Idea for E01 Mod Using Tint Filters and Pouring an Epoxy Resin Lens

I love the E01. It might be my favorite light of all-time, taking price and real-world usefulness into consideration.

Like everyone else, though, I hate the tint. It's bad.

I'm not a modder but I had an idea after seeing one of Don's epoxy-covered Arc lights (more on that here: http://dmcleish.com/arcAAA-candle/index.html)

My idea: use a large hole-punch and cut out a small circle of Lee tint filer, drop the piece of tint filter on top of an E01's resin dome, and then pour clear epoxy over the tint filter to keep it in place. Results: after the epoxy dries you've got an E01 with better tint, even better protection of the LED, and a more dispersed beam. Seems like a win-win, no?

Has anyone tried this before? If so, can someone recommend a small quantity of epoxy resin (it seems like the hardware store mostly carries it in massive quantities, which I obviously don't need). So far I've found this stuff at Michael's -- maybe I'll give it a go since it's only $15 for 8 oz.

https://www.michaels.com/envirotex-lite-pour-on-high-gloss-finish/M10178984.html#q=epoxy+&start=3

Hmmmmm........ that's an interesting thought, and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. However, it does seem a bit of a project, especially considering that there are quite a few really nice 1xAAA lights on the market at the moment, including some with nicely tinted Nichia 219b LEDs.

Also, and I don't know if this will work with the E01, but before going the resin route, you might consider trying either a glue stick or a tiny piece of double sided tape to hold the filter in place. I've done this with ALL my 1xAAA lights, and I've never had the filter come off accidentally, even if it's on my keyring.

One final thing to remember, the amount of filtration required to get that beam anywhere close to white, might cause you to lose nearly half the output, another reason to forgo the resin to start with.

In any case, I wish you luck with your quest and will be interested to see what you come up with : )

UpstandingCitizen said:

I love the E01.
...
I hate the tint. It's bad.

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here are a couple threads that discuss your favorite light and another way to improve the tint
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...6-Poor-Man-s-Fenix-Mods&p=5165407#post5165407

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ny-love-left&p=5027571&viewfull=1#post5027571

E01 is the only flaslight I have ever tossed in the trash (voluntarily), and that was due to the awful blue/purple tint...

As far as Fenix AAA lights are concerned - I'm a fan of the original (single-mode) E05, and that's the light that I keep on my keychain...

I wonder if the epoxy itself would help mix the beam and help eliminate the dreaded purple rectoval hotspot. It kind of looks like it may when looking at Don's Arc AAA picture. It may be worth just trying it without a filter.


Also, tossing a perfectly useable E01 should be a bannable offense.

The Fenix E01 is an awesome light but they do require some fine tuning. If you buy an E01, you sand the poop out of the led and the reflector. It's what one does. Some people use steel wool but I go at it with 100 grit sandpaper. This will get rid of the blue\purple and leave you with a nice floody white light. From there I've found that playing with sharpies can help manipulate the tint making it warmer. You can see by the amazing response to my thread above that jon_slider linked that people are really entranced and amazed with this mod. Honestly, I agree with some of the E01 frustration because it'd be so easy to make them top tier lights if Fenix would try a Yuji or a Nichia 5mm led or even make a batch and not pot the electronics so freaks like us could have them modified. But the E01 is what it is and that gives it character. I've thrown mine off a 3 story parking garage and dragged it behind my car for a mile or so. Still works perfectly. Hall of fame flashlight for sure.

wolfgaze said:

E01 is the only flaslight I have ever tossed in the trash (voluntarily), and that was due to the awful blue/purple tint...

As far as Fenix AAA lights are concerned - I'm a fan of the original (single-mode) E05, and that's the light that I keep on my keychain...

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I have to agree with this..... I find it ironic that many here go on and on about how great the E01 is then spend a lot of time trying to undo the horrible beam it has due to the LED type/brand chosen. I just don't see having to go through a lot of effort to get a semi decent beam in color/tint/shape etc when you can buy a light with a superior emitter and multiple modes for around the same price. I still have my 2010 Fenix LD01SS on my keychain and wouldn't waste time with any 5mm LED keychain lights as they could never match the beam it puts out and having a higher output goes a long way to making up for any runtime differences.
What Fenix needs to do is make an unpotted E01 and sell it for $1 more or so to folks who love the light but hate the LED in it so they can swap the LED out for another 5mm that has more desireable output. I've always not liked the later nichia 5mm LEDs I have a few cree 5mm LEDs that have a far better tint and output the only drawback is they are less efficient which doesn't bother me one bit it is a very good trade off.

If an e01 was unpotted once, it could be unpotted as many times as needed, by the man who knows how. I am just wondering, how big is the demand?

This may be the greatest post i've ever read on this forum. ma tumba.....please tell me....who is the master un-potter??

ma tumba said:

If an e01 was unpotted once, it could be unpotted as many times as needed, by the man who knows how. I am just wondering, how big is the demand?

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At least Vinh did it once. I am sure that while unpotting a single e01 may not be worth the effort, for a batch of, say, 50, things may look different

Ah bummer. I was hoping you knew someone other than Vihn. We tried to get him to do a batch not too long ago and he found the potting too stout to get through.

ma tumba said:

At least Vinh did it once. I am sure that while unpotting a single e01 may not be worth the effort, for a batch of, say, 50, things may look different

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Well, if noone could do it I had to do it myself.

Bought two E01s. Of course I killed the driver of the first one but learned two important lessons in the process so the second one went smoothly.

Lesson one: I supposed that, when heated, the resin inside the head would melt or at least become softer so pressing on the LED would get the driver out. Wrong. The resin never gets soft even when I heated it up to 350C with my fan heater. Rather, at mere 150 it becomes crumbly, like a limestone. Pressing onto the LED would still do nothing, but some gentle hammering would easily crush the resin and the LE flies out of the head.

Lesson two: as soon as the resin gets cooler, it restores its toughness and there is no way to extract the LE anymore. So if I tried boiling, the resin would get tough before I'd unwrap the head and fix it for further work.

So hammering while heating continuously with 150C fan heater easily does the job. Same continuous airflow at 150C allowed me to remove the residual resin from the board. Overall, the job took me about 4 hours, of which about 2.5-3 hours I spent killing the first light and learning things. I am sure that this is in fact a much easier mod that it has been supposed to be.

Then I unsoldered the stock 5mm LED and put a Yuji 3500K x 45 deg high cri LED. The result is amazing, the LED provides fantastic, nearly uniform huge spot of incand light, but also there is a very useful, albeit narrow, spill provided by the "reflector". The lumen output seems to be by far larger than from the stock light, so I wonder what the runtime is going to be. Will test this in a few days.

I will certainly mod at least another E01 with 5600K Yuji LED
https://imgur.com/sgWzUrz
https://imgur.com/AQsmwjJ

Meanwhile, I need to pot the new light engine. Any suggestions regarding more "mod friendly" resin or putty are welcome.

ma tumba said:

The result is amazing, the LED provides fantastic, nearly uniform huge spot of incand light, but also there is a very useful, albeit narrow, spill provided by the "reflector". The lumen output seems to be by far larger than from the stock light, so I wonder what the runtime is going to be. Will test this in a few days.

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This is exciting! Many people will be interested to hear about your results.

You should consider modding and selling the modded lights--you would probably find a market here.

ma tumba said:

............The lumen output seems to be by far larger than from the stock light, so I wonder what the runtime is going to be. Will test this in a few days................. Meanwhile, I need to pot the new light engine. Any suggestions regarding more "mod friendly" resin or putty are welcome.

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I think the run time will be the same as before since the electronics haven't changed. The new LED must be a little more efficient if its brighter.........at least that is my guess.

Do you have to repot? What about just using RTV silicone if you can't find anything else.

The E01 driver, with the Yuji LED, draws 240ma from an AAA Eneloop!

I have no idea how the LED has survived this overdrive, but the color temp is OK and I have used the light quite a bit over these few days.

EDIT1: stupid me. 240 ma is the input current @1.2V, so the output current should be kind of 3 times smaller, or around 80ma, depending on the driver efficiency.

EDIT2: found this: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Fenix-E01-unpotted-amp-driver-efficiency-data
so I'd estimate the current in my case at about 70ma. In my previous 12x Yuji 5600K LED guinea pig, 2 of the LEDs died after a few days of infrequent use at about 50ma per LED. Let's see what happens with this E01 which is even more overdriven. Definitely need to pot the driver with a thermal paste though.

That is one issue with "upgrading" LEDs in that newer, more efficient LEDs typically have a lower Vf which has them more easily pushed harder (more current input) so it isn't any surprise that it would be driven harder than the original LED.

I'd never touch/upgrade the E01. For me, the beauty of this light has always been its ability to fire on a very low cell.

I've lost my test data, but I will tell you that no other 1xAAA regulated light will require as low of minimal voltage as the E01 does.

The Arc AAA came close, as did the Peak, but the Fenix E01 is the champ in that field. I've yet to have an AAA cell that wouldn't fire my E01 lights.

This function/feature is most important to me in my 1xAAA EDC light.

this_is_nascar said:

I'd never touch/upgrade the E01. For me, the beauty of this light has always been its ability to fire on a very low cell.

I've lost my test data, but I will tell you that no other 1xAAA regulated light will require as low of minimal voltage as the E01 does.

The Arc AAA came close, as did the Peak, but the Fenix E01 is the champ in that field. I've yet to have an AAA cell that wouldn't fire my E01 lights.

This function/feature is most important to me in my 1xAAA EDC light.

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It may be nested in this thread. I haven't gone thru it all yet.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/196078

I think the Klarus Mi02 has bested the e01 for runtime and battery draining, per run4jc tests, BUT, I don't think any of the competitors have the runtime and vampire ability ALONG WITH the amazing E01 toughness. In fact I drop tested the Mi02 alongside th E01 a while back off of a 3 story parking garage. E01 still gets used weekly and the Mi02 died on impact. E01 is the total package.

Has anyone tried modding the Klarus Mi02?

I suspect that the E01's toughness is connected to its potting. As often, one advantage and one disadvantage come as a package: durable epoxy potting makes the light resistant to damage, and makes the disassembly difficult.

Although the Mi02 may not be as tough as the E01, it would still be nice to have an Mi02 Yuji, if the mod is easy. Has anyone tried to open one up?

Also--the E01 and the Mi02 are both great for starting on low voltage, heavily-drained cells, and that's a good feature. Does the change of emitter change that? If the driver circuit is the same, and the newer emitters tend to have lower Vfs, then maybe they would start up on even *lower* voltage after the mod? I would like to hear from someone who knows more electronics than I do (which is pretty much everyone on this forum).