Budget Akoray 18650 mod (aka edding 18650)

So recently i came in possession of a dozen or so unprotected 18650 cells.... Lovely! But in what light could i use em.... the only 18650 compatible lights i had were a TK11 and a Quark w 18650 body and both eat unprotected cells for breakfast.....

So this got me thinking, how cool would it be to have a 18650 light with every advantage of a Akoray programmable head with roughly the form factor of the Quark (preferably shorter)..... First i thought about searching for something online but if i did that the misses would certainly kill me... And then all of a sudden it hit me; I can just 'mod' one of my old Akorays! I have quite a couple of those left without a job... So then my search turned to suitable piece of tubing that could snuggly fit a 18650...... and i found just the thing:


Size comparison:


Everything threaded for easy dissasembly and transportation, notice the wider threads on the clicky so the new cell can go in there. All the normal body threads have an inner diameter of about 16mm so that wouldnt fit at all, the new ones are over 18mm.....


And the 'new and improved' akoray clicky from the side, this has to be easy to unscrew because the battery goes in there and not at the head (the head-side of the battery-tube has the normal 16mm inner diameter threads)

I am confused, you used a "plastic tubing" to connect head to tail?
How does it conduct the electricity from battery neg to the head?
:thinking:

ma_sha1 said:

I am confused, you used a "plastic tubing" to connect head to tail?
How does it conduct the electricity from battery neg to the head?
:thinking:

Click to expand...

Nope mate, these markers are made from aluminium (or aluminum as the Americans mistakenly call it).... That stuff conducts electricity just fine

What I wanted to do was to put the driver from my K-106 in my L-Mini, but I was stopped by 1) the fact that the driver apparently direct-drives in maximum mode, with no regulation, and 2) overheating issues. Apparently the reason for the LED dimming on my K-106 on high was the overheating protection kicking in early.

Fallingwater said:

What I wanted to do was to put the driver from my K-106 in my L-Mini, but I was stopped by 1) the fact that the driver apparently direct-drives in maximum mode, with no regulation, and 2) overheating issues. Apparently the reason for the LED dimming on my K-106 on high was the overheating protection kicking in early.

Click to expand...

101% true, these lights overheat quite quickly, i had one 109 that could run no longer than 3 minutes on high!

Simple fix; Put some of that processor thermal paste in between the threads of the LED pill and the head assembly! I did this on my '3-minute 109' and now i can burn through a complete AW 16340 cell on full power with no problems... well, apart from the entire light now getting mighty hot (45 degrees Celsius measured on the outside of the head).

If that still doesn't make it go forever than there's probably something wrong in the pill itself, like the LED not being properly connected to the pill housing.

Value-for-money wise its mighty hard to beat a programmable akoray and thats why i made this little ghetto-rebuild-mod! :twothumbs

I'll try the thermal paste method.
I ordered a second K-106 a few months ago, but I was very disappointed - DX sent me one with a five-mode, non-programmable driver of no usefulness whatsoever.

Fallingwater said:

I'll try the thermal paste method.
I ordered a second K-106 a few months ago, but I was very disappointed - DX sent me one with a five-mode, non-programmable driver of no usefulness whatsoever.

Click to expand...

Agreed! The 5-mode is completely useless... .Horrible little light!