LED Zeppelin
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hardware:
- Fivemega FM3H head
- FM fat tube, 120 mm extension, deep tailcap
- 18 X AA holder 10.8 V operation, soon to be powered by LuxLuthor 12 X Emoli 18650 pack
- (3) 1000 lumen Ostar LE UW E3B QZ
- (3) Fraen narrow beam reflectors
- (3) Cree XRE Q5 WG
- (3) McR17XR
- (3) parallel SF-V Shark drivers, each driving (1) Ostar and (1) Cree in series. One mother Shark wired to the pot, and two slaves wired to the mother
- (3) machined aluminum SharkSinks
- (1) 20K ohm logarithmic pot
- Heatsink CNC milled from 3" round 6061 aluminum, improved one-piece design, 8.5 oz.
- Custom LZ pot knob w/ trit vial indicator
Specs:
- Current pot-adjustable from 0 - 920 mA
- Vf of LED strings: ~25 V @ 930 mA
- Cells are supplying 77.5 Watts
Pictured next to the original MD:
Beamshots
Camera settings for beamshots: ISO 200, F3.5, 2.5 sec, white balance to sunshine.
Lineup and beamshots L to R:
- Arcmania SF-V, 1000 lumen Ostar, 2 X 17670
- Surefire M6, HOLA, M6-R pack
- My Quinta Magmod, 5 X Q4 WH/McR17XR, Shark/pot, 3 X 17670
- Moby **** MDXR-9, 9 X Q5 WG, 6 X 17670, 2s3p
- Moby **** Trinity, 18 AA NiMH, 9s2p
All cells fully charged.
The beamshots were taken from my porch, as you can see it's snowing lightly which reduced throw. I aimed the lights down the driveway at the road running left to right in the distance.
In the foreground the small tree at center is at 35', and the far bank of the pond to the right at 80'.
To the downhill left bend of the drive it's 200', the road is 350', and across the road is a grove of trees at 450' of which some trunks are visible.
In all the pics you can see the edge of the beam except for Trinity; her beam's too wide to capture with the focal length of 18mm. The small tree to the very right at 10' gives a good indication of beam width and spill.
I'd like to thank to MJ and Mac for their help with parts and expertice, and DFiorentino for planting the seed in my head.
EDIT: Shark micro sink installation
While waiting for LuxLuthor's pack, I've been testing the light running on the 18 AA, 10.8 V holder. I found that due to thermal issues the Sharks were shutting down after 1 1/2 minutes on hi.
The Sharks were getting hot due to the level of boost (to be somewhat alleviated by the 14.8 V pack being built), and due to the total power running through them. Wayne recommends 15 Watts max in the stock configuration, and these are pushing over 25 Watts each.
I disassembled the light and fabricated two micro sinks for the top of each Shark from brass shapes and Romex core. The box sink with the soldered Romex epoxies to the top of the IC, and the bent leg sink to the top of the diode. Both create thermal mass and a path to the tube.
After reassembly, I tested the light running off my power supply at 16 V, 4.8 A, and after four minutes the head got very hot, but the Sharks were still happy. I reinstalled the partially depleted 18 AA holder and ran for 5 minutes, the last of which the cells couldn't keep up and the Sharks were flickering, straining to maintain the increasing level of boost. Again the head got hot, but the Sharks were still going strong.
- Fivemega FM3H head
- FM fat tube, 120 mm extension, deep tailcap
- 18 X AA holder 10.8 V operation, soon to be powered by LuxLuthor 12 X Emoli 18650 pack
- (3) 1000 lumen Ostar LE UW E3B QZ
- (3) Fraen narrow beam reflectors
- (3) Cree XRE Q5 WG
- (3) McR17XR
- (3) parallel SF-V Shark drivers, each driving (1) Ostar and (1) Cree in series. One mother Shark wired to the pot, and two slaves wired to the mother
- (3) machined aluminum SharkSinks
- (1) 20K ohm logarithmic pot
- Heatsink CNC milled from 3" round 6061 aluminum, improved one-piece design, 8.5 oz.
- Custom LZ pot knob w/ trit vial indicator
Specs:
- Current pot-adjustable from 0 - 920 mA
- Vf of LED strings: ~25 V @ 930 mA
- Cells are supplying 77.5 Watts
Pictured next to the original MD:
Beamshots
Camera settings for beamshots: ISO 200, F3.5, 2.5 sec, white balance to sunshine.
Lineup and beamshots L to R:
- Arcmania SF-V, 1000 lumen Ostar, 2 X 17670
- Surefire M6, HOLA, M6-R pack
- My Quinta Magmod, 5 X Q4 WH/McR17XR, Shark/pot, 3 X 17670
- Moby **** MDXR-9, 9 X Q5 WG, 6 X 17670, 2s3p
- Moby **** Trinity, 18 AA NiMH, 9s2p
All cells fully charged.
The beamshots were taken from my porch, as you can see it's snowing lightly which reduced throw. I aimed the lights down the driveway at the road running left to right in the distance.
In the foreground the small tree at center is at 35', and the far bank of the pond to the right at 80'.
To the downhill left bend of the drive it's 200', the road is 350', and across the road is a grove of trees at 450' of which some trunks are visible.
In all the pics you can see the edge of the beam except for Trinity; her beam's too wide to capture with the focal length of 18mm. The small tree to the very right at 10' gives a good indication of beam width and spill.
I'd like to thank to MJ and Mac for their help with parts and expertice, and DFiorentino for planting the seed in my head.
EDIT: Shark micro sink installation
While waiting for LuxLuthor's pack, I've been testing the light running on the 18 AA, 10.8 V holder. I found that due to thermal issues the Sharks were shutting down after 1 1/2 minutes on hi.
The Sharks were getting hot due to the level of boost (to be somewhat alleviated by the 14.8 V pack being built), and due to the total power running through them. Wayne recommends 15 Watts max in the stock configuration, and these are pushing over 25 Watts each.
I disassembled the light and fabricated two micro sinks for the top of each Shark from brass shapes and Romex core. The box sink with the soldered Romex epoxies to the top of the IC, and the bent leg sink to the top of the diode. Both create thermal mass and a path to the tube.
After reassembly, I tested the light running off my power supply at 16 V, 4.8 A, and after four minutes the head got very hot, but the Sharks were still happy. I reinstalled the partially depleted 18 AA holder and ran for 5 minutes, the last of which the cells couldn't keep up and the Sharks were flickering, straining to maintain the increasing level of boost. Again the head got hot, but the Sharks were still going strong.
Last edited:
:bow::wow:
