today I'm going to show you how to make
a c8 flashlight it will absolutely
destroy any of the ones you can buy off
the shelf it's simple to do and
budget-friendly so let's get started the
first thing we're going to need for this
project is our host and you can use
about any of the c8 hosts that you find
on the internet some of them are really
super cheap like this one that I got if
you saw my video internet lumens versus
actual lumens I got this for about 10
bucks and you can even get some cheaper
than that this one here is a convoy host
which for a couple dollars more you can
get and it's considerably better quality
and I'll show you some of the reasons
why in a little bit the next thing that
will need is the parts for our light
engine will need a cree XPL HI v3
emitter and a mosfet driver if you're
using button top batteries you can just
put the driver in just like it is but if
you're using flat tops you'll need to
either put a spring or a copper button
on the bottom
with that done what we want to do now is
we want to bypass this spring with a
piece of wire the first thing that we
need to do for our mod is solder the
wire leads on for this particular light
I like to solder them onto the driver
and then put it up through to the bottom
because you can use shorter wires that
way if you need tips on soldering new to
the hobby I have a video right here on
how to do that and also on how to reflow
soldering led to an MC PCB right now is
also a good time to go ahead and tin the
LED pads it'll make connecting the wire
leads to the MC PCB later a lot easier
next it's time to open up our host this
is one of the reasons i always recommend
the convoy host to people is because you
get this nice quality clean shelf that's
smooth and just ready to go and also we
get this right here in the bottom you
can see there's a ring screwed in that
will hold our driver in place looking at
some of these cheaper ones right there
at the bottom you can see the driver
just basically sits in there there's
nothing holding it in place except
pressure it's a call depressed fit which
is okay sometimes it can cause you to
have a bad connection or if you sand the
edges of your driver too much it can
make the driver board fall out and it
won't fit looking down the end of this
barrel here something else that really
jumps out at me is the quality of the
lens
you can see the convoy one on the left
here is pretty clear it's not a are
coated but it is a good lens and then
this one right here that's exactly how
it looks out of the box it's just a
foggy cloudy dirty cheap mess in some of
these you'll get a 20 millimeter in CPCB
slot and in some of 16 and that doesn't
really matter but I mean it kind of does
if you want to order your parts ahead of
time another thing that just blows me
away on some of these cheaper ones is
this if you look at that it's kind of
hard to tell right here but when I push
on the back of this that's not even an
actual pill it's just a pair of cheap
aluminum MC PCBs stuck together and the
heatsink doesn't touch the LED or the MC
PCB anywhere except around the very
edges now you will find in some of these
that do have a solid pill now what will
happen is the emitter has been glued
down to that pill what you can do if you
do end up with a pill like that is just
get it hot with a torch
after a little bit the epoxy will soften
you can just get pop that right off of
there to clean this off I always
recommend using like a piece of wood or
something don't use something sharp like
a screwdriver because you'll gouge the
metal just kind of taken you can clean
it off like that and then to get the
residue off what I usually uses some of
this that'll clean whatever is left on
there what you what you don't want to
use is something like this I've seen
people do that and I you know what this
goes in a drill and they spin that on
there and it just destroys that surface
and you don't get good transfer from the
MC PCB to the pill anymore it's like
trying to carry water in a colander the
convoy comes with this little set of
screws so rather than using two part
epoxy we're going to use this thermal
grease arctic silver five whenever you
apply it all you really need is just a
little tiny bit spread it around real
good the thinner the layer the better
you want to get enough to cover it good
but all you're trying to do is fill in
air gaps there you don't want a big
thick blob thermal epoxy is not really a
good conductor it's just better than air
stick it down in there just spin it
around real good to smear that all over
and then run your screws in just tighten
them down just like you would have like
a car tire run them in gently and then
go back and forth for me to go back and
forth between the two of them and snug
them down so that you get this to sit
perfectly flat now that we have that
done just run the driver board up
through the bottom and attach the wires
purely shooting for the moon on your mod
I like to put a little bit of contact
enhancer my deoxy gold on the bottom of
that driver at this point to you can
even get it down inside that switch if
you just put some right around there
like that and then run this up and down
a bunch of times while we're assembling
even though our convoy host did come
with a relatively nice lens I'm going to
go ahead and install a 42 millimeter a
are coded lens one final thing we're
going to do before we put our light back
together is on this switch the weakest
point in just about any of these mods or
at least the place where the highest
resistance is is in the spring so we're
going to do a sprint and electrical
spring bypass by adding a piece of wire
to the center of that spring it doesn't
look super nice but it is going to give
us a boost in current and so we're going
to go ahead and do that you do need to
be really careful when you do this
because if you get that plate too hot
it's going to melt your switch and
you've got junk
want to show you real quick the
difference in the hot spot here this is
our factory xml hot spot this is our X
PL high hotspot channel for more intense
that is in the center it's not just the
brightness either this one is actually
more like half the size what it looks
like on the camera it's just one really
really tight and compared to the
original
I tested the output of our new super
light and i got fourteen hundred and
seventy two lumens at 30 seconds and i
also tested the range and i got 130,000
lux at one meter at 30 seconds so I'm
pretty happy with that if you try this
mod for yourself let me know how it goes
for you if you want to see more how to
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thanks for watching good lucks