# TL3 LED Conversion ...



## wquiles (Jun 14, 2009)

A co-worker gave me a Streamlight TL3 and said he wanted something different, brighter, better, etc. I said "sure, I will figure out something". Little did I know it was going to be a lot of work ...

I started by taking down the shoulder on the head/reflector:







I then very carefully opened up the hole to allow for an LED to fit:






Although this is the factory incandesent bulb holder, I used it to judge the opening in the reflector and to see how tall would the new heatsink "module" had to be:






The heatsink module that I am creating is a two part afair. The part facing the reflector will be in Al, and the part housing the spring and positive contact battery will be made out of Delrin. Here I am constructing the Delrin piece:












Here I started to cut the Al piece that faces the reflector:











and here I am fine-tuning the height:











Here I am setting up to drill the two holes for the LED wires:












Still more work needed on the heatsink, but the basic shape is done:












Here I am opening up the back side of the Al heatsink - it needs to house the Downboy LED driver that I am using, as well as mate with the Delrin piece:






Pieces fit as expected:






Some more work on the mill to setup the spring (donated by dead SureFire light module):
















Not done, but starting to look like a real thing:











I had to enlarge the hole a tad to get the Downboy to fit, and I drilled a hole for the inductor to fit:
















Here is how it looks on a dry fit with the driver inside:











Start the soldering/assembly part:






The hole for the inductor was cut so that the POS and NEG terminals would line up with the corresponding LED wires:






I added thin Krapton tape to prevent a short:






Solder positive wire:






Test with my bench supply before soldering/epoxying the spring side:











Epoxy the driver and Al/Delrin pieces together:






Add positive terminal:






And here is the completed module:






I removed the reflector to clean it with compressed air:






and finally, re-assemble the reflector, apply thermal paste between the heatsink and the reflector, assemble the head, put batteries, and test it against a while wall (like 18-20 inches away):






Lots of work, but it worked out great 

Will


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## nanotech17 (Jun 15, 2009)

plenty of hour power involved there Will,if only you use the Cree XPE.
nice work.


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## [email protected] (Jun 16, 2009)

I must say I'm envious of your lathe skillZ! 

Great job :thumbsup:


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## wquiles (Jun 16, 2009)

Thank you guys 

Yes, it was a lot of work. Many, many hours to build one part, figure out what/how it would work, build/modify the parts again, etc.. The LED (Seoul P4, U bin is what I used) is still a nice improvement over the original incandescent bulb, plus being regulated at 1000mA on a nice heatsink means the new owner will be happy for a long time


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## koala (Jun 17, 2009)

Hard to imagine so much work was done by just looking at the module. It's very well done. Did you make your the spring as well?


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## wquiles (Jun 17, 2009)

koala said:


> Hard to imagine so much work was done by just looking at the module. It's very well done. Did you make your the spring as well?



When I started I was not even sure it would work at all. I did not know if the reflector (not designed for LED's) would focus properly or not. I also did not know if I was going to have enough space to fit a small current regulated LED driver. Thankfuly the owner was a patient person!

There is nothing "flashy" about this build. Although many hours were spent figuring stuff out, and then building, modifying, and fitting the heatsink module, once assembled, no-one will ever know what is inside and what makes it "tic" - it just works. 

But, looking at this project from another point of view, this project enhances my skills as a moder and "machinist-in-training", so I can now do these and even more complex projects - experienced gained by not reading, but by doing. So in the end, this was a very rewarding project :thumbsup:

The spring for the negative contact was "donated" by a dead SureFire P60 incandescent lamp module - I recycle parts as much as I can if/where it makes sense


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## Bullzeyebill (Jun 17, 2009)

Nicely executed work. Does the mod outdo the 8-10,000 lux of the original TL3.

Bill


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## wquiles (Jun 18, 2009)

I actually never even turned the incandescent light on - it was given to me with drained batteries, and the first thing I did was to disassemble the unit to see what I could do with it. The owner of the (now LED-based) light is happy with the end result, but unfortunately I can't give you any quantitative/objective measurement since I don't have any.


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## darkzero (Jun 19, 2009)

Nice build & as always excellent post Will! I love viewing your posts! :twothumbs

I'm sure the owner will be/is very happy!


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## Gen3Benz (Jun 19, 2009)

Damn!
What a neat little doo-dad to hold stuff with!

Great machining :twothumbs


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## Bullzeyebill (Jun 19, 2009)

Gen3Benz said:


> Damn!
> What a neat little doo-dad to hold stuff with!
> 
> Great machining :twothumbs



doo-dad, I get it. Could't figure it out for a bit.

Bill


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## glockboy (Jun 19, 2009)

Very nice.
:thumbsup:


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## wquiles (Jun 19, 2009)

Bullzeyebill said:


> doo-dad, I get it. Could't figure it out for a bit.
> 
> Bill



Maybe this pin vise/holder?





I owe knowing this device to member *darkzero* 

Will


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## wildstar87 (Jun 20, 2009)

So where can you pick one of these vises up?


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## koala (Jun 20, 2009)

wildstar87 said:


> So where can you pick one of these vises up?



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=65007


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## Tekno_Cowboy (Jun 23, 2009)

wquiles said:


> Although many hours were spent figuring stuff out, and then building, modifying, and fitting the heatsink module, once assembled, no-one will ever know what is inside and what makes it "tic" - it just works.



That's the way things should be, when done right the first time :thumbsup:


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