M1 Hunter (plenty of Picts)

nailbender

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Nov 9, 2008
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A member contacted me telling me that he had a M1 Hunter by Lumapower with a Q5 and that it needed a little jazzing up.
We discussed several LED's and options and after a couple of conversations it was decided to put a neutral binned MC-E in the light and use a direct drive with 5 levels board to control the LED.

1st off I want to thank Netkidz for some timely advice and a few pictures in a thread where he modded a light.


This is a nice well built light that comes with both a MOP & a smooth reflector.

FinishedM1-Hunter.jpg


After removing the head the light source is clearly visible. Once the light engine is removed the first thing that has to be done is to remove a black plastic cover that protects the led contacts and centers the led.
How to do this is not clearly visible. The way to do it is to drill a small hole on each side of the led just barely through the cover.
Once this is done I inserted a paper clip bent in a U and each end was bent in an L. Once you have the paper clip bent insert each end into the two holes you drilled being careful of inner components. You can now with some force remove the plastic cover

The results leave this. Now push wires as shown down through holes

Plasticcoveroffexposingoldled2.jpg


Turning the LE upside down you need to unbend the four braded over aluminum clips knowing that they will break off so that the contact can move down and out with the driver in the next step. (care must be used to catch bottom contact and inner spring).
Once that is done you can easily pry the led up and then take an object and insert through hole and carefully start to push the retaining clip with the driver in it down. You need to work a little at a time working from both holes trying to keep the clip even on its way down.

bottom contact with spring
BottomContactexposed.jpg


Once the bottom contact falls out the driver will still be recessed

Driverrevealed.jpg


continuing pushing down from the top will finally push the driver out the bottom.

Once the driver is removed it is time to clean the compound that was under the led and start the installation.

Materials needed to start re-installation
materialsforreassembly.jpg



Solder the drivers negative outer ring to the brass retaining clip
Driversolderedtobrassretainingring.jpg


Re-insert board from the bottom

Driverre-installed.jpg


I had previously reflowed the MC-E to a thin XR-E board which will allow the MC-E to run in Parrallel, I now put the arctic ceramique under the board and put in place on the top of the LE and soldered corresponding leads to the led's board.

ledrewired.jpg


All through this process i have been testing led and board and now it is time to check one last time. Once that is done reinsert the bottom contact and don't forget the spring.

This leaves the plastic cover to replace after testing again now that the contact is in place.
bottomofLE.jpg


I now put the plastic cover back in place. I had to shave the inside circumfrance down until it would fit down between the led board and the side of the housing, it must fit flat in the pocket not on the board or else the light will not close up properly and the led will not have the exposure it should. This gives you a finished module

finishedLE.jpg


I now replaced the module in the body.

LEre-installed.jpg


You can see that the cover protects the contacts and centers the led.
I used some arctic silver adhesive and filled the holes that had been drilled to remove the cover. I then used a black magic marker to color the epoxy so that it all matched to some extent.

Here we have the flashlight after removing the reflector and cleaning the lense and shining everything up. The led is perfectly centered and I think it looks great.

CleanedSmoothReflectorInstalled.jpg


Beam shot with smooth reflector @ about 6 feet.
Greatbeamforsmoothreflector.jpg



I thought that the mod came out quite good. I cleaned and nyogeled all the threads, used pro gold on the switch basically gave the member back a renewed light ready to used on a daily basis.

I was amazed at how good the beam came out with a smooth reflector using an MC-E I only had to adjust the module slightly for it to focus in with few rings and basically no X in the center or doughnut.

On high the light is a real thrower especially with the smooth reflector, it warms up quickly on high but transfers the heat through out the body well, quite a nice light.

I hope this might help someone else if they ever try this mod.

Dave
 

MWClint

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May 27, 2008
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Albany, NY
ooh that came out nice.

btw, i keep seeing those nifty little vices pop up on in various pics on this
site... where do you get them?..i checked all the random online tool stores
and keep coming up empty. i did see a reference to micro mark, but they
dont seem to carry them anymore. what is their official name.. pin vise, peg vise, universal vise? :thinking:
 

nailbender

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Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
3,682
Location
North Carolina
ooh that came out nice.

btw, i keep seeing those nifty little vices pop up on in various pics on this
site... where do you get them?..i checked all the random online tool stores
and keep coming up empty. i did see a reference to micro mark, but they
dont seem to carry them anymore. what is their official name.. pin vise, peg vise, universal vise? :thinking:


I believe I got mine on Ehobby.com I believe. It is a jeweler vise.

Dave
 

donn_

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Joined
Oct 10, 2007
Messages
8,067
Location
Great South Bay, LINY
Google "pin vise"

You'll find dozens of different configurations, ranging from those with handles to those which are made to clamp into a bench vise.
 

allburger

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Jan 7, 2008
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Location
Mid Michigan
Where did you get a Neutral MC-E on a smaller board like that???

I am almost assuming that you did a reflow yourself??
 

nailbender

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Nov 9, 2008
Messages
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Location
North Carolina
Where did you get a Neutral MC-E on a smaller board like that???

I am almost assuming that you did a reflow yourself??


Yes you are correct. I do them as I need them depending on the bin I need.

I ordered the boards from KD because of the diameter and the thickness. They are actually for XR-E but work fine for parallel wired MC-E.

I use solder paste and it works quite well.

Dave
 

KnOeFz

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May 28, 2006
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the Netherlands
Nice mod with great result! The beam looks awesome.
Nice to see so many pictures of the proces. I have an M1 that I think of giving the same treatment. I'd prefer a true led driver instead of a direct drive board though, but that's just personal preference.
 

nailbender

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Nice mod with great result! The beam looks awesome.
Nice to see so many pictures of the proces. I have an M1 that I think of giving the same treatment. I'd prefer a true led driver instead of a direct drive board though, but that's just personal preference.

Thanks KnOeFz I had hoped they might help someone.

We talked about drivers but it is hard to find 17mm drivers that accept 9 volts and that would be to me that is the only upside which would be to use rechargables. Most drivers that put out 2.8 amps are 20mm plus usually you need at least one volt over vin to stay in regulation which was our reasoning.

Dave
 

darkzero

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Joined
Oct 7, 2003
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SoCal
ooh that came out nice.

btw, i keep seeing those nifty little vices pop up on in various pics on this
site... where do you get them?..i checked all the random online tool stores
and keep coming up empty. i did see a reference to micro mark, but they
dont seem to carry them anymore. what is their official name.. pin vise, peg vise, universal vise? :thinking:

They still sell them. Purchased mine 7 years ago from them. http://www.micromark.com/UNIVERSAL-CLAMP,6743.html

Mcmasters also sells them. The ones you find for around $30 are the ones made in India. You can find the China made ones for well under $20. Search NitroZ's recent posts. He posted a place to get the China ones very cheap IIRC. If your lucky you can get one on ebay for $10.

Don't think they have an official name. It really depends on who is selling them.
 

Freddy

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Dec 20, 2007
Messages
57
I am the owner and recipient of the M1. It had not seen much use due to a number of other lights in my small collection. The M1 was the first real light I purchased, so I had a sentimental attraction to it.

Now, it's my favorite light! I took it out Saturday night, put the Eagletac t10c2 on high, then turned on the M1. You couldn't tell there was an Eagletac in there somewhere! It also lights up a wide area in addition to having good throw. I don't think the head gets as hot as the impression Dave gave me, and the heat flows down the body. You can hold the light by the head for 10 minutes of run time easy.

Dave was patient with me since I pm'ed him about a dozen times, and did a great job on the light. He even went so far as to sand burrs off the threads that came from the factory. If you have a desire to have a light modded and the big guys are too busy, give Dave a call.

I'm really enjoying this light, thanks Dave!!

Mark

Thanks Toby it was a fun one to do. Everything went back together easy. :D

Dave
 

nailbender

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Nov 9, 2008
Messages
3,682
Location
North Carolina
I am the owner and recipient of the M1. It had not seen much use due to a number of other lights in my small collection. The M1 was the first real light I purchased, so I had a sentimental attraction to it.

Now, it's my favorite light! I took it out Saturday night, put the Eagletac t10c2 on high, then turned on the M1. You couldn't tell there was an Eagletac in there somewhere! It also lights up a wide area in addition to having good throw. I don't think the head gets as hot as the impression Dave gave me, and the heat flows down the body. You can hold the light by the head for 10 minutes of run time easy.

Dave was patient with me since I pm'ed him about a dozen times, and did a great job on the light. He even went so far as to sand burrs off the threads that came from the factory. If you have a desire to have a light modded and the big guys are too busy, give Dave a call.

I'm really enjoying this light, thanks Dave!!

Mark

Mark that is all that matters, if you are happy and are now using the light we did good.

Thanks Again Mark

Enjoy the light

Dave
 

bluecrow76

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Jul 10, 2006
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Tiger Town
It's nice to see an "old" Lumapower getting a tune-up! :thumbsup: Great job! LumaPower helped feed my initial flashoholic tendencies.
 

nailbender

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Nov 9, 2008
Messages
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Location
North Carolina
It's nice to see an "old" Lumapower getting a tune-up! :thumbsup: Great job! LumaPower helped feed my initial flashoholic tendencies.


I had not used them much but lately I have been taking their LM33 and putting a KTFFC and a 1.4 amp board they are little pocket rockets. I have given several as gifts.
I had not seen this M1 before but it is a well built light and nice size I was impressed. Matt @ Battery Junction has great prices on Lumapower lights.

Dave
 
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