UniqueFire UF-DT1

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Packhorse

Packhorse

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 29, 2007
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1,912
Location
New Zealand
Got my hands on one of these today.
There seem to be a few variations of this, silver or black, Q5 XR-E or Q3 warm tint.



I ended up with the silver warm tint.

Im surprised at how warm the tint is although I must admit I have never had a warm tint LED before now. I dont like it. I think I would like it less in the water.
Beam is pretty consistent in shape to a W200 or P60 drop in XR-E.



But the light its self I do like. Its rated at 750ma. I have not removed the driver board or measured the current but it looks like a AMC7135 will drop right in so you could run it up to 1400ma. LED could also be easily swapped if desired. Perhaps a XP-G. But I have no plans to do that.

Battery is a single 18650 Li Ion cell.

The switch is what interests me. Its a magnet mounted on a spring on the outside of the tail cap. On the inside is a small PCB with a hall effect sensor and a PIC processor.

A couple of issues with the light I have come across so far.
At first I had trouble turning it on. It would just strobe at 15hz or so. I went to another cell and the issue was solved.
The other was removing the tail cap. The Orings are either the wrong size or the grooves are too small.

Anyway here is a pic of the disassembled tail cap. I intend to test this for implemendation into a can light. Not sure if it will handle the voltage or current.
I am hoping I can get it to run a MOSFET which will take care of the current. Not sure how to deal with the voltage.

UF-DT1.jpg


UFDT1.jpg
 
Update.

I tried hooking up the PCB to a 7.4v pack. and having it drive my twin SST-50 video light via a MOSFET. It didnt work.

This circut only has 2 connection points. One to the negative of the battery and one to the body of the light that carries the current up to the LED.
So its like any standard switch but the problem is that because its seeing extremely little load driving the MOSFET ( and a 10K resistor to shut the FET off when the switch is off) it doesnt have enough current going through it to power its self.
Now I am smart enough to know if I lower the impedance of the FET's resistor the circuit will carry more current. In the end I found 500omhs worked reliably.
Problem is I am not smart enough to figure out if this is a good reliable fix or its going to cause problems.
I would welcome any input on this.

Tomorrow I plan to mount the switch in a cannister.
 
Its done. Magnet, spring and retainer have been put on the outside of the can lid and on the inside is the PCB with hall effect sensor. The thickness of the lid is down to about 3 or 4 mm at this point butonly over an area of about 12mm diameter so I dont think it should be too much of an issue. Although in future I will consider putting the whole tail cap assembly into the lid. This will of course mean another hole in the lid but the tail cap does have dual O rings plus I can pot it from the inside if paranoid.
All in all Im pretty happy with this. Cost was $25 US and I am left with a warm white XR-E to play with ans the rest of the light which I may be able to do something with.
Next I may try mounting in the back of a light head.

canswitch.jpg
 
Thanks. I must I am really liking it. I haven't dived it yet but I have turned it on and off about 1000 times. :devil:

Its quite a simple solution too. You could fit this into any cannister lid without any special tools.
 
Pack,

Could you post some pics of the light head? I'm wondering how difficult it is to disassemble, swap the LED with an XM-L T6 and a 7135 based driver piggy-backed to 2.8A.
 
Cant sorry. Its now been modified for use with an aspheric lens and an old cell phone charger and is acting as a lathe light.

The pill un threads from the head. (it all comes apart very easy)
The XR-E sits on a small star similar to those that are in P60 drop ins.
The driver is probably an AMC already but if not the board size looks the same a a P60 drop in. There may not be room to put 2 1400ma AMC boards into the pil but there may be enough room to add 4 AMC's to a 4 AMC board.

So I would say it would be a pretty simple project. I'd recommend getting a P60 XML drop in since the XML star should fit and you would have half your driver ready ( and probably the other half already in the pill).

But really why bother?
Run time is going to reduced to 45 minutes or so. Which is nearly enough for one dive but no redundancy in power. If it was used before the dive you have a limited run time left.

I think a much better option would be to use a top bin XP-G. Right off you will gain a few lumen, the colour will be better for under water use than the warm white this came in ( Its avaliable in cool white too at some shops so I understand) plus you have the option of changing out the driver for a 1400ma AMC board.

So you will end up with over twice the lumen and still get about 1.5 hours of burn time which should be enough for most dives.
 
How are they compared to a W200? Still in need of a backup light and I'm wondering which one would be the better choice...
woops...meant to post this in the thread about the palight 😀
 
Well its much smaller, less output, warm LED, push button.

Its more comparable to an Intova but cheaper.
 
I've got one on the way. My plan is to swap the pill for a XM-L T6 and a 7135 based driver with 4, 5 or 6 chips for 1.4 to 2.1A current.

My primary use will be a daytime under rock light and nighttime backup.
 
My UF-DT1 arrived today. The light head is attached to the body tube very well. Pack, Can you remember if the light head was secured with thread-loc or otherwise sealed? Will have to put a strap wrench to it tonight...
 
Hi Packhorse. Newbie question. Why do you need a MOSFET? Is it because to handle the 7.4V as oppose to the 3.7V?
 
Turns out you CAN get the light head off of the body tube. It is glued / thread locked fairly well, but it can unscrew. Using a vice and a large pair of pliers I got mine apart. There is one thin o-ring between the body tube and the head. There's space for a second o-ring.

Photo11.jpg


The reflector screws into the light head and applies pressure to the glass lens. There is one small o-ring between the front of the light head and the lens providing waterproofing. Drop-in reflectors will not work with this torch.

Photo1-1.jpg


The pill also unscrews from the torch body. Normal drop-in pills will not work with this torch.

Photo12.jpg


Here is a comparison of the pill, reflector and the width of the thin glass lens. Yikes - wonder how deep this can go?!

Photo13.jpg


Here is the "driver" circuit board. There is only one current limiting resistor. Cheap!

Photo14.jpg


By popular request here is a close-up of the tail cap toggle circuit. The chip is a 12F683 PIC microcontroller. I suspect this functions as as JK flip-flop or 'toggle'.

Photo15.jpg
 
I've now replaced the LED with an XM-L T6 and the "driver" with an 8x 7135 board. It draws 2.9A at the tailcap.

Unfortunately the light only strobes very quickly when the switch is pressed and does not stay on. Will have a play with the resistor values over the weekend to see if I can get the switch working reliably.
 
Nice pics.

Yeah, that glass looks kinda thin. But then, it's not very wide either. Does it sit against the front of the aluminum reflector? That sounds like a recipe for stress points - AKA crack inducers. I'd think about honing the front edge of the reflector very smooth and flat for maximum depth capability, or even adding something between them to cushion it a little. If you're going to replace the LED anyway, you could cut down the top of the pill base and give yourself a little room to push the reflector back. Or maybe cutting it down isn't even necessary.

It almost looks like there is room for two more o-rings on the tube. Or is that last slot part of the threading?

That PIC12F683 is really overkill for the function, if that's all it does. A 10F200 would be adequate at 1/4 the size and 1/4 the price!
 
beekeeper5 said:
Hi Packhorse. Newbie question. Why do you need a MOSFET? Is it because to handle the 7.4V as oppose to the 3.7V?
Click to expand...

To be honest in my application it was replacing a reed switch so the MOSFET was already in place. The stock MOSFET may indeed handle the increase in voltage and maybe even current. I dont know. DIWdiver????

Sucnip: 10/10 for your product break down. Is it a warm white bin LED or cool? The die looks like a cool white. Mine was very orange looking.

I am a little surprised by the resistor but I guess a AMC driver could be a direct replacement.
While the lens is thin as DIW pointed out its not very wide so probably not much of an issue.
 
Almost any FET will handle 7.4V. As for increased current, that's another story. The current capacity of a FET is dependent on several factors, primarily the FET die that's chosen, the package it's put into, and how the package is mounted and any available heatsinking. I find it very unlikely that the little FET in that tailcap switch would handle the current that Packhorse is putting through his cannister light.

There are FETs in that package that can handle several amps, but it's not likely that's one of them. Also, the PCB would be pretty questionable at more than an amp, based on the trace sizes and some guesswork about how thin the plating might be.
 
DIWdiver said:
......Yeah, that glass looks kinda thin. But then, it's not very wide either........
Click to expand...

Packhorse said:
. .....While the lens is thin as DIW pointed out its not very wide so probably not much of an issue.
Click to expand...

I don't know the exact measurements of the front glass but looking on the Dealextreme website it says 3,7 cm wide overall for the uniquefire UF-DT1, so let’s guess the front glass is what 35 mm and it rests on a O-ring on the outer edge assuming 33 mm and the glass thickness maybe?? 3 mm.

On the German website of DevPein in the pdf catalogue there is a calculation for glass strength under water according to a DIN standard.
According to this calculation and the assumptions I made here above this front glass could resist 5 bar (with an 8 time safety).

The calculation is as follows for those who have some difficulties with the German language on that website:
(glass thickness in mm)^2 x 2640 / (glass outer diameter Ø in mm + O-ring in mm)^2= pressure in bar

In this case it would be (3)^2 x 2640 / (35 + 33)^2 = 5.1 bar = ± 40 mtr

I don't know if I would dare to ge that deep with this light 😗
 
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