Finally finished: Aspheric SST-90 3D Mag-Lite

samotronta05

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
12
Location
Germany(NRW)
I have finally finished my aspheric SST-90 Mag-Lite, but let's start at the beginnig of the story.

Everything started back in summer 2009, dyson72 and me finished our first homemade mod, a minimag with a direct driven ssc-p4. It was quiet bright, but not bright enough, so we decided to go for the ssc-p7, which was the brightest affordable led at that time.

But then problem begann to start...,
what batteries should we use?,
how do we regulate the current?,
and finally how do we mount the p7?

Last things first, dyson72 as professional lathe and milling machine operator was like, "ahh that shouldn't be that hard, i can lathe something tomorrow. We just need to messure a few...". Anyway he kept his word and the next day we had some nice ssc-p7 heatsinks.

So i had to keep on working on the power supplying part of the flashlight. First fo all i decided to use A123 batteries, because they are a lot safer than the "China Lithiums" and i already made bad experiences with exploding batteries. Since the voltage von three a123 batteries is around 11 volts i had to design a buck driver for the led.

Buck driver? "Can't be too difficult!", now more than two years later i realise how wrong i was. The first three attempts went up in the magic blue smoke on ignition. The fourth one worked, but i wasn't quiet happy with it. It wasn't a led buck driver, but more of a constant voltage buck regulator with a linear current regulator. But finally after nearly one year was gone i had a working ssc-p7 flashlight.

A few month later the SST-90 was annouced, so we bought some, since they were the ideal led for a high power aspheric build with the single chip emitter. So again dyson72 made some lovely heatsinks for us within a few days, while i almost spent a year creating a driver. The driver i created in that time was capable of 9 amps in theory.
But guess what happend?

No, you're wrong. No blue smoke, but it became nearly 100°C in less than a minute, so way to hot to use inside a flashlight. So i had to begin from scratch building a 9 amp buck driver.
Since i'm not an electrical engineer it ended in endless hours of reading datasheets and explanations.
As a few of you, who also tried to build a driver from scratch, may have found out, it is one thing to know how it works, but another thing building one. Finding the right components and dimension them right is quiet difficult.

In October 2010 finally the sst-90 buck driver was finished. The first time i fired it up it was like "Ouch, thats bright".
bau2.JPG

After a few test i had the confirmation that this was the first real and complet success, here are the specs ans measured thing of the driver:

- input voltage 8-16V
- output current 9A
- switching frequency 500kHz
- efficiency 84-87% (depending on input voltage)

A few weeks later also the pcb was with the mcu was ready and i could fit everything together. Some little mess-ups in the software and the pcb with the avr mcu later and the final version of the aspheric sst-90 build was complete.
bau1.JPG

bau5.JPG


Some of the features:
- variable dim speed
- 10bit pwm solution
- programable strobe
-flash mode
- overtemperatur shutdown
- voltage indicator using leds in the switch of the Mag-Lite
- all settings are alterable via pc or smartphone

Yes i do know that the last features is a bit over overengineered and but its just a gimmick, since i had some bluetooth modules lying around. You don't belive my, my Mag-Lite has bluetooth?, then check out the video as well.

There was one last problem to solve, we noticed during some outdoor test. The aspheric lense needed a bezel, because otherwise the spread of light blinded you all the time. Since this was a work that fell into dyson72's resort, it was done within a week. So one nice morning he sent me this picture of the lovely black anodized bezels:
bau3.JPG


This, i think, is the right moment to actually thank him for all the nice bezels heatsinks etc. he created for me, the trust he put in me and the time he waited patiently while i messed it up.
So now we come the most important part: Pictures!! : ) I know you're tired reading my german's bad english, so here we go:

bau4.JPG

Modified vs. original switch

fertig1.JPG

The SSC-P7 and SST-90

fertig2.JPG

Aspheric lens form DX

fertig3.JPG

Batterie indicator

fertig4.JPG

The heatsink with mounted SST-90

fertig5.JPG


Best regards
Alexander

Veiled profanity removed.
 
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samotronta05

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
12
Location
Germany(NRW)
Beamshots:
control.JPG

Control

mag-3c_flood.JPG

Mag-Lite 3C "flood"

mag-3c_throw.JPG

Mag-Lite 3C "throw"

lenser_flood.JPG

LED LENSER Hokus Focus "flood"

lenser_throw.JPG

LED LENSER Hokus Focus "throw"

ssc-p7_10.JPG

SSC-P7 at 10%

ssc-p7_100.JPG

SSC-P7 at 100%

sst-90_10.JPG

SST-90 at 10%

sst-90_100.JPG

SST-90 at 100%





control.JPG

Control

mag-3c_flood.JPG

Mag-Lite 3C "flood"

mag-3c_throw.JPG

Mag-Lite 3C "throw"

ssc-p7_10.JPG

SSC-P7 at 10%

ssc-p7_100.JPG

SSC-P7 at 100%

sst-90_10.JPG

SST-90 at 10%

sst-90_100.JPG

SST-90 at 100%



And beacuse i know you all like some more pictures, here are some radom:
random1.JPG


random2.JPG


random3.JPG


random4.JPG


random5.JPG


random6.JPG


random7.JPG


And last but not least the video of the HTC application:
 
Last edited:

Slartibartfast

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Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
38
:bow::bow:
Wow. Homemade driver with bluetooth control from a smartphone? The bar has been raised. That is ubercool.
 

PCC

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
2,326
Location
Sitting' on the dock o' The Bay...
Very nice build.

The bright ring around the edge of the spill (if you can call it that) is probably the result of the reflection of the inside of the heatsink surrounding the LED itself. If you paint/mask it in black then that should go away.
 

Al Combs

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
872
That's a really nice build! Do you plan I selling the regulators? Temperature sensing, continuously variable output, battery indicator, bluetooth, this regulator has it all. I like the LED's for monitoring the battery level.

Somewhere I saw a thread where a guy made his own switch cover to allow the use of LED's in the switch while maintaining water tight integrity. Sorry I didn't save it. Basically he made a two piece mold of the original switch cover from candle wax. When it cooled, he filled it with silicon glue to make a duplicate of the original. I guess a plaster mold would help accelerate the drying process.

Since you mentioned being blinded when downrange from the light. I never personally tried this but thought it was a good idea. If you wet sand just the edge of your DX aspheric with fine emery paper and then paint the edge flat black (like a camera lens), it will help eliminate the "aspheric ring". Also flat black flock paper on the inside of the heatsink will help with the spill that doesn't contribute to the big square. I'm not sure how flock paper will react to the high temperature. Flat black spray paint is almost as effective as flock paper.
 

samotronta05

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
12
Location
Germany(NRW)
Somewhere I saw a thread where a guy made his own switch cover to allow the use of LED's in the switch while maintaining water tight integrity. Sorry I didn't save it. Basically he made a two piece mold of the original switch cover from candle wax.
Actually we also did this, but instead using wax, we made one out of aluminium.
http://twitgoo.com/1s0doy
But since we used 2k silicone to fill the mold, the resulting cap is quiet soft and it's a bit complicated to keep it in place over the switch.
 

Kani

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Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
2
Almost getting sad. Trying to collect knowledge n order to build my own Dive Light with sst-90, but can see it will properly just end up as ridiculous compared to this. It is absolutely fantastic. God job.
 

scraps

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Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
1
absolutely amazing. I was just mucking around trying to find some info to help with selection of a new edc, and i found ?!THIS!? I honestly had no idea people were doing things like this. i think I'm going to have to build my own, would you be willing to help with component selection, schematics, or better yet. just sell me one?

keep up the good work.
 

andersonEE

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Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
96
Location
Erie, PA
This is awesome. I would love to see a build thread on that buck regulator...but would completely understand if you choose not to.
 
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