OAD Mod Cookbook (coming soon)

IMHO, one of the simplest, most affordable and rewarding (in terms of brightness, and 'shock power') mods is the OAD to Luxeon mod. I'm writing up a webpage that I am calling the "OAD Mod Cookbook" that deals with this topic in a step by step cookbook format for new modders (everyone's gotta start somewhere), so anybody with a hacksaw and soldering iron can get started on this mod. The webpage is coming soon and I will edit the post to reflect the URL when it's ready, but first, a preview.

Of course, before I start to talk I have to do it myself, apart from the fact that I need pics. The parts list is relatively short, all you need is a resistor, the awesome Hotlips heatsink (or yaesumofo's O-sink, I considered that as well, but I needed the TWOL from Hotbeam), the Luxeon (but of course), a 2mm or 5/64" allen key and the housing. Slap all of it together and this is what you get:

The parts, a fully disassembled light:


A small light helps to build a big one. Very good for closeup inspection work of the switch inside the aluminium housing.


3W, 1 ohm resistor.


TWOL in the hot seat:


One Lux meets another:


Thermalloy ThermalCote (thermal grease) painted in a ring around the heatsink:


Full frontal:


Beamshot: (for others, please see
my other post)



Basically, my 6P now has some serious competition and some serious worrying to do, other than for the fact that the newly modded light is unlikely to leave the house due to its bulk and size. The large handle makes it easier to find and grab at night in the dark, and oh boy....the beam. Just look at the beam.

The best part? These beamshots were taken at 900mA on cheap carbon-zinc cells that I plan to simply run down and discard ASAP. On new Duracells fresh from the pack, it runs 1050mA. That's a lot of resistance that I didn't count on, my calculations taking 1 ohms for the resistor, 0.7 ohms for the batteries, and 0.2 ohms 'residual' (wiring, solder joints, switch, spring and housing) show 1158mA of current. It looks like I got a nice round 2.1 ohm figure which is what I initially targeted.

There is not a heck of a lot of difference between 900/1050mA that my eyes can see and that is good. Someone with a lightmeter can probably measure the diff, but I don't have one, so it's ok. I still think I got a great light for the money and 2 hours of work. The light has a nice pleasant flood at 10-15ft, and boy, the hotspot really SLICES through the night when you need to reach out and ping something. Now I understand what they mean by the Lux3 being a real thrower especially with a nice big reflector. Turbohead indeed.

Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank Hotbeam and Roth for making the sinks available, and all the countless posters on CPF whose knowledge has contributed either directly, or indirectly to the success of the mod. It may be a simple mod, but it would be impossible without the collective expertise of CPF.

Nice set of photos KevinL1! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif If you haven't tried UCLs, you'll add about 1K lux to the output! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif My UCL and heat-strengthened UCL just arrived today. Now I can truly see why they call it the ultra clear lens, because it really *IS* ultra clear. It's like there's no glass at all when I stare into the reflector assembly! It's one thing to hear about it on a webpage and quite another thing to see it for yourself in person.

And the effects - the beam improvement is visible. I lit up the LED, took off the front bezel holding the polycarbonate lens down, held the plastic lens to one side covering approximately half the beam. You can literally see that the half covered by the plastic is darker. Repeat test with UCL - like I said, it's behaves like there's no lens at all. Repeat test with UCL-HS. Same, despite the fact I can see the "haze" - but only in indirect light. There's just a tiny bit of backscatter, but there's no visible difference unless you use instrumentation to double check (which I don't). Like they say, if you need instruments to see a difference, just enjoy it instead. I bought the UCL-HS knowing exactly what I was buying and my opinion is that you can't see a difference unless you are specifically looking for one.

The most visible improvement is in the sidespill. The hotspot doesn't show that much of a visible improvement, but when you start swinging the light around, you start noticing how much brighter and clearer the sidespill is.

The guys at flashlightlens.com really deserve to be commended for a top notch product, their integrity in declaring the true light transmission of the UCL-HS (which is a good product anyway), and their search for the perfect 99% light transmission lens.