HoLy CR*P! I just did my FIRST Mod! AKoray!

YAY!

runnin on its own on the shelf now. on about 70% output.

I decided that i will hack the akoray k106. as its the cheapest AA light that i have, and also the one with the most bluish and ugly tint. so i thought that i wont loose that much if i end up destroying it.

and received dx thermal grease today..

while back i got bored. and decided to dismantle it.

heated up a huge old solder gun (way too big to do these things, but somehow.. i managed to use it and not fry the led along with it.)

and took off the old wires. pried more of the wire visible (high tech way of using a pocket knife)

added grease on bottom of the star.. soldered new star on wires. pushed it in. tried to fit the plastic cover on top of it.. didnt fit.. the led was bigger in size.. so i carved the plastic a bit with the sog twitchII knife again so it fitted.. screwed the pill back into the light. and clicked it on. HA HAA its alive!

the new led.. q3 5a from dereelight on 14mm star. and its now in the cheap akoray..

the tint is awesome as i knew it would be.

the centering.. im suprised i managed to get it that close.

and the beam shape is also better than with the old led. (smaller cree rings..)

i think i will hate myself sometime later for not taking pictures of it before..

but it was suprisingly easy mod on this one. (didnt think i would end with working light so i didnt take a pictures before during and after..) would of never mentioned of the failure either but of success i must gloat! hah

i will let the nimh run down and heat up the light as a test.. and then remove the head again.. and wipe the greasy fingerprints off inside the lense.

21 minutes and its running strong... (mod took about 20 minutes to do)

man what i do with this light now? i was about to sell it as i didnt like the tint!

Sounds great! I'm not cerrtain I could even find my old iron anywhere!

90minutes on and still going strong with no problems. no flicker. no heat. wow. i am suprised!

the soldering iron is decades years old.. and weight is.. solid iron.. alot! hah i think i must weigh it one day..

:twothumbs

That first successful mod always makes you feel good and pushes you on to bigger mods.

oh no! i cant afford to go that route! hahah. i am barely holding off the urge to buy all the cool stock flashlights!

and the thought of modding them all, and buying parts (leds stars drivers and stuff.. oh god) and in the end doing my own flashlight? arrgghhh! no no no.. cant go that route. hahah..

but i know now that it can be done. and successfully. (and i just now, at this moment, remembered that i do have a jewelers size of pointy ended solder somewhere too)

now i kinda wished i had tried to open the iTP instead.. and changed that led! hahah.

+2 hours and counting.

GO,GO,GO,GO,GO, :twothumbs

That's great!

Dunno, can't see much point in modding the XR-E a stock K-106, they seem to be great as they are.
Might try a SSC P4 or Cree XP-E mod for a floodier beam, though.

i did it for two reasons.
1. main reason. i hated the tint of the light. (one of the best reasons i know for to change a led to other one.. it comes 3rd after previous one 1. is broken. 2. is weaker. and 3.it has a lousy color.

2nd reason was a made up reason. i wanted to try to mod smthing.

and now.

its sold to my friend.. will see if he likes the tint or not. if he dont i will take it back.

-he is prone to like bright white tints and throwers, but me telling about it to him tonite (about low low and programmability) and telling him that it works with single AA, he prompty said he will take it. will hear tomorrow if the tint is wrong for him. and prolly need to teach him hwo to do the programming anyways.

(now i just wonder if i put the battery in the right direction or not.. few drinks had. and took out the li-ion qnd put in an energizer AA i had with me. i cant recall testing it afterwards. oh well.. he prolly knows to reverse it if needed.)

interesting mod. I've got an K106 on the way..

Is there another way to get warm white LEDs except disassembling Dereelight pills?

yup,i did swap the emitter from the stock emitter which is using ez900 die to cree q5 ez1000 die and no more blueish tint.
congrat to OP.

Same idea here, modded k109 to Q4 5B for better tint.
Note after shot is with reduced current of 700mA versus 1100 stock.


Before:


After:

wiggle that is one nice golden tint :thumbsup:

It sure is. I think I slightly prefer the less yellow, more red tint of the 5A but 5B is still world's better than a cold blue tint to my eyes

How did you get the white plastic disc around the LED off? I can't seem to figure out a way to remove it without destroying the LED.

Wiggle - did you get that Q4 5B from a Dereelight pill, from back when Flashcrazy was selling them individually, or from somewhere else? Please do tell.

I think the whole white plastic bit slides out the back of the aluminium pill casing(edit: no, it doesn't). I want to mod mine also, the tint is very blue.

Ok got it out, made a small hole for getting leverage to wiggle

I got a Q4 5A/B from Dereelight, on a 14mm Star, ~10$
http://www.dereelight.com/emitters.htm
Actually, it hasn't arrived yet, but I couldn't wait taking the K-106 apart

Yeah looking at it again you just lever the white plastic bit out the top, yes?

Here's a pic of mine opened up. Star is just sitting on the pill, so make sure you always do it up tight when screwing it back in.