Cheap p7 1x18650 p3d sized wall of light

[copiertech]

I like the size of the p3d, fits in the pocket nicely but i wanted a LOT of spill for short periods working up attics, lots of spill with not too bright a hotspot is ideal when your looking where wiring is running.
I got these: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13095
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12721
and put them together and i`m very happy with the result. its a wall of light. just now it`s dd and drawing 3.1a on a fresh trustfire 18650. i`ve ordered a high med low 3 mode driver from KDso when i dont need full blast i can keep the heat down/runtime up. it gets very warm in your hand, but not too hot. i wouldnt want to run it too long without my hand as heatsink for it though, so if i need to set it down i`ll put it on low.

 

[Jarl]

sweet!! Did you have to adjust the reflector at all?

 

[copiertech]

drilled the hole out to 10mm, filed about 4mm off the back. about 5 minutes work. I had to trim the star the led was mounted on too. if it was a bare led i probably couldve mounted it with AA , isolated the slug and not had to file the 4mm off the reflector but i could only find the C bin P7 as a star not as a bare emitter at the cheap sites.

 

[GSteg]

I bought my P7 bare emitter at kaidomain. It's suppose to be a c-bin or so they say.

 

[cat]

Pity they don't sell plain unmarked bodies.

 

[Gunner12]

I think it's more of a ram of light then a wall.

Great mod!

 

[Al Combs]

I like the size of the p3d, fits in the pocket nicely but i wanted a LOT of spill for short periods working up attics, lots of spill with not too bright a hotspot is ideal when your looking where wiring is running. its a wall of light. just now it`s dd and drawing 3.1a on a fresh trustfire 18650. i`ve ordered a high med low 3 mode driver from KDso when i dont need full blast i can keep the heat down/runtime up. it gets very warm in your hand, but not too hot. i wouldnt want to run it too long without my hand as heatsink for it though, so if i need to set it down i`ll put it on low.

Very nice light!

Most of the Trustfire 18650's are protected. I'm guessing yours is a protected cell? Surprising you can get 3.1 amps past the short circuit protection. Even so, that's a lot of power for cobalt Li-Ion batteries. Usually 1C is the recommended max. Watch the temperature.

I was just looking at these 18650 LiFePO4's today. They have a lot less capacity, but a 15C discharge rate. Your DealExtreme link says 3.6 to 3.7 volts so I guess that's a "J" series LED. It probably wouldn't work well with a 3.2 volt battery, but perhaps the more common "I" series P7 would (3.25-3.5 volts).

 

[Jarl]

Nah, li-ion are fine for 1.5C, which means 3.1A is safe. I can get 7A from some of my protected 18650's.

As for the lower voltage batteries, this means you could probably use a regulated boost driver, though there aren't any that do 2.8A AFAIK.

 

[RobertM]

drilled the hole out to 10mm, filed about 4mm off the back. about 5 minutes work. I had to trim the star the led was mounted on too. if it was a bare led i probably couldve mounted it with AA , isolated the slug and not had to file the 4mm off the reflector but i could only find the C bin P7 as a star not as a bare emitter at the cheap sites.

Any idea what kind of total runtime you might see with this? Would it be okay to run it for more than a couple minutes at a time? This looks like a pretty awesome little light!

Can you maybe elaborate a little more on what exactly is involved in doing this mod (how to remove the old LED and replace with the P7)? I've never done any flashlight mods before but this looks really cool! This might have to be my first mod.

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but what is a good charger for 18650's? I've never owned any 18650 lights before.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[copiertech]

yep, protected cell. it`s only 3.1a fresh off the charger, it drops down to 2.9a after a few mins of playing, it gets quite warm in your hand but not too hot, but i wont set it down until i fit the multimode driver as it would probably get too hot without the heatsinking of my hand.

the head wasnt glued, i just unscrewed the pill, prised the glued cree off with a small flathead screwdriver, poked the driver board out with a thin screwdriver through one of the wire holes, trimmed the p7 star to fit, fitted thicker wires to the led and removed the amc7135 regulators off the board and just soldered the wires to the + and - points where the 7135s used to be and fitted the board back in and added a couple of blobs of solder. then i drilled and filed the reflector and put it back together.

runtime might be about 40 minutes or so i havent tried it out but surely somone on here will know what a p7 dd from an 18650 should run for. i`m looking forward to recieving the multimode driver for it.

I use the ultrafire wf-139 charger, i`m very happy with it.

 

[LiteFan]

Pretty cool sor something so small

 

[Crenshaw]

beamshot?

Crenshaw

 

[RobertM]

yep, protected cell. it`s only 3.1a fresh off the charger, it drops down to 2.9a after a few mins of playing, it gets quite warm in your hand but not too hot, but i wont set it down until i fit the multimode driver as it would probably get too hot without the heatsinking of my hand.

the head wasnt glued, i just unscrewed the pill, prised the glued cree off with a small flathead screwdriver, poked the driver board out with a thin screwdriver through one of the wire holes, trimmed the p7 star to fit, fitted thicker wires to the led and removed the amc7135 regulators off the board and just soldered the wires to the + and - points where the 7135s used to be and fitted the board back in and added a couple of blobs of solder. then i drilled and filed the reflector and put it back together.

runtime might be about 40 minutes or so i havent tried it out but surely somone on here will know what a p7 dd from an 18650 should run for. i`m looking forward to recieving the multimode driver for it.

I use the ultrafire wf-139 charger, i`m very happy with it.

Thanks for all the info, I really appreciate it. I'm still trying to learn about all this flashlight modding

Out of curiosity, which driver did you order?

Oh, and as Crenshaw said, beamshots??

 

[coors]

I looked at the exif info from your bedroom beamshot (iso200, 1/60sec, f2.8) and I screwed 2x 100w and 2x 60w bulbs into an overhead light (ceiling fan) which is about 5-7 feet from a similar scene as yours, set my camera to manual mode, iso200, 1/60sec, f2.8 and shot from only 5 feet away. It was underexposed by at least 3x stops...so your light is putting out at least 16x the light of my combined 320w of light (you were probably twice as far away from the wall at the head of your bed with your camera, for your shot). I find that amount of light from your little flashlight to be absolutely phenomenal!!! Thanks for posting all of this. I think that you have made something VERY usable, here. I will try to duplicate one of these myself.

coors

 

[Jarl]

Out of curiosity, which driver did you order?

It's direct drive off the battery- no driver.

 

[RobertM]

It's direct drive off the battery- no driver.

Yes, I understand that it is currently running DD. He mentioned that he has a driver on order that he will be installing once it arrives though.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[Al Combs]

I looked at the exif info from your bedroom beamshot (iso200, 1/60sec, f2.8) and I screwed 2x 100w and 2x 60w bulbs into an overhead light (ceiling fan) which is about 5-7 feet from a similar scene as yours, set my camera to manual mode, iso200, 1/60sec, f2.8 and shot from only 5 feet away. It was underexposed by at least 3x stops...so your light is putting out at least 16x the light of my combined 320w of light (you were probably twice as far away from the wall at the head of your bed with your camera, for your shot). I find that amount of light from your little flashlight to be absolutely phenomenal!!! Thanks for posting all of this. I think that you have made something VERY usable, here. I will try to duplicate one of these myself.

coors

If you look again you'll see the flash fired in red-eye reduction mode. Hard to say how much that effected the results. But at 3.1 amps, that's harder than I'm driving the P7 in my 3D MagLite. Even if it's all flood, I'm sure this light is a monster. I want one.:huh:

 

[toby_pra]

In this little light. this is really awesome!

 

[copiertech]

If you look again you'll see the flash fired in red-eye reduction mode. Hard to say how much that effected the results. But at 3.1 amps, that's harder than I'm driving the P7 in my 3D MagLite. Even if it's all flood, I'm sure this light is a monster. I want one.:huh:

I dont think the proper flash went off but that bright red led anti redeye focusing thing came on when i took the photo. i could be wrong though. its weird, sometimes it flashes once, sometimes it flashes about 6 times, sometimes it just shines a bright red led at you. my wifes camera takes good photos, but it`s a pain in the arse to use, especially after a few beers. anyone know any camera forums that cater well for noobs?
i`ll get some outdoor shots off my own camera when i get a free minute in the dark.

driver i ordered is here: http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=5025
apparently it`s a 5 mode, not a 3 like i thought, i just surmised it was a 3 mode from reading the 10% 45% 100% bit of the description. i need to stop drinking before buying stuff online:drunk:

 

[Al Combs]

I dont think the proper flash went off but that bright red led anti redeye focusing thing came on when i took the photo. i could be wrong though. its weird, sometimes it flashes once, sometimes it flashes about 6 times, sometimes it just shines a bright red led at you. my wifes camera takes good photos, but it`s a pain in the arse to use, especially after a few beers. anyone know any camera forums that cater well for noobs?
i`ll get some outdoor shots off my own camera when i get a free minute in the dark.

The Exif header of the picture said the flash was on. Sorry, I don't know of a good photo forum. There is a lightning bolt icon on the right side of the mode wheel on the back of the IXUS75/SD750. You push it until you get a lightning bolt with a circle around it and a line through it on the LCD. The catch is you can't pick the flash off mode while the camera is in automatic mode. Press the function button in the center of the mode wheel and then use the macro/mountain and lightning bolt icons as left and right arrow keys to select manual mode. Then you can turn the flash off.

That seems like a lot of work. It might be easier to just stick your left index finger in front of the flash tube while taking the picture. On the other hand outdoor shots at any reasonable distance will make whether or not the flash was on a moot point.