DTR
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 5
Since I have not posted on this forum yet and need three posts to get full access. I thought I might post a review that I did on LPF for a laser I built.
First I will introduce myself I am DTR from St. Louis and I am fairly new to the laser/flashlight hobby. But in my short time I have learned a lot. I have built quite a few lasers and own a couple of high powered flashlights.
If you would like to see all the projects that I have done CLICK HERE http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/my-18560-jayrob-445nm-burn-video-pics-52842.html#post738061
Anyway here is my review and build tutorial.
Alright folks here is my newest addition. It is the Ultrafire RL-2088 1300 lumen flashlight. Ordered from Lighthound but they no longer have them in stock. You can however still find them on Ebay and DX.
It runs off of 3X18650's, has a great look and feels amazing to hold.
Here is the battery holder for the 3 18650's. I am also currently looking for anybody who makes these or knows where I could get an origonal replacment. I sent several emails over the last two months to Ultrafire telling them I broke mine and wanted to know where I could get a replacement NO RESPONSE
.
It has an awesome large clicky with great action on the back.
Comes with this giant belt holster.
Here is a size comparison with my SS 10440 host.
Here is a comparison with a root beer can.
It really does feel great holding this beast.
I decided to tear it down and see what all the components of this unit were.
Here are some beamshots.
And here is a comparison to my P7
RL-2088 on the left and P7 on the right.(opposite of the last picture)
It is really not that much brighter than my P7.
It does have a cooler color to the light tho. I was hopeful that this unit would throw a little better but it is as much of a flood as the P7 is.
Ok so this thing is not impressing me much as I had hoped it would so I guess it is time to go in another direction.:thinking:
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I contacted Jayrob from LPF and he said he would make a heatsink for me and I sent it off to him.
He kept me up to date as he was working on it.
Here's how the modifications were done. Excellent work by the way. Jay is certainly a master at his craft.
He contacted me all worried that he would need to damage the reflector to get it out because it was glued heavily into the head. And he wanted to give me a chance to change my mind because there would be no going back. I told him he could bash it with a hammer if it made it look good.
Next step was to remove the old driver from the head.
Then he drilled out the pill and made these nice little indentures so I could use to unscrew it. I kind of feel bad I did not even use it in the final build.
Again I feel bad because he modded the battery holder for 3X18650 in parallel that would give some amazing runtimes. And I ended up going with them in series.
He machined the head out and made this beautiful heatsking that is so massive that if you don't see it in person you don't fully comprehend how much mass it has. It might as well be a labby heatsink without the fins. It is fit for a 1/2in copper module.(I love overkill:devil
He gave an awesome mirror finish to the face of the heatsink. Just amazing work.
After that he packaged it up and sent it back to me. Thanks Jay.:twothumbs
Two days later I got it in the mail. First thing I did is put in the module and lens with no diode just to get a picture of what it looks like. I was so excited. This is the best part of this hobby. Figuring out how to make something that you have not worked on before is a great thrill.
Talk about
I opted to go for a copper module in this unit.
I spent a lot of time debating what driver setup I would use. I was going to use two Flexdrives in parallel but I decided to go with the Flexmod P3 from the good Dr. for this build. It is something that you don't see in portables and thought it would add a bit of a unique touch to this build. It is a linear driver that can give an output of up to 2A.
The P3 fits in the host nice an snug. The picture is out of focus and did not notice until i got to a point that I did not want to go back to get a better one but you can see how it will fit.
I have taken the driver heatsink and extended it so it can be attached to the bottom of the host heatsink. I used three strands for each pin with the pyro wire that can handle 5A. When tested it did not get hot so I think that it is OK.
Here is the driver. Since the primary use of this driver is for lab units and projectors I used a LM3805 on a second line in from the battery which drops the voltage to make a 5v signal wire to the modulation input that turns the unit on to full power all the time. There is very little current drawn from the Modulation input it should not need any heatsinking on the LM3805. I ran a wire from the positive in to the interlock to keep it on and I also disabled the 7 second delayed start by soldering two of the pads together on the driver.
I then soldered the diode to the wires.
I am going to bond the drive sink with the host sink(see yellow circles) with thermal epoxy.
If you look to the left of the yellow star I tried to start a hole with my Dewalt drill but that was not going to happen. I guess just thermal adhesive will be good enough.
Here it is. I have set it to 1.6A. Since it is a linear driver you can see an accurate current reading on the power supply. I will also be using the 3X18650 Lifepo4 high discharge batteries in series. It needs to be over 6V so three of these batteries are 3.2V(3.6V fully charged) each and in series will be will be between 10 to 11V.
The seller of these Lifepo4 says the battery elements have a 17A discharge rate. Should be enough.:devil:
Runtimes between charging will be shorter but they charge very quickly and have a lower voltage that means less heat generated by the driver.
So I charged them up. Check out the charging setup. They require a special charger that can handle batteries that have a low internal resistance in the cell and a cutoff of 3.6V. This batter holder makes a great charger unit as well. Just used some magnets and works great.
When the batteries were done charging I retested the unit to see if there were any differences when I switched from the power supply.
I set the two sinks together and let the thermal adhesive set.
I pinched the negative wire between the host heatsink and the lip that it sits on and tightened the stainless steel retaining ring down. Then I packaged the driver in the head. Oh yea, fits like a glove.:twothumbs
I tested the unit again using the host body as the ground to make sure I had a good contact.
I did a 60 second run with my finger on the driver heatsink that is now bonded to the host heatsink. It got warm but not hot. Yea!!! It is distributing heat into the large host heatsink very effectively.
Next I glued a spring that I got out of a $1 ebay flashlight on the bottom of the driver to make contact with the positive contact point in the host. Knew that flashlight would come in handy.
I soldered the positive wire to it and was ready for the final step.
Then I screwed the head into the host body and whala it is alive.
I now have an amazing host with a unique driver running a 445 @ 1.6A putting out 1870mW in a portable unit.:bow:
Beamshots
This thing is so bright. It is by far the brightest beam I have ever seen. I am in awe every time I turn it on.
LPM Test:devil:
405-G-1 Lens 1871mW!!!!
[yt]P6DJfp8-rm0[/yt]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6DJfp8-rm0
This is awesome. It runs better than I even imagined. High power and no overheating. I am so excited I am like a kid on Christmas morning.:santa:
Here is a video of the unit burning a CD Case.
[yt]LBcUj9Ak3QY[/yt]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBcUj9Ak3QY
In conclusion. This is the most gratifying project that I have worked on yet in my small time in this hobby. This unit is so unique an such a ridicules power that I am sure it will make some heads turn. I have run it as long as 6 min now and it seems like it has not even got warm. I also noticed on this unit that the power does not drop as rapidly as with my other high power builds. It could be the linear nature of the driver as well as the massive heatsink.
Anyway I know you enjoyed this one. Probably not as much as I but that is the way it goes.
First I will introduce myself I am DTR from St. Louis and I am fairly new to the laser/flashlight hobby. But in my short time I have learned a lot. I have built quite a few lasers and own a couple of high powered flashlights.
If you would like to see all the projects that I have done CLICK HERE http://laserpointerforums.com/f65/my-18560-jayrob-445nm-burn-video-pics-52842.html#post738061
Anyway here is my review and build tutorial.
Alright folks here is my newest addition. It is the Ultrafire RL-2088 1300 lumen flashlight. Ordered from Lighthound but they no longer have them in stock. You can however still find them on Ebay and DX.
It runs off of 3X18650's, has a great look and feels amazing to hold.
Here is the battery holder for the 3 18650's. I am also currently looking for anybody who makes these or knows where I could get an origonal replacment. I sent several emails over the last two months to Ultrafire telling them I broke mine and wanted to know where I could get a replacement NO RESPONSE
It has an awesome large clicky with great action on the back.
Comes with this giant belt holster.
Here is a size comparison with my SS 10440 host.
Here is a comparison with a root beer can.
It really does feel great holding this beast.
I decided to tear it down and see what all the components of this unit were.
Here are some beamshots.
And here is a comparison to my P7
RL-2088 on the left and P7 on the right.(opposite of the last picture)
It is really not that much brighter than my P7.
It does have a cooler color to the light tho. I was hopeful that this unit would throw a little better but it is as much of a flood as the P7 is.Ok so this thing is not impressing me much as I had hoped it would so I guess it is time to go in another direction.:thinking:
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I Am Proud to Introduce The
1.8W DTR Frankenstein
1.8W DTR Frankenstein
So I guess I will make a laser out of this unit.:devil:
I contacted Jayrob from LPF and he said he would make a heatsink for me and I sent it off to him.
He kept me up to date as he was working on it.
Here's how the modifications were done. Excellent work by the way. Jay is certainly a master at his craft.
He contacted me all worried that he would need to damage the reflector to get it out because it was glued heavily into the head. And he wanted to give me a chance to change my mind because there would be no going back. I told him he could bash it with a hammer if it made it look good.
Next step was to remove the old driver from the head.
Then he drilled out the pill and made these nice little indentures so I could use to unscrew it. I kind of feel bad I did not even use it in the final build.
Again I feel bad because he modded the battery holder for 3X18650 in parallel that would give some amazing runtimes. And I ended up going with them in series.
He machined the head out and made this beautiful heatsking that is so massive that if you don't see it in person you don't fully comprehend how much mass it has. It might as well be a labby heatsink without the fins. It is fit for a 1/2in copper module.(I love overkill:devil
He gave an awesome mirror finish to the face of the heatsink. Just amazing work.
After that he packaged it up and sent it back to me. Thanks Jay.:twothumbs
Two days later I got it in the mail. First thing I did is put in the module and lens with no diode just to get a picture of what it looks like. I was so excited. This is the best part of this hobby. Figuring out how to make something that you have not worked on before is a great thrill.
Talk about
I opted to go for a copper module in this unit.
I spent a lot of time debating what driver setup I would use. I was going to use two Flexdrives in parallel but I decided to go with the Flexmod P3 from the good Dr. for this build. It is something that you don't see in portables and thought it would add a bit of a unique touch to this build. It is a linear driver that can give an output of up to 2A.
The P3 fits in the host nice an snug. The picture is out of focus and did not notice until i got to a point that I did not want to go back to get a better one but you can see how it will fit.
I have taken the driver heatsink and extended it so it can be attached to the bottom of the host heatsink. I used three strands for each pin with the pyro wire that can handle 5A. When tested it did not get hot so I think that it is OK.
Here is the driver. Since the primary use of this driver is for lab units and projectors I used a LM3805 on a second line in from the battery which drops the voltage to make a 5v signal wire to the modulation input that turns the unit on to full power all the time. There is very little current drawn from the Modulation input it should not need any heatsinking on the LM3805. I ran a wire from the positive in to the interlock to keep it on and I also disabled the 7 second delayed start by soldering two of the pads together on the driver.
I then soldered the diode to the wires.
I am going to bond the drive sink with the host sink(see yellow circles) with thermal epoxy.
If you look to the left of the yellow star I tried to start a hole with my Dewalt drill but that was not going to happen. I guess just thermal adhesive will be good enough.
Here it is. I have set it to 1.6A. Since it is a linear driver you can see an accurate current reading on the power supply. I will also be using the 3X18650 Lifepo4 high discharge batteries in series. It needs to be over 6V so three of these batteries are 3.2V(3.6V fully charged) each and in series will be will be between 10 to 11V.
The seller of these Lifepo4 says the battery elements have a 17A discharge rate. Should be enough.:devil:
Runtimes between charging will be shorter but they charge very quickly and have a lower voltage that means less heat generated by the driver.
So I charged them up. Check out the charging setup. They require a special charger that can handle batteries that have a low internal resistance in the cell and a cutoff of 3.6V. This batter holder makes a great charger unit as well. Just used some magnets and works great.
When the batteries were done charging I retested the unit to see if there were any differences when I switched from the power supply.
I set the two sinks together and let the thermal adhesive set.
I pinched the negative wire between the host heatsink and the lip that it sits on and tightened the stainless steel retaining ring down. Then I packaged the driver in the head. Oh yea, fits like a glove.:twothumbs
I tested the unit again using the host body as the ground to make sure I had a good contact.
I did a 60 second run with my finger on the driver heatsink that is now bonded to the host heatsink. It got warm but not hot. Yea!!! It is distributing heat into the large host heatsink very effectively.
Next I glued a spring that I got out of a $1 ebay flashlight on the bottom of the driver to make contact with the positive contact point in the host. Knew that flashlight would come in handy.
I soldered the positive wire to it and was ready for the final step.
Then I screwed the head into the host body and whala it is alive.
I now have an amazing host with a unique driver running a 445 @ 1.6A putting out 1870mW in a portable unit.:bow:
Beamshots
This thing is so bright. It is by far the brightest beam I have ever seen. I am in awe every time I turn it on.
LPM Test:devil:
405-G-1 Lens 1871mW!!!!
[yt]P6DJfp8-rm0[/yt]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6DJfp8-rm0
This is awesome. It runs better than I even imagined. High power and no overheating. I am so excited I am like a kid on Christmas morning.:santa:
Here is a video of the unit burning a CD Case.
[yt]LBcUj9Ak3QY[/yt]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBcUj9Ak3QY
In conclusion. This is the most gratifying project that I have worked on yet in my small time in this hobby. This unit is so unique an such a ridicules power that I am sure it will make some heads turn. I have run it as long as 6 min now and it seems like it has not even got warm. I also noticed on this unit that the power does not drop as rapidly as with my other high power builds. It could be the linear nature of the driver as well as the massive heatsink.
Anyway I know you enjoyed this one. Probably not as much as I but that is the way it goes.
Last edited:
