Is there a build it yourself (DIY) flashlight guide for dummies?

a build it yourself(DIY) flashlight guide for dummies? i have searched here as well as youtube but cant seem to find anything. seems like everything i find is just someone soldering a new LED on an old flashlight but i want a step by step guide as well as a parts list of whats needed. i have been looking at the kits on DX but not sure what is needed. things like drivers and heat sinks, things like that. do lights need a driver or can they be direct drive. what do i need to have a light with several settings(high/med/low). whats the best battery setup to run and how many? best to buy a kit or buy a cheap light from ebay and mod? sorry for the noob post but i just cant seem to find what im looking for. thanks for any help.

Re: Is there

Mmmm... This might be better served in the "Homemade and Modified Lights" forum.

Re: Is there

It all depends on what you want. Depending on the Battery you want, you should choose the Host. Depending on the runtime and brightness and the size, you should choose the battery. For longer runtime and higher powered lights you may want to chose 18650's, which are pretty famous. Depending on if you want multi-mode or singlemode you should choose a driver or direct-drive. direct drive is only possible if the voltage of the power supply is in range of the input voltage of the led. normally you do direct drive with 1x li-ion, which is 4.2V fresh off the charger, which actually over-drives the led a bit and shortens lifetime. thats why a driver is useful.
You can also buy a complete light, if you like the body and just swap in the components you need. m*glites are very common for a lot of modifications as an example, but you also get some empty hosts at dx, which are not bad.
If you want high/med/low, you need a 3-mode driver, but there are also a lot of other ones available. for a mc-e or p7 (or sst or ssr 50/90) you can get the 3-mode driver from shiningbeam as an example, now you only need a body, battery and of course, led.

There are also some diy's for mag mods here, have a look in the H&M Forums

Re: Is there

Mylt1 said:

a build it yourself(DIY) flashlight guide for dummies?

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I have asked for this before and had no reply. It would be helpful in understanding the technical stuff and with repairs.
Come on guys, there must be someone out there who will supply the info. A drawing showing how each component is connected would be ideal.

Re: Is there

Yeah, not to be a jerk, but could we get a better thread title?

I mean, seriously.

Re: Is there

Alistair said:

I have asked for this before and had no reply. It would be helpful in understanding the technical stuff and with repairs.
Come on guys, there must be someone out there who will supply the info. A drawing showing how each component is connected would be ideal.

Click to expand...

The thing is, that on most drivers the places to connect the leads to the led are different... basically you need to find the output of the driver, but normally when you order the driver, there are pictures with leads connected or even pre-soldered leads on

Re: Is there

Fichtenelch said:

It all depends on what you want. Depending on the Battery you want, you should choose the Host. Depending on the runtime and brightness and the size, you should choose the battery. For longer runtime and higher powered lights you may want to chose 18650's, which are pretty famous. Depending on if you want multi-mode or singlemode you should choose a driver or direct-drive. direct drive is only possible if the voltage of the power supply is in range of the input voltage of the led. normally you do direct drive with 1x li-ion, which is 4.2V fresh off the charger, which actually over-drives the led a bit and shortens lifetime. thats why a driver is useful.
You can also buy a complete light, if you like the body and just swap in the components you need. m*glites are very common for a lot of modifications as an example, but you also get some empty hosts at dx, which are not bad.
If you want high/med/low, you need a 3-mode driver, but there are also a lot of other ones available. for a mc-e or p7 (or sst or ssr 50/90) you can get the 3-mode driver from shiningbeam as an example, now you only need a body, battery and of course, led.

There are also some diy's for mag mods here, have a look in the H&M Forums

Click to expand...

thank you for your post. i have a couple of fenix P3D lights that i really like but would like something with the same brightness, maybe a little brighter and about the same size that i can run rechargeable batteries in. i like the idea of the 18650's so maybe either a single cell or even a double cell(or one of each). the option to run both the 18650's and 123a's would be nice as well. so from what my wants are i would assume i need a LED that will handle between 3v and 6v, is that correct for a single 18650 and 2 123a's? so for a dual 18650 i would need a LED that can handle 9v? so that leaves a driver, reflector, and body.

yalskey said:

could we get a better thread title?

I mean, seriously.

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Thank you for making this point, yalskey.

Uninformative "teaser" thread titles like that are extremely unhelpful and annoying. They just waste everyone's time. I've changed it.

Re: Is there

Mylt1 said:

thank you for your post. i have a couple of fenix P3D lights that i really like but would like something with the same brightness, maybe a little brighter and about the same size that i can run rechargeable batteries in. i like the idea of the 18650's so maybe either a single cell or even a double cell(or one of each). the option to run both the 18650's and 123a's would be nice as well. so from what my wants are i would assume i need a LED that will handle between 3v and 6v, is that correct for a single 18650 and 2 123a's? so for a dual 18650 i would need a LED that can handle 9v? so that leaves a driver, reflector, and body.

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Ok, so if you want single 18650, then we just assume to take this here:
Cree MC-E from DX with Pill + Reflector
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.21037
Then, we need a body for 1x18650 or 2xCR123/RCR123
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15687
And, since the driver on that DX P60-Dropin is crap, we get another one from shiningbeam, it's a 3-mode and delivers 2.5A from 1 18650 or 2xCR123. Don't exceed the input limit of 6V, so no 2xRCR123!!!
http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-132/3-dsh-Mode-Regulated-Circuit-Board/Detail


You may need to file the pill of the led+driver a bit, so that it fits in nice + smooth in the threads of the body. you can also take the pill that comes with the body and glue the led and driver with thermal epoxy on it.
If you want to go 2x18650 you need a different driver + body. if you like lego, you'll love solarforce. you can just get a solarforce l2 + extension and then you ask nailbender for one of his custom drop-ins.

Mylt1 said:

a build it yourself(DIY) flashlight guide for dummies? i have searched here as well as youtube but cant seem to find anything. seems like everything i find is just someone soldering a new LED on an old flashlight but i want a step by step guide as well as a parts list of whats needed. i have been looking at the kits on DX but not sure what is needed. things like drivers and heat sinks, things like that. do lights need a driver or can they be direct drive. what do i need to have a light with several settings(high/med/low). whats the best battery setup to run and how many? best to buy a kit or buy a cheap light from ebay and mod? sorry for the noob post but i just cant seem to find what im looking for. thanks for any help.

Click to expand...

This link is a little dated but has alot of pictures and is a good read for someone new IMO. Enjoy!

It depends what you want as a form factor. Mag, surefire, etc. But basically it is all the same. Get a heatsink, get some LEDs, get a driver, use thermal adhesive to glue the LED to the heatsink, connect the LED to the driver, and connect the driver to the batteries. You may want an optic/reflector.

Oh dear , everyone has to start somewhere .

I guess a P60 host [ P60 being the name for the drop in unit that holds the LED ]

Anyhow ...

Buy a empty pill , a led , and a driver !

Now if you buy a P60 host , lets say a cheap one ! Since we want to make this learning curve affordable .

Pull the pill out , and compare to the empty one .
Things will make sense very quickly , assemble the empty one , and give it a try . Most lights will be 90% the same . So if you can assemble , then you can mod , and then you can build to need/want .

Now , what host . what batteries , what LED , what driver ?

First question is batteries ? We are wasting time here if your after 3D

Just keep reading and put your bookmarks in folders to organize the different information, ask the occasional question to fill in gaps that you absolutely cannot find. Most of the info is right here in many many different threads. And it really is as easy to build a P60 module as old 4570 says. Just match your driver to what battery(s) you want to use.