Replacing a cumbersome 50w halogen flashlight

[Vamp]

Hi everyone, my name is Alex, and I'm a flashaholic!

This is my first post, and I would like to say that this forum is awesome!

Ok, what brings me here? Well, I need a flashlight of course!

The purpose is to replace a 50w cumbersome spot light. It should have good flood and decent throw, but doesn't exactly need to be just as powerfull, but I don't mind if it is even more!

I only need 2 modes : High and Low, Medium is ok too. I would prefer without unnecessary modes like strobes.

Considering the light needs (I recon I need at least 500 lumens, 2/3 of the 50w halogen), I'm thinking on going for a P7, but how about multiple Q5? :thinking:

it should also be tough, preferably with HA-III finishing.

So, I'm currently thinking on getting an Aurora AK-P7-5 HA-III SSC P7-C 2-Mode, I like how it looks and, from the pictures, the beam seems right.

What do think, is this a good one? ...or could I do better for +- the same price (say...no more than 40$ )?

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[M@elstrom]

1) are we talking USD or Euros?

2) does this price/budget include shipping?


Need more information :thinking:

 

[Nos]

take the spiderfire P7 from DX with 2 stage clicky, its worth the price and finished well

 

[Vamp]

Thanks Nos, that light looks nice, but is it HA-III? I'm kind of scared with the glass lens so close to the front.

My budget is tight... I have about 35€ = 50$ usd to spend on the light and battery (the charger I can make in like 10 min out of spare parts), including their respective shipping.

Besides having a powerful led, with a significant side spill but throwing some distance, I would like the light to have a nice look, decent overall quality and also not scratch easily. Ultimately, it should be able to survive essencialy unscathed if were to fall from the pocket, or from a table...

Electronics is my hobby, so I'm considering modding the flashlight some time in the future:
Drive: Adjustable Buck-Boost stage (maybe 3A max?) - I would then put a small dial on the side to adjust the output instead of having just high/low
Battery Indicator: A simple 4 point volt meter with 2mm leds (<3.0v blink red, 3.0, 3.3, 3.5, >3.6, in case it is 1*18650).
Becon: A circuit to make a red led flash periodicaly on the tail, using minimal current.

 

[zipplet]

Your price requirement makes this pretty difficult. If you could spend more I'd recommend the Fenix TK40. As it should be used with normal NiMH cells, you may already have a charger to pair with it

http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=696

Unfortunately, it is expensive.

 

[Vamp]

You bet it's difficult! I saw that light and it sure looks nice but out of the price range. I'm however looking for a battery that takes li-ion, as basically they last twice as long.
My 50W spot light actually uses a 4.5Ah 6v Battery and so I don't really have a charger for big NiMH cells, only for small ones.
Since my budget is small, I'm kind of stuck to buying on DX...

I was mainly looking at the aurora Aurora AK-P7-5 HA-III SSC P7-C 2-Mode:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15739


and, with modding in mind, the slighly over-budget 6*Q5 Romisen RC-T6:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15685


The Aurora appears to have a good anodizing a looks generaly nicer (nice color too ), it also has good reviews and has a convenient size. It could use a tough buck-boost stage capable of delivering 2.9A from anywhere bettween 2.5v and 12v in place of the resistor or weasely buck circuit it has. This would keep a steady brightness, and alow the use of CR123 if wanted.

The Romisen appears to have great pottential for improving the power, by looking at the pictures I see that the original drive appears to be easily boosted, by changing 3 resistors, if aditional cooling could be provided. A micro fan pulling air from the back cap and expelling the hot air thru a 1 cm hole on the side just under the heat sink could achieve this. The holes could have a cap in order to protect from the water (using a lower power mode).

These are my thoughts, what do you guys think?

 

[Mjolnir]

I'm not sure that it is wise to make your own lithium ion battery charger, unless you really know what you are doing. Overcharging lithium ion batteries can be very dangerous, as can charging overdischarged cells. Making one "out of spare parts" doesn't seem very safe to me. A charger is not a good place to cut costs if you are on a budget.

 

[Vamp]

I'm not sure that it is wise to make your own lithium ion battery charger, unless you really know what you are doing. Overcharging lithium ion batteries can be very dangerous, as can charging overdischarged cells. Making one "out of spare parts" doesn't seem very safe to me. A charger is not a good place to cut costs if you are on a budget.

Thanks for your concern, it is always a good advice to give as I'm certain that many would just conjure up a transformer and a resistance, with nasty results! but my idea was more of a PIC16F877(brain) a LM 35 (temperature), shunts (current), or a dedicated IC from Linear, plus MosFET (power), etc, and finally a salvaged 5v limited current switching power supply from a cell phone charger! ,
Actually, I would be more skeptic of some cheap chargers, but if I find a decent one at reasoneable price, I might get it instead and save me an whole afternoon of work (mostly programing the PIC/debugging )!

Anyway, it also came to my mind that it would be practical to have the charger integrated into the flashlight (again, with appropriate hw) and have a mini-usb plug, so that connecting it to the PC is all that would be needed!