I've had a Tektite 14 LED light for a long time. While not the fanciest light in the world, it has proven itself to be totally reliable, tough, and waterproof (My kids take baths playing with it submerged in the water). When I say tough, it has outlived falls that have severeley dented the casing on my Surefire L4 without any issues to the plastic other than some slight scuffs. Another reason I love it so, is the great lanyard it came with that continues to work and feel great. Unfortunately it was getting a bit long in the tooth for how little light it gave out. The LED's aren't even as bright as the current little nichia's (sp?).
As I just successfully completed my first mod changing a Myo XP headlamp to a new Seoul P4, bigger heatsink, and using 4 AA's instead of just 3, I decided to try my luck with the Tektite.
The Tektite is super simple. A thick plastic tube, 3C batteries and a strip of copper that runs up the side of the batteries in a little groove to contact the lamp assembly when the front lens is tightened down enough so that contact is made. Not exactly tactical speedy, but completely reliable and definately waterproof with dual O-rings.
As like my Myo XP project, I started with a Heat Sink from an old motherboard southbridge and then I ground it circular so it would fit into the tube. These HS's had a nice flat spot dead center of the heatsink that would allow good heat conduction against the bottm of the P4 Star and lots of surrounding fins to dissapate heat. The electrical pathway would be that the HS would squeeze up against the Tube's copper strip as it was tightened down and a wire soldered onto the HS would then connect to the neg terminal of the star. The pos side of the star would go through a 1 ohm resistor and then through a drilled hole to connect on the other side of the HS to a penny that would butt against the pos side of the battery. That's a Luxeon Star in the pics, that I used for initial testing)
To keep the penny insulated, I used a thin piece of micarta I had lying around and a hole in the center to allow for the Heat sink epoxy to conduct heat, but stay electrically insulated. This Micarta was epoxied to the bottom middle of the heat sink and then the penny was epoxied on top, with the center space filled with more heat thermal epoxy.
I used a 1 ohm resistor instead of direct driving it because this flashlight is airtight. Didn't want it to get too hot. The HS still has to dissapate heat, so a little current drop would keep it from getting as hot (at least in my head's theory, not an electronics expert) Don't know if I needed to, but it works and I don't want to mess with a good thing. You can see the rub ring where it contacts the copper in the tube as it is twisted onto it.
The reflector was stolen from the Myo3 that I scavenged the battery pack and headband for my Myo XP mod (can read about it in the Headlamps section). This reflector was interesting because it was half orange peeled and half smooth (can see in pics). The other nice part was the the hole in the black plastic base fit perfectly around the P4 Star.
I just cut off the top of the black part and epoxied the actual reflector to the now-smaller base.
After a little grinding off of the original reflector bottom so that the LED would sit at a proper height to make a decently focused beam, I glued the lens assembly on top of the heat sink with a little epoxy.
With a little judicious grinding of the outer edges of the reflector assembly, it dropped in perfectly into the tube.
All done! It now has a perfect hotspot, surrounded by a wide spill. There is just the "tiniest" bit of artifact in the hotspot because the reflector is partially smooth, but it throws a long distance and plenty of useable sidespill. This light is no technological tactical demon, but I trust it more for it's simplicity as a work/SHTF light over all my other lights. It also runs for a heckuva long time with 3 C batteries.
As I just successfully completed my first mod changing a Myo XP headlamp to a new Seoul P4, bigger heatsink, and using 4 AA's instead of just 3, I decided to try my luck with the Tektite.
The Tektite is super simple. A thick plastic tube, 3C batteries and a strip of copper that runs up the side of the batteries in a little groove to contact the lamp assembly when the front lens is tightened down enough so that contact is made. Not exactly tactical speedy, but completely reliable and definately waterproof with dual O-rings.
As like my Myo XP project, I started with a Heat Sink from an old motherboard southbridge and then I ground it circular so it would fit into the tube. These HS's had a nice flat spot dead center of the heatsink that would allow good heat conduction against the bottm of the P4 Star and lots of surrounding fins to dissapate heat. The electrical pathway would be that the HS would squeeze up against the Tube's copper strip as it was tightened down and a wire soldered onto the HS would then connect to the neg terminal of the star. The pos side of the star would go through a 1 ohm resistor and then through a drilled hole to connect on the other side of the HS to a penny that would butt against the pos side of the battery. That's a Luxeon Star in the pics, that I used for initial testing)
To keep the penny insulated, I used a thin piece of micarta I had lying around and a hole in the center to allow for the Heat sink epoxy to conduct heat, but stay electrically insulated. This Micarta was epoxied to the bottom middle of the heat sink and then the penny was epoxied on top, with the center space filled with more heat thermal epoxy.
I used a 1 ohm resistor instead of direct driving it because this flashlight is airtight. Didn't want it to get too hot. The HS still has to dissapate heat, so a little current drop would keep it from getting as hot (at least in my head's theory, not an electronics expert) Don't know if I needed to, but it works and I don't want to mess with a good thing. You can see the rub ring where it contacts the copper in the tube as it is twisted onto it.
The reflector was stolen from the Myo3 that I scavenged the battery pack and headband for my Myo XP mod (can read about it in the Headlamps section). This reflector was interesting because it was half orange peeled and half smooth (can see in pics). The other nice part was the the hole in the black plastic base fit perfectly around the P4 Star.
I just cut off the top of the black part and epoxied the actual reflector to the now-smaller base.
After a little grinding off of the original reflector bottom so that the LED would sit at a proper height to make a decently focused beam, I glued the lens assembly on top of the heat sink with a little epoxy.
With a little judicious grinding of the outer edges of the reflector assembly, it dropped in perfectly into the tube.
All done! It now has a perfect hotspot, surrounded by a wide spill. There is just the "tiniest" bit of artifact in the hotspot because the reflector is partially smooth, but it throws a long distance and plenty of useable sidespill. This light is no technological tactical demon, but I trust it more for it's simplicity as a work/SHTF light over all my other lights. It also runs for a heckuva long time with 3 C batteries.
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