UPDATE: My quickest, smallaest, dodgiest 154W @ bulb HID mod to date

[Morepower!]

All my previous builds and projects are in boxes totally stripped down and I was going out to Dubbo's Western plains zoo where we were going to be taken on night tours for spotlighting. Since I figured they would probably have girly type lights I decided I'd build something for the trip but I only had 1 day to do it as well as pack. So the mod you will see below was constructed from scratch in 5.5hrs(without any performance enhancing drugs either, just adrenaline from the wife carrying on about we have to do all this packing and you are playing with those bloody torches again !), as you will see it shows. However it is capable of ~64W at the bulb on low and now just recently 154W confirmed (input power is 255W) at bulb on high. Efficiency is poor however I have a couple ideas up my sleave that may improve the efficiency. I'ts not focused properly and mainly is give more of a spread than a beam but it is still insane in real life. However when I fired it up after seeing their pathetic old and beat up spotlights I was told it was way too bright, to which I answered but that is on the lowest setting. Oh well, all that work and I didn;t get to use it for what I'd intended it for. I now just need to get the right size battery so I can put the rubber cap on the end which will tidy it up nicely. Anywho below are some of the pics, sorry no beam shot as of yet.

The biggest problem i am having at the moment is I have now cracked both front glass lenses, what do I need to replace them with, tempered glass ? Sorry but I have no clue when it comes to glass.

By using the heat gun I was able to fit the switch and battery

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Double post sorry, but does anyone know if I could just use a certain value resister that will allow me to use those 2 LEDs with a 14.8V batt pack ? If so please do tell, thanks.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Double post sorry, but does anyone know if I could just use a certain value resister that will allow me to use those 2 LEDs with a 14.8V batt pack ? If so please do tell, thanks.

If you know the forward voltage of the LEDs, sure. But consider the range of voltages around that nominal 14.8v.

1: Are they series or parallel?
You can use a 100 ohm resistor and try 1, 2, and 3 AAs. If it still doesn't light, try 4, 5, and 6 AAs. If it still doesn't light, they're broken.
If it lights with 3 AAs, they're wired in parallel and you're looking at something like 3-3.5v forward voltage (call it 3.3v).
If it lights with 6 AAs, it's series, so call it 7v forward voltage. This is the voltage needed to light the LED.

V=IR, and you want low current with little 5mm LEDs (the ones where the LED is encased in epoxy), so plan on 5-15 mA.
I = V/R
V(LED) = Vbatt - Vresistor
Vresistor = I*R

In short,
I = (Vbatt - Vforward) / Resistor. I suggest that you plug in the fresh-charge voltage of the battery pack so that you can't burn out the LEDs. If that's a Li-Ion battery pack, the fresh-charge voltage will be nearly 17v (16.8v or so).

Parallel: 3.3v, (16.8 - 3.3) / 400 ohms = .034A, split between the LEDs for about 17 mA each.
Series: 6.6v, (16.8 - 6.6) / 700 ohms = 0.015A through the string.

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Hey thanks for the very informative post. I'm sure i pulled a 6v SLA out of this host. I hooked the LEDs up to a lab PSU I have and found they came alive at around 6.5V and drew 0.02A. The PCB they are attached to is glued in place so I can't tell if they are in series or parallel. And yes fully charged the lith pack is over 16V. So what value resister do you think I should use ? Also do you mean just put one of those say 1/4W resistors on the positive lead going into the LEDs ? Thanks again for your help so far. Sorry for the stupid questions but to replace the LEDs if I f@#k them up would be a nightmare so I'm hoping to get it right the first time.

 

[2100]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

No s***, care to point me to the place for the ballast where you can get 122W at the bulb? The black finned ones are ~ 85W to the bulb on average (BVH has a nice copy which does 110+ watts). I have some fat boy style 100W bulbs to make use of. They are quite floody, arc length is like 6-7mm. But heck they do light up large swaths of 100-200m ranges like nobody's business. Or is yours Hella, I have only seen one aliexpress store selling these silver OEM non-shiny ballasts.

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

No s***, care to point me to the place for the ballast where you can get 122W at the bulb? The black finned ones are ~ 85W to the bulb on average (BVH has a nice copy which does 110+ watts). I have some fat boy style 100W bulbs to make use of. They are quite floody, arc length is like 6-7mm. But heck they do light up large swaths of 100-200m ranges like nobody's business. Or is yours Hella, I have only seen one aliexpress store selling these silver OEM non-shiny ballasts.

I modded that one to run that sort of wattage, I can actually get +140W at the bulb with that ballast but it would then need active cooling. And of course at some point I would end up blowing it up. I made a thread alond time ago about how to mod that particular ballast but I have been abscent due to health reasons, etc. I will see if I can find it and link you up with it.

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Here it is http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...uot-55W-quot-Ballast-to-get-an-extra-18W-Bulb

 

[2100]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Thanks.... Oh those ballasts are the common Made In China stuff. I was referring to another type which is totally matt (almost ugly) in surface. Yes pot modding is a good way of turning the power up. Actually I suspect those latest 65W Ebay type of generic alu tube HID flashlight are also pot/resistance modded from the 50W. Limiting factor is only the batt pack and heat dissipation. Those are good only if you definitely have to use a toilet plunger style of lights, or a more difffused light source.
Think your Zoo trip would be more useful with that, coz you can vary the focusing distance. These plastic lantern throwers are not useful for anything less than 50m, eyes will hurt.

I'll have a go, nice pictures there. I've got 4 spare ballasts to play, 1 x 35W, 1 x 55W and 2x 75W. (last 2 are a KIT which I purchased by mistake...but hey at 72 bucks for the kit shipped I can't complain, coz I never though the YAO/Mule 35/80W internal cavity would be able to swallow a 100W black finned ballasts, apparently it can!). I will see if the Amodotech would be able to swallow the regular sized black finned ballast.

 

[2100]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Read your whole thread, wow...hidworld sells HID kits for quite a high price. You can get a ultra slim 55W kit with a pair of bulbs for just usd$60 or so shipped from aliexpress, slightly less if you can accept regular sized ballasts. And if you are buying a pair of bulbs, some sellers are nice enough to let you mix and match the pair, ie 1 3000K and the other 6000K. Anyway, my 35W, 55W and 75W are all different sizes.

 

[JulianP]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

I was going out to Dubbo's Western plains zoo where we were going to be taken on night tours for spotlighting. Since I figured they would probably have girly type lights I decided I'd build something for the trip

I love it.
About thirty years ago, when I was a medical student, I modded my penlight. We were taken to ER by the neurologist, to examine someone with a migraine, in a dark room. He asked me for my penlight, to check pupillary reflexes. The result was a very unhappy patient, an angry neurologist and an entry about my Retinoblaster in the year book.:devil:

 

[2100]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Julian, we now have the Xeno E03 sub 100mm long light and 20mm dia, running off AA size 14500, nearly 500 emitter lumens initially even after factoring driver efficiency, courtesy of XM-L @ 1.5A.
And under 30 bucks.

 

[2filthy3]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Nice build, especially considering the rush.
Check out THIS site, for calculating parameters for creating super simple Zener voltages regulators, that can function over small range of input voltages.

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

Nice build, especially considering the rush.
Check out THIS site, for calculating parameters for creating super simple Zener voltages regulators, that can function over small range of input voltages.

Thanks, looks like a good site to work it out. Also where's the best place now to buy protected lith batt packs from in OZ. I had a bit of a look around but everything seem to be unprotected which I don't like.

.

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

UPDATE: I have put the ballast I was going to blow up onto this mod after working out what was wrong with it and modding it some more. On high the battery can't cope, but when run with a PSU i'm getting an input power of ~263W on the high setting. If you conservatively worked on 75% efficiencey that should equate to ~195W at the bulb, he, he.

EDIT : No advice on what glass to use so I don't keep cracking the lenses ??

 

[2100]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

EDIT : No advice on what glass to use so I don't keep cracking the lenses ??

I put some aluminum foil on the back of the bulb and its already smoking by the 3rd minute, with about 80-85W to the bulb or basically 98W to the ballast.

 

[bstrickler]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

I love it.
About thirty years ago, when I was a medical student, I modded my penlight. We were taken to ER by the neurologist, to examine someone with a migraine, in a dark room. He asked me for my penlight, to check pupillary reflexes. The result was a very unhappy patient, an angry neurologist and an entry about my Retinoblaster in the year book.:devil:

Hey, at least you know they're not blind now (or are now blind), right?!

I guess there is such a thing as too bright

~Brian

 

[Morepower!]

Re: My quickest, dodgiest 120W mod to date

I recall a while back that 100w bulbs in H4, etc, where available(though I need H3). How did they work out ? are they still going strong whithout issues and/or not just getting eaten up, and what temp polours did they come in, prices, links ? Many thanks. BTW the ballast I was going to blow up will be pushed to it's limit slowly bit by bit to see what would the highest power level I'm able to run other one at consistantly.

EDIT: BTW I forgot I had a mate in the glass industry and he is cutting me out some new lenses the running them through a furnace to temper them. He assures me they will not crack.