The Light Rat, self made 7x Cree P4 spotlight

[worldedit]

My flashlight addiction started with a Fenix L2D-CE. I thought it was bright enough for all purpose. But this feeling didnt last long.

An evil plan grew in my mind and i yust needed the following items realize it:
7 cheap Cree dropins like sold at kaidomain or dealextreme
6 NimH D-sized cells
metal plate to hold the dropins
cheap handheld spotlight they fit in

A friend who is more handy than me made a steanless steel plate to hold the dropins. The original swith had to be replaced cause it melted under current of 3.5A.

Some glue and tape to hold it together and there it is: the queen of understatement my Light Rat. A piece of junk that gives some serious lumens. I made a comparison beamshot with my L2D-CE on high (the Light Rat is the brighter one ).



technical data:

bulb: 7 Cree P4
battery: 7.2V 10Ah NimH
consumption: 23 Watt
output: 800-1000 lumen
runtime: about 2.5h
weight: 1.5 kg

 

[worldedit]

Sorry, i hit the wrong category.

 

[PaulHsu]

wow wee wow!

 

[speederino]

That's pretty sweet. A budget Stunner!

I love all the light my EL Stunner puts out, it's like a ROP with GREAT runtime. Too bad they are $$$$. This looks like a practical alternative. The beamshot says it all.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Wow... very nice! That's a jawdropper in my book.

 

[worldedit]

Thanks for your kind words. I thought you woult tear me apart for building such a peace of crap. I know there are much better lights i could buy, but i enjoy building something as much as using it.

 

[Ken_McE]

Got any pics of the insides?

 

[worldedit]

Its just the dropins, the D-cells and some crazy cabling . Since it has plastic threads i made a charging connector on the outside so i dont have to open it again.

 

[monkeyboy]

Hello Worldedit

welcome to cpf

I think that's a really good idea to use the cree dropins. That way you don't have to mess around with driver boards or worry about driver board issues.

 

[EssLight]

That's an impressive light, and a creative, inexpensive way to put together multiple crees.

I like how you melted the original switch.

EssLight

 

[speederino]

I thought you woult tear me apart for building such a peace of crap.

The best lights are 'sleeper' lights - looks like a K-Mart POS, but shines with the big dogs! That's why the hotwire Mag mods are so popular I think. It's all about the light that comes out the front end.

Your use of the Cree drop-ins is pretty innovative. I'm going to have to try that!

 

[legtu]

looks great but how did you address the heasinking of the leds and heat dissipation?

 

[worldedit]

The dropins provide a little heat sink themselves, but i wouldnt use it for more than 10 minutes continuos. The metal plate is only 2mm strong. Making one out of 10-20mm aluminium would make a good heat sink.

 

[CompFreak247]

That looks amazing! How much money/time did you spend, all said and done?

 

[Paul6ppca]

I like it Im gonna have to try something like this!!Any outdoor beamshots?

 

[Gryloc]

How about a picture of the buisness end? I heard of someone taking one of those cheap 100-200 LED flashlights that have large heads, and adding three or four of those 27mm dia Cree dropins. It was a cheap monster that threw light like our good ol tri- and quad- modded Mags. I was thinking about doing that (for a super cheap "what the hell" light), but the $20+ price tag for one of those cheap Chinese lights that I would tear the majority of the guts out bugged me enough where I just put the idea on the back burner. Good job though. I am trying to dive into the area of 5+ LEDs even more, but my ideas require expensive optics and drivers. I just may have to order a bunch of those Cree dropin kits and have a go at it. Might as well use a cheaper host like one of those little 4D lanterns from Walls-Mart. Thanks for sharing your light.


-Tony

 

[worldedit]

Sorry, totally forgot this thread.

You can get those dropins for 10$ each. I bought them one by one on ebay (didnt know DX and KD at that time) for a bit more. The 6 D-cell NimH cost about 45$, but they where in my drawer anyway. It didnt really take much time to build (just much hot glue but it took long to get all the parts together.

Cant do outdoor beamshots cause i dont have my own camera. I took it out some nights for geocaching. I often hear strange noises in the forrest, so i just turn on the Lightrat and see which animal it was standing 100m away. Completely kills your nightvision and makes my Feniy look like a mini mag. I still prefer to use my Fenix cause its (a bit) more handy.

Planing a Lightrat V2 atm since i found some really small reflectors at Kaidomain. Will post about it in a few weeks.

 

[SafetyBob]

That is a great light!!!! What all of us want to know is how did you wire up the droppins? It had to be serial, right? Also, since I don't know alot about chargers, what kind (brand, make, size, give us anything) of charger are you using to recharge this thing.

Like everyone else here, as a noob, trying to figure out what and how many LED's and what driver with what battery combination is driving me crazy. Your solution is looking really, really good.....practical, and most importantly, doable. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Bob E.

 

[worldedit]

Negative port is the housing of the dropins. I wound some wire around the back of the dropins to secure them on the metal plate. Soldered the negative cable to this wires. Not a really good solution but it works.
The positive port is a spring soldered at the end od the dropin. I desoldered the Springs and soldered the positive cable directly to the dropins.

I have a Gaupner multi charger 6E i once bought to charge my battery packs for RC cars and boats. Its a constant current charger for 1.2-12V. Those RC-packs are also 6 cell 7.2V, but they are a bit long to fit in a flashlight. Thought about using them in the light but it didnt work.

 

[mds82]

are you powering the LED's directly from the battery, or do you have some sort of driver for this?