the optic, and not the other way around. I'm afraid changing the shape of the optic *will* have an effect on its optical properties (what this effect is/might be... I'm posting a separate thread requesting comments on what I did). I hope I didn't mess it up too badly. Sanding the optic seems so much easier than grinding the reflector... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif or did to me last night. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

here's a link to my question

 

[greenLED]

Hi, Robocop,

My bad! First of all, the optic I ground down *was not* an NX-05 but a FraenLP. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Please check larry's reply here for details from tvodrd. The NX-05 apparently has a flat surface than should be ground to reduce the optic's size. Touching the sides of the optic should not be necessary (in fact, it's a pain to polish if you do it and I suspect will affect the internal reflecting properties of the optic, although nobody's verified this for me yet).

I'll finish polishing my ex-Fraen and post results later.

 

[mike101]

1) Though I didn't do any examination, I thought the side angle of the optic was designed to reflect the light from any angle of the light source forward along the axis. So you will spoil the beam if you vary the angle of the side. I think we can only sand down the optic and mod the angle of the bezel to fit the optic. NX-05 having a flat side is ideal for this project.

2) To avoid leaving too many scratches on the surface of the optic, you need to apply water on the sand paper when you start the fine sanding (1200). I applied with soap and lotion to increase the softness and smooth.

3) I used a tooth pick to applied a very very thin epoxy layer both to the bezel and optic thoroughly. Scraped away the excess then fit and pressed hardly the NX-05 to the bezel, trying the best not leaving any gap between two parts. Protect the front optic surface with Schotch tape before doing this step.

4) I didn't notice(by eyeball) any difference of the beam before and after the NX-05 was epoxyed to the bezel. I thought even some of the light escaped to the outside of the optic, it would be reflected back to the front by the well fit and shined bezel surface(with some loss in theory though).

5) Never tried. Worth to try if I can find one here. Link

Edit: Try to apply to the sanded NX-05.