The_bad_Frag
Enlightened
Yeah I finaly finished THE perfect flashlight for me. Not the cheapest one but its exactly how I want it. :twothumbs
Features:
3xXM-L neutral white LEDs running @3A with ~2500 ledlumen
Overheating protection kicks in at 65° heatsink temperature and limits the output to 50%, at 70°C it limits to 25% output, at 100°C it turns off
Voltage monitor shows green, red and blinking red - it turns the XM-Ls off before the cells getting damaged
2 illuminated buttons for stepless dimming 0-100%
Saves the last brightness
USB programmable to configure the overheating protection, the dimming speed and the voltage monitor
Runtime ~1 hour at full power on 12 black eneloops
Here is the complete build log. :wave: Feel free to ask qusetions about anything you wanna know or some translations of the german manuals. All measurements are Millimeter(mm)! 1" = 25,4mm
Parts List:
1: O-Ring from DW triple kit
2: Reflectors from DW triple kit
3: Heatsink from DW triple kit
4: Mag 4 D
5: Triple XM-L T5 star from DW triple kit
6: Mirco 2800mA driver @3A mod
7: LED Stripe V3 PWM Dimmer (build-in voltage monitor, overheating protection)
8: Thermal pads for mounting the driver
9: SMD sense resistor for mod the driver to 3A (the shop sends them for free when you buy a micro 2800mA)
10: red and green illuminated buttons for 0-100% dim
11: Some ordinary resistor for the leds in the buttons (depends on your battery setup and the brightness of the buttons you wanna have, max 20mA)
12: 2 color led for battery status
13: 10k-ohm potentiometer (not in use)
14: USB TTL-RS232 module for programming the LED Stripe (yes I got a different module but mine is now out of stock)
15: temperature sensors I will use only 1 of them
Heatsink for the driver.
Temperature sensor installed.
Apply some Arctic Silver 5. Less is better! On the complete star is as much thermal paste as 1/20 of a waterdrop. The best way to get the thermal paste smooth and without gaps is to wrap your finger in clear plastic foil that you normaly use for food.
Make sure you tighten the star really good for better thermal contact. If you dont wanna vaporise your drop-in into metal steam... ...dont use a 670Nm impact wrench.
LED star installed.
3A driver mod. The smd component with "1R00" is the sense resistor that needs to be soldered in paralell with the other sense resistor. I soldered it right on top. Actually this was my FIRST smd soldering. OMG THOSE THINGS ARE DAMN SMALL!
Then the 0-ohm resistor on the driver needs to be removed too to activate the pwm mode.
There was the 0-ohm resistor that needs to be removed to activate PWM mode. Somehow I cant get the camera focused on it. :mecry:
0-ohm resistor on a Eneloop AAA
The hole in the middle has no purpose. I only made it for better machining on the lathe. There need to be some holes for the 4 cables going through and it needs to be screwed to the heatsink.
The driver will sit somewhere like this on the headsink.
Length of the DW heatsink.
Top of Mag body to switch.
Outside diameter of the DW heatsink.
Inside diameter of the DW heatsink.
Inside depth of the DW heatsink.
Thermal pad on the back of the driver.
Temperature sensor + and - soldered to battery + and - on the driver. This saves 2 cables going to the mag switch and through the driver heatsink. And of course a little of Arctic Silver 5 between led heatsink and driver heatsink.
Now the head is done. Something went horribly wrong with the holes for the screws for the driver heatsink. I dont know what happend...:shakehead They were so close to the edge that I had to file the heads down on each screw. The screw for the driver fits fine.
The hole for the battery monitor led must not be centered! Bore it slightly of center to get a lot easier installation in the final assembly.
The dimmer connected to the USB TTL-RS232 module. There is no space for it inside the mag.
Before you connect the USB TTL-RS232 module make sure you have NO OTHER POWER OR LOAD connected to the dimmer and ALL 4 MICRO SWITCHES are in position "0".
Ask me if you are not sure about the connection and how to program it.
All cables connected to the buttons. It is a lot easier when you choose very inflexible cables.
Some testing...
Yes this is a wood stick screwed to the dimmer. You can do that better... ...the dimmer just needs to be held inside the mag tube.
Bridge B1 which you can see at the left side needs to be closed to set the dimmer from 200Hz to 2000Hz. Switch 2 and 4 need to be on "1" to activate the battery monitor and the overheating protection.
There need to be a small tube around the button that its not getting pressed by the heatsink when inside the mag.
These are automotive connectors used by Mercedes-Benz. If you want I can look up the Mercedes part numbers that you can buy them at your Mercedes-Benz dealership.
The "#" numbers are the same as in the manual of the dimmer module.
#2 - Temp. Sensor
#4 - GND
#5 - Vcc (+)
#12 - Taster #2
#13 - Taster #3
#14 - PWM
1 - +Vs
2 - GND
3 - Vout
4 - Led (+)
5 - Led (-)
6 - PWM
7 - V (+)
8 - GND
9 - A (Led+)
10 - button -
11 - button +
12 - K (Led-)
13 - button -
14 - K (Led-)
15 - button +
16 - A (Led+)
Beamshots + Video:
Video download here (I wanted to upload it to Youtube but Goggle wants my phone number to reactivate or create a new account. Screw you Google you never get any personal information from me! :nana: )
The camera just dont gets it how it looks to the eye. I did my best to set the camera in a way that you can still compare the shots and it looks very close to reality
Triple XM-L Mag: (high - very low)
Energizer XM-L mod: (high - med - low)
Wolf-Eyes Krait R5: [flood](high - not so high - med - low) (low is much too dark on the pic...)
Fenix LD01: (high - med - low)
Features:
3xXM-L neutral white LEDs running @3A with ~2500 ledlumen
Overheating protection kicks in at 65° heatsink temperature and limits the output to 50%, at 70°C it limits to 25% output, at 100°C it turns off
Voltage monitor shows green, red and blinking red - it turns the XM-Ls off before the cells getting damaged
2 illuminated buttons for stepless dimming 0-100%
Saves the last brightness
USB programmable to configure the overheating protection, the dimming speed and the voltage monitor
Runtime ~1 hour at full power on 12 black eneloops
Here is the complete build log. :wave: Feel free to ask qusetions about anything you wanna know or some translations of the german manuals. All measurements are Millimeter(mm)! 1" = 25,4mm
Parts List:
1: O-Ring from DW triple kit
2: Reflectors from DW triple kit
3: Heatsink from DW triple kit
4: Mag 4 D
5: Triple XM-L T5 star from DW triple kit
6: Mirco 2800mA driver @3A mod
7: LED Stripe V3 PWM Dimmer (build-in voltage monitor, overheating protection)
8: Thermal pads for mounting the driver
9: SMD sense resistor for mod the driver to 3A (the shop sends them for free when you buy a micro 2800mA)
10: red and green illuminated buttons for 0-100% dim
11: Some ordinary resistor for the leds in the buttons (depends on your battery setup and the brightness of the buttons you wanna have, max 20mA)
12: 2 color led for battery status
13: 10k-ohm potentiometer (not in use)
14: USB TTL-RS232 module for programming the LED Stripe (yes I got a different module but mine is now out of stock)
15: temperature sensors I will use only 1 of them
Heatsink for the driver.
Temperature sensor installed.
Apply some Arctic Silver 5. Less is better! On the complete star is as much thermal paste as 1/20 of a waterdrop. The best way to get the thermal paste smooth and without gaps is to wrap your finger in clear plastic foil that you normaly use for food.
Make sure you tighten the star really good for better thermal contact. If you dont wanna vaporise your drop-in into metal steam... ...dont use a 670Nm impact wrench.
LED star installed.
3A driver mod. The smd component with "1R00" is the sense resistor that needs to be soldered in paralell with the other sense resistor. I soldered it right on top. Actually this was my FIRST smd soldering. OMG THOSE THINGS ARE DAMN SMALL!
Then the 0-ohm resistor on the driver needs to be removed too to activate the pwm mode.
There was the 0-ohm resistor that needs to be removed to activate PWM mode. Somehow I cant get the camera focused on it. :mecry:
0-ohm resistor on a Eneloop AAA
The hole in the middle has no purpose. I only made it for better machining on the lathe. There need to be some holes for the 4 cables going through and it needs to be screwed to the heatsink.
The driver will sit somewhere like this on the headsink.
Length of the DW heatsink.
Top of Mag body to switch.
Outside diameter of the DW heatsink.
Inside diameter of the DW heatsink.
Inside depth of the DW heatsink.
Thermal pad on the back of the driver.
Temperature sensor + and - soldered to battery + and - on the driver. This saves 2 cables going to the mag switch and through the driver heatsink. And of course a little of Arctic Silver 5 between led heatsink and driver heatsink.
Now the head is done. Something went horribly wrong with the holes for the screws for the driver heatsink. I dont know what happend...:shakehead They were so close to the edge that I had to file the heads down on each screw. The screw for the driver fits fine.
The hole for the battery monitor led must not be centered! Bore it slightly of center to get a lot easier installation in the final assembly.
The dimmer connected to the USB TTL-RS232 module. There is no space for it inside the mag.
Before you connect the USB TTL-RS232 module make sure you have NO OTHER POWER OR LOAD connected to the dimmer and ALL 4 MICRO SWITCHES are in position "0".
Ask me if you are not sure about the connection and how to program it.
All cables connected to the buttons. It is a lot easier when you choose very inflexible cables.
Some testing...
Yes this is a wood stick screwed to the dimmer. You can do that better... ...the dimmer just needs to be held inside the mag tube.
Bridge B1 which you can see at the left side needs to be closed to set the dimmer from 200Hz to 2000Hz. Switch 2 and 4 need to be on "1" to activate the battery monitor and the overheating protection.
There need to be a small tube around the button that its not getting pressed by the heatsink when inside the mag.
These are automotive connectors used by Mercedes-Benz. If you want I can look up the Mercedes part numbers that you can buy them at your Mercedes-Benz dealership.
The "#" numbers are the same as in the manual of the dimmer module.
#2 - Temp. Sensor
#4 - GND
#5 - Vcc (+)
#12 - Taster #2
#13 - Taster #3
#14 - PWM
1 - +Vs
2 - GND
3 - Vout
4 - Led (+)
5 - Led (-)
6 - PWM
7 - V (+)
8 - GND
9 - A (Led+)
10 - button -
11 - button +
12 - K (Led-)
13 - button -
14 - K (Led-)
15 - button +
16 - A (Led+)
Beamshots + Video:
Video download here (I wanted to upload it to Youtube but Goggle wants my phone number to reactivate or create a new account. Screw you Google you never get any personal information from me! :nana: )
The camera just dont gets it how it looks to the eye. I did my best to set the camera in a way that you can still compare the shots and it looks very close to reality
Triple XM-L Mag: (high - very low)
Energizer XM-L mod: (high - med - low)
Wolf-Eyes Krait R5: [flood](high - not so high - med - low) (low is much too dark on the pic...)
Fenix LD01: (high - med - low)
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