Solarforce L2D Low Resistance Mod

well the story goes as this...
I bought a Solarforce L2D for use in a high daring head.
Measuremnts were dissapointing, i was losing 1/3 of the output and amp draw as equally down.

So I dissasmbled the switch
.

So thin a wire and so many contacts

more can be found in the thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...amp-Teardown&p=4496325&highlight=#post4496325

So yesterday I made a resistance fix.

- I took a plastic card and cut a preperly sized rectangle.
- I modified a STRONG, taller spring (one of the Intl-outdoor collection)
- this spring allowed me to remove the tailcap spring altogether
- I made positioning holes
- Checked that a forward switch fits inside the module and in the body as well (you have to keep the switch pressed while inserting it)
- Soldered a new, much thicker wire on the contact plate
- soldered wire and spring directly on the switch

Pics



Original switch on the left, new one on the right




Look at how many traces are on the original switch PCB

All in all, my solution comes very close to a regular tailcap conctruction contact and solder points.

Results.
Were very good, but not excellent.

With a direct drive dropin in a regular Solarforce body, current draw was 2.75A.
Same dropin with the new swicth on the L2D body drew 2.55A.

Much closer!

nice work! do you know if the other solarforce switches (e.g.: L2T switch, etc.) are poor conductors too?

as far at the S12 switch i am confident that hey all use the same forward click switch i used in my mode too (excluding the jubo sized older switches that had a different forward switch inside)
As a amtter of fact the same switch can be foudn in ALL the chinese forward switch lights.

I have used this switch for up to 4.5A.
There will be losses, you cannot avoid that, but I do not think losses are that bad...

looking at some older measurements I got 10-15 percent higher output with the Oveready Zero-Rez switch in a similar setup. Surefire Z41 twistie fell in the middle of the two

i will test some more tonight

Interesting project. Please post a photo of the finished light

kosPap said:

as far at the S12 switch i am confident that hey all use the same forward click switch i used in my mode too (excluding the jubo sized older switches that had a different forward switch inside)
As a amtter of fact the same switch can be foudn in ALL the chinese forward switch lights.

I have used this switch for up to 4.5A.
There will be losses, you cannot avoid that, but I do not think losses are that bad...

looking at some older measurements I got 10-15 percent higher output with the Oveready Zero-Rez switch in a similar setup. Surefire Z41 twistie fell in the middle of the two

i will test some more tonight

Click to expand...

perfect, thank you for the helpful response!

I went a step further and got rid of that steel contact plate the drop in + hits--make one out of copper and tin it with silver solder--with an Omten switch I've pulled close to 8amps with a triple--Oh don't forget to copper braid the tail spring if you're keeping it

small update....

Did some tests yesterday with various FWD switches

The soalrforce swicthes came very close to the Zero Rez mod....

The L2D mod lagged behind

But what I foudn out is that of importance is spring pressure. And you know the Solarforce bodies being longer than necessary.....

Dan, no pic, I will not be using the L2D body yet.

Chops your suggestion will be next to try...
Any pics of your mod?

This one has been moved up to next​ on my "to do" list. Very interested.

think2x said:

This one has been moved up to next​ on my "to do" list. Very interested.

Click to expand...

being honest here, I tried to click where you typed "next" to see what kind of cool stuff your to-do list had on it. It didn't click

Great work guys!

Chops said "I went a step further and got rid of that steel contact plate the drop in + hits".

1) What is the steel contact plate referring to when I look at the pictures? Is it the metal tab coming out of the switch module which the spring is soldered to?
2) Where can we buy the extra stuff - the thick spring (part#), the new forward clicky switch (part #), etc?
3) Should I get an Omten switch or a Solarforce clicky removed from one of their tailcaps? Which fits better? Which has higher amp rating?
4) About the new thicker spring, is there a way to position it to stick straight out of the switch module so the battery butts up against it properly and 'head-on'?
5) Did you use a strap wrench to unscrew the aluminum head off of the battery tube?

so many questions, so little KosPap !

you are right, it happened to visit this section....

I am working on something BIG BIG, that is partly flashlight related, but things are hush-hush cos it is something that has never happened locally before.
My twist and take on the event is that i brought flashlights to it....
(now let me see if you can wait for 2 months till the veil is lifted)

now, onto answers.
1. i think chops speaks of precisely that you assume

2. the forward switch from Kaidomain.com for sure (i just got delivery of some today) and i think cnqualitgoods has some.
The extra strong spring comes from intl-outdoor.com

3. I think the Solarforce one. it is the same with the kaidomain one (and what most modern chinese lights use). I have driven the kaidomain one at 4.5 amps (though at that level you will be losing some light due to resistance.

4. i do not think so, cos you will have to make an iffy sodler job on the switch. But it is a spring, do not forget...so it can take some bind and level itself on contact with the battery

5. if by that you mean the middle part where the dropin goes, no....It had some red stuff that must have been a glue, but it came straight of.
But i had a scary moment when it froze mounted on the masterpiece Pro-1 head. and there was so little material that no starp wrench would get a grip. I had lost hope and assembled the light again. trying to unscrew the battery tube once more, it brought the middle part out with it! phew!

thanks kospap, a few more questions:

1) Did you try to remove the square green board from under the original switch to reuse it? I assume so and it didn't come off so you used a plastic card?

2) what did you use to unscrew the rubber boot metal ring? A needle nose plier?

3) will a regular rubber boot from a McClicky or regular solarforce tailswitch fit? The Solarforce rubber boot for that side switch seems rather flat.

4) Can the forward clicky switch be made into a momentary switch?

thank you.

1) i did not bother...why route current through pCb traces when I was to solder the spring directly to the switch?

2) yes

3) they are too big. BTW I think i had to trim the center post in mine some. Luckily the lashlight body ships with a secon done. Save it cos there are no replacemnts available, i asked...

4) I do not know. there is somewhere a thread where pics of it dissasembled exist. it was in one of those threads that we were discussing forward switches, back when the said swioth was the ONLY option.
There's got to be a latching mechanism which cna be removed bit it is too fine a job. I think it will be you to pave the road ahead...

best of luck, i am here to help with anthing i can, but I will answer with a slight delay....

I need to make this Solarforce side switch into a momentary switch. From the factory and in original condition, it is a reverse clicky. Any suggestions?

Also, I am thinking that, if the switch needs to be completely replaced, it may be better to try and save the original board attached to the switch by de-soldering the factory switch from the original board and reusing the original board by mounting and soldering the replacement switch onto the original board. This way, there will be no fit-up problems between the board and plastic cylindrical switch assembly casing when putting everything back together.