My first modified maglite - 2500 Lumens Goal

[cdrake261]

I'm not going to fin the head as I originally planned, so chance of beam shots tonight pending if curing of arctic adhesive.

[cdrake261]

awesomeness....its pretty bright!

[moderator007]

Waiting to see those beam shots cdrake261.

[cdrake261]

Waiting to see those beam shots cdrake261.

Unfortunately the build took a turn for the worse...one of my cells dropped to 1.35v and my driver won't light up a single xm-l with a 6v power source let alone the triple xm-l and 16.8v

Dead driver and a dead cell? I'm not the happiest camper at the moment.

[The_bad_Frag]

You can try to connect your driver to your car battery. It must light up a single or triple XM-L with that... Maybe you have a broken power supply...

[cdrake261]

good news is that the one cell was tripped...putting it on the charger elevated that. If the driver isnt dead, it probably just shorted out. testing driver with a simple cell/led setup to check functionality now

[cdrake261]

Driver works with simple setup....now just have to remove arctic alumina and reseat driver onto the heatsink... But first I'm going to modify the heat sink to help prevent grounding out the wires that passes through the heatsink

[cdrake261]

Alright...everything tested and everything works!! Phew!! Going to grab me some liquid electrical tape to make sure there's no grounds anywhere....beam shots tonight, unless another failure...

[moderator007]

Glad to hear she's alright. Looking forward to seeing the beam shots. You have put alot of effort it in to this build I was hoping you had not killed it.

[cdrake261]

turned my flashlight on for 5 secs then shut off

[cdrake261]

may have fried the board...caught the slightly frayed positive battery cable shorting out to either a chip or small resistor. This build hasn't gone as planned.

[Mattaus]

may have fried the board...caught the slightly frayed positive battery cable shorting out to either a chip or small resistor. This build hasn't gone as planned.

It's your first modified Maglite - pretty damn impressive attempt working or not. As long as you learn from your mistakes then your onto a winner irrespective of the initial result. Plus I'm sure you'll get it going reliably. Though the added cost of a new driver would suck lol.

[cdrake261]

It's your first modified Maglite - pretty damn impressive attempt working or not. As long as you learn from your mistakes then your onto a winner irrespective of the initial result. Plus I'm sure you'll get it going reliably. Though the added cost of a new driver would suck lol.

Thank you for the kind words... Yes the additional board purchase does make my project a little more expensive, price of experience I guess. I have the new board sitting on my desk. Gotta pay for my finned head and my stainless steel bezel should be on it's way from download. Yep, can't wait!

[cdrake261]

My head came in, gotta grind the old epoxy off the heatsink, get more epoxy, solder up the new driver, and assemble...

Couple pictures...





Good job Jesus Hernandez

[The_bad_Frag]

Nice!

How much % more surface area do you get with this?

[cdrake261]

Nice!

How much % more surface area do you get with this?

A bunch...not sure scienctifically though. I can see how it would make a huge difference and since I'm going for 3k lumens, it can only help.

[moderator007]

Glad to see you are about to get her going again. I just wanted to ask if you had put any thermal paste on the surfaces of where the heatsink contacts the mag. Such as heatsink compound made for cpu's not the epoxy thermal compound. I use Artic silver thermal compound. Without the compound you want get as much heat trasfer to the head so that it can give off the heat. It will for the most part just stay in the heatsink.

[cdrake261]

Glad to see you are about to get her going again. I just wanted to ask if you had put any thermal paste on the surfaces of where the heatsink contacts the mag. Such as heatsink compound made for cpu's not the epoxy thermal compound. I use Artic silver thermal compound. Without the compound you want get as much heat trasfer to the head so that it can give off the heat. It will for the most part just stay in the heatsink.

Thank you...yes, already thought of AS5 in between head and heatsink...tricky as there's about a mm of clearance which can get AS5 on the board if it oozes out.

[cdrake261]

Meh... got the new board wired up, but the light stays on. I checked for continuity and it works as it should, but when I put the batteries in, I'm getting a small voltage across the two lead wires ranging from .0001 to .06 volts and if I unsolder them from the driver and use a paper clip to short the two signal ports, the driver turns on and off as it should. Where could this small voltage leak be coming from?

[The_bad_Frag]

Can you post a pic which show how your driver is mounted on the heatsink?

[cdrake261]

Can you post a pic which show how your driver is mounted on the heatsink?

Driver is currently unmounted, chilling out in the air

[The_bad_Frag]

Did you used a thermal pad to mount it?

[cdrake261]

Did you used a thermal pad to mount it?

Not mounted...normally i use thermal epoxy. I'm almost sure my problem is in the switch as my flashlight works when I disconnect the switch...

[The_bad_Frag]

And how do you prevent all these tiny pins on the back side from shorting out on the heatsink?

[cdrake261]

And how do you prevent all these tiny pins on the back side from shorting out on the heatsink?

The driver isn't touching the heatsink right now...suspended in air at the moment.

[The_bad_Frag]

Yeah I know. But when its on the heatsink how do you know that there is enough epoxy under it that those contacts doesnt come in contact with it?

Hopefully you dont kill another driver because of that.

[Al Combs]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the first board. Perhaps George can repair it? Better than just throwing it away. I like the way you drilled new holes in the heat sink for the LED output wires. It gives a full size mounting surface as well as taking advantage of the H6Flex's ability to monitor temperature. That's a nice solution to a difficult problem. I had imagined using something like an H6Flex by putting a very thin layer of Arctic Alumina epoxy on the back of the board with an old credit card and let it harden. A second layer after light sanding would safely glue it in place without danger of a short. Perhaps like The_bad_Frag said, the Bond-Ply pad that comes with the H6Flex if not as effective might be safer than thermal epoxy.

[cdrake261]

Yeah I know. But when its on the heatsink how do you know that there is enough epoxy under it that those contacts doesnt come in contact with it?

Hopefully you dont kill another driver because of that.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the first board. Perhaps George can repair it? Better than just throwing it away. I like the way you drilled new holes in the heat sink for the LED output wires. It gives a full size mounting surface as well as taking advantage of the H6Flex's ability to monitor temperature. That's a nice solution to a difficult problem. I had imagined using something like an H6Flex by putting a very thin layer of Arctic Alumina epoxy on the back of the board with an old credit card and let it harden. A second layer after light sanding would safely glue it in place without danger of a short. Perhaps like The_bad_Frag said, the Bond-Ply pad that comes with the H6Flex if not as effective might be safer than thermal epoxy.

It wasn't the underside that shorted out on the other board, it was +in that shorted straight to a chip. The driver is useless now as the thermal epoxy from the last driver set, peeled off a layer of the driver and exposing the copper core. I'll sell the driver for $5 plus shipping if anybody want to use any of the good chips on it.

I thought about coating a thin layer of superglue or fingernail polish to the exposed solder and electrical points before thermal epoxying this driver down. But I need to get the switch situated first. Might rebuild the switch to make sure I did it right.

Also, anybody know where to find m2 screws? I lost two of three, they hold the led board down...

[Al Combs]

You should be able to get M2-0.4 at the local hardware store. A good way to make sure it's a regular 0.4mm pitch thread. Home Depot also sells metric screws. But you'll probably have to get a pack of more than you need. Google has a ton of hits on M2's if you don't have any hardware stores nearby.

[cdrake261]

You should be able to get M2-0.4 at the local hardware store. A good way to make sure it's a regular 0.4mm pitch thread. Home Depot also sells metric screws. But you'll probably have to get a pack of more than you need. Google has a ton of hits on M2's if you don't have any hardware stores nearby.

Good to hear that they are common... There's probably 11 big chain hardware stores within 50 miles, not counting all the little ones. I miss the ace hardware store we used to have, awesome hardware nuts and bolts selections!

Anyways, anybody have any ideas on the switch problem? I just need to know where to start looking.