Old-Lumens
Newly Enlightened
I have a Brinyte BR3000 host.
I am turning it into a triple XM-L T6 light. I thought I would show some photos and talk about what I am doing.
Here's the light torn apart.
The new color of the body will be a brown textured paint.
The battery holder needs to be changed from Parallel to Series. The red lines show how the copper plate will be replaced with the stock one. The gray areas mean metal will not be there. The arrow and +/- mean that those contacts need to be together, so that the holder will be in series. I will need to make a plate inside going across those two spots.
The same for the bottom - contact plate, as I already described above.
This holder is really made very well. I know it's just plated steel and plated springs, but aside from that, the holder is made well. Screws hold the top and bottom plates to the uprights and they are made from a higher quality plastic than the normal cheapie holders. This holder will take more heat than the cheap ones and will not warp either.
I used copper sheet for the new contact plates and gold plated springs. It should be a better holder when I am done and it will be series using three 4/3AF NiMH batteries. (same size as 18650)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on the battery holder mod.
The copper replacement contacts are cut and ready for forming.
First they have to be heat treated to soften them. I heat them until they appear silvery looking under the flame of the torch. When they cool you can see the discoloration from the heat.
I form the positive cups, by using small sockets and hammer the copper on soft wood to form the shape. I also soldered the gold springs in place. Next is final shaping, straightening and fitting to the plastic frame, as well as cleaning with steel wool, to remove the discoloration.
Making sure the contacts fit.
One end finished.
and the other side.
Battery holder completed and it reads 3.95vdc.
I had to modify the contact plates for the positive terminals like this, due to clearance issues. In the long run, I think it worked better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paint & Polish
I like the Brown Textured paint! This took a while. I painted the body and head, no problem. I removed the paint from the rings on the head, no problem. I stripped the bezel and tailcap, no problem, well maybe there is a problem. It's hard to describe, but the stripped parts looked like it's a different type of Aluminum. It had (and still does) have a whitish cast to it, that does not look good when polished. It looked "funky".
So... I thought I would try painting them with black. Nope, that looked really bad. Then I had to figure out how to strip the paint, Ok, I will just soak them in paint thinner, since the paint is freshly applied. Nope, no way, it didn't even phase that paint. Well, then I will try the degreaser that cuts Ano so well. Nope, didn't phase it one bit. I thought, hey this is some tough paint!
Then I remembered the Acetone on the lower shelf! Acetone, I have never used it for stripping paint. I use to clean parts. Man Oh Man, does it ever work! I put the parts in a plastic tub and I am not joking (I was watching the clock), it took all of 15 Seconds to lift the paint off completely! It didn't dissolve the paint, but the paint just lifted off in one piece. If you have ever seen that paint on water stuff (hydrographics), that's what it looked like. The paint lifted off as one sheet and I just pulled the parts out, clean as a whistle. Unbelievable!
Acetone is Nasty - Nastytone... So if you ever use it - Gloves, Respirator, Open air environment, eye protection, Be Careful. It's just plain nasty. I poured the Acetone back in the can and just wiped the paint off the bottom of the tub with a paper towel. One nice thing about Acetone is, it evaporates really fast, so the paper towel was dry within a minute.
Anyhow, the finished light ended up being brown, with "brushed aluminum". I just used steel wool on the bare metal and it looks pretty good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's some photos of the rest of the build:
I decided way before the emitters arrived, that I could never solder them, once they were in place. I came up with using a cardboard jig. I put double sided tape on it and stuck the emitters to the reflector bottom. Then I stuck them to the cardboard and removed the reflector. This allowed me to solder everything right here in the open. So much easier, in the long run!
I used solid wire (white wire) in between the emitters and it keeps the shape once the cardboard is removed. Now I can place the whole thing into the head of the light and use the reflector to center it all, while the Arctic Alumina dries.
Emitters are in place.
Here's how it looks with the reflector in place.
Here's the Driver assembly.
I am doing this light with TJ's Master/Slave setup, to retain the lower voltage, so I can use 3 NiMHs. These are the newer 3040ma KD drivers. I have put up a few photos of how I have wired these drivers, to fit in the base of the head.
These three drivers would not fit laying flat, in the head. I had to do a little massaging on the edges, to make them fit in a smaller circle, by sanding some flats, where they came together and at the edges, where they touched the inside of the head. Since they all have to be grounded together, I just soldeded the edges, so they would be one solid mass and it was much easier to handle.
Here's how they look sitting inside the head's driver recess.
The wires here are solid 22ga teflon coated wire. I decided on solid, because it was much easier in this application. I could form them and hold them down with masking tape, while I soldered them in place. The closest board is the master and even though it looks like it's soldered to the LED+ pad, it's soldered to the first pin of the 7135 chip. There's just a hairs breadth clearance there and I will flow some Arctic Alumina to cover in between that pad and the wires, to make sure there isn't going to be any contact. In fact, I will cover all the connections with a touch of AA for my peace of mind.
The RED marks are where I cut the pins to the controllers, on the slave boards.
Here's the wiring finished. The green wires are the negatives from the LED- pads and will go out to the negative sides of the emitters.
The Positive (Red) and Negative (Green) on this side of the Master board, go to the battery positive and body ground, via the Brynite contact plate that fits over the driver recess, in the head.
I have to say, that this is the most stressful part of modding, for me. I am not good with a soldering iron on these tiny connections. Mostly due to the problems (steadiness & eyesight), inherent in getting older (for me anyhow). I am using a lighted magnifyer now and for this go round, I held the boards on the table with masking tape, so I could put both arms down flat on the table, to help steady the iron. It worked better and I "think" it will hold as it should. Time will tell.
I feel I need to do whatever I can, to make this work, If I absolutely cannot, then at least I can say I have tried all I know to do. Foolish pride and the (it's a guy thing), does not allow me to let it go, nor to give it to someone else to do it for me. I wasn't taught that way and I'm not about to change now. Right or wrong...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It Lives!
Beam Shots.
I am Not a beam shot guy. I can never show just how bright these lights are. My camera can't do long exposures and it stinks, or the photographer does! Here's the best I can do and I can only say that these shots only show about HALF the brightness of this thing! It's a "wall of light" and it still reaches out to 100 yards and lights up an entire area at that distance! It's absolutely amazing just how bright this thing is!
Even thought the photo does not show it, this thing lighted up this area much brighter than daylight and it lit up the trees in the background, to where I could plainly see the detail! The background trees are about 40-50 yards away!
This one shows the pond out front. That light made the whole end of the pond (the dam end and that's what I said when I turned it on, Damn! that's bright). I could clearly make out everything on the dam end of the pond and in the trees surrounding it. As I say, it's about twice as bright as the photo shows.
I sure as heck would not want to ever shine this thing in someone's eyes, unless I wanted to do some kind of permanent damage. It's way too bright for me to ever use and I don't think I will ever do another 3up. It's ridiculous and just not my type of light, but it's bright!
That's it. I now have it up for sale.
I am turning it into a triple XM-L T6 light. I thought I would show some photos and talk about what I am doing.
Here's the light torn apart.
The new color of the body will be a brown textured paint.
The battery holder needs to be changed from Parallel to Series. The red lines show how the copper plate will be replaced with the stock one. The gray areas mean metal will not be there. The arrow and +/- mean that those contacts need to be together, so that the holder will be in series. I will need to make a plate inside going across those two spots.
The same for the bottom - contact plate, as I already described above.
This holder is really made very well. I know it's just plated steel and plated springs, but aside from that, the holder is made well. Screws hold the top and bottom plates to the uprights and they are made from a higher quality plastic than the normal cheapie holders. This holder will take more heat than the cheap ones and will not warp either.
I used copper sheet for the new contact plates and gold plated springs. It should be a better holder when I am done and it will be series using three 4/3AF NiMH batteries. (same size as 18650)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on the battery holder mod.
The copper replacement contacts are cut and ready for forming.
First they have to be heat treated to soften them. I heat them until they appear silvery looking under the flame of the torch. When they cool you can see the discoloration from the heat.
I form the positive cups, by using small sockets and hammer the copper on soft wood to form the shape. I also soldered the gold springs in place. Next is final shaping, straightening and fitting to the plastic frame, as well as cleaning with steel wool, to remove the discoloration.
Making sure the contacts fit.
One end finished.
and the other side.
Battery holder completed and it reads 3.95vdc.
I had to modify the contact plates for the positive terminals like this, due to clearance issues. In the long run, I think it worked better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paint & Polish
I like the Brown Textured paint! This took a while. I painted the body and head, no problem. I removed the paint from the rings on the head, no problem. I stripped the bezel and tailcap, no problem, well maybe there is a problem. It's hard to describe, but the stripped parts looked like it's a different type of Aluminum. It had (and still does) have a whitish cast to it, that does not look good when polished. It looked "funky".
So... I thought I would try painting them with black. Nope, that looked really bad. Then I had to figure out how to strip the paint, Ok, I will just soak them in paint thinner, since the paint is freshly applied. Nope, no way, it didn't even phase that paint. Well, then I will try the degreaser that cuts Ano so well. Nope, didn't phase it one bit. I thought, hey this is some tough paint!
Then I remembered the Acetone on the lower shelf! Acetone, I have never used it for stripping paint. I use to clean parts. Man Oh Man, does it ever work! I put the parts in a plastic tub and I am not joking (I was watching the clock), it took all of 15 Seconds to lift the paint off completely! It didn't dissolve the paint, but the paint just lifted off in one piece. If you have ever seen that paint on water stuff (hydrographics), that's what it looked like. The paint lifted off as one sheet and I just pulled the parts out, clean as a whistle. Unbelievable!
Acetone is Nasty - Nastytone... So if you ever use it - Gloves, Respirator, Open air environment, eye protection, Be Careful. It's just plain nasty. I poured the Acetone back in the can and just wiped the paint off the bottom of the tub with a paper towel. One nice thing about Acetone is, it evaporates really fast, so the paper towel was dry within a minute.
Anyhow, the finished light ended up being brown, with "brushed aluminum". I just used steel wool on the bare metal and it looks pretty good.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's some photos of the rest of the build:
I decided way before the emitters arrived, that I could never solder them, once they were in place. I came up with using a cardboard jig. I put double sided tape on it and stuck the emitters to the reflector bottom. Then I stuck them to the cardboard and removed the reflector. This allowed me to solder everything right here in the open. So much easier, in the long run!
I used solid wire (white wire) in between the emitters and it keeps the shape once the cardboard is removed. Now I can place the whole thing into the head of the light and use the reflector to center it all, while the Arctic Alumina dries.
Emitters are in place.
Here's how it looks with the reflector in place.
Here's the Driver assembly.
I am doing this light with TJ's Master/Slave setup, to retain the lower voltage, so I can use 3 NiMHs. These are the newer 3040ma KD drivers. I have put up a few photos of how I have wired these drivers, to fit in the base of the head.
These three drivers would not fit laying flat, in the head. I had to do a little massaging on the edges, to make them fit in a smaller circle, by sanding some flats, where they came together and at the edges, where they touched the inside of the head. Since they all have to be grounded together, I just soldeded the edges, so they would be one solid mass and it was much easier to handle.
Here's how they look sitting inside the head's driver recess.
The wires here are solid 22ga teflon coated wire. I decided on solid, because it was much easier in this application. I could form them and hold them down with masking tape, while I soldered them in place. The closest board is the master and even though it looks like it's soldered to the LED+ pad, it's soldered to the first pin of the 7135 chip. There's just a hairs breadth clearance there and I will flow some Arctic Alumina to cover in between that pad and the wires, to make sure there isn't going to be any contact. In fact, I will cover all the connections with a touch of AA for my peace of mind.
The RED marks are where I cut the pins to the controllers, on the slave boards.
Here's the wiring finished. The green wires are the negatives from the LED- pads and will go out to the negative sides of the emitters.
The Positive (Red) and Negative (Green) on this side of the Master board, go to the battery positive and body ground, via the Brynite contact plate that fits over the driver recess, in the head.
I have to say, that this is the most stressful part of modding, for me. I am not good with a soldering iron on these tiny connections. Mostly due to the problems (steadiness & eyesight), inherent in getting older (for me anyhow). I am using a lighted magnifyer now and for this go round, I held the boards on the table with masking tape, so I could put both arms down flat on the table, to help steady the iron. It worked better and I "think" it will hold as it should. Time will tell.
I feel I need to do whatever I can, to make this work, If I absolutely cannot, then at least I can say I have tried all I know to do. Foolish pride and the (it's a guy thing), does not allow me to let it go, nor to give it to someone else to do it for me. I wasn't taught that way and I'm not about to change now. Right or wrong...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It Lives!
Beam Shots.
I am Not a beam shot guy. I can never show just how bright these lights are. My camera can't do long exposures and it stinks, or the photographer does! Here's the best I can do and I can only say that these shots only show about HALF the brightness of this thing! It's a "wall of light" and it still reaches out to 100 yards and lights up an entire area at that distance! It's absolutely amazing just how bright this thing is!
Even thought the photo does not show it, this thing lighted up this area much brighter than daylight and it lit up the trees in the background, to where I could plainly see the detail! The background trees are about 40-50 yards away!
This one shows the pond out front. That light made the whole end of the pond (the dam end and that's what I said when I turned it on, Damn! that's bright). I could clearly make out everything on the dam end of the pond and in the trees surrounding it. As I say, it's about twice as bright as the photo shows.
I sure as heck would not want to ever shine this thing in someone's eyes, unless I wanted to do some kind of permanent damage. It's way too bright for me to ever use and I don't think I will ever do another 3up. It's ridiculous and just not my type of light, but it's bright!
That's it. I now have it up for sale.
