NEW PHOTOS - pair of VX2 flashlight mods

[The Doc]

These 2 LED flashlight mods are finished. I kept it pretty simple and covered the hard clear plastic (epoxy filled) end caps with common black electrical tape. IF I want to get fancy about it, I could always mask them off and paint them. Notice the small 4-40 capscrews that are used as internal grounding posts (with small grounding nuts inside the cylinder). Also, the rear battery cap is nicely knurled aluminum with a lanyard. You may notice a few minor differences between the two units, but they both work exceptionally well. Each one uses 4 commonly available AAA cells (4.8 Volts DC) rated at 1800mAH (rechargeable NiMH). IF you load it with 4 of the alkaline type AAA cells (Duracell or Energizer) you'll get 6 volts to the atty (MAJOR VAPOR, but not my preference to have a shorter atty lifespan).

 

[Robert]

so you drilled through for the ground? and secured ground wire internally? then screwed it from the outside? to hold it in there?

 

[The Doc]

so you drilled through for the ground? and secured ground wire internally? then screwed it from the outside? to hold it in there?

There is an aluminum 4-40 grounding nut inside.....the type with the funny barbed grounding washer built right onto the bottom of the nut. There is a proper name for this type of nut, but it evades me. Under the nut is a solder type lug. It makes for a super solid ground connection. There are MANY ways to do this, but I felt that this was a viable one with extremely high (long term) reliabilty. The entire internal grounding post asembly is completely covered with epoxy....AFTER tightening the grounding nut to the maximum yield of torque....it is a ground connection that is likely to never fail.

 

[The Doc]

so you drilled through for the ground? and secured ground wire internally? then screwed it from the outside? to hold it in there?

5VDC regulator? Like a 7805 series, TO-220 type? Why? My unit just runs on 4.8VDC worth of NiMH cells...no regulator needed. With a regulator, there is ALWAYS lost energy in the power transfer and the regulator input voltage has to be a bit higher than the deisred output voltage, otherwise the regulator will just shut down.

What is the actual voltage source inside that unit? What is the mAH rating of the source? That PV would be rather small 4 me to hold onto(pretty big hands).............but it does look quite nice.

 

[Robert]

It running 2 cr2's 800 mah each- http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...age-regulator-w-protection-cr2-batteries.html

 

[The Doc]

It running 2 cr2's 800 mah each- http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...age-regulator-w-protection-cr2-batteries.html

Very sensible Robert, great mod.

One of my main goals was to get away from the added hazards of lithium power, but the NiMH cells are not quite as strong under heavy current draw. It seems you need even more mAH with the NiMH cells. 800mAH is more than enough to make it have long run times, especially with a lithium power source.

 

[Robert]

the 2 button multi volt only laste 2 1/2 max cuz I would hit full power then 5 volt and back and forth.....

but with the 5 volt only I'm getting 3-4 1/2 hours on 800 mah

 

[Bandit]

Nicely done actually!

Now get a website and sell it under the name "The DOC" for $100. Oh wait... sounds like The Chuck...

 

[The Doc]

Nicely done actually!

Now get a website and sell it under the name "The DOC" for $100. Oh wait... sounds like The Chuck...

LOL, Thanks

Have you received and tested the Prodigy unit yet? Just curious

 

[Bandit]

Had my Prodigy for a while now, Protege arrived on Saturday. LOVE it. Perfect tiny PV for carrying out and about, and the construction quality if off the charts.

 

[The Doc]

Had my Prodigy for a while now, Protege arrived on Saturday. LOVE it. Perfect tiny PV for carrying out and about, and the construction quality if off the charts.

Actually it was the Protege I meant to ask about. Who WOULDN'T like the Prodigy? It is well constructed with a 6VDC power source, so it's definitely a high performance PV.

The Protege runs on stock voltage (3.7 VDC), but it also has the huge advantage of very good battery charge capacity. I would guess the run time on a charge should be very good once you break the batteries in with a few charge cycles. My flashlight mod got much better after a few charge cycles on all my NiMH AAA cells. I tend to suspect the Protege might run a bit cool with the 801 series attys, so vapor might be better with other atty options. I've not had the best luck with 801 attys, but then again I've only used the poorly made ones that came with those crappy Mini Pipes. I thought about buying a Protege, but Shawn has been very good to me, so why go elsewhere when I can build my own mods and keep getting my juice & attys from him? The Vapre51 looks very nice, but anything less than 750mAH is just not something I would spend much cash for. My 2 flashlight mods kick .... and it cost less than $30 to make 2 of them. I've had very good luck with the VX2/J118 attys, so I'll stay with them as long as they are available at LiteCigUSA. If/when they become discontinued, I'll just find another good atty and build more flashlight mods with the required atty connectors. I find all these modified PV's very interesting, but I doubt I'll ever run more than 5VDC to my attys for the sake of atty lifespan. IF I were shopping for a mass produced "mod type" PV, I'd probably go for the Protege. It appears to have the perfect blend of build quality, PV size and (most important aspect to me) battery capacity. At less than $100 for a complete kit, I view it as one of the very best values on the market. The Vapre51 would be right there with it...IF only it had a whole lot more battery charge capacity. It looks like a great PV with only that one shortcoming. The less often I'm changing out batteries, the happier I am.