I plan on designing a light this summer

Tell me if anybody would be interested in this idea I had:

Flask shaped casing would make it fit in the pocket.

Black anodized metal construction.

As far as battery construction goes, I have decided to use 4, 3.7V 1000MaH rechargeable cell phone batteries which are flat so they will sit nicely inside and they will have plenty of life.

Lights will be 4 sandwich's holding 4 5W Luxeon LED's.

It will be regulated.

I do not know the dimensions yet but it will be light weight and strong and will fit in the pocket nicely.


A good buddy of mine is on the deans list at SDSU in the electrical engineering program so we plan on putting a lot of time and effort into the project this summer.

Comments and Ideas please!

sounds good!

sounds Bright!!!

Hello Ilikes...

It sounds good but it's imo impossible.:thumbsdow

Not in this configuration. When I understand you right, you want build in 4xLux 5 Led's? If so, you get a runtime of about 10-15 Minutes.
Which driver you want to use. I don't know any driver, which can do that.You will need 2 drivers. So the light at the end will be bigger, than you want.

Best regards

_____
Tom

Alright, how about 2x5W LEDs? I am rusty it has been months since I've been on this forum...I have been workin on my car not my lights
www.focusfanatics.com

How about a 5W flood and a 3W with a TIR optic?

Interesting Idea...certainly a possibility. Thanks man!

In such a little host, which you want, you will have to places with a heat problem. At the ermitters and at the batterys. This little phone accus are not build, to pull a lot of Amperes out.

Take a look to Electrolumens "Little Friend". I think this will be a nice light.
Only the aaa-cells are to little for my uses. I like more aa-cells. Think about the idea of a Trilux III, regulated, with 6xAA cells , in the dimensions of a SF L2.


I think, a lot of cpf'lers would like such a light.

Best regards

____
Tom

Designing such a light should be a very good experience! :thumbsup: You haven't stated that you plan to build it. Building such a light would be a completely different experience once again! I wish you great success and learning and a minimum of wasted time; yours as well as others.

Thanks a bunch McGizmo! I will have a lot to consider, but I think most importantly I should teach myself CAD. I feel that would be a good place to start. We'll see how it plays out!

4x 5W luxes will definately not be pocketable ( that depends on the size of one's pockets of course ) it would be very bright though. good luck

Yeah I think 4 x5W was an overshot, but I have a good idea of what I want it to look like and I think a combination of 2 LEDs..perhaps a tiros style and a 5W like was stated by Planterz would be a good idea. Perhaps I could make the Tiros LED adjustable. I could have one on at a time or have both on at a time. It would be cool to have a wide flood and a spot right above/below the flood because they would overlap at a certain distance. Do you guys think the cellphone battery is a good space saving alternative to a standard RCR2 or another form of standard shape/size rechargeable?

Basic concept sounds good. Maybe a tiny little find-me light and a low level extended runtime setting too?

I like that idea as well. A light for all purpose's! Thanks ken

Ilikeshinythings,
you said it would be flask shaped. It could be carried in a back pocket if it were the size of a large wallet or smaller. In that case, 4 LuxVs would fit fine. I'm not an expert modder (yet), but you are describing a 4000mAh battery pack. Maybe Long John misunderstood, but I get around 1 hour runtime using CPF's LED Pro Modder's program using a Vf of 4.2 (wild guess).
Always begin designing with what you want in mind. You already have people telling you to make it a Lux III keychain light. That's pretty far from what you had in mind. They can get that elsewhere. Who makes a compact 4 X LuxV? Figure out how to heatsink it. Maybe make the entire head copper. Don't worry about the cost of materials. People around here sell $5 worth of 6061 aluminum and a $30 emitter for $200+. Engineer value into the design and the materials will pay for themselves. You are innovative. Keep it that way.

Bernie

Good Advice Bernie. I will do the measurments and if I think I can fit that kind of light into it, I definitely will.

Alright, I've been doing some thinking and I'm really going to need some assistance here. I have decided I'm going to use 3X LED's regulated. In the middle, I will have an Optic 3W, and on either side of the optic I will have a 5W LED. My X03 uses 2XCR123's which are 3 volts each. Therefore 6 volts (regulated) to power one 3W LED. Will 4X 3.7V li-ion batteries be enough voltage to power all 3 of these LEDs at the same time? What kind of battery life would I expect?

I love the idea. I had been idly thinking of using an old cell phone as a host, maybe even the charging circuit from the original phone and putting in a lux.... giving a bright flashlight disguised as a phone...

For 2x 5 watt+ 1x 3watt=13 watts.

using direct drive: 13/3.7volts=3.51 amps draw w 3 leds running. If using 4x 1000ma-h Lipo cells=4000ma-hrs.

4000/3510= 1.14 hrs run time... very nice for 13 watts of super bright light. I'm not sure you need a driver board at all if you pick the Vf of the LEDs correctly.

Holland

Cool! That's comforting. The way it will work:

The center 3W spot light will be dimmable. The 5W flood lights will not be dimmable. There will be two rubber buttons, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left will turn on the spotlight, to dim it one will need to hold down the button. The button on the right will turn on the Flood lights. It will be possible to have them both on at the same time. I really believe this will have the potential to create a good amount of light from a small pocketable flashlight.

Hi ILST
Sounds like a cool project. I thought about a pocket light of a flask shape before too. Long round lights always end up sideways at the bottom of my pocket - an uncomfortable position. But thinner is better for a flat light.
Will the current capacity of the cell batteries support the flux of Lux 5's?

For a free easy to learn simple CAD program, try the one provided by emachineshop.com, it has audio guides to get you started. Once you learn one CAD program, they get easier to learn. I have learned and used five CAD systems in my career. IMSI TurboCad is a good second step and more sophisticated and flexible. I got a copy for hobby use a couple of years ago for $50 at Best Buy, but I don't know what it is now.

Good luck