StefanFS
Flashlight Enthusiast
D-mini + CREE R2 + MM Driver. A guide.
There has been some requests for a guide doing this "simple" mod recently. I use the 1000 mA AMC7135 five mode Pic driver available from several HK webshops. It is simple for those who have been modding for a while, but it does require some patience and exact planning to get it right. And basic soldering skills. I use No. clean lead free solder and liquid flux for electronics, that's why the joints sometimes look dull. It's easier to use normal 60/40 solder and rosin solder paste.
This driver works best with one LiION cell. It will deliver light with one CR123 primary, only very little light.
What you need, one cut down Q5, one driver, some teflon wire and solder.
Use a small drill bit and make two holes in the plastic cover by twirling the drill bit between your fingers. Remove the aluminium tabs holding the cover. Lift the cover with something like the bent paper clips in the picture.
Desolder the connections on the star.
Start preparing the driver leads, presolder the connections on the driver and trim the leads. Then solder the leads to the driver. It pays to use a solder station and high temp for quick and efficient solder points.
Push the desoldered leads from the stock driver down into the pill, use a small screwdriver and find the ledge of the contact ring surrounding the driver, tap the driver out of the pill. Sometimes the original star overlap the holes in the pill, then you can put the pill in your vise and use the same screwdriver and tap the star out with a hammer. If not I twist it out with a pair of pliers
Desolder the stock driver from the contact ring. Use some solder wick to suck up the solder on the ring.
Solder the new driver to the ring with a few points around the circumference.
Push the driver with the contact ring back into the pill, on the D-mini I use a pair of needlenose pliers and on Tiablos or MRV I use a hammer and a piece of wood.
Mix some of your favourite thermal epoxy to go under the new star. Install the star with epoxy under it into the pill (while observing that the correct lead reaches the correct contact on the star) and then use the head & reflector to find the correct centering. Finding the correct centering will take a few tries. And don't use too much epoxy under the star, it needs to be a thin layer. Let it set overnight when centered.
Time to solder the leads to the star. Presoldering the contacts on the star and the leads will make things easier. High temp soldering will also make it easier
I don't bother with the stock covers. Thin plastic from eg. microwave dinner boxes work well. I use a 7 mm punch for the emitter hole.
This is the result. Up from 7800 Lux to 13 000 Lux in throw @ one metre.
This mod does take some patience and planning, but it's not difficult to do.
I have installed a UCL type lens with AR coating on both surfaces since beginning this mod. This upped the throw Lux @ one metre from ~13 000 Lux to 14 700 Lux.
Runtime on high. BatteryStation RCR123. Throw Lux 14 700 @ 0 minutes.
Runtime on medium. BatteryStation RCR123. Throw Lux 4600 @ 0 minutes.
Runtimes are considerably longer on low & medium level, it's also better regulated on low & medium. But the circuit is dependant on the cell for regulation. On high it's very bright for the first 20 minutes. 52 minutes to 50%. The stock D-mini driver runs regulated for 25 minutes on RCR123 LiION and then shuts off completely. With this driver and a new led my D-mini is as bright as the stock light at 50 minutes.
Stefan
Update 2008-07-16
I decided that I had to modernize my edc d-mini to it's limits. That means an efficient driver (eg. DX SKU: 7882. Others also carry this product.) I also used a new star mounted CREE R2 WG led.
Removing the old stuff from the light engine
Fixing the new star with AA epoxy and centering it with the plastic cover.
Preparing the driver with emitter leads and a copper wire for ground soldered to a hole in the ring around the driver. The ground wire replaces the brass contact ring for battery negative.
Driver leads soldered to the new star. I always use long emitter wires in case of future led upgrades.
The ground wire is wrapped around the light engine. A simple solution. Since the board with the led is thinner I wrapped a few extra turns of thin copper wire around the light engine/pill where the ground wire is in this pic to get the emitter to the correct height. That differs a bit with different D-minis, some need adjustment for focus and some don't.
The driver sunk into the light engine/led pill. Awaiting epoxy.
Potted/epoxied into the pill. It's very important to keep the variable resistor clear of epoxy since you want to use that to tune the drivers output.
That's it. It now throws ~24 000 lux on high. That's like a Raidfire Spear in your pocket . However, at that level you will get very short runtimes. I'll use it with high set to somewhere around 10-12 000 lux in throw to get good runtimes on one rehargeable RCR123 or primary CR123. Output is about the same on both RCR 123 or primary CR123.
Stefan
There has been some requests for a guide doing this "simple" mod recently. I use the 1000 mA AMC7135 five mode Pic driver available from several HK webshops. It is simple for those who have been modding for a while, but it does require some patience and exact planning to get it right. And basic soldering skills. I use No. clean lead free solder and liquid flux for electronics, that's why the joints sometimes look dull. It's easier to use normal 60/40 solder and rosin solder paste.
This driver works best with one LiION cell. It will deliver light with one CR123 primary, only very little light.
What you need, one cut down Q5, one driver, some teflon wire and solder.
Use a small drill bit and make two holes in the plastic cover by twirling the drill bit between your fingers. Remove the aluminium tabs holding the cover. Lift the cover with something like the bent paper clips in the picture.
Desolder the connections on the star.
Start preparing the driver leads, presolder the connections on the driver and trim the leads. Then solder the leads to the driver. It pays to use a solder station and high temp for quick and efficient solder points.
Push the desoldered leads from the stock driver down into the pill, use a small screwdriver and find the ledge of the contact ring surrounding the driver, tap the driver out of the pill. Sometimes the original star overlap the holes in the pill, then you can put the pill in your vise and use the same screwdriver and tap the star out with a hammer. If not I twist it out with a pair of pliers
Desolder the stock driver from the contact ring. Use some solder wick to suck up the solder on the ring.
Solder the new driver to the ring with a few points around the circumference.
Push the driver with the contact ring back into the pill, on the D-mini I use a pair of needlenose pliers and on Tiablos or MRV I use a hammer and a piece of wood.
Mix some of your favourite thermal epoxy to go under the new star. Install the star with epoxy under it into the pill (while observing that the correct lead reaches the correct contact on the star) and then use the head & reflector to find the correct centering. Finding the correct centering will take a few tries. And don't use too much epoxy under the star, it needs to be a thin layer. Let it set overnight when centered.
Time to solder the leads to the star. Presoldering the contacts on the star and the leads will make things easier. High temp soldering will also make it easier
I don't bother with the stock covers. Thin plastic from eg. microwave dinner boxes work well. I use a 7 mm punch for the emitter hole.
This is the result. Up from 7800 Lux to 13 000 Lux in throw @ one metre.
This mod does take some patience and planning, but it's not difficult to do.
I have installed a UCL type lens with AR coating on both surfaces since beginning this mod. This upped the throw Lux @ one metre from ~13 000 Lux to 14 700 Lux.
Runtime on high. BatteryStation RCR123. Throw Lux 14 700 @ 0 minutes.
Runtime on medium. BatteryStation RCR123. Throw Lux 4600 @ 0 minutes.
Runtimes are considerably longer on low & medium level, it's also better regulated on low & medium. But the circuit is dependant on the cell for regulation. On high it's very bright for the first 20 minutes. 52 minutes to 50%. The stock D-mini driver runs regulated for 25 minutes on RCR123 LiION and then shuts off completely. With this driver and a new led my D-mini is as bright as the stock light at 50 minutes.
Stefan
Update 2008-07-16
I decided that I had to modernize my edc d-mini to it's limits. That means an efficient driver (eg. DX SKU: 7882. Others also carry this product.) I also used a new star mounted CREE R2 WG led.
Removing the old stuff from the light engine
Fixing the new star with AA epoxy and centering it with the plastic cover.
Preparing the driver with emitter leads and a copper wire for ground soldered to a hole in the ring around the driver. The ground wire replaces the brass contact ring for battery negative.
Driver leads soldered to the new star. I always use long emitter wires in case of future led upgrades.
The ground wire is wrapped around the light engine. A simple solution. Since the board with the led is thinner I wrapped a few extra turns of thin copper wire around the light engine/pill where the ground wire is in this pic to get the emitter to the correct height. That differs a bit with different D-minis, some need adjustment for focus and some don't.
The driver sunk into the light engine/led pill. Awaiting epoxy.
Potted/epoxied into the pill. It's very important to keep the variable resistor clear of epoxy since you want to use that to tune the drivers output.
That's it. It now throws ~24 000 lux on high. That's like a Raidfire Spear in your pocket . However, at that level you will get very short runtimes. I'll use it with high set to somewhere around 10-12 000 lux in throw to get good runtimes on one rehargeable RCR123 or primary CR123. Output is about the same on both RCR 123 or primary CR123.
Stefan
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