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Flashlight Enthusiast
Some of you may remember Ginseng's previous two "Philosophical Musings" threads:
Philosophical Musings Ch.1: Throw
Philosophical Musings Ch.2: Output
And some of you may have missed them, but either way, I am continuing on in the philosophical musings tradition, with Ginseng's permission of course.
Today's topic: modding!
Why do we mod? What do we mod? How do we mod? What keeps us modding? What's the life of a modder like? Feel free to talk about anything modding related in this thread—everything except specific mods themselves, I think. I intend the topic of this thread to be about MODDING—the process and things related to the process and not so much the products. But, of course, the products will enter into the discussion somewhat. I think my meaning is clear, even though I'm not expressing myself well.
So, to get things rolling, I'll talk about my own relation to modding, my own modders life, as it were. The funny thing is that when I started on CPF I totally avoided the homemade and modified lights forum and actually never imagined that would change! I spent most of my time at the Arc forum, and was into high quality, finished, production lights like Arcs and SureFires. The idea of taking a light like that and tearing it apart was foreign to me. Not even to learn about it. I was definitely into regular care and maintenance, of course.
And, on the other side of things, taking an inexpensive host, like a mag lite, and modding it, also never appealed to me. It struck me as cobbed together, and less than high quality. I was fine with others doing this, and I appreciated that you could get a lot for a little, and that the whole process could be fun and rewarding, but it just wasn't my thing.
So, what happened? I went from spending almost no time in the mods forum to spending A LOT of time there.
I guess what happened at the very beginning was that I took apart my 2D mag lite that I'd been given for Christmas the previous year, and decided that the switch core pedestal assembly was crying out for a replacement. So I decided to try to tackle that: if we could have a drop-in assembly that would have a high quality switch and a bi-pin socket to accept WA lamps, and a pedestal sized to fit right up the bore of a stock Carley RF1940, then the mag mod would become, in my eyes, something much more high quality, something much more reliable. So, I started my Mag drop in switch assy for WA lamps & Carley 1940 thread.
But that was not what really catapulted me into modding. What did that was the TigerLight Upgrades project. I kept seeing a bunch of lights, including the Tigerlight, put up against the MagCharger with Welch Allyn 1160 lamp installed, and I kept thinking "Dang! That's hardly fair. I mean, one of them is using a non-stock lamp. Two can play at that game!" And thus the TL upgrades were born. I had been waiting for Ginseng to do these for us all, but he was busy with other projects, and I had a burning desire to hotrod the TigerLight to compete with the MagCharger.
It was a very magical and rewarding time for me here on CPF. I remember those days as the golden days of my time here (so far). Ginseng was working in parallel on MC mods, and the synergy and exchange of energy and ideas and excitement was amazing. And there were so many supportive and excited onlookers and collaborators involved, too! People would pop into my thread and tell me how to mod the circuit in the TigerLight charger, or to suggest a source for this or that, or to offer advice and support. Quite honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life. We brought the TigerLight mods from conception to reality and had so much fun doing it.
And interestingly enough, most of the "mods" I made were all not really mods at all, in the sense that I made no modifications to the stock light, (except for the charger circuit mod for the Tiger85). No. Most of the TL upgrades were simply drop-in items. A drop-in higher current battery pack. A drop-in reflector, with drop-in ring potted lamps. So, I sort of still kept to my basic preference when it came to modding!
The smell of Kester rosin core solder will always remind me of those modding days, back when I taught myself how to end-to-end solder battery packs, and back when my idea for ring-potting lamps became a reality. Good days.
Scary days, too! I remember the first time I sat down and added up all the money I had spent on the TL mods project thus far. I felt a little light headed and sick to my stomach. It was well over $1,000! It all added up so fast! And I still hadn't made a dime from any of it. And the response I got when I opened the B/S/T thread was also scary—gratifying and wonderful as well—but definitely scary.
Even so, part of the reward of modding for me was having all the stuff, seeing all the stuff. It was almost religious! To hold a box full of 60 Welch Allyn 01111-u lamps, some $400 worth almost—60 perfect, potent, rare, and wonderful little bits of glass and metal. Now THAT was cool. Same goes for reflectors and batteries.
Then, of course, there was the appreciation and gratitude of the people who bought my stuff. That was the true return on my investment of time and money. Gratitude. Getting a rave email or PM always made my day!
Not every day was like that, though! I remember the first few battery packs I made. It was very stressful! On one of them, the copper braid I was about to finish soldering to its second battery stack slipped away and shorted out a battery stack. It welded itself to the negative contact of the pack. I FREAKED OUT. I was yelling and screaming and cussing as I grabbed the wire, burned myself, knocked over the pack. God. It was STRESSFUL to say the least. I remember sending Ginseng an email saying that if the rest of the packs were this much trouble to make that I wasn't going to make it.
Other downsides included the slight undercurrent of guilt at doing anything other than modding with my free time when I had people's money. Even though downtime and rest and relaxation are obviously a necessity, I still felt a duty to be working as hard as possible to get stuff out to people. That definitely weighed on me when it came to the M6-R project.
I had actually not planned on doing the M6-R project. I remember the day quite clearly: I saw an M6 for sale for $275 on B/S/T, and it all sort of hit me on the head. So I PM'd the seller asking him to measure the battery holder, did some calculations, did some thinking, and bought the light from him. I couldn't help myself. The idea grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. I had to at least try to make a drop-in rechargeable pack for the M6. As things progressed and I became more and more sure that one way or another I was going to make it happen, I let brightnorm in on the project, under strict pains of secrecy. It was another two or three months before I made the first M6-R pack, as BN can tell you.
Now THAT was also a high point in my modding career. The day I finished my first M6-R pack, dropped it in, and it worked. I was delerious with joy. Then, after that first discharge, it stopped working. LOL! Then I was a bit less "up". But I went to sleep knowing I would figure out what had happened and fix it. And an hour or two later I realized what had happened while lying in bed.
My work attracted the attention of Michael Teig at TigerLight and I was a de facto consultant for TL long before I was paid for doing it. My work with TigerLight resulted in the Gen 4 LA, the premium pack, and the new fast charger (yet to be released). It was an honor and a priviledge to work for them. I still work for them from time to time, but not like I used to.
So much has come from my modding carrer. But what I value most are all the contacts I have made, the community I have become a part of. All thanks to CPF. All thanks to modding.
Thank you to CPF and to all who make it possible!
I hope that other modders will share their stories or experiences or whatever!
Philosophical Musings Ch.1: Throw
Philosophical Musings Ch.2: Output
And some of you may have missed them, but either way, I am continuing on in the philosophical musings tradition, with Ginseng's permission of course.
Today's topic: modding!
Why do we mod? What do we mod? How do we mod? What keeps us modding? What's the life of a modder like? Feel free to talk about anything modding related in this thread—everything except specific mods themselves, I think. I intend the topic of this thread to be about MODDING—the process and things related to the process and not so much the products. But, of course, the products will enter into the discussion somewhat. I think my meaning is clear, even though I'm not expressing myself well.
So, to get things rolling, I'll talk about my own relation to modding, my own modders life, as it were. The funny thing is that when I started on CPF I totally avoided the homemade and modified lights forum and actually never imagined that would change! I spent most of my time at the Arc forum, and was into high quality, finished, production lights like Arcs and SureFires. The idea of taking a light like that and tearing it apart was foreign to me. Not even to learn about it. I was definitely into regular care and maintenance, of course.
And, on the other side of things, taking an inexpensive host, like a mag lite, and modding it, also never appealed to me. It struck me as cobbed together, and less than high quality. I was fine with others doing this, and I appreciated that you could get a lot for a little, and that the whole process could be fun and rewarding, but it just wasn't my thing.
So, what happened? I went from spending almost no time in the mods forum to spending A LOT of time there.
I guess what happened at the very beginning was that I took apart my 2D mag lite that I'd been given for Christmas the previous year, and decided that the switch core pedestal assembly was crying out for a replacement. So I decided to try to tackle that: if we could have a drop-in assembly that would have a high quality switch and a bi-pin socket to accept WA lamps, and a pedestal sized to fit right up the bore of a stock Carley RF1940, then the mag mod would become, in my eyes, something much more high quality, something much more reliable. So, I started my Mag drop in switch assy for WA lamps & Carley 1940 thread.
But that was not what really catapulted me into modding. What did that was the TigerLight Upgrades project. I kept seeing a bunch of lights, including the Tigerlight, put up against the MagCharger with Welch Allyn 1160 lamp installed, and I kept thinking "Dang! That's hardly fair. I mean, one of them is using a non-stock lamp. Two can play at that game!" And thus the TL upgrades were born. I had been waiting for Ginseng to do these for us all, but he was busy with other projects, and I had a burning desire to hotrod the TigerLight to compete with the MagCharger.
It was a very magical and rewarding time for me here on CPF. I remember those days as the golden days of my time here (so far). Ginseng was working in parallel on MC mods, and the synergy and exchange of energy and ideas and excitement was amazing. And there were so many supportive and excited onlookers and collaborators involved, too! People would pop into my thread and tell me how to mod the circuit in the TigerLight charger, or to suggest a source for this or that, or to offer advice and support. Quite honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life. We brought the TigerLight mods from conception to reality and had so much fun doing it.
And interestingly enough, most of the "mods" I made were all not really mods at all, in the sense that I made no modifications to the stock light, (except for the charger circuit mod for the Tiger85). No. Most of the TL upgrades were simply drop-in items. A drop-in higher current battery pack. A drop-in reflector, with drop-in ring potted lamps. So, I sort of still kept to my basic preference when it came to modding!
The smell of Kester rosin core solder will always remind me of those modding days, back when I taught myself how to end-to-end solder battery packs, and back when my idea for ring-potting lamps became a reality. Good days.
Scary days, too! I remember the first time I sat down and added up all the money I had spent on the TL mods project thus far. I felt a little light headed and sick to my stomach. It was well over $1,000! It all added up so fast! And I still hadn't made a dime from any of it. And the response I got when I opened the B/S/T thread was also scary—gratifying and wonderful as well—but definitely scary.
Even so, part of the reward of modding for me was having all the stuff, seeing all the stuff. It was almost religious! To hold a box full of 60 Welch Allyn 01111-u lamps, some $400 worth almost—60 perfect, potent, rare, and wonderful little bits of glass and metal. Now THAT was cool. Same goes for reflectors and batteries.
Then, of course, there was the appreciation and gratitude of the people who bought my stuff. That was the true return on my investment of time and money. Gratitude. Getting a rave email or PM always made my day!
Not every day was like that, though! I remember the first few battery packs I made. It was very stressful! On one of them, the copper braid I was about to finish soldering to its second battery stack slipped away and shorted out a battery stack. It welded itself to the negative contact of the pack. I FREAKED OUT. I was yelling and screaming and cussing as I grabbed the wire, burned myself, knocked over the pack. God. It was STRESSFUL to say the least. I remember sending Ginseng an email saying that if the rest of the packs were this much trouble to make that I wasn't going to make it.
Other downsides included the slight undercurrent of guilt at doing anything other than modding with my free time when I had people's money. Even though downtime and rest and relaxation are obviously a necessity, I still felt a duty to be working as hard as possible to get stuff out to people. That definitely weighed on me when it came to the M6-R project.
I had actually not planned on doing the M6-R project. I remember the day quite clearly: I saw an M6 for sale for $275 on B/S/T, and it all sort of hit me on the head. So I PM'd the seller asking him to measure the battery holder, did some calculations, did some thinking, and bought the light from him. I couldn't help myself. The idea grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. I had to at least try to make a drop-in rechargeable pack for the M6. As things progressed and I became more and more sure that one way or another I was going to make it happen, I let brightnorm in on the project, under strict pains of secrecy. It was another two or three months before I made the first M6-R pack, as BN can tell you.
Now THAT was also a high point in my modding career. The day I finished my first M6-R pack, dropped it in, and it worked. I was delerious with joy. Then, after that first discharge, it stopped working. LOL! Then I was a bit less "up". But I went to sleep knowing I would figure out what had happened and fix it. And an hour or two later I realized what had happened while lying in bed.
My work attracted the attention of Michael Teig at TigerLight and I was a de facto consultant for TL long before I was paid for doing it. My work with TigerLight resulted in the Gen 4 LA, the premium pack, and the new fast charger (yet to be released). It was an honor and a priviledge to work for them. I still work for them from time to time, but not like I used to.
So much has come from my modding carrer. But what I value most are all the contacts I have made, the community I have become a part of. All thanks to CPF. All thanks to modding.
Thank you to CPF and to all who make it possible!
I hope that other modders will share their stories or experiences or whatever!
I was devastated and stopped actively modding for people. When I burn one of my own lights, I laugh and chuck the mishap to the learning curve, but when it's somebody else's light... 
the feeling is horrible, and I decided I couldn't do that anymore. Despite that, I continued to accept a few mod requests, but I had a couple more Arc's die and I couldn't do it anymore. (One of those is Milkyspits, BTW, who is still patiently waiting and wondering when I'll re-build his ArcAAA pill and return his light.)
