project GazorBeam-45 HID vs stanley hid

[liteitup]

Hey guys i recently put this light together due to the fact that a 6v H3 spotlight is just boring with 10 minutes run time and lackluster lumens output. Heres some details of the light..

55 watt ballast putting 45 watts to the bulb.
4300k bulb
14.8v 4000MAH lipo battery charged by the rewired stock barrel plug along with a balance connector.
run time is 55 minutes to 13.2 volts(safe runtime) If i pulled the lipo down to 3v a cell or 12 volts i could likely get another 10-15 minutes but chance killing the life cycle of the batt. According to the charger im using 3500 mah out of the batt when i charge it. .961 hours * 3800ma(avg amp draw) = 3480 mah. seems pretty accurate!
Mini volt meter so i dont run the lipo below 13 volts, or 3.2 volts per cell.
Host is a Vector, but i have declared its nickname shall be GazorBeam-45.

This has a large reflector. One of the primary reasons i modded it to HID. now initailly i had this ballast dialed up to over 75watts input, or 60 bulb watts. All i can say is that was insanely bright... But due to the fact im not running a dl-50 bulb i decided to bring the ballast back down to 45 bulb watts for reliability as this is going to be my go to light in night time boating at the lake.

What i like about this light is the fact that its a very powerful hid in a smallish pistol grip host, not a huge thor type host . personal preference.

Now i guess i need to show some pictures?

The imax b6 charger.. cheap and effective. works very well. pre volt meter install

volt meter installed. reads exactly what my multimeter does..

Couple of beam shots, 225 yards to tree.

Stanley with shimmed 4300k bulb. exact same bulb as in the gazorbeam-45.

Amazing what only more 10 watts(over the 35 watt stanley) will do with an hid. Aside from the larger reflector...

even with the tighter hot spot surrounding areas around the corona are still brighter. Im happy with the beam.

let me know what you think

 

[Arnulf]

That is a powerful beam of light....my stanley is bright....looks like it shines on the clouds....but only lasts 13-14 minutes.

Great modified spotty.:twothumbs

 

[Parker VH]

Very well done. Thanks for the pics.

 

[kramer5150]

very nice!!
-Where did you get the volt meter? Would it be possible to wire a switch in line so you can turn it off when not needed?
-Can you post pics of the reflector?
-Can you post pics of the balance-charge connector?... nice how you are able to access this feature of the LiPo pack.

I have been hesitating on some of the 6V mod hosts... because I can't tell if they have glass or plastic lenses and aluminum or plastic reflectors.

Nice work!!

 

[liteitup]

thanks for the kind comments guys!

kramer, the volt meter is wired into the switch. Only on when you pull the trigger . I found the meter on ebay. You could wire it with a switch though if you didnt want it on while the light was, however i found the light lost no run time with it on.

As far as the balance connector, right now i have to pop off the lens to access it(only takes 15 seconds). I was waiting for hobbyking to get their 4s balance extensions in stock but they still havent, so i ordered the proper jst-xh connectors from digikey. waiting for those to arrive(hopefully saturday) and i will add pictures of that when i get it hardwired. If you tackle this project and need an extension just let me know, the minimum digikey order was 10 connectors and 100 pins, ill send you one or two if you need em.

heres a quick pic of the reflector.

and one of the bulb

 

[Patriot]

Nice beam shots!

Thanks for sharing them.

 

[liteitup]

Nice beam shots!

Thanks for sharing them.

thanks! i wish i could find someone around here with a ph40 (even better a 50)for some comparisons. ive been looking for a good deal on a used one as i just dont want to pay 2200 bucks for a new one, even though i know its worth it. i just want to see in person the polarion performance.

 

[liteitup]

got my package from digikey and wired up the balance charger lead. came out pretty good

 

[liteitup]

decided 55 minutes runtime wasnt enough so i went ahead and added the second 4000mah lipo battery pack i had on hand.. In doing so i was worried that near 2 hour run time would heat the ballast up too much in the enclosed space(after one hour the ballast was pretty hot...). sooo.... i added some active cooling to assure long life and not too much heat gets to the lipos I know the dremel work isnt the best but its really hard to hold a straight line while routing plastic free hand. Didnt come out TOO bad though.

Fan draws .12 amps. Its a 50x50x10mm and moves 13.2 cubic feet of air per min at 12v. I bought a 7812 12v converter but decided to just direct drive the fan as its brushless and should handle the extra voltage fine while moving some more CFM (it does) . negligible affect on runtime. Obviously any slight weather resistance this light had is now gone but i dont plan to be on the boat when its raining...

Now as far as installing two seperate lipo packs i knew it was very important to keep them balanced as they are charged together... I had to custom make another balance connector to keep the packs in sync. I hooked the primary leads of the batteries together in parallel and then made this cable to keep each corresponding cell in parallel. It now balance charges though these cables and each individual cell balances with the same corresponding cell in the other pack and acts as one.

heres a pic

let me know what you think!

 

[forexer]

let me know what you think!

I'm kinda worried that the batteries might be affected by the heat from the ballast. Very very nice work though And very neat too!

 

[liteitup]

hard to see in the photo, but batteries and ballast are actually atleast 1/2 to 3/4 inch apart on each side and are also insulated from each other, besides thats why i added the fan. Even before i added the fan the heat didnt transfer to the batteries directly, just from the ambient air. batteries were never more then just warm, and some of that was just heat from the pack itself from discharging.

I did a 2 hour continuous run time test last night opened the bezel immediately after shutting it off and everything was nice and cool. Batteries were cold, ballast was barely warm (maybe 90 degrees). Fan works as i had hoped.

Also one more benefit i found to having two high capacity batteries.. i can set the charger to storage (3.8 volts per cell) mode for long battery life and still get around an hour run time. Lipos if stored more then a month need to be stored at half capacity to maintain a long cylce life. Lithium is very corrosive and if stored at max voltage over time i guess it can ruin pack cycle life.

 

[Pfaulk54271]

This is freakin awesome, very nice job man, great run time too. Only downside is its not waterproof. I'm gonna have to do somthing like this now, I work with HID's everyday and I can get a slim ballast that will operate on 7-20V, its nice and small too, I can also get any bulb I need. What is a nice big "shell" to start with and where can I Get good lithium packs for it?
Thanks,
Pat

 

[liteitup]

This is freakin awesome, very nice job man, great run time too. Only downside is its not waterproof. I'm gonna have to do somthing like this now, I work with HID's everyday and I can get a slim ballast that will operate on 7-20V, its nice and small too, I can also get any bulb I need. What is a nice big "shell" to start with and where can I Get good lithium packs for it?
Thanks,
Pat

thanks bud!

Definitely not waterproof but i can say the good thing is the fan on the side pushes air out of the light so you would just need to keep the back covered to use it in some light rain..

the lithium batteries i got off ebay. Two 14.8 volt 4000mah lipo packs and a lipo/lico/nimh/nicad/lead acid/a123 charger all for 75 bucks delivered.. These batteries worked perfect with this light because the tray that held the 6v lead acid battery fit the width of the lipos perfectly. Just took some dremeling to extend it.

I think vector still makes this light just slightly different check around for it... was a perfect host for me!

here it is http://www.autobarn.net/vec141y.html i havnt looked around but im sure you could find a better price then this place. just the first pic i came across

 

[haji]

Hi,

Great job!
I have a question about the twin lipo packs and charging.
Does the charger see ~4.2v for each cell still?
The amperage doubles though, right?
The charger doesn't care about the amps doubling?
Does the charger take longer?
I have a cyclops I HID'd, and plan to give it the lipo treatment.


Thank you,
Haji

 

[liteitup]

Hi,

Great job!
I have a question about the twin lipo packs and charging.
Does the charger see ~4.2v for each cell still?
The amperage doubles though, right?
The charger doesn't care about the amps doubling?
Does the charger take longer?
I have a cyclops I HID'd, and plan to give it the lipo treatment.


Thank you,
Haji

thanks

The charger sees 4.2v per cell as normal.
The amp hours do double
The charger doesnt care. It charges the battery until it sees that its charged as the two 4ah cells in parallel balance and act as one 8ah cell...
it takes around twice as long as the single pack to charge, but my charger is only capable of 50 watts output. If you had a higher rated charged it could charge faster.

The way i wired it both packs deliver their power through the pack leads hooked up in parallel. I then connected the balance connectors together in parallel to keep the associated cells synced.

 

[SmurfTacular]

Very creative way of measuring from google earth.