Introducing Mockbug: The story of my first flashlight build.

[AER-Lights]

@ Zandar
The thing is. As i do not expect everyone who gets one to be a machinist, home, hobby or otherwise your view is actually the one that matters so… Thank you!

And i will keep cracking on
Most things that are worth doing will have parts to it that are less "attractive" to do so i see this as being the nature of the beast.

 

[roadracer46]

Beautiful work... love the design. I am absolutely IN when these drop. Fingers crossed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AER-Lights]

@ Roadracer 46
That's the sprit! I'm liking it

Status update:
To be honest not much is going on.
I'm currently waiting for supplies to do the plating so i took the chance to make a few of spare parts e.g. a couple of heads while i am waiting anyway.
The whole sanding thing really got to me and while i was sanding one of the spare heads i actually broke through the skin on one of my fingers and started to bleed a bit.
So.. so far this project has actually broken sweat caused tears and i've bleed. In fact i've bleed on more than one occasion.
It must mean that this is worth doing

I've also started fiddling with the code tooling setup for the internals. Switch holder, Pill and "reflector"
First up was the switch holder. I've done the lathe part so i'm about half way on that.

Until next time.

 

[Zandar]

Sounds like progress to me. Go Mockbug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AER-Lights]

Haaahhhh
I'll take it!

 

[DrafterDan]

Really coming along, very cool. And I like your first hot bluing, kinda post-apocalyptic but in a cool way. It feels like this torch should have this type of finish, somehow it wouldn't feel right cerakoting this.

Yes, large flats are extremely hard to get looking right. Even high rotational speed milling with low speed travel leaves snail trails. It's extra hard when you're a perfectionist....

and Ice that shoulder

 

[AER-Lights]

@ DrafterDan
Thank you Dan i'm glad you appreciate it. Haaahhh!!! "Post apocalyptic in a cool way" is a fabulous description.
That might stick if i go down this road again.

And yes… it left me with a bit of a problem but i keep coming back to the original thought which is. This is all good and fine but the never ending possibilities will inevitably sidetrack the project to a point where if i'm not careful i'll get lost and never finish the batch and finishing the batch has priority.

"Yes, large flats are extremely hard to get looking right. Even high rotational speed milling with low speed travel leaves snail trails. It's extra hard when you're a perfectionist...."

Yes you can say that again. The problem to me is actually big enough that it may be a serious inhibiting factor to if i'll make more. But most problems have solutions. I just have to find it
The amount of hours that goes into each flashlight at this point is just absurd. But is guess that at least parts of that can be traced back to the perfectionist thing.
Having said that these are by no means perfect but so far they're as good as my time, knowledge and equipment allows.

BTW. Shoulder is iced now

I'll give you guys an update later today. I'm currently working the switch cages and want to make good time on that.

 

[AER-Lights]

Status report:

As i mentioned earlier today i've been working on and have now finished the switch cages.

Unfortunately i made a mistake when i did the first iterations and used the wrong reference tail cap. It was basically an earlier prototype and the spacing for the rubber boot was off so i had to go back a couple of times to fiddle with the code to get it right.
On the bright side i actually got into a rhythm on this. While the lathe was making the "base" the mill was cutting slots and contours and i was tending machines the way it's supposed to work. E.g. tending machines not babying them

I received the chemicals to do the Nickel plating but i'm still waiting for the last piece of equipment before i can get started. I'ts just a laboratory grade hotplate with a stirrer but i have been needing one on occasion for years now so i figured it was time to get one. So why the fuss???. Simple. They're expensive
Btw. It should be good for making sauce Bearnaise but that's a topic for another forum i guess


Supply chain:

Drivers:
Having spent a great deal of time pondering what bits and pieces to source and actually deciding on a moonlight special driver from Richard at Mountain Electronics (haven't actually tried one yet but it sounds great on paper) and i was about to buy a bunch but they're out of stock. I wrote them an email asking if they had any idea as to when they would be available again but haven't heard back from them yet. I might have to change the plans a bit to avoid unnecessary delays in release of the lights as i won't start work on the pills and "reflectors" before i actually have the parts in hand. Chances are that then I'd just have to go and do them again.

Silicone boots:
As i mentioned in a previous post i have ordered and now received yet another a bag of Silicone boots. These are exactly the same as the first batch and i'm not a fan. They're a bit too thin, they're not holding dimensional tolerances, they're a bit too soft and last but not least the checkering is not as defined as i'd like. Fortunately i have just enough lying around in "inventory" from a bag i purchased years ago so it's not really a big issue but i'm starting to understand why guys like Prometheus have had their own done. Except for the customization part off-cause
Hmmm… yet another project for the future.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Zandar]

Somehow, I would have never come up with a combination bearnaise sauce and nickel plating for the Mockbug, ingenious really and dare say we tasty!

 

[AER-Lights]

Status Report:

Well.. not much is happening in regards to getting lights finished.
I'm still waiting for the "hot Plate" to arrive and i'm still waiting on the drivers to get back in stock.

I did do a couple of spare parts but that's just more of the same.

Since i seemed to have some spare time on this i figured i'd do a bit of housekeeping.
I don't remember if i mentioned it at the time but i lost the driver for my cnc'ed rotary table on the mill during the project and replacement parts and time are now available so i dove into it and got that sorted. I'm running an old Xylotex driver and have added a bing bong chinesium single axis drive to get my axis back.

It was a bit of a hack job and neither the drive nor the original board is very well documented so i spent a fair bit of time probing and prodding to get it running but in the end it's a success
Now i just need to figure out how to fit it in the case. Hmmmmm.

Next up is fixing my broken drill bit holder on the lathe.
I'll be needing that soon to do the LED covers "reflectors"

Until next time.

 

[wosser]

This whole project would have made such a great youtube channel. It would be like Wintergatan, but for flashaholics

 

[id30209]

This^^^^

 

[AER-Lights]

Haaahhhh. And thank you.
Inspired by grimsmo i considered doing a bit of a video log on this but must admit that my conclusion was that it was too involved and would without a doubt take time away from what to me was important. Making the actual flashlights that is.

Having said that i'm no Wintergatan And i seriously doubt i could bring the perceived energy into the segments to make them worth watching.
You do however have a point. There's plenty of machine shop and knife making youtube channels but there doesn't seem to be much choice for flashaholics. (Not counting the endless infomercials that go for reviews these days)

Status report:
It's now official. Logistics is a major issue
We're still not progressing much as i'm still waiting for the same parts.
I'll get you guys an update on the drill bit holder when it evolves beyond a block of steel but other than that there's no much to show.

It has however made me seriously consider if i should do my own drivers.
My problem however is that there doesn't seem to be much i can bring to the game for what is basically a low powered light and considering the effort involved it doesn't really add up beyond replacing one logistics problem with another.
The work done in the other forum over quite a few years by lots of people in regards to drivers is quite comprehensive and improvements on that is possible but the gains would be negligible.

I do however have a plan B.
If the situation doesn't improve i'll order a bunch on NANJG AK47 drivers hack them a bit and reprogram them for our purpose
I'm basically sold on running moonlight mode through a single 7135 and higher power modes through multiple. It's a simple yet very effective design and since the light isn't designed to put out a million Lumens the 7135s will do the job just fine.
"yea but you have considerable power loss compared to a FET" while this is true the custom flashlights we're seeing here when considering them as a system have other issues in that regard and at the end of the day it's a trade-off.

Live long and prosper.

 

[AER-Lights]

Status report:

Finally something is happening again.
Testing on the Nickel plating took a bit longer than i would have liked but i now have a method that works.
And just in the nick of time as i seem to be running out of compatible scrap parts. They have to have functioning threads to spec. to be any good for testing.

Mind you the lights in the picture are assembled from reject parts. Hence at least some of the scuff marks
The top light i apparently went overboard on the plating as the layer was way too thick. As a result the threads won't fully engage.
In addition the surface started to crystallize in some weird way forming artifacts as well as a finish that was approaching satin. I kind of liked the sating part though.

As an added bonus the light is now so close to ready that i figured it was time to lube up the o-rings and do the water submersion test
And i'm happy to report that it went well.
Now.. it's not a Mil Spec standard test or anything. Simply turned the light on, dumped it in the highest beaker i had around (20 Cm - 2/3 foot)and waited for 10 minutes.
Post disassembly showed no sign of water ingress so for normal use this should suffice.

BTW: If any of you choose to take it into space or something let me know. I think we can do a special edition for that

As always.. Thank you for following along and i'll keep you posted.

 

[TheFraz]

Love the look and size of the light! Very nice project. I feel your pain about the sanding and polishing by hand.

-Fraz

 

[AER-Lights]

@ Franz

Thank you.
Knowing what you're doing that's not a light compliment
Regarding the pain. Thanks much appreciated. I think it's one of those things that you have to have tried to know. But the thing about the pain is that it withers away over time but the result still stands

Just a quick update.
Got half the lights plated
The plating has the slightest tint but you can't tell them from the untreated ones unless you're holding both and compare.

The threads are getting scary tight but that was pretty much to be expected.

And… I'm looking forward to not having to rub them dry them every 10 minutes to prevent them rusting

The electronics should arrive one of these days so i can get started on the pills.

I mentioned my plan regarding the drivers earlier but as they still don't have what i need in stock i had to go another route.
In order to execute the new plan however i have to figure out how to program the MCU but there's plenty of guides for that out there. Plus.. I do have experience programming uProcessors but i have never done Atmels. Should be fun though

This will off-cause take additional time but if all goes right this might open the opportunity to do custom modes etc. The question I guess is if that is something you guys want?

It seems that there are no shortcuts on this project. I'll have to get directly involved in every aspect.
At least i didn't have to go dig up ore to get steel

Live long and prosper.

 

[Zandar]

Excellent progress in a relatively short time, but your opening up a Pandora's box on custom modes! So yes, here's one vote for a custom mode.

 

[AER-Lights]

Thank you Zandar.
Your vote is registered

And yes… i'm aware that offering custom modes will complicate things but i also see it as an opportunity to bring something to the driver.
In fact i'm a bit puzzled that this is not more common on the high end stuff. Yes… you have the click, wait, do a rain-dance then click 88 times again to enter programming mode options for the fancy ones but as a UI i personally find it cumbersome and not very user friendly.

Having said that i figure that the mode options i'll offer will be relatively simple. That is off-cause if everything goes to plan and the plan is subject to change

The maximum output of the driver is 700ma.
The Nichia 219c High CRI should put out roughly 260 Lumens at 700ma. I have no means of measuring this so it's based on a measurement from another forum combined with the datasheet.

Modes 1-5 (Specify modes as percentage)
Moonlight enable yes/no (deducts from modes)
Memory yes/no
Modes ascending/descending

By choosing something like 75% as the highest in modes you'll also be able to detune the light for longer run times if you're interested.

These are just my basic thoughts at this point and we'll have to see how it goes.

 

[AER-Lights]

So… Just a quick update as i'm busy

The electronics came in and i've been working on the default modes. And to a degree of success i might add
The driver is a hardware modified NJANG AK-47A running a 3-mode program. [Moonlight, 30%, 100%] off of two 7135s. 700ma MAX. for the flashlight.
Choice of memory on/off and intensity decrease when battery low and ultimately shutdown. I still need to verify the trigger voltage etc. but that shouldn't pose much of a problem.

This is off-cause not something i have written myself. It's based of the work of Toykeeper and JohnnyC and they have my sincerest thanks for providing both firmware and tools.

So did that just go off without a hitch?
Are you kidding nothing i touch just works
A couple of blown drivers, a POS programmer in the bin and a rework of a raspberry pi to use as a programmer not to mention setting up the environment. (which i fully understand isn't easy for newcomers. It's not very well documented and if you've never fiddled with programming environments before it's a steep learning curve)

Until next time.

 

[AER-Lights]

Yet another step in the right direction.

I finished the "reflectors"
Man is brass nice to work with

Also got the voltage cut-off on the drivers sorted so the driver situation is pretty much done.

More to come