Safe-Light - Mod to Luxeon - Completed now.

[EngrPaul]

Should I dewitt? Will I lose low mode?

As you can see, I have a few spare Luxeons and a reflector that just might fit.

Or should I jump to a Cree or Seoul? I'll need something that works down at low drive levels!

I'll have to figure out how to take it apart first. Anyone want to show me how?

 

[Long John]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Hello Paul

I modded mine with a LuxI R-bin. Epoxied it to a copper penny, used a tiny Aspherical lens from an old Camera without reflector and soldered the wires to the connections at the board.
Works great with a perfect round beam (not focussed for optimum throw)

Best regards

____
Tom

 

[EngrPaul]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Sounds great!

How is it best disassembled?

 

[Long John]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Mine is an older version "Lucido-Cool Light". The rubber body consists of two parts, underneath is a plastic housing. It's easy to pull off the rubber at the head part of the light.
When your light looks like the ones in the picture above "CPF Safe Light" I guess, you can pull off the complete rubber of the light in direction to the head of the light.

Best regards

_____
Tom

 

[EngrPaul]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Well, it was difficult! Such a tight fit.

The best way was to unroll the bottom edge away from the battery compartment, and start pinching the top really hard to get it moving.

The lens fits up in there...

I'll have to start going through my various "take-off" emitters to see which one gives the brightest light at the glow mode.

 

[Long John]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Congrats

This was necessary to start:lolsign:

Good plan, try them out and take the brightest one.:candle:

Good luck and have fun

_______
Tom

 

[EngrPaul]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Of all the tested emitters, including Cree XR-E, the best performance in glow mode was a emitter taken from a DX "Blimp". At least one of my emitters was a S-Bin, so it's probably a R-Bin.

 

[abvidledUK]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Be careful taking off the rubber head.

On the one I looked at, w/o modding, the switch top dropped out, as I took off the rubber hood, and it's very small.

it's a sod trying to put the rubber back on, keeping the switch top in place.

 

[Nitroz]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

And I thought I was bad. :laughing:

Some people can't leave any light stock.

I look forward to seeing the finished light.

 

[EngrPaul]

Re: Safe-Light - Advice on Modding Please

Well, here is my progress so far.

I've removed the stock LED, and applied two little strips of Kapton tape so I don't short the two pads, but still have a place for heat to go.

Applied some thermal epoxy.

Bent the Leads and put the emitter in place.

Soldered the connection, added a copper wire bridge where necessary on the cathode connection. As you can see, it's glowing while sitting on a battery.

I turned it up a level (medium) and took this picture. To test the focus of the reflector, I turned it up all the way and brought the reflector against the top of the plastic on the emitter. It went PAST the place of focus, and made a donut beam (not shown).

I found the right thickness washer to give it a lift. It's in glow mode again.

So I've got to epoxy the washer to the back of the reflector.

But first, I measured and found that I'm about a half centimeter too long to fit back in the sanoprene case. So I had to remove the material from the front of the reflector. Currently, the epoxy is setting up.

 

[abvidledUK]

Re: Safe-Light - Mod to Luxeon - In Progress

Nice pics, again.

 

[Long John]

Re: Safe-Light - Mod to Luxeon - In Progress

:goodjob: Paul and nice pictures.

Best regards

____
Tom

 

[EngrPaul]

Re: Safe-Light - Mod to Luxeon - In Progress

Putting it back together and testing it out...

I ended up going back to use a thinner washer...
[EDIT: I also tapered back the ribs later so that the reflector can go further into the top opening of the flashlight]

For these beamshots, the darkest room in my house for taking a picture during the day has dark sand colored walls. Therefore, the luxeon looks warmer than it really is.

There are two cons to the result: If you drop the flashlight on it's nose, it's more likely to do damage. Also, the glow mode is not as bright.

I'm not sure it's worth all the trouble to get whiter light, but it was more good practice.

 

[EngrPaul]

Just to review how I found the best way to remove the sanoprene jacket:

1. Remove the battery.

2. Remove the side clip with a + screwdriver.

3. Loosen the sanoprene from the case all around by rubbing/lifting (hard on the fingers). You'll need to break the attraction especially around the belt clip opening.

4. Roll the bottom lip away from the battery cover.

5. Put the battery cap back on the bottom and close it.

6. Pinch on the two sides catty-cornerd from the switch, while pulling on the battery cap. This will lift the button away from the delicate switch, and get the case moving.

7. When the cover starts hanging-up on the belt clip boss, lift the cover away with a flat tip screwdriver then continue.

8. Place the bottom of the sanoprene jacket (that you rolled over) in boiling water so it relaxes back to it's original shape.

 

[EngrPaul]

Another approach at whiter light: Replace the LED with another 5mm.

I won't say it will be "better", because the stock LED is the brightest in "glow" mode. But if you want whiter/brighter in the medium and high stages, there are other options.

The following two pictures are of the same two flashlights as above, but I replaced the stock LED with a BestHongKong Ultra White 25K (Left)*. The flashlight on the right is the Luxeon mod again.

Underexposed two stops:

P.S. I haven't tried a Seoul P4 upgrade yet... but it may be in the future.

*Stock #BUWLC333W24BA25, Link here.

 

[Bimmerboy]

Awesome, Paul! I have a few CPF models left over from giving them out for Christmas, and been wanting to mod at least one of 'em.

Did you happen to measure V and I? It'd be excellent to see data for both emitters running on this circuit, for high and low settings.

Wondering how a SMJLED will do in it, and if it'll wind up being brighter than an underdriven Lux. Otherwise, it may be Cree time for the Safelight.

 

[EngrPaul]

Bimmerboy,

Here are current measurements for the Luxeon mod, using a battery measuring 8.67V open circuit. I checked the current being supplied by the battery.

Glow: 32.8 microamps (on 200 microamp DMM setting)
Low: 5.03 milliamps (on 20 milliamp DMM setting)
High: 80.9 milliamps (on 200 milliamp DMM setting)

For the safelight that I put a BestHongKong LED in, here is the measurements:
Glow: 33.6 microamps
Low: 4.35 milliamps
High: 71.6 milliamps

Now I digged up these old numbers, but I didn't document which setting I had the DMM on. I found these numbers on one of my previous posts. The runtime was estimated based on the amount of mAh rated for an Energizer Alkaline.

Hi - 9 hours (69 mA)
Low - 130 hours (4.8mA)
Glow - 1.3 years (55 microamps)
Glow Off - Indefinitely (0 microamps)

 

[Long John]

Glow Off - Indefinitely (0 microamps)

:wow: Paul, that's unbelievable

Best regards

_____
Tom

 

[EngrPaul]

:wow: Paul, that's unbelievable

Best regards

_____
Tom

Well, you never know, it could leak some current when off. When you press a switch, it draws 720 microamperes during the press.

 

[bombelman]

Nice mod !! Awesome pics !