9 Amp PT-54 Phlatlight Maglite Mod!

[jayrob]

Phlatlight at 9 Amps with focus!

Edit: I originally showed this build just as a project, because I figured that not many would really want to go with the expensive driver that I used...

But with a few people asking, I do have a price breakdown of the complete build with parts, etc...

Just send me a PM!






Some tips for DIY:

The tricky part is fitting that huge driver and making sure there is no contact to the heatsink from any of the components near the outside of the driver board.

Sizing the emitter. I got it as small as I could, but still had to machine the reflector hole larger so that the emitter can fit into the reflector for focusing.

Getting the emmiter centered and sized perfectly also needs to be done carefully. I thermal glued it first (after clipping the corners so I could center it), then used a tiny belt sander after it was attached to my heatsink with Arctic Silver thermal adhesive. (3/8" belt sander)

Also, the emitter base is case positive. So you need to use a 'thick enough' layer of thermal adhesive, and then test with your DMM to make sure that it is electrically isolated from the heatsink...

This build looks easy in the pictures, but it barely fits the batteries with the tail cap mod and correct size switch. And it also is a very tight build using the largest heatsink I could fit inside. So it's a little trickier than it looks. I just don't want you to go into this blind... (pun intended)

P.S. I have Feilong 6000mAh 32650 Li-Ion cells available! These fit a 2D Maglite without a tail cap modification. Just an easy spring mod to shorten the spring length.






Details of the build:



I wanted to see what this red LED from a C***o projector would look like at about 9 Amps... (now green too! - see below)

So I used a Maglite host so that I could have 2 X 32650 protected cells to give me a little run time, and enough room for a good size heatsink for it.






Key features for both builds:

* Red Phlatlight LED (you can find the green PT-54 emitter there as well)
* 9 Amp buck driver This buck driver requires a minimum input voltage of 6 Volts. So using 2 X non-protected Li-Ions is fine... (this driver is huge - 26mm diameter!)
* Aluminum reflector
* Borofloat glass lens to handle the heat
* Focus-able
* Largest heatsink I could fit
* 2 X 32650 protected Li-Ion batteries (these ones are the exact same length as the ones shown in this thread - 70mm)
However, I recommend non-protected for the green (or blue) build. (see green build below)
I have Feilong 6000mAh 32650's here!

PT-54 data sheet:
Phlatlight PT-54 Product Data Sheet







Here are some pictures of the two builds, and some beam shots as well!






Driver, heatsink, reflector:











Switch and tail cap:

In order to fit my 32650 protected cells, I had to use the style switch shown in the pictures, as well as machine the tail cap as shown...










Beam shots:





As you can see, this bad boy is bright at 9 Amps!

Has good throw as well!

The camera doesn't show it, but you can see the red beam in the night sky!







Current measurements:

I tested the driver and measured the current at the LED. It is putting out 8.9 Amps to the LED with the 2 Li-Ion 32650's shown...

Battery current measured at the tail from the two cells in series was 3.8 Amps. (estimated run time - 1.4 hours)

So I do believe this high dollar buck driver is very efficient just as the specs say it is!

Driver data sheet:
http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de//data...werBuck_DS.pdf

I tested it with just a 5 minute run for now, and was pleasantly surprised that it was only warm. No where near hot. Or even what I would call 'very warm'. Just warm...








Green build:


Same set up as the red build, just using the green PT-54 emitter instead...

For the green build (or a blue as well), I recommend Feilong 6000mAh 32650's. (The best IMO) The green or blue (higher voltage) emitter builds will demand a lot more current, and the protection circuit on the protected cells will limit the current needed.


Since the driver requires a minimum of 6 volts, I believe it's fairly safe even with non-protected cells. But it's a good idea to check voltage once in a while to be sure...









Current draw:

The current to the emitter is the same as with the red. (8.9 Amps)

But the current draw from the 2 X 32650's in series, is more with the green build. Because of the higher voltage demand from the green emitter vs the red...

The voltage demand (per the data sheet) for the green PT-54 is 4.9 vs 2.6 for the red. (I measured 4.3 for the Green PT-54, and 2.2 for the red)

My battery current draw on this Green PT-54 build is 6.7 Amps vs 3.8 Amps for the Red PT-54. And of course that means it gets warmer too...

But it will still be fairly close to an hour of run time.

But the brightness and visibility blows away the red! According to the data sheet, the Green PT-54 will be about 1000 lumens at this current. (vs about 450 lumens for the red)

450 lumens of red is blinding. 1000 lumens of green is staggering!







Beam shots!





Pretty cool!

Hope you like it!







This same set up would make a pretty nice SST-90 build...

But I opted for a voltage monitor, more run time, and 3 modes with my XM-L T6 build instead... (linked below)

Check out my 1000 lumen XM-L T6 Maglite build if you haven't already seen it!
FS: 1000 Lumen XM-L T6 Maglite Mod With Voltage Monitor - Parts, or Complete Light!