XPG R5 Solitaire Mod. with 10280 & Two Stage Tail cap Switch

11/12/09: New Addition- Added Two Stage Tail cap Switch



Once in a while, I like to mod a mag solitaire. It helps me to regain
the confidence that I can still see. After all, I am pretty old, or at least it feels that way.

With the arrival of XPG R5 from Cutter, I know it's time for another one.


Part 1. Cut down solitaire for 10280 host.

First, get a good grip with Bionic Wrench + Rubber bands/non-slip pad combo.



Then Hand tap the tube with 11x1.0mm, followed by 12x1.0mm taps.
This is the hardest step, took 3 hrs & 30 rubber bands to accomplish.
(3 at a time, it'll break after 2mm gain, then start over again).


After tapping, cutting the tube with a home depot cutting wheel.


The 10280 host is the one in the middle, the tail cap will screw in the 12x1.0mm thread without modifications.
The one on the right is my first tapping job, 10180 host. But I scratched it badly trying to tap the tail cap.

Re: XPG R5 Solitaire Mod. with 10280 & Two Stage Tail cap Switch

Part 2: Step by step Mod.

The Tail Cap

First, solder a 2 Ohm resistor to the inside of the "tube insert" that was in the tail cap.
(This is the spare bulb holder)


Insert the whole thing back into the tail cap, make sure the lead from the other side of resistor
goes straight up, without touching anything.


Glue a piece of thin & hard plastic or carbon fiber (what I used) plate over the top,
drill a hole in the middle, pull the resistor lead through, flat it down into several concentic circles,
then drop a blob of solder.


My tube was cut too long by 2-3mm, so I raised the solder blob a bit with a dead spring.



The "Switch"

Pull out the "Contact Plate" from top of the tiny "Switch", insert a wire & solder it.


This will be LED "-", as once put it back, it contact the side wall.


Insert another wire through one of the two holes, then solder directly to the battery "+"
on the other side.


Cut the raised edge with sharp knife, the edge prevent flat nosed Li-ion from froming good contact.



Cutter XPG on 10mm board fits perfectly, just glue it down with super glue.
No fancy Arctic Silver needed. Pull the wires through & solder it down.


Put the 10280 in, screw the tail cap (This is now a twisty by tail).

Yeah!!! My candle is brighter than your candle

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion + New nano Hotwire mod

Part 3: Photo Shoots & Beam Shots

To finish up, I tried modified Soli. reflector & couldn't get it to work well,
so I went back to the solution I used before, the 10mm Lisa XP XPE optics from cutter.
The Lisa optics comes with a holder making the total diameter 11mm, perfect fit!


However, it's slightly longer than ideal, so that Soli. Bezel can not scew all the way back,
leaving a 1.5mm gap. To turn negative into positive, I filled the gap with a copper ring, hand made using sizzers from a 0.5mm thin copper sheet. Wrap around it & glued the end. I think it came out pretty well, don't you?


Beam shot before & after. You can tell which is which, right?
The Lisa optics worked well on XPG, the beam is medium flood type.
Beam profile is very similar to the beam I had when I made it with XPE R2.



Change sides:



More side by side:


More Side by side:


More side by side:
LOL, I can take photos for this baby hard labor all day long

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Awesome use of manual labor / muscle power! I should give this a try. Looking forward to the rest of your tutorial!

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Thanks!

Part 2 is now up!

Got candle? :twothumbs

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Why did you use two different taps?

Good job

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

buickid said:

Why did you use two different taps?

Good job

Click to expand...

Thanks

I couldn't get enough grip to tap directly with 12mm tap,
the 11mm tap helped to open up & I can easily tap the 11mm one
really deep, which helped to guide the second tap. even with the
11mm pre tap, the 12mm was still hard as hell.

I need to go get some small & fat rubber band, the long & thin rubber band breaks to easy.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Wow, yet another simple yet inspiring build. I love these mods that you do!

The copper is a great touch too, just excellent. I might have to try this with a Solitaire that I have... I think I'll leave it full length and try a 10440 though if I do go through with it. The 10280 would be pretty sweet though... a silver Solitaire modded as a 10280 would be ideal for a keychain light.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire Mod. with 10280 Li-ion

How warm does this Solitaire get after it's been running a while?

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Hack On Wheels, Thanks for the kind words.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire Mod. with 10280 Li-ion

tsmith35 said:

How warm does this Solitaire get after it's been running a while?

Click to expand...

This set-up doesn't get too warm at all. When I did a bunch of 10440 XPE Soli., I experimented with resistor values & settled with 2 Ohm.
Which gives about 400mA & get pretty hot after a while.

The XPG seems to generate less heat than XPE, the light get warm but not hot after 5 min. I could have gone with 1 Ohm resistor & it should be no problem. But the 10280 is about 1/2 of the 10440 capacity, so you'll get reduced run time.

I am estimating the 2 Ohm resistor +10280 XPG is running at around 300-350MA,
which should give about 1/2 hr run time.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire Mod. with 10280 Li-ion

very nice beam with that lisa optic,surely plenty of man power involved there in terms of hours

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Nice. :twothumbs

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

:thumbsup: well done!

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Thanks guys!

Yeah, it took a long time, total of 6 hrs or so, half of the 6 hrs went into the cut-down/tapping step
Fatter & Stronger Rubber Bands could easily cut the time of the Tapping to half.

I made a table, perhaps may help whoever wants to mod. some XPG/XPE Soli.?
This is mostly based on my experience:

Battery ..Capacity ..LED ..Resistor ....Est. mA ...Est. lumen ...Temp. ..Run time
10440 ....300mAh ..XPE ...0 Ohm(DD)..750 mA ....200 ........Too Hot**.. N/A
10440 ....300mAh ..XPE ...2 Ohm .......400 mA ....130 ..........Hot ........25 Min.
10280 ....180mAh ..XPE ...0 Ohm(DD)..550 mA*...160 ..........Hot ........15 min.*
10280 ....180mAh ..XPG ...2 Ohm .......350 mA ....130 .........Warm ......30 min.
10280 ....180mAh ..XPG ...1 Ohm .......400 mA ....150 ..........Hot ........20 min.

*I actually measured the current & run time of this 10280 DD XPE Q3 Neutral.
All other currents & run times were my estimates.
All lumens were estimates based on my memory of the LED lumens from Cree data sheet,
I could be off a bit but shouldn't be too too much thou. Out the front lumens usually ~70% of LED Lumens.
**DD by 10440 was too hot for the Soli. to handle, LED turned angry Blue. The heat sink of LED was
glued to the rim of the Soli. by Super Glue, so the contact area for heat transfer was limited.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

where did you get that tapping setup and how much. Seems it would be very useful. Me thinks it's probably expensive.

My father in law wanted me to mod a 2 x AAA, but I said it was to small. Maybe I'll give it a try.

BTW, do you think it would be possible to have two modes with a resistor'd approach. One in front of the battery to control high and the other in the tailcap that could make contact when fully tight to add more resistance? Is the tail cap area/threads anodized and would there be room?

Very nice mod.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

ma_sha1 said:

Then Hand tap the tube with 11x1.0mm, followed by 12x1.0mm taps.
This is the hardest step, took 3 hrs & 30 rubber bands to accomplish.
(3 at a time, it'll break after 2mm gain, then start over again).

Click to expand...

Please don't be offended by my asking this. But did you use some kind of lubricant? Sorry, it's a little hard to tell from your picture. Without it the chips tend to get fused onto the edge of the tap. The finished thread looks all jagged beside being much harder to do by hand.

ma_sha1 said:

I need to go get some small & fat rubber band, the long & thin rubber band breaks to easy.

Click to expand...

Maybe an inner tube from a bicycle could be cut in strips to use in place of rubber bands. Or a piece of fuel line or heater hose slit down the edge might be better yet.

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

I'll find out where I get it when I get home tonight.
But it's the only Matrix set I could find that has 11x1.0mm & 12x1.0mm.

Cost about $130 total

dirtech said:

where did you get that tapping setup and how much. Seems it would be very useful. Me thinks it's probably expensive.

My father in law wanted me to mod a 2 x AAA, but I said it was to small. Maybe I'll give it a try.

BTW, do you think it would be possible to have two modes with a resistor'd approach. One in front of the battery to control high and the other in the tailcap that could make contact when fully tight to add more resistance? Is the tail cap area/threads anodized and would there be room?

Very nice mod.

Click to expand...

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

Not offended at all, I did lube it with motor oil.
Back out & screw in many times helps to smooth the threads.

Inner tube is a great idea, I thought about that afterwards as well,
will probably try that next time I do this. I have some abandoned bike parts.

Al Combs said:

Please don't be offended by my asking this. But did you use some kind of lubricant? Sorry, it's a little hard to tell from your picture. Without it the chips tend to get fused onto the edge of the tap. The finished thread looks all jagged beside being much harder to do by hand.

Maybe an inner tube from a bicycle could be cut in strips to use in place of rubber bands. Or a piece of fuel line or heater hose slit down the edge might be better yet.

Click to expand...

Re: XPG R5 Maglite Solitaire 10280 Li-ion

ma_sha1 said:

Not offended at all, I did lube it with motor oil.

Click to expand...

That's good on both counts. Wow, after three hours you must have had a serious cramp in your hand. :sick2:

Here's an idea that may be of help. If you can find the right size reamer to remove some of the material you don't actually need before taping. I'm not quite sure what size that would be though.

Anyway between this and your other recent mods, I nominate you for this year's Soli-Mod King. :twothumbs