Custom 16340 CREE flashlights, R2 WH, P3 8A, N2 8B.

[VanIsleDSM]

Well, I'm officially a part of the forum. Up until now I had no flashlight, other than some many years old 2xC incans lying around. Just finished building a 16340 clicky, made it as small as I could, whole thing is under 3.25" long, and 0.9" diameter. I first joined up for the LED section and machining section since I do a lot of home LED lighting with my business. Before I came here I'd never run an LED from batteries.. but now I'm hooked. I now have Li-Ions scattered all around me, I've built my own Li-Ion charger, and I've already started construction on my CREE MC-E flashlight body, and a 9xCREE WH R2 torch, both with ridiculously efficient custom drivers, (94-98%). The driver for the light I have already done shown here is just a 3x7135 dual mode driver. I bought a couple other single cell drivers to try, but they were horrible. The 7135 board is OK, but I'll be building a proper buck-boost driver for this guy soon.

I put in an N2 flux, 8B tint, 2720-3050K, warm white CREE. The colour of the beam is very nice, and things appear extremely vibrant within it. I only have my old junker camera right now without shutter manual shutter control, so I was unable to take a good beamshot, but I'll get one tomorrow. Gonna build another one of these too, and throw in a WH R2. Went for the seemless look with the body, should be pretty waterproof I think. Let me know what you think!

 

[ambientmind]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

very, very cool! i'm sure we'd all like to hear more about it and your home lighting too! :welcome:

 

[clg0159]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Very nice indeed! I love the WW Cree!

 

[mcmc]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Wow, looks great. Looks like we have another wonderful addition to the ranks of modders and builders here =) I'd love to try out a light w/ the WW Cree! Any plans to make some lights for sale? =)

 

[etc.etc]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

COOOOOOOOOL ... i like the design

what is WW Cree ... is it led with 3000k light ?

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Thanks for the wonderful compliments. I haven't really been able to let go of the thing.. I think the switch it gonna wear out soon, I just can't stop turning it on and looking around!

A WW CREE is an LED with light that more mimics incandescent, but not just 3000K. This one I used is one of the warmest LEDs you can get, 2720-3050K. But you can get ~3200K or ~3500K, then around 4000K you're more into the "neutral white" zone. Flux suffers with the warmer colours though.. this one I have in here is only an N2 flux.. but the colour is absolutely amazing, the phosphor is so red.. and you can really see it in the beam.

As for making some to sell.. I think I plan to do just that. I'm going to go get some 7075 aircraft aluminum though, and I want to make a real buck-boost driver for this thing, waiting on some sample ICs right now to get started on that. Gonna go snap some beam shots right now.. got my decent camera back.

 

[etc.etc]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Thank you


and .. GOOD LUCK

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Ok.. got a beamshot here. The light output from this CREE is so rich and luxurious. I think it would make good lighting for a cigar room :naughty:

As for the flux.. well.. there's something to be desired as you can see compared to an older photo of a Q2 WC CREE. N2 flux is only 51.7-56.8 lumen at 350mA. A better compromise for beam colour and flux is a slightly less warm P4 flux CREE, but I want this, along with other tints, to show customers options for home lighting.. I think small flashlights will be a great hands on display for that; leave someone with a few tints overnight to shine about and decide what they'd like best. I'm gonna pump out quite a few bodies here, I'll make some extras for CPFers who may be interested.. and I'll post pics so you can pic your tint/flux.

 

[wquiles]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Very nice work, concept to finish :twothumbs

I definitely like the very warm WW LED tint MUCH better than the traditional "white" looking LED in your bottom picture. In fact, outdoors I only use incandescent lights due to this "problem" with most LED's - they are too white and do not render colors properly. This WW LED however, is definitely something else :naughty:

Will

 

[lumafist]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Got my interest aswell...!

I realy like the colour/tint....:thumbsup:

 

[Krit]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Wow, Classic light tint. I like the warm tint, it's classic light for use in camping propose.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

I made another one and anodized it a burgundy type colour. Copper heatsink, WH R2 LED. Still waiting on some sample chips so I can get going on making a proper buck-boost. But I'll have some extra of these flashlights available soon, probably 4 of them, in different anodized colours and LED tints with AMC7135 2 mode boards for a promo offer, grand opening of my custom flashlight building, LED driver, and anodizing services.

 

[2xTrinity]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

I tend to use neutral white myself the most. However, it is cool to have at least one warm-white LED around as a proof of concept, most people have never seen an LED that isn't ridiculously blue-tinted, so showing one that essentially mimics an incan is cool for that reason.

I personlly tend to like more the 3500k-4200k range myself for general lighting, including flashlights -- most of my commonly used LEDs are Q2-5As now. Neutral is great as color is gretly improved compared to the cool white LEDs but, LEDs flux doesn't suffer too badly, as is the case with the very warm tints. I like 5000k for task lighting (but only at FAR higher lux levels than can be affordably achieved with LEDs presently)

By the way nice job on the custom-machined light. With access to macine tool you could realy make a product that is well-optimized for the MC-E when it comes out. The extent of my modding is only what is possible with off-the-shelf products, a drill press, and a dremel.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

A mini-lathe is a purchase you would not regret.

I've got some P4 3200-3500K I really like.. I'll post up some beam shots of those soon.. still waiting on some more 7135 driver boards to rig up the other lights.

Got my samples today from Linear Technology for the buck-boost drivers I plan to build. Now to design the boards and order up the passive components.

 

[wquiles]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

A mini-lathe is a purchase you would not regret.

Yup - a small lathe is awesome. Even better when you also have a mini-mill available as well

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Forgot to mention, I also ordered some of the 18mmx1.85mm UCL glass from flashlightlens.com for these guys.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Re: My first real flashlight, Warm White CREE LED.

Finally got some more driver boards.. and received my UCL glass too.

I anodized another flashlight gold.. and I have another 3 blanks waiting for colour and innards.. I plan to do those 3 custom colour/LED tint for CPFers.

Took some more pictures.

The natural finish flashlight has the N2 flux 8B tint LED I have pics of from before. The gold flashlight has a P3 flux 8A tint, and the red flashlight has an R2 flux WH tint. The N2 8B is nice, I like how much red it has, but it's just too dim I think. R2 WH is the nicest R2 you can get in my opinion.. and the P3 is a good compromise for a warm white.. it's got a more yellowish look to it.. renders colours nicely. I'll take some pics of a P4 7A pretty soon here.. Along with some white wall shots and a smooth relfector comparison. The beam pics at the bottom here use a more accurate shutter than the ones before.

N2:

P3:

R2:

 

[clg0159]

I love your design and would definately be interested in one of these:thumbsup: