4up Cree MC-E build blog

[marcopolo]

A few months back I posted on some 4up MC-E proposals fishing for ideas. Well to date I still havn't built anything yet for myself (despite having all LED's driver other bits etc) as i've too been busy riding MTB trail and some road with the XR-E's.

However some friends (3 actually) meanwhile expressed an interest so I directed them to George's new HipFlex driver and some MC-E's and offered to help them on a build. I've started a dairy/blog detailing our steps, potential mistakes and problems with lots of photos:

http://www.geocities.com/telescopiman/MC_E_Blog.html


I thougt it would be a good way to detail the build and help anyone also building similar as end of project details/photos often miss important pitfalls to avoid throughout a project. You can see our mistakes realtime being corrected!

Trout if you are reading, is there any chance you could link this blog over at MTB forums? Sorry to ask.

cheers,

Marco.

 

[Tidra]

IMHO,...
You will have some real problems with heating if you don't make some fins on that body ,...

LP
I

 

[marcopolo]

LOL. we're not at the milling stage yet!!!!

The fins are going to be 2.5mm groove milled longintudinally down the body (as opposed to the parted off grooves you normally see round the OD of the tube).

You are right, it would fry fairly quick without.

The blog will hopefully unfold week by week.


Marco.

 

[trout]

Hi Marco
Yup I will post it on MTBR .

I do think it is a tad small for 16 emitters and even with grooves and slots cut all over it will struggle with the heat .

I hope you proove me wrong though
. only way I can see it working is if you get a good direct link to the bars for additional heatsinking .
assuming no carbon bars that is.

 

[znomit]

MR11 Quad MC-E? Thats gonna rock!
Woohoo!

 

[marcopolo]

Thanks guys.

I suppose we've always got the 2000mA and 2400mA current tables should there be a problem with heat. The Beauty about the Hipflex is the fact that it slaps straight onto the slug so will give good temperature indication and cut-off to L3.

Still kicking out a fair few lumens at those currens though. I would say though that deep winter riding here in Scotland is fairly cold -5C to +5c, but only one way to find out!!!!

The fins are going in the direction of the airflow which should help.

 

[msxtr]

Great job!!!!!!!!! when you can, put some beamshot, please.

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

so is that a cutter MR11 quad XR-E optic?
a fantastic concept for sure Marco, but looking at the output figures on paper, i probably would have plumped for an MR11 triple optic first .....
maybe thats me being a skinflint though ...

The fins are going in the direction of the airflow which should help.

at 2.5mm will this make a real difference?
....can`t wait to see it finished and lighting up the northern hemisphere

 

[marcopolo]

:devil:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FIRST PROTOYPE BEAMSHOTS ARE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!:devil:

http://www.geocities.com/telescopiman/MC_E_Blog.html

Heat doesn't seem to be too much of a problem as long as you are moving 5+mph! The heat is negligible at L1,L2,L3. AT L4&L5 I need to pedal 5-10 mph to keep it cool. Temp cutoff on the Hipflex set to 80degC. No problem! Remember there is 200g of aluminium in that case! Li-PO is 420g. about 650g all in.

Marco.

 

[herulach]

OMFG!!!111OneOne!!

Even at 2A or so you're still going to be the brightest thing for a fair old distance. I wonder if they might be too bright and hit trees and stuff?

 

[StevelKnievel]

Very Cool! The beam pattern looks really nice!

 

[marcopolo]

Thanks guys. Yep, the beam pattern is good. The beam pattern on the unmodified cutter optic is not good - has a doughnut! Taking the dimples away helped with light transmission aswell. I'll have to test on some fast offroad terrain to asess usability at the high levels.

Herulach - yes its likely the systems (there will be 3 to start with) will end up using the 2A current table. Once we get the prototype 100% I have a feeling 3000 lumens might be a bit too much except on the fastest of downhill. Ultimately we want it to be able to perform to these levels though.

I just did a start to end runtime test with 2 80mm fans push-pull on it. 18.5v 5S lipo 4000mAh (420g) ran for 1h 40min on full power - not bad. Of course you wouldn't use the light on full all the time. Low power run times will be stupid long, circa 7 hours on L3 (900+lumens).

Marco.

 

[marcopolo]

We've done a few minor re-designs. Much more fins cut using an indexing plate on the mill and a MUCH better slug that recesses the LED's and driver. contact area is huge now with the case.

The anodising kit was set up in my garage and we anodised the first assembly...looks superb. Details updated with lots of photos on the blog:

http://www.geocities.com/telescopiman/MC_E_Blog.html

Marco.

 

[znomit]

Looks really good!
Nice telescopes too!