Oh, where to start; where to learn?
I'm finally at the point where drop-ins aren't quite doing it for me anymore (ya know the feeling?
) and I am really interested in steeping up to some basic mods... like changing a driver or an emitter... things like that. I know nothing about doing this kind of thing and even though I own a soldering gun, I have no idea where to begin learning the basics of driver circuits, soldering, emitters, flashlight electronics.
I'm wondering if I should just buy a couple of bare emitters, a few driver/circuit boards, and P6 reflector and try to put them together? But I don't know what to buy or where to start. I've got plenty of Surefire & SF-clone heads, bodies, and tailcaps to host my concoctions.
Any suggestions on where to get started learning flashlight electronics? I'm super eager to get into this! Whatever suggestions or links to tutorials would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. lovecpf
Read the CPF FAQs to learn a little about driver boards, LEDs, forward voltage, constant current, regulation, etc.
For soldering, Google will give you many sources on how to do it. After reading, though, you really have to get some hands-on. Get some cheap, throwaway DX components (e.g., reflector/pill/spring kit, Cree P4 emitter on a 14mm base, 17mm diam driver board) and put together a simple 6P drop-in. Practice soldering wires to a driver board, connecting wires to an emitter (bare, or mounted on a base or a star), applying thin layers of thermal compound and thermal epoxy, etc.
Figuring out which driver board to select will give you some hands-on in matching a product with specifications (i.e., what driver board voltage range, drive current, etc to pick for a given LED, desired lumens output, run time, envisioned battery configuration, etc). DX has a lot of driver boards to examine and select -- boost, buck, linear regulator, single mode, multimode, various drive currents, various input voltage ranges.
Another nice, slightly more advanced project is to build one of AW's Turbo towers (search the CPF Marketplace Dealer's Corner). PM me if you want some guidance on selecting a driver board and LED.
A fairly easy project, if you have a Blackhawk Gladius, is to upgrade the Luxeon II to a Seoul P4. The hardest part might be opening the head.
An approachable, follow-on project could be one of those Maglite mods for a Cree MC-E or Seoul P7.
Then, you can start looking on CPF at the various projects others have done and figure out for yourself what is within your interests and capabilities. Cracking open a SureFire KL4 and mod'ing it for a Cree MC-E could be the next step.
For a soldering iron, even one of those cheap $10 Radio Shack pencil irons is probably good enough to start. It is nice to have a better iron though at some point. The Xytronic 379, Hakko 936, and Circuit Specialists CSI Deluxe Station all seem like good choices (I need to get one of these for myself!).
Handy tools/supplies (besides the soldering iron and solder):
- Digital multimeter
- Lux meter
- Fujik thermal compound
- Fujik thermal silicone glue
- Arctic Alumina thermal compound
- Arctic Alumina thermal epoxy
(the Arctic Alumina products are preferred, but they are much more expensive, so maybe just get the Fujik stuff first, which is very inexpensive)
- regular hardware store epoxy
- diagonal wire cutters
- Teflon-insulated, stranded wire (various gauges, but certainly 24 ga and 26 ga, and various colors). Very useful for wiring up various projects. Standard PVC-insulated wire is much harder to solder neatly to flashlight electronics because the PVC tends to shrink/melt back when the soldering iron gets close.
- small magnets (useful for connecting batteries in series temporarily, etc)
- test LED (e.g., a bare Luxeon I emitter or even a Cree P4 on a 14mm base) mounted on any sort of metal substrate for a heat sink -- Put down some thermal compound under the LED and then apply some regular epoxy around the periphery of the LED to secure it to your makeshift heat sink. No sense in wasting expensive Arctic Alumina epoxy. Solder wires to the emitter terminals and also solder some small alligator clips to the ends of the wires. You can easily test driver boards for function with this test LED, measure driver board current, etc.
- needlenose pliers
- sharp knife (like an Xacto knife)
- third hand soldering stand, with magnifier
- tweezers
- isopropyl alcohol (good for cleaning things before soldering, cleaning the gummy Seoul emitter domes). Don't get IPA with colored dyes or perfumes.
- microfiber (lintless) cloth (such as for cleaning AR-coated eyeglass lenses)
- jeweler's screwdrivers
Edited to add: A Dremel tool can be another useful tool. The jeweler's (pecision) screwdrivers are usually available at Radio Shack. Same with the third hand (also on Amazon). Magnets, Arctic Alumina stuff available from Lighthound and-or The Sandwich Shoppe. Deal Extreme has low prices for basic electronic components. PhotoFanatic is a great source for LEDs and Arctic Alumina. Mudman cj sells teflon wire. The Fujik stuff is available from Deal Extreme.
