Am I crazy? Maglite Solitaire xp-g mod, @ 1.3Amps

led-it-be

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Ok, I wanted to do a Solitaire mod, but it seemed to me that doing it the easy way (just removing the lamp and glueing the power led to the alu body and the black plastic part) would not be good for heat dissipation, so I decided to make a small heatsink.
I took a screw, cut it, bore a small hole and ran a wire through it, soldered that wire and a spring to a contact, and glued the contact to the screw. On top of it I glued the xp-g r5 emitter.

Next I bored out the mag and made an appropriate winding for the screw

The last thing I did was fitting a slightly too large DX clicky switch in the tube (used the winding of the original tailcap and sawed the rest off, then made it fit to the switch) by just filing it a little.

HOWEVER, I didn't put a resistor in there! The worst thing is, I didn't forget it, I just didn't want to put one in!

ADVISE: To be on the safe side, always limit current, or the light can go:poof:! What I did is a little risky, but at least I used protected 10440's (Trustfire grey "600mAh"). Ok, the protection circuit is not the best, but it jumps in when I try to short the batt. The actual capacity of these cells is below 300mAh by the way.

I put everything together and this is what came out :eek: :
(optics: white Ledil)


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On very fresh cells I actually measured 1.5Amps+! How is that possible? That's 5C on the cells! And my multimeter isn't faulty. Must be the low Vf of the xp-g?
The protection circuit didn't jump in... definitely not healthy for the batt!


I am only running the light for 20sec max! Otherwise it would get too hot. No angry blue light until now.

1.5Amps would mean 460 lumen!!!! Can't judge if this is true, it is definitely VERY BRIGHT though!
 
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Hill

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nice job on the tailclicky! I've been trying a similar soli mod but was stumped on the tailcap issue. What DX part number is it?
 

Bimmerboy

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Hi there, Led-it-be. Could you please edit your post to put a "carriage return" between the pics? They're joined side by side to make one huge pic going across. Thanks. :)

VERY cool mod, btw! :thumbsup:
 

led-it-be

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Added returns between the pics.

Hill:
It's sku.5588, 11mm is too wide for the soli, I had to cut a little bit of the plastic off around the switch, and for a contact coming out on the side of the switch i cut a square off and bended the contact up under the winding, so the winding makes contact with the body and the switch.

420 Light:
Well, I could run it longer, but I wanted to be safe.. maybe I'll try to leave it on longer.

edit: Thanks for the compliments!

I just ran the light for 4 minutes and still nothing went poof. The brightness began to drop a little after a minute or so but it is still really bright after 4 mins! And if I hold it tight it never goes beyond pretty warm! Jpiie!
 
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ma_sha1

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I like the tail cap cliky!

I've been running 10280 direct drive on Keychain lights a lot,
no issues. But with 10440, I've always used a resistor.
1.5Amp is lot with 10440, do you have a clamp meter? Somes times meter doesn't read current
very accurately, especially on single li-ion low voltage system.
I find that my meter read current ok on 2-Li-ion system, but for 1 li-ion, it was very inaccurate.
 
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led-it-be

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Thank you!
Unfortunately I don't have a clamp meter... but when I measured my single 18650 light with a driver that is supposed to put out 2,5 Amps on high, I measured a steady 2,8 Amps at the tailcap. Adding inefficiencies of the driver, 2,8A seems about right. On the 1A setting I measured 1,1A at the tailcap, so that should be about correct.
 

Illum

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interesting....last I checked the thermal resistance of a galvanized bolt didn't give the appeal for heatsinking, but excellent thinking of using an existing pedestal though:twothumbs
 

led-it-be

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Forgive my ignorance Illum, but how can I distinguish between galvanized and ungalvanized screws? To me the surface of the original screw and a sawed off screw looks the same... I thought it was just steel. Given it is really galvanized, the emitter is still glued to the sawed off piece of the screw, so where the conductivity would be rather bad is between the screw and the body.
But you still made your point, steel only has a thermal conductivity of around 50 W/(m x K)...

It was the most simple solution:grin2:, and way better than the original plastic piece.
 

HarryN

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Nice starter mod - I did something similar for my first - 2 x CR2s in that light, but that was back in the day of Lux Vs.

As far as running the cells at 5C, mostly you just need to consider this in relationship to running a formula 1 car engine in a race - it won't last forever. The cells are slightly damaged each time you charge / discharge them (at any current), so they have a "number of cycles" lifetime.

At 1C, the cycle life is measured in 100s of times.

At 5C, the cycle life is measured in 3 - 10 times.

Its only a problem if you try to imagine that it will be safe to take it much longer that this. If you toss them every 5 cycles, you probably will be ok. When I run Li Ion cells hard, I make a line on them each cycle to track them, and watch them closely while charging them in a non flamable area under exhaust. (example - stove top with fan going)
 
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ahorton

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I too have been wanting to mod a solitaire for a year now!

Now I know that the sku.5588 switch can be made to fit, I will certainly do it with a few minor differences:

I'll have a machined aluminium pedestal (raised so that the emitter sits just under the flat lens). This will give a flood which is what I want.

Resistor driven so that the switch doesn't exceed its 0.5A max.

Thanks for the idea!
 

paulr

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Yes, you are crazy, in just the way we like. So you've absolutely come to the right place. Welcome to CPF, and nice mod! :D
 

nein166

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I've got the same optic you used and now I know a good way to turn it on and off.
The switch mod is brilliant. Which I bought thinking it would fit in a MiniMagAA
Thanks for the guidance in finishing my solitaire light.
I can tell you if you'd like a AAA regulated version the Black Cat AAA lights at DX have a driver that can just fit in a solitaire head but has a much lower drive current. IIRC the Black Cat has an Osram
 

led-it-be

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I'll have a machined aluminium pedestal (raised so that the emitter sits just under the flat lens). This will give a flood which is what I want.

Resistor driven so that the switch doesn't exceed its 0.5A max.

An alu pedestal would be great!

Note that the 0.5A max for the switch is for 36VDC, so on a single liIon you can go well beyond 0.5A. The resistor is still necessery for constant use so you don't hurt your batteries and keep the heat down.
 

Benson

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Note that the 0.5A max for the switch is for 36VDC, so on a single liIon you can go well beyond 0.5A.
Not really. Over-voltage causes arcing issues when you break the circuit, over-current causes overheating/annealing issues when the circuit is running. When you're given a maximum voltage and maximum current rating, you should stay inside both of them. Of course, since over-current is a heating issue, switches can take quite a bit of overcurrent without trouble for short runs -- most 0.5A switches would probably handle the DD 1.5A current just fine in this application, but it's definitely running them outside of manufacturer's spec.

But anything over 3C or so from a 10440 seems a little dangerous to me, so I'd definitely throw in a resistor...
 

ma_sha1

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Just wondering, how does the OP take battery out?

Does it require removal of the cliky?
 

led-it-be

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Yes it does require the removal of the clicky. I know, it's not the best solution but it's quite easy to remove, I just grab the button of the clicky and turn it around.
 

DrEmmettBrown

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This is a very nice mod. I've got a Solitaire that my daughter gave me and I keep it in my laptop case even though I think a paper match can produce almost the same light and useful run time - 'cause my daughter gave it to me and it is a fairly clean design. Your mod adds appropriate function to the Solitaire's form transforming it into the elegant device that it should have been when it came from the factory. And I love the tailswitch.

Is there any reason that threading that plastic DX clicky wouldn't work? Also, was the "shoulder" on that switch body originally large enough in diameter to form a tailcap of sorts? That might make it considerably easier change the battery and, with a little "engineering" it might also be possible to attach a lanyard directly to the new plastic "tailcap".

I've done some plastic and even aluminum, brass and copper "lathe" work by chucking pieces in my drill press and using a file, sandpaper, even some home-made cutting tools etc. to "cut" them down. This approach might work for the clicky.

Very nice work, thanks for sharing that,
AG
 
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