He posted some pictures of a one-off part he made in brass [qv] and CPF went nuts. Eventually he did a small run of these in Derlin (a nylon resin which turns very easily in a lathe) and I grabbed one. It’s a hell of a mod considering it only takes 30 seconds to install.

When I finally break down and get the lathe, the first thing I’m going to do is turn a few of these in brass.

This allows the user to see if the power is still on when the light is set head-down on a table, and also gives it a little more “bite” when used as an impact “tool” (though nothing like the TID or the Porcupine).

I built this particular module with a W-binned Luxeon V and a Downboy driver set to 833ma. The module assembly is pretty straightforward, and is very similar to the McCapsule assembly process. The only significant difference is threading the lead wires through the top of the module. This took a bit of patience and some tedious work with a dental pick. Finer wire would have helped, but you go to war with the army that you have.

Once completed, the module drops right in without any modification to the light itself.

This is by far the tightest Luxeon V setup I’ve yet seen. The hotspot seems slightly tigheter than my hotwire Mag 2C with KPR112 bulb, which is a throw monster. Overall, it’s an impressive package, though it’s a pretty expensive one.

I figured a diamond wheel might work better, since they are considerably thinner than the standard cut-off wheels. However, a single genuine Dremel diamond wheel runs about $15. I found a five-pack of knock-off Chinese diamond wheels for $10 at Harbor Freight, and it even included a mandrel. The quality of these wheels is more than good enough for my purposes. The diamond wheel is about half the thickness of the standard cut-off wheel (o.5mm vs. 1.0mm), which was just about perfect.

The clones are easy to identify when they are mounted on the star heatsinks, as the solder pads are flatter, the heat sink itself is a much lighter metal, and there is no binning or model number marking on the back, but the emitters themselves are almost perfect copies. The only significant difference I could see was in lens clairity - and even then, I needed a 10x loupe to see the difference.

Genuine Luxeon (left) and Clone (right)

I think the lens fogginess is caused by surface defects and could probably be polished away. The clone also seems to have more “fuzz” around the edge of the lens, and this could be related to the poor polish of the lens. Everything else seems to be indistinguishable, even the phosphor layer, which I expected would be the weak link in the clones.

Initial informal testing was impressive. To my eye, color and brightness of the bare clone emitters are on a par with some TX0J Luxeon III emitters I have on my bench. I will have to conduct further tests with some optics and reflectors, which generally makes it easier to pick out differences in color.

My initial feeling is that even if these do perform well, I will probably not use them in any flashlights, since the $9 savings ($7 for a clone vs $16 for a good-binned Luxeon III) isn’t a significant enough amount in a $200 flashlight to make up for the unknowns in binning and long-term reliability. For projects needing a large number of emitters, though, these might be more than acceptable.

I got both the standard and newer flat-top tailcaps:

I planned on installing a Nexgen boost driver using an Ecan from the McLux project, but the Ecan is slightly too tall to fit properly in the L1 head. Removing a bit of material from both the top and bottom of the Ecan on a lathe is all that’s needed to adapt it to the tighter diminsions of the L1 head, though.

Of course, while I had it opened up I replaced the stock NX-05 optic with a more refined IMS SO17XA reflector.

The L1 head is the smallest head that Surefire makes - far smaller than either the E1e head or the KL1, and it makes a very pocketable light cannon when combined with the E1e body.

As you can see, it dwarfs the Aleph 1 head:

Since it may be a while before I can get another one of these heads, I decided to make this one a real boomer. I built a light engine [notes] with a hand-picked Luxeon V and a Badboy driver set to a whopping 1000ma. The geometry of the Luxeon V is slightly different than that of the Luxeon III, which these reflectors are optimized for, so to get the Luxeon V emitter die right in the center of the reflector’s focal point, it has to just a little bit further back in the head than the Luxeon III. To accomplish this, I put a small plastic shim over the light engine.

The shim is actually a washer used in the bottom of a CR123A lithium battery. Without this shim, the beam from the reflector will be just a hair out of focus, resulting in a dark area in the middle of the hotspot of the beam.

Normally I use silicone lubricant in the threads between the light engine and the head, but for builds like this one that generate more heat, I use just a small dab of Ceramique thermal paste, applied around the threads with a flat toothpick.

This head can be used on any of the Aleph series battery packs, but seems out of balance on anything shorter than the 6v 2×123 cell package. The complete light is larger than any previous Aleph, but still fits comfortably in a coat pocket.

Required parts:

• McCapsule Kit (McCapsule, battery contact board, and emitter board)
• Badboy or Downboy Power Converter Board
• Luxeon Emitter
• Hookup Wire

Required tools:

• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Thermal Epoxy
• Hobby Knife
• Super Glue

Helpful:

• Vise
• Flat-blade Precision Screwdriver
• Needlenose Pliers
• Tweezers
• Nippers
• Needle Files
• Non-adhesive Thermal Grease

Prep Work

Some runs of Badboy and Downboy boards have had excess copper protruding from the edge that can cause shorts to ground, which usually destroys the board. If any copper bits stick out around the edge, file them down until flush with the rest of the PC board, then coat the entire edge with non-metalic nail polish (an insulator).

Prepare the emitter board and McCapsule body. I use a square needle file to ream out the wire clearance holes to make them just a bit bigger. Make sure the board fits cleanly in the top of the McCapsule, and file around the edges if necessary. Super glue the emitter board to the McCapsule, making sure the holes in the board line up with the holes in the McCapsule.

Let the glue set. Position the emitter in the center of the board. The tabs on the side of the emitter indicate which side is the cathode (-) and which is the anode (+). The tab with the hole in it indicates the anode, the tab with the notch is the cathode. If you’re using a Luxeon that was removed from a star, the anode side with have a tab that is slightly longer than the cathode side. You may have to trim a bit off of the “feet” of the emitter’s leads so that they don’t touch the inside wall of the McCapsule. I generally clip about half of this foot off. Once you get all of this straight, put a dab of thermal grease (or thermal epoxy) on the McCapsule in the open hole in the emitter board, press the emitter into position, and solder the Luxeon leads to the emitter board pads.

Wiring

This build needs four wires - two from the driver board to the emitter, and two from the driver to the battery contact board. The emitter wires should be about 0.6″ with the insulation stripped off 0.1″ on one end (for the driver board) and 0.2″ on the other end (for the emitter). The other two wires, for the battery contact, should be at least 0.7″ with 0.1″ stripped off of each end. I use 22 AWG solid wire for most of my builds, but I always use stranded wire for the battery contact wires in the McCapsule, as the extra flexibility is a big plus during final assembly.

Tin the wires on both ends. When soldering the wires to the board, keep in mind that the component side of the driver should will face the battery contact when the build is complete. The emitter wires will come out of the blank side, and the battery contact wires will come out of the component side. To solder the lead wires to the driver board, simply place the wires in the appropriate holes, hold them in place (with helping hands or self-closing tweezers if possible), and briefly apply the soldering iron to the hole through the opposite side of the board. Just a quick touch with the iron will melt the tinned solder and secure the wire to the hole. See the wiring diagram [qv] for your converter to identify the appropriate holes. For the emitter wires, the red wire goes in the “LED+” or “LED anode” hole and the black wire goes in the “LED-” or “LED cathode” hole. For the battery wires, the red wire goes in the Vin hole and connects to the center of the battery contact board, and the black wire goes to the GND hole and connects to the outside ring of the battery contact board.

Now is a good time to make sure the wires are long enough. Test-fit the wired board in the McCapsule and check both emitter wires and battery contact wires for adequate length.

Now solder the battery contact wires to the battery contact board. Trim any excess on the external side of the board. Add a solder blob to the external Vin pad. Once this is complete, I superglue a small piece of wire insulation to the center of the bare side of the driver board, to prevent the board from coming into direct contact with the McCapsule when the board is potted inside. This isn’t strictly necessary, since the McCapsule is hard anodized and therefore electrically isolated, but it doesn’t hurt, either.

Power Test

Test the emitter and circuit. First, test the emitter itself by applying 3v, using a 2xAA battery holder direct drive if you don’t have a bench power supply (test using 6v if you’re using a Luxeon V emitter). Then test the converter assembly. Press an old beat up Luxeon to the ends of the leads (if you don’t have a scrap emitter it’s fine to use your “production” emitter). Then, power the circuit with a Radio Shack AA battery holder. Just touch the red wire to the center of the battery contact board and the black wire to the edge ring of the battery contact board. If it lights up, you’re good to go. If you’re using a Badboy converter, use 2xAA for 3 watt emitters and 4xAA for 5 watt emitters. If you’re using a Downboy, you should use a 4xAA setup for 3 watt emitters, or a 6xAA setup for 5 watt emitters.

Fitting Test

Test-fit the driver/battery contact assembly to the McCapsule. Make sure the board slides into the McCapsule easily. Fold the emitter wires down to make sure they are long enough to reach the solder pads. Check that the battery contact board fits in the bottom of the McCapsule correctly. Take everything apart (trim the leads or wires if needed) and redo the power test.

Potting

Mix up the potting bog. Arctic Alumina is the standard, but any non-conductive thermal epoxy should work (i.e. you want it to conduct heat, but not electricity). You have to keep moving from here on so the epoxy doesn’t get too thick on you. Don’t rush, but don’t play around. Just stay focused and you’ll be OK.

About two pea-sized drops of each component should be plenty. Mix the components together, then begin potting the McCapsule. Start with just a dab around the emitter wires on the bare side of the driver board, then carefully insert the board into the McCapsule cavity. Cover the component side with potting bog. You don’t need to fill the cavity up, just use enough to coat the driver. Make sure it covers to the edge of the board and up the side of the cavity wall, as that is what will keep the driver in place. Also try to get the wire joints completely surronded by goop, since these will be the weakest physical points in your assembly and the epoxy will immobilize the joints. Dab a little bit around the bottom lip of the McCapsule and press the battery contact board into place. Fold the emitter wires down to the correct solder pads (black to - and red to +) and squeeze the McCapsule and battery contact board together. A vise with rubber-lined jaws is great for this. Let the epoxy cure for at least thirty minutes, preferably more.

No pictures of this step yet. :(

Final Hookup

Using a small flat-bladed screwdriver, push the wire down onto the emitter lead on top of the solder pad, and briefly apply heat from the soldering iron. If you tinned the wires well, the solder will flow and bind the wire and emitter lead to the solder pad. Repeat for the other wire/lead. You want to keep these joints as tidy as possible so they don’t short against the reflector. All exposed metal should be below the top edge of the McCapsule, with only the dome of the Luxeon poking above. Test the McCapsule as in the power test above. Assuming it works, cover the two joints with nail polish and let that dry.

You may need to add a contact spring to the battery contact board. For standard Surefire lock-out tailcaps, it usually isn’t necessary, but it is a definite must for use with Surefire “clickie” tailcaps such as the Z48 and Z49. Take an Aleph tailcap spring and cut it in half using hard wire cutters. Discard the bottom half of the spring, and solder the top half to the solder blob on the battery contact board.

Installation in Surefire Classic Series

Unscrew the Surefire bezel unit and remove the lamp assembly. Place threaded reflector in the bezel and screw in all the way. The reflector will “float” inside the head once it gets past the top of the threads. Drop the McCapsule into the body of the light, then screw the head down onto the body. Note that the head will most likely bottom out about 2mm short of fully screwing down all the way. This is normal due to the size of the McCapsule and should not cause problems as the o-rings are properly engaged at this point. Do not power up the McCapsule yet.

Unscrew the head and inspect the nail polish on the McCapsule. If it has rubbed off, the joint is poking above the edge of the McCapsule and is rubbing against the reflector, which will eventually cause a short. Rework as needed. If no rubbing is apparent, replace the head, remove the head and reinspect. If no rubbing is visible after two or three more tests, you’re good to go. Note that the black anodizing on the McCapsule will rub off due to contact with the reflector. This is normal and unavoidable, though it should not cause any problems.

Congratulations

That’s it. Your McCapsule is now ready for use. Be sure to use the McCapsule only with voltages suitable for your power converter and emitter combinations. For one or three watt emitters with a Badboy converter, 3v is recommended. For one or three watt emitters with a Downboy converter, anything from 4.5v-12v is fine. For five watt emitters with a Badboy, 6v is optimal, but 3v will work at slightly reduced brightness. For five watt emitters with a Downboy, 9-16 volts is fine. Do not exceed recommended voltages for Badboy converters, as input voltage above the emitter’s forward voltage will damage the converter. When using Downboy converters, input voltages below the optimal range will not damage the circuit, and will simply place the circuit in direct-drive mode.

Note also that the thermal path for this mod is less than optimal. There are no large areas of contact between the McCapsule and the flashlight body. The largest direct thermal path will actually be through the reflector to the head of the flashlight. McCapsules built with Luxeon III emitters are probably not going to experience many heat issues, this is only likely to be a serious issue with higher-power five-watt builds. Just be aware of it and monitor the McCapsule when you first start using it until you get comfortable with its heat characteristics.

Enjoy your new McCapsule!

• Aleph Light Engine Kit (Ecan, Escrew, and emitter board)
• Badboy or Downboy Power Converter Board
• Luxeon Emitter
• Hookup Wire (0.75″ red, 0.75″ black, 1″ bare solid ground wire)

Required tools:

• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Thermal Epoxy
• Hobby Knife
• Super Glue

Helpful:

• Vise
• Flat-blade Precision Screwdriver
• Needlenose Pliers
• Tweezers
• Nippers
• Needle Files
• Non-adhesive Thermal Grease

Prep Work

Some runs of Badboy and Downboy boards have had excess copper protruding from the edge that can cause shorts to ground, which usually destroys the board. If any copper bits stick out around the edge, file them down until flush with the rest of the PC board, then coat the entire edge with non-metalic nail polish (an insulator).

Prepare the emitter board and Escrew. I use a square needle file to ream out the wire clearance holes to make them just a bit bigger. Make sure the board fits cleanly in the top of the Escrew, and file around the edges if necessary. Super glue the emitter board to the Escrew, making sure the holes in the board line up with the holes in the Escrew.

Let the glue set. Position the emitter in the center of the board. The tabs on the side of the emitter indicate which side is the cathode (-) and which is the anode (+). The tab with the hole in it indicates the anode, the tab with the notch is the cathode. If you’re using a Luxeon that was removed from a star, the anode side with have a tab that is slightly longer than the cathode side. You may have to trim a bit off of the “feet” of the emitter’s leads so that they don’t touch the inside wall of the Escrew. I generally clip about half of this foot off. Once you get all of this straight, put a dab of thermal grease (or thermal epoxy) on the Escrew in the open hole in the emitter board, press the emitter into position, and solder the Luxeon leads to the emitter board pads.

The Escrew portion of the Light Engine is now complete.

Wiring

Cut the wires for the emitter. Each should be about 0.75″ with 0.1″ stripped from one end of each for the converter board and 0.2″ on the other end of each for the emitter. Tin the wires on both ends. Now is a good time to make sure the wires are long enough. Place them in the appropriate holes on the board, place the board in the Ecan, then test-fit the assembly into the head and check for adequate length.

To solder the lead wires to the driver board, simply place them in the appropriate holes on the top side of the board (the side with the components), hold them in place (with helping hands or self-closing tweezers if possible), and briefly apply the soldering iron to the bottom side of the board (the bare side). Just a quick touch with the iron will melt the tinned solder and secure the wire to the hole. See the wiring diagram [qv] for your converter to identify the appropriate holes. The red wire goes in the “LED+” or “LED anode” hole and the black wire goes in the “LED-” or “LED cathode” hole.

Cut about 1 inch of wire and strip all the insulation for the ground. Using a file, grind a groove on the top lip of the Ecan. Make it deep enough to hold the ground wire. While you have the file, grind a few notches around the top inside lip of the Ecan, these will help the epoxy grip the Ecan later when we pot the assembly. Place the ground wire in the groove with the bulk of the length on the inside of the Ecan. Heat the joint between the wire and Ecan and apply solder to the joint. It will take a while to heat the wire as the entire Ecan is acting as a heat sink. Crank up the temperature on your iron if possible. Once the joint heats up enough, the solder will flow. Fill the entire groove with solder. Once you have a good joint, trim the wire on the outside and file it down until it’s flush with the Ecan, both on the outside edge and on the top.

Now glue the converter board into the bottom of the Ecan. You need to make sure the ground wire will line up with the milled slot on the bottom of the Escrew when you thread the lead wires through the Escrew holes. Its a good idea to test fit the Ecan and Escrew together before gluing anything together. Just put a thin line of regular superglue on the inside lip of the Ecan and drop the board in. Don’t use too much glue, you only need to hold the board down for a bit until you goop in the real potting material. Let this set up for 15 minutes or so. Once it’s cured a bit, use needle-nose pliers to thread the ground wire through the ground hole on the converter. Solder from the bottom and trim with flush cutters.

Now is a good time to add a solder blob to the battery contact (the large circular pad in the middle of the bottom of the converter board. Just heat the pad and feed solder onto it until you have a nice round dome.

Power Test

Test the emitter and circuit. First, test the emitter itself by applying 3v, using a 2xAA battery holder direct drive if you don’t have a bench power supply. Then test the converter assembly. A simple way to do this is to hold the Ecan (with the converter still glued in) in a vise with the lead wires paralell to the ground, then press an old beat up Luxeon to the ends of the leads (if you don’t have a scrap emitter it’s fine to use your “production” emitter). Then, power the circuit with a Radio Shack AA battery holder (just touch the red wire to the battery contact and the black wire to the edge of the Ecan). If it lights up, you’re good to go. If you’re using a Badboy converter, use 2xAA for 3 watt emitters and 4xAA for 5 watt emitters. If you’re using a Downboy, you should use a 4xAA setup for 3 watt emitters, or a 6xAA setup for 5 watt emitters.

Fitting Test

Test-fit the Ecan to the Escrew. Make sure the two parts fit snugly all the way around, and that the ground wire rests inside the milled slot on the bottom of the Escrew. Fold the wires down to make sure they are long enough to reach the solder pads. Check the emitter’s leads to make sure they aren’t going to short against the inside lip of the Escrew. Take everything apart (trim the leads or wires if needed) and re-test.

Potting

Mix up the potting bog. Arctic Alumina is the standard, but any non-conductive thermal epoxy should work (i.e. you want it to conduct heat, but not electricity). You have to keep moving from here on so the epoxy doesn’t get too thick on you. Don’t rush, but don’t play around. Just stay focused and you’ll be OK.

About two pea-sized drops of each component should be plenty. Mix the components together, then begin potting the Ecan. You don’t need to fill the Ecan up, just use enough to coat the bottom. Make sure it covers to the edge of the board and up the side of the Ecan wall, as that is what will keep the driver in place. Also try to get the wire joints completely surronded by goop, since these will be the weakest physical points in your assembly and the epoxy will immobilize the joints. Be careful not to get epoxy on the other end of the wires (the end that will be hooked up to the emitter).

Put a little bit of epoxy inside the milled slot on the bottom of the Escrew. Not too much. Just enough to dip inside the Ecan and keep the two parts from torquing apart from each other. Dab a little excess epoxy around the inner top lip of the Ecan to bond to the Escrew.

Join the Ecan and Escrew assemblies. Fold the wires down to the correct solder pads (black to - and red to +) and squeeze the parts together. A vise with rubber-lined jaws is great for this. Let the epoxy cure for at least thirty minutes, preferably more.

Final Hookup

Using a small flat-bladed screwdriver, push the wire down onto the emitter lead on top of the solder pad, and briefly apply heat from the soldering iron. If you tinned the wires well, the solder will flow and bind the wire and emitter lead to the solder pad. Repeat for the other wire/lead. You want to keep these joints as tidy as possible so they don’t short against the reflector. All exposed metal should be below the top edge of the Escrew, with only the dome of the Luxeon poking above. Test the Light Engine. Assuming it works, cover the two joints with nail polish and let that dry.

Install the light engine in an Aleph head. Screw it all the way in, until it is snug against the reflector. Remove the Light Engine and check the nail polish. Repeat a few times. If none of the polish has rubbed off, you’re in good shape. If the reflector is rubbing the polish off, you need to remove the polish, de-solder the leads, and try to reconnect everything using less solder. Once you’ve got a tidy joint that doesn’t touch the reflector, put everything together and test it out.

Congratulations

That’s it. Your Light Engine is now ready for use. Be sure to use the Light Engine only with voltages suitable for your power converter and emitter combinations. For one or three watt emitters with a Badboy converter, 3v is recommended. For one or three watt emitters with a Downboy converter, anything from 4.5v-12v is fine. For five watt emitters with a Badboy, 6v is optimal, but 3v will work at slightly reduced brightness. For five watt emitters with a Downboy, 9-16 volts is fine. Do not exceed recommended voltages for Badboy converters, as input voltage above the emitter’s forward voltage will damage the converter. When using Downboy converters, input voltages below the optimal range will not damage the circuit, and will simply place the circuit in direct-drive mode.

Enjoy your new Light Engine!