WHOA!! 3C Luxeon First Mod.

WHOA. I NEVER knew I could do that. Remember those RadioShack 3C Aluminums that were on sale? I never touched them until now. Killed and gutted my CMG Reactor for the Luxeon and soldered onto the top (with the help of my dad) of the PR bulb holder that was hacksawed down. The problem is I'm afraid that I'll kill it soon. Isn't a Luxeon supposed to handle 3.6V? Putting 4.5V should kill it? Good thing they were used batteries. And another thing: my voltmeter shows that the voltage is dropping fast. Is it the "Dollar Store Batteries" effect? In ten seconds, it dropped from 3.40V to 3.36V. I'm no electronics nerd, so is that bad? (Looks bad.)

Pictures MAY come soon, pending the USB cable for digital camera.

-edit- Which I just found...; problem is, it shrinks the beams. (Yes, I have a cheapo HP 315 2.1MP)-/edit-

The 3C aluminum, next to my Dell and a pen for comparison.

More focused in.

The innards.

Shining upward.

HOW DO I RESIZE?!?!?!

Ever hear of Thumbs Plus! or similar software (pic format conversion, resizing, etc. Someting that came with your digital camera, perhaps??

Cheap batteries have a high internal resistance which will drop the volts when a neavy current drain is placed upon them. My 3D torch modded with 2 cyan LED's was installed with some cheap pound shop batteries which gave me hundreds of hours of operation (and maybe 1000's in moon mode). This is because the LED's draw so little current. A luxeon draws more power and cheap batteries will show thier weaknesses in a luxeon torch.
If you fill your torch with rechargeables, you should be able to direct drive your luxeon without causing it damage (1.2 * 3 = 3.6V, which is the operating voltage of your Luxeon.)
In practice, I find I can direct drive 5mm LED's in a 3 cell torch (white, cyan, blue and green Indium Gallium Nitride).
By the way, the pics need to be a bit more in focus... I can see the torch is a mag and that you have a luxeon mod in it, but I cannot make out any detail...better luck next time!

OMG... the focus is completely out... logicnerd, you should at the very least get your pictures in focus. If you should want any cropping/touching up feel free to mail those pictures to me at [email protected]

Originally posted by Nerd:
OMG... the focus is completely out... logicnerd, you should at the very least get your pictures in focus.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">WHO WANTS TO DONATE A GOOD DIGI CAM TO ME?? (Answer:Nobody.)

I'll see if I can dig up some software...

Originally posted by EMPOWERTORCH:

By the way, the pics need to be a bit more in focus... I can see the torch is a mag and that you have a luxeon mod in it, but I cannot make out any detail...better luck next time!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Nice guess, but the photos are way more out of whack than I think. It's a Radio Shack 3C that was modded.

OK, it's still out of whack, but I resized it. I was assuming that UBB had parameters that we could set. Uh-uh.

nice!

3c's is fine...as long as you have good heatsinking.

I didn't add any heatsinking, just the star.

err...don't run it for over a minute or so

Originally posted by Rothrandir:
err...don't run it for over a minute or so

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I've been running it continously for at least 6 minutes. (accidentally, but nothing happened)

just be careful, or the overall longevity may be slightly lessened