SIGN UP:The Flashlight Reinvented(CAD)

[mrsinbad]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design)

I like gatling gun for a name, but what do you think about the Reactor cause it looks a little like the fuel rods in a nuclear reactor...

 

[chimo]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design)

A very interesting design and some excellent renderings! You may want to rework the bottom switch. If the light is an inch in diameter, that little arm that holds the bottom contact looks to be only about 1/16th of an inch. It likely wouldn't last long in use. This design concept could spawn many others. I share the others' concerns about the screws - I would be concerned with screw head or thread stripping with repeated assembly/disassembly cycles. You have put forth a very interesting concept - well done!

Paul

 

[Nitroz]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design)

1. No
2. No
3. Reactor

 

[GalvanickLucifer]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

1. No
2. No
3. Phalanx or Vulcan (two modern versions of the gatling gun, see also M61A1 or M61A2)

 

[Kiessling]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Uh ... at that drive current with a LuxV the runtime should be comical, and without a low mode this is a serious flaw.
In addition that, surface area isn't everything, youo also have to conduct the heat away. The SF L4 shows that a 5W light in a standard body is very well doable (albeit a bit hot), so why risk the strange waterproofing method you developped? Sound like battery length tolerances will be critical with the use of o-rings as seals against the battery.
bernhard

 

[McGizmo]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Although water may not damage the components, use in water with any salinity well set up corrosion on the contacts in a heart beat!

I also believe that the optics require clear air on their exterior surface to reflect the light per design. I suspect that the optic submerged will behave in a different manner than desired. Dirt and scratches on the surface of the optic will also cause some light loss, IMHO.

Your tail switch is a clever idea but depending on the material of the part, the modulous (sp) of elasticity may not allow proper functioning and stress fatigue may either take its toll or the switch might permenantly deform. Unless the part is cast, it looks like you have designed a rather difficult form to machine?!?!

Very interesting concept and beautiful rendering! I would be curious as to the final cost and tollerance issues encountered in production.

 

[scudinc]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

I would take the body without any innards.

 

[BugOutGear_USA]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

I would be interested. The form factor alone is a work of art. Now, if you can work through all of these suggestions you would have one hell of a light!

How bout Chernobyl(sp?) or flux capacitor?

Flavio

 

[mobile1]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Ok some more comments and answers:
various I like gattling, barrel and reactor... all cool names.

chimo: Well aircraft grade alluminum is pretty strong. I was actually more worried that it's too strong and the metal arm is too strong. Just 2mm of this stuff is almost impossible to bend. I will have to talk to the machine shop or see what they would recommend.

Kiessling Well depends on what you call comical. Runtime with 120 lumens will probably be about 25min. This is more then a SF G2 which has 120 lumens as well for 20 min (unregulated). Also you need to know that the SF is 50% longer. Drive this light in a 2x123 battery setup to get the same length, and this light will blast the SF out of the water with 4 times the runtime (70-80min).
Then in comparison with a S4 L4. The L4 only does 65 lumens (I believe it is under driven as some reported here on CPF). Also here again the SF is 50% longer. This is a keychain light. Try putting a SF L4 on your keychain. And this strange waterproofing method has more then twice the SF's heatsink area in a package 50% smaller.
Why are battery length tolerances critical when using ORing Seals? If a battery is longer, just tighten the screws less. If it is shorter, tighten them more. The screws can make up for much more then any battery tolerance will ever be.

McGizmo Corrosion on the contacts. I don't see why it would be different then any other light. Since the PLUS contact is entirely sealed within the o-ring, only the negative is exposed. The metal conducts electricity much better then water, no? Isn't corrosion only a problem if plus AND negative contacts are exposed. Here only the negative contact is exposed to the water (like any other light through the housing). Besides this is not a diving light....even though it should be quite sealed. I have a laser pointer that is using a similar concept for a switch. And it is working beautifully. But I need to know what material would be best suited for that.
Regarding machining - it might be hard to believe, but this light is entirely designed within the specs of a 2.5D mill (which took a lot of fidling and design changes).

I don't know underwater beam characteristics of an NX01. However this isnt supposed to be a diving light. All I wanted is that when it gets dropped into water, or when it's raining that the light is fine.

scudincBody without innards is possible as well (very affordable actually, since no laber for assembling is required)

BugOutGearUSAThank you! Well regarding suggestions. There are a lot of smart things in this design. How you can tighten or release preassure on the ORings with the screws to allow different battery length. The fact that the water sealed area is 8 times smaller then in other lights massively increasing heatsinking, low profile switch, minimum number of parts, within 2.5D mill specs, extendible battery case, easily replacable optics & orings, even sandwich if it's not epoxied in. Then from a machining point of view, try getting this much of detail in such a small package. The interconecting rods basically double detail level, since without interconnection the space between the rods required by the mill would be much larger, allowing only half the "fuel" rods.

Fact is: This would be the brightest light ever built to come in a package so small. The ONLY WAY to make 5W work in a light of this size is this type of design and water sealing*. Any other design will be much too hot when the 5W is driven at specs. After all there is a reason why there aren't (many?) other 5W 1xR123 light out there.The only drawback I can see is screws to replace batteries.

*(c)&patent pending

 

[Endeavour]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

[ QUOTE ]
mobile1 said:
McGizmo Corrosion on the contacts. I don't see why it would be different then any other light. Since the PLUS contact is entirely sealed within the o-ring, only the negative is exposed. The metal conducts electricity much better then water, no? Isn't corrosion only a problem if plus AND negative contacts are exposed. Here only the negative contact is exposed to the water (like any other light through the housing). Besides this is not a diving light....even though it should be quite sealed. I have a laser pointer that is using a similar concept for a switch. And it is working beautifully. But I need to know what material would be best suited for that.
Regarding machining - it might be hard to believe, but this light is entirely designed within the specs of a 2.5D mill (which took a lot of fidling and design changes).

I don't know underwater beam characteristics of an NX01. However this isnt supposed to be a diving light. All I wanted is that when it gets dropped into water, or when it's raining that the light is fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hopefully you don't mind if I answer this, or at least, toss in my views.

The design of the light is strange, but it's not a bad thing. Certainly intruiging.

Now, the cathode of the battery, and what it connects to, will rust if water is applied to it. As McGizmo noted, it will DEFINITELY rust if exposed to salt water. (I took a swim in the ocean with a cell phone once by accident. I took it apart and was able to watch the brass contacts on the thing corrode before my eyes.)

I've done a few Arc LS mods, and I always wash the parts after bead blasting. Once I left a small drop of water in the battery pack by accident, and while testing the light for about a minute, the light just turned off and wouldn't turn back on. I took out the battery, noticed the drop of water, and rust stains on the aluminum tube. The battery cathode had rusted up pretty badly and I had to scrape it off for it to work again. The test wasn't very long.

The battery casings are made of steel, and will rust in and of their own right given enough time. Apply water and they'll rust faster, especially if it's salt water. Apply water and current (you've got a rather high current from the battery if you're running a 5W light), and you can be assured of it rusting over rather quickly.

As to your observation that this is like 'any other light' in that the casing conducts electricty, that's true in the sense that yes, the case conducts electricity. However, there is no light I know of that allows water into key parts of the light - sandwiching water between the cathode of the battery and the negative case contact is a lot different than a dry, fully sealed contact in all other lights I know of.

Some things that may be worth consideration, if it hasn't been thought of already, is heat - the battery, board, and LED are all going to produce a lot of heat. The NX-01 is not an optic that is readily available. And, of course, the technicalities of the elements in general on such an open system like what you've got designed.

Personally, I liked the other mini-5W design you had better - personal preference would be that that design get tweaked such that the price can go down for the same production levels you were shooting for. If you can keep that other light around $150-200 I'm fairly sure a lot of people would be interested.

Best of luck to you on whatever project you choose to run with though - you've got some interesting ideas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

-Enrique

 

[greg_in_canada]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

It's not clear to me how the heat from the LED
is transfered to the body. Unless the LED is mounted
on a thick heatspreader (say 1/4 inch) I don't see
how the extra surface area of the body helps.

Thanks - Greg

 

[xpitxbullx]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

My hand is my best heatsink. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[McGizmo]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

[ QUOTE ]
Here only the negative contact is exposed to the water..

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, I am going to get in trouble with the EE's here but this isn't really true is it? Don't you have the - of the battery and then the housing has the potential of + through the converter? I suggest that if you were to sit that fellow in a glass of salt water that you could possibly watch some bubbles and activity between the battery and the tail of the light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

I believe you have an anode and cathode exposed there. I would guess that you wouldn't want any metalic pocket lint either. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I didn't realize a mill could cut the filet on the switch ring and then transist to the straight of its attachment beam. Cool!

 

[Dr_Joe]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

First the answers;
1.) Yes
2.) No
3.) Greg beat me to it, but maybe "Gat-Light"
P.S. I think "Reactor" is being used by CMG

I love the copper screws, but man what a pain and potential for loss/damage especially since this is designed to run on rechargeables only ! (better ship with extras !)

Very cool concept ! Surface area is clearly very high compared to a single body tube, but I too am not sure it is going to all work as heat sinking. That said, at the very least the open design will certainly dissipate alot more heat simply through air conduction.

The switch is going to be a bear to get right ! (tensile strength -vs- maleability -vs- durability taking into account the variations in users finger strength) Make your life a little easier, put a little spring loaded piston in the head of your "lollipop" or a screw down contact.

Truly very very cool though ! Count me in for one when it's all sorted out. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/goodjob.gif

 

[mobile1]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Ok I think it's time to address a couple of things with more renderings.
cathode/anode exposure issue I rendered this section cut with contours.

The way the light works is that the screws in the back push the battery towards the ORing. Which seals off the positive battery contact. The same thing is done for the front. Where the screws create pressure and press the optics against another ORing. So the water sealed zone is created between optics and battery. This only leaves the cathode exposed. Then the (-Negative) connects to the driver through the fuel rods. The positive battery contact is connected to the driver the o-ring sealed area. A normal flashlight conects the cathode through the housing to the driver as well. So I don't see much of a difference. However I am not an EE. Now if this would be a problem. I would simply move the switch somewhere else and add an extra ORing in the back, to seal off the cathode. However it doesnt make sense to me that the cathode needs to be sealed off. By the way the sandwich contact will have a spring soldered to the contact (spring is not represented in the renderings - Haven't figured out yet how to do a spring).

heatsinking Ok another rendering where you can see the center section which houses the sandwich (with emitter and driver)to answer that one.

Well we have several parts that create heat. First the battery. Since the battery is exposed, there will be excellent heatsinking for the battery - battery is a heatsink itself. Then the driver is inside a sandwich case (green right now in the first picture), while the emitter is on top of the sandwich case. So their heat gets transfered to a copper sandwich case (green in the first picture - to represent dimensions), which then transfers the heat straight to the middle part. The "fuel rods" of the middle section then heatsink and conduct the heat through the copper screws to the bottom and the top part which both have another set of "fuel rods" for heatsinking.

Wear of the mechanical switch. The distance between battery and switch contact is very thin (about 1mm). Even though the renderings make the light look big. It is a really tiny light - just look at the picture above with the AA battery comparision. So there isn't really so much bending going on with only 1mm play. I have a Laser Pointer which has the same mechanism but about 3mm to bend - and it works just fine. The spring loaded piston is a good idea, thanks Dr. Joe!!! Need to look into that.

 

[Kiessling]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

People are getting runtimes os about 25 minutes with a R123 and a LuxIII driven at 1000mA, and I doubt you'll get the same runtimes with a LuxV ant spec.

The SF L4 is slightly underdriven at about 660mA and a larger light that still has heat problems. Since you are removing trhe human hand and liquid cooling system (blood) from the heatsinking process I doubt your light will do better. And I also doubt you will getr 120lm out the front end, especially when using an optic.

Length tolerance ... as I interpret your renderings, the light relys on pressure from the back to the middle and from the front to the middle to make a proper seal via compressed o-rings, and that just sounds less sure than o-rings lying between a tailcap and a battery tube ...

bernhard

 

[Endeavour]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

The big difference between your light and a normal light isn't that there's a charge on the body, but that the switch is exposed to water between the negative end of the battery and the body's contact.

The problem is in the design, that allows water to get into places where it shouldn't be. In normal lights the battery is sealed from moisture, in yours it isn't, and it will rust if exposed to water and current.

 

[Amorphous]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Mobile1,

That is beautiful from an industrial design perspective, reminds me of VW when it first introduced the new Bug! Anyway, there are few suggestions:

1) If you make a very thin stainless/ tube encasing the battery, and placed it inside all the external rods, it will be just as cool. ( Play with color contrast.. example gold inner tube with silver external rods, or Red tube with silver external rod. ) This will take care of the corrosion factor and still keeping the cool Gattling gun look.

2) Keep the screws, but create another separate battery cap that screw into the inner metal tube mentioned above.

3) NX01 I think uses the total internal reflection concept to focus all light internally and out through the front. Now, if this is exposed to water, the water has a different Index of Refraction compared to Air, and it will "Index Matching" and this change of Plastic/Air interface to Plastic/Water interface which can altered the index and lead to the lost of the "Total Internal Reflection" property. Light will be dispersed and spilled into the water from the side of the optic.

4) If environmental elements such as sand or salt water causing corrosion leading the rupture of the battery.. Then one needs to consider the chemical leaking out into the user's hand.

 

[greg_in_canada]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

I am an EE and I will say that when the light is off
the contact of the push button will be roughly at a
battery voltage (if you measure with a high impedance
meter) and the battery bottom is at 0 volts. So if it's
submerged in water there will be a current flowing and
thus galvanic corrosion. So your idea of sealing the back
and using another o-ring is best.

When wet from rain, as long as there is no raindrop between
the contact and the battery bottom you likely would be
okay.

Greg

 

[mobile1]

Re: Introducing: The Flashlight Reinvented (Design

Endeavor, Greg & AmorphousThanks for both of your feedback. So corrosion happens when there is a contact, but not when there is just current. Now wouldn't the encasing have the same problem as the battery. There would still be a contact. The only way to have no -exposed- contact would then be to remove the switch in the back, use an extra Oring to seal the negative contact with the pressure from the screws.
Thanks for explaining the NX01 principle. Makes sense. I'll do a test and see what happens. However the light is not supposed to be a diving light, so I wouldn't care so much if there is a huge amount of sidespill under water.
Greg Thanks for explaining and the O-Ring evaluation

Endeavor/Greg: What if I would use a gold plating or chrome satin plating. They both have excellent corosion resistance. Do you think this would solve the problem?
Gold plating the entire thing would create quite a different - quite fascinating look (See rendering

I would have to see how the switch could be redesigned to use an extra ORing. Also I am interested to see the underwater reaction of the NX01. Thanks again to everyone for pointing these two issues out.



Kiesling Well the human hand is part of the cooling process in this light as well. Why a compressed ORing is less sure then one between two parts I don't understand. At the end you design it so that the ORing is compressed by 30% for optimum results. Whether its between to tubes, or as a compression like here doesn't make a difference. And well the output is a regulated 5W driven at 700mA and an NX01, that's what I can guarantee. Whether this is 120Lu (what Lumileds claims) or more (with a W-Bin) or less, I don't know. However this light will have much less problems with heatsinking then the SF - at the end it's geometry. Heatsink area here is more then twice as large. Regarding runtime. Well 3.6V, 700mA and a 7.2V LED. deduct 15% driver loss. Should be about 25+min. George is doing some runtime tests so, I can tell more when he is done with those.