Anyone ditching quality lights and modding budget lights from ground up?

Anyone else doing this?

I have found more satisfaction from buying budget lights and modifying them. I literally rip all the parts except the body and bezel. Then build a new tailcap or a custom mount on the old tailcap with a McClicky for it. This way, I can control the quality in them instead of buying a complete light for $100+ USD and finding its flaws.

No, but, I start with quality lights and mod them, sometimes from the ground up.

Modding expensive, high-quality lights is even more satisfying than modding inexpensive, low-quality lights, because you know the high-quality lights will survive longer.

I have no idea how to "mod" a flashlight other than buying some type of upgrade. If you're referring to taking out the led, circuitry, and all that, I'd love to see where you're buying the parts from or even a how-to.

budget lights usually shitty UIs so no thanks

Overclocker said:

budget lights usually shitty UIs so no thanks

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That's why I gut out my budget lights and start over. After changing to a Nanjg 1.4a driver on an SA9 light and properly gluing the LED onto the zoom board, it felt a lot more solid. The light lasted so much longer and a lot brighter.

Of course, a little custom parts machining is needed to fit the driver onto the host.

I thought that too until I saw that there isn't much in the high quality lights besides name and components in it. Some of the budget lights look identical to the brand name ones but with crappy parts poorly installed. Once that's altered, the light becomes a new guy...Look @ what Saabluster did with most of his lights. He took low-budget lights and altered them into something of high quality and standards.

In some respects you are right, but, in a lot of cases the host leaves a lot to be desired in my eyes. I have been given a few low budget lights (because I'm a flashaholic) and most of them go into the garbage can. They're that bad.

I love building my own lights using budget lights as material.

My favorite light is the body of a Trustfire T-803. The body is extremely well made, and has a large well-machined brass pill/heatsink.
Into it I put a new driver, which has (I think) 16 modes, but all of the flashy stuff is hidden, and it gives me a well spaced lo-med-hi.
The driver also has low voltage protection, so I can use unprotected cells, though this does preclude the use of 3v primaries.
The emitter is a neutral XP-G, the pill is potted (electronics are encapsulated in epoxy) and there is glow epoxy around the emitter, which is surprisingly useful.

I'd be willing to bet that if this light was mass produced and sold for $60 (and didn't have 'Trustfire' written on the side), it would be getting rave reviews

I like this light so much that I built another identical one, this time with a red emitter.
You'd be hard pressed to find a production light with such specific features!

The light I'm carrying right now is a Trustfire S-A2 body with the standard driver, but I modified the driver to get rid if the strobe and have an extra low mode instead, so it is now hi-med-lo.
Once again, the electronics are encapsulated, and the emitter is an XP-G.


I'm sure I have more fun with my lights than the average 'off the peg' flashaholic, and I bet I spend a great deal less too.

Having said that, I have no aversion to higher priced lights, and I'm on the lookout at the moment for a new EDC (not because I really need one, but, you know... )

It's hard looking at regular production lights and not being able to have the exact features you want, but that's why some of us like to build our own lights.

I actually just found a new driver that has an extremely low 'moonlight' mode.
The lack of a very low low is what started me looking again, but now I found this driver, I might just build me a new light instead

Doesn't matter what grade of light you are modding, the fact of modding and seeing the success of your efforts will beat buying a new light any day. The reason that modding is limited to the few is because it requires more tools than repairing a light.

If the emitter is an easy swap out, I'll play. Generally I prefer to start out with an overall light that suits my wants. The main deterrent is the time when I can buy one close enough. I have a few aged lights that would be good practice pieces, I'm just not inclined these days.

And patience, and skill (although I believe that the skills required can be learned by pretty much anyone who is determined to learn them)

One point that I'd like to make is that I believe that the title of this thread is a little misleading; 'budget' most definitely does not preclude 'quality'.

It's true that there is a lot of crap out there, but there is the occasional gem too (like the T-80x series).

You just have to do your research carefully when shopping for a donor light, which is made easier with the extensive photos that a lot of reviewers post in their reviews.
A few good photos of a disassembled light coupled with a detailed description usually helps to sort the wheat from the chaff.

When you know that the led and driver don't matter, it opens up a lot of possibilities.
All you need is well machined metal parts and maybe a decent reflector, the rest will be replaced.

I have modded budget lights, but half the time the cost ends up being almost the same as non-budget lights after I'm done.

These days I mod expensive lights. I would like to know about this driver with moonlight modes!

gunga said:

I have modded budget lights, but half the time the cost ends up being almost the same as non-budget lights after I'm done.

These days I mod expensive lights. I would like to know about this driver with moonlight modes!

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That's true to an extent.
I think I paid about $23 for the T-803 but I did already have glow powder, epoxy, solder, tools etc.
The S-A2 cost about $17, because I modified the existing driver rather than fit a new one, so it was just the cost of the flashlight and the emitter. Again, I already had tools, epoxy and other small items.

I tried to PM a link for the driver but your inbox was full.
try googling "KD 4x7135 V2 LED Driver 1520mA 17mm".
If you don't want to suck that much power out of a cell (for instance if you want longer runtime on an EDC light) you can desolder one of the power transistors.
You can select different mode combinations by bridging points on the board.

I can't afford new lights for myself, but I can for others when they pay me. I like taking cheap hosts and making a sleeper since I'm replaceing everything except the switch anyway.

Tiresius said:

I thought that too until I saw that there isn't much in the high quality lights besides name and components in it. Some of the budget lights look identical to the brand name ones but with crappy parts poorly installed. Once that's altered, the light becomes a new guy...Look @ what Saabluster did with most of his lights. He took low-budget lights and altered them into something of high quality and standards.

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No amount of modding can fix bad threads or thin anodizing. To fix those you pretty much need a machine shop, at which point you might as well make your own lights from scratch.

fyrstormer said:

No amount of modding can fix bad threads or thin anodizing. To fix those you pretty much need a machine shop, at which point you might as well make your own lights from scratch.

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+1

fyrstormer said:

No amount of modding can fix bad threads or thin anodizing. To fix those you pretty much need a machine shop, at which point you might as well make your own lights from scratch.

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Not all budget lights are horribly bad on that aspect. Some lights are machined nicely but lack proper installation of the internals (tailcap, emitter, driver, epoxy, reflector alignment). I have an old Coleman light that has a horribly done tailcap which can fit into the light by pressing it in...It needs a new tailcap and switch--along with a new light engine, pill and emitter.

I, myself have seen lots of bad budget lights with poor machining, threading, and anodizing. Those do not deserve modding.

I agree, and that's why you have to do anlot of research before selecting a host.
In fact, when you know you'll be replacing all of the electronic parts, the quality of the metalwork is pretty much the only criteria that you need to look at.
There is NOTHING wrong with the threads and anodizing on my Trustfires, the TR-80x series being particularly well machined, with thick hard anodizing.

Let's not forget that there are quite a few lights around now that are glorified budget lights from China, Jetbeam being the first example that springs to mind.

I found this thread and thought to myself, why not share my experience? Seems to fit well here.
I have this in another thread so i'll just copy it.
NEVER GIVE UP

Thr3Evo said:

I actually finished this "project" a few wks ago so I don't have pics of the innerds or the work, but I'll show some b4 and after and tell what I actually did.
This was my first xml based purchase and it sucked.. Kinda. I liked the zoom capability and the feel of the light itself but hated the UI, So instead of calling it a loss, I decided to at least make it fun.

B4:

It standing next to a 1xD mag(already short yet this light is just as tall).

And AFTER: (same mag)

Fits nicely as an EDC

So it is now a single 18650 light, driven by a 3040 amc7135 board with low/high mode and memory. Springs on both sides of cell to accept any size 18650 Flat or button top(protected or not).

More good stuff (no it is not turned on...it's GITD)

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EDIT: What I forgot to mention in the OP is that it also now has lots of aluminum and thermal compound running down the inside of the body right under the emitter all the way to the driver, as the original design lacked on the heatsink majorly.