A newbie with high hopes...

Well, I have been reading these forums and decided to take the plunge as you seem like a nice bunch of people. I am preparing a very special build with no experience; so please be patient.

I am an ultralight custom gear sort of guy and I will be travelling to Africa in January. I am a medic and work in canine search and rescue. I hate buying pre-made because it never meets my needs. I am thinking about a design like the aviator but it doesn't quite do it for me.

I want the ability to use xenon bulb for a search light; it is rare for me to use it but when I need it, it has to be bright and work without a second thought. I want it regulated like the aviator and I can't find any other kits, supplies or lights that offer a regulated xenon bulb. Am I right to assume that no other person/ group produces this?

I mainly use LEDs in a headlamp. I like three with the option to use 1 or three as needed. So to be frank I am in love with Atomic Chicken's mod called the Aviatrix. A single red with 2 white would be sweet but until he shows up here I guess I will have to wait.

I need a renewable power source because I doubt I will find CR123A cells in Africa. I have decided on 2 protected 3V 1800-2500mAh RCR123A as a power source. I will have a few back-up cells and a small solar charger with me. I choose these cells because the rest of my electrical gear uses these cells and I don't want multiple cell types.

As if this isn't strange enough I plan to overhaul the packaging. I want to use it mainly as a headlamp wired to the battery pack on the back of my head. I also want to be able to attach the two pieces to form a hand held light like the old army L lights that can attach to my web gear. I want the light part to be adjustable in direction. I don't want to buy the aviator only to destroy a beautiful light.

Well there other strange little features but I will leave it at that for now. First of all, am I re-inventing the wheel? Does someone already produce something like this? Does someone have the electronics in a kit that I could buy? The case is easy for me but the electronics are pretty new to me. Is this even possible? Thanks in advance for everyones input.

Adam

Hello Adam and welcome to CPF

About the incan driver take a look here:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/168596

About the power source:

RCR123 LiIons doesn't have a capacity of more than max. 800mAh per cell, the castrated 3Volts even less. Also the capacity of a cell depends on the discharge current, the more the less capacity.

I recommend 18650 LiIons, much more capacity and less cells required.

But don't to forget, be careful with LiIons and heat (Africa). Storage temperatures at about 60 degrees will reduce their lifespan dramatically.

I crossed the Sahara in summer and measured temperatures of 58 degrees at shadow:sweat:...:sweat:...:sweat:

In such situations it would be helpful to store the batts. in a frige.

Good luck that you will find what you are looking for and

best regards

____
Tom

This idea is possible but is going to require quite a bit of work, especially the headband part..

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, I will do my best to keep up with all this info.

The head band will actually be pretty simple. I will sew a wire along half the head band with a male and female connector on either end. The connection points to the battery and light will be recessed and waterproofed. The battery pack will have a male connector that can plug into the wire in the head band or directly into the light assembly's female connector. Essentially the head band just acts as an extension.

In terms of mod and building I am guessing my battery pack/ solar charger will be harder but who knows. I am working with some people to create a lithium polymer battery pack. I think that I will get better run times and use with LIPOs then the RCR123A. Heat is a big issue and I don't really know if there is a way around it. The charger/ battery casing will be made from titanium so not much will physically damage it. I am debating wrapping and burying the batteries in the sand when not in use. I am not looking forward to that heat plus my only relief is the nighttime when I get attached by mosquitoes. :thinking:Strangely I still want to go.

What would really make my life easy is if I could get a diagram for wiring the regulator for the 6v xenon bulb and if atomic chicken would come back online and tell me if there is something unique about his LED ring and the Aviator or if I could use it in my device. I really like his idea.

Thanks again
Adam

Hi, um sorry long john. I was trying to figure out what an incan driver was and it just hit me. It's incandescent, opps. So now I need to know if I can use the aviatrix with this driver. If I can then I have finally sourced and picked my parts. Oh when, oh when will the atomic chicken return? I want to own something made by a chicken I hope his move went well and he can go back to making great mods easier for us. I am getting fidgety, I really want to start. Sorry again long john, I should have clued in before.

Adam

Long John said:

be careful with LiIons and heat (Africa).

Click to expand...

Yeah, be careful with lions in Africa.


Seriously though, let us know how your work goes and how your equipment works.

Torchboy, it isn't the lions I am worried about, it is the hyenas that laugh while the chew on you that I worry about. I was reading a post by a guy who was sleeping on top of his landrover while the hyenas chewed apart his tires.I will let you know what happens. I just realized I have an old LED light that has a driver perfect for this project and since I hate that light it is perfect. It has a fault in the casing so the contacts don't meet the batteries well. This is a great excuse to tear it apart.

Adam

Adam B said:

I was reading a post by a guy who was sleeping on top of his landrover while the hyenas chewed apart his tires.

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Ai-yi-yi. I think I'd be sleeping inside my Landrover.

As far as I know, if you want a regulated incan flashlight you need an A2. There is one exception, they sell a regulated incan at lightingpro.org called the Office-Lite-F1. It is the size of a 2D flashlight and runs on 8 AAs. I've never heard from somebody who has one. They also sell regulated incan headlamps that are designed to fit on helmets. The helmet headlamps have been sold for years to smoke jumpers and damage control.

Adam B said:

I want the ability to use xenon bulb for a search light; it is rare for me to use it but when I need it, it has to be bright and work without a second thought. I want it regulated

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What I'm about to say, I will saying realizing that it's difficult to select the tool that works better than the tool you'd rather use!

I think regulated incandescents are overrated unless you are overdriving the lamp. It's nice to have, but I wouldn't consider it vital, especially considering the added parts count (ie. opportunities for failure), and the low cost and portability of spare lamps.

Also, I realize you said you wanted to use rechargeables, but hear me out. CR123s are cheap (if bought in box quantity from Surefire or other bulk dealers) so you can buy like 100 of them and skip the liability of having to babysit lithium ions. CR123s are lightweight and extremely reliable.

Personally I don't think li-ion technology is mature enough or well-executed enough for me to place my life on it, due to issues I've personally had with bad chargers that over- or under-charge, bad cells that die suddenly, etc etc etc. A lot of the li-ion cells and chargers are cheap Chinese manufacture and liable to catch fire or just die.

Of course, if you are flying to Africa on a passenger jet, there may be limits to how many of any lithium-type cell you can carry with you. I'd say call the airline ahead of time, but we all know you will get a lot of non-answers hahaha.

My impulse is to stick with an off-the-shelf Surefire light with at least one spare lamp and maybe several of their watertight spare cell carriers. Of all the lights I own and carry, the Surefire M4 or M6 are my go-to lights when I want high output, little concern for runtime, and a minimum risk of failure.

Either way, I suggest you prepare to change your mind after 10 or 15 lights have made it your way. ;-)

scott.cr said:

What I'm about to say, I will saying realizing that it's difficult to select the tool that works better than the tool you'd rather use!

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After that intro I was sure you'd mention LED...

Personally i would have gone the LED way like this:

1.) Call wayne of Elektrolumens up and get him to do a custom QSP Head that just intigrates a Amphenol C16-1 female contact in its back.

2.) Get someone to make a flashlight body that runs on two of AW's Li-Ion C cells that has a Amphenol C16-1 male contact in the end and a multi-level driver inside (then you can screw the head and the body together and apart)

3.) Get a headband made that intigrates a chassimount male contact of the Amphenol C16-1 at your forhead and just wire it to a female contact that you can attach on the body that you put in your pocket or belt holster, this way you have a headlamp of the same lamp.

4.) Get a 90 degree extension of the contact, then you can use it as a angle head light.

I honestly think 600+ lumens LED is enough when you need a searchlight, and if you use a good driver you can turn it down to a few lumens for low-light things.