Brass Matterhorn with a Seoul

[MWClint]

Older Brass Matterhorn modded with a Seoul High CRI 4000K P4 and a Dorcy 1xAAA circuit.
Once the potting dries, it is going back on my keychain..it rocks!

First, grind out the potting of the matterhorn head with a dremel..there's no
other way really..it will destroy the peak's guts..so we'll need a small boost
circuit to replace it... for simplicity, the dorcy 1xAAA light makes a perfect
donor for the circuit. You do have to grind away the edges of the circuit to
allow it to fit inside the peak's head. And you will have to grind some material
out of the inside of the matterhorn head..but not much.

It is considerably brighter and the warm glow pairs up nicely with the brass.
Knurling removed with a dremel/400-2000 grit sandpaper and then Polished with flitz.

business end

Have a few of these old matterhorns, so here's a beamshot comparison..

dorcy circuit inside the matterhorn head. I dumped in some silicone goop
to seal it up..it's currently drying.

 

[rtt]

Very nice! On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a very easy mod, how would you rate how difficult of a mod this was?

 

[MWClint]

Very nice! On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a very easy mod, how would you rate how difficult of a mod this was?

i would say about a 6. most of the mod is just being carefull.

i used kynar wire as it's very thin..and you will be soldering onto barely
existing led leads as you dont want the led shorting out inside the light.
there's probably .030" of room between the sides of the led and the head.

the dorcy circuit is pretty simple, and you should be able to tell what you
can grind off and what you cant. there was no need to replace any
components. it all "just fits" and keeps pressure on the backside of the led.
i coated the edges of the circuit board and the led leads/slug with nail polish to
insulate them from the inner walls of the head. before you start grinding, take
a picture of both sides of the board for reference, ..just in case you grind too
much, you can add a lead here and there to repair it. holes in the board are
where the electrical path goes from one side of the board to the other - be
mindful of them. also dont power up the dorcy circuit with no led attatched,
i'm not sure if it fries without a load on it.

the more you polish the reflector area, the more you get a hotspot. the brass
seems to add to the warmth. The brightness is excellent and there's no need
for a heatsink.

the seoul led sits deep, so you will need to grind away the inner base of the head
to allow the seoul to sit up more into the reflector area..this takes the longest
of anything because you want to make sure the dremel bit doesnt stray.

you will need to pot it..i used a couple drips of clear nail polish down into the
head, so it'll keep the led stable. and then packed the rest of it with clear
silicone "goop". scrape away some for the + nub and make a small solder blob
for the battery to contact.

pics of the dorcy circuit.
(grabbed from this thread)
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/140606

red shows the new circuit size after grinding..(front and back)

 

[LEDAdd1ct]

MWClint, PM sent.

 

[rtt]

MWClint

Thank you for the quick detailed response and additional pictures. I will try to duplicate your mod. :twothumbs

 

[MWClint]

Thank you for the quick detailed response and additional pictures. I will try to duplicate your mod. :twothumbs

sweet! Let us know how it turns out. :thumbsup:
if you come up with any other questions, feel free to contact me or just post em here.

 

[tnuckels]

Very nice mod, but how do you keep the gummy surface of the SSC P4 from collecting, um, naval lint? :thinking: :green:

 

[stefanj]

WOW What a beautiful light! Makes me wish I could run a soldering iron (without burning a hole in things!)

 

[MWClint]

Very nice mod, but how do you keep the gummy surface of the SSC P4 from collecting, um, naval lint? :thinking: :green:

so far no issues.

it seems that theres no more gunk than would normally collect on a
matterhorn..i just blow it out. i figure if it gets really dirty,
i can grab a q-tip and swab the dome with some rubbing alcohol.


I was thinking about a thin coat of norland on the dome..but i would have to
test this on a spare led first. it would definitly seal the led from the elements
and make it fully waterproof. i wanted to buy some norland anyway.

 

[MWClint]

Just built another one..these older style peaks are extremely difficult to find.
I could mod a newer style matty..but then i couldnt get the smooth polished look.

This time instead of the dorcy circuit, i went for a higher power solution
and tossed in a Micro Puck-350 set to Boost(led sees 350mah on a 3v source or in this case driven @ 120mah using a 1.2v source, 150mah on 1.7v e2's)

Current draw on a fresh nimh AAA is 400 mah...after 2 hours, the nimh was at
1.08v and was still seeing a 394mah draw. Brightness was pretty much
constant the whole time, i couldnt notice a difference between an empty or a
full cell. The led sees about 120mah and is boat loads brighter than the dorcy 15mah circuit. some heat is actually generated now.
It's also brighter than the Ti Sapphire with the same p4..the arc circuit in that, pushes the led to about 45-60mah on an nimh, 90mah on e2.

the micro puck is easier to file down than the dorcy circuit.
it can also be configured to Buck/boost and utilize a 10440 or nimh. I have a
500mah version which should output pretty close to that on the li-ion. with a
newer style adjusable keychain body i can easily make a 2 mode: high + resistored low.

fwiw, the exposed gummy ssc dome has been riding on my keychain for over a month now and it's doing just fine.
It's recessed enough that nothing will hit it. dirt/lint just blows off or wipe off with acohol+qtip.

 

[RAGE CAGE]

very nice work! If you need any more emitter donors in AAA or AA, Target is having a big clearance sale on their River Rock, Dorcy and Energizers in their "flashlight isle" i.e- not the camping section. Nice mix of Lux III's, Rebels and even a few Cree's. Do you use the Dremel Cable attatchment when you are doing these?