Focusable Flashlight for a baitboat

Hi All,

Let me introduce firstly, I'm 43years old, live in Germany and am a passionate fisherman.

Also this forum seems to be the biggest re LED and flashlights and quite plenty postings and tips can be found herein, I would have a new question, it looks like none came so far with this crazy question.

So, I need your help and I hope to get some hints and tips. It is about the flashlight I want to use on my baitboat. What is a baitboat? Well it is a RF controlled boat which serves me to bring out my fishing rigs in the water (I attach a picture). Sometimes it has to carry them a long way (200m), also during the night. Here a picture of my toy. In the mean time I changed the Walter Xenon flashlight to a no name 5W LED torch, which produces a lot of light, but the beam is not focusable and that is the problem in my case. I really need a good focusable spot. Reason being: I use the flashlight not only for front illumination but mostly for BEARING THE DIRECTION. Thus, any spill is not wanted, I need a sharp focus spot, guess 10° or so.

I thought modding a Maglite, seems to be the best solution (cheap, focusable…). Here the questions:

1LED:
- Ostart LEDs seem to have a big module (4 or 6 leds) and I learned herein that this is a con when it comes to focus.
- Next choice: a CreeQ5 or a SSC (W42180) P4, driven at ~1A for ~200Lumen output.
Which one is the better choice in a mag? I had a look in the data sheet and can't find to much of a difference, only thing could be the viewing angle, the Cree has only 90°, P4 has 132°.Should I go for the P4?

2. What reflector should I choose? Also, from where, please post some shops. As said above: sharp spot would be the best for me, no spill at all. The mag should be still focusable.

3. What heat sink? Would need a drop in module, can money buy that somewhere? Ah, the original 3W replacement module for the mag seems not that good, I red about poor thermal design and issues…

4. Please help me also on optics: reflector, glass lens, I have no clue about that. Is a reflector or a secondary optics (glass lens) better? What are the best components in terms of quality (glass, special coating etc)? Again, hints where I could buy them are welcome.

5. Driver: I need to dim the led. The boat has 6v lead batteries (14Ah), so no issue on providing the current.
My actual light on the boot is fed from the output of a receiver channel, the voltage is PWM controlled (RF) and I could easily filter it to have an analog voltage between 0V and 5,5V. But how to hook up this to a driver/converter? I need a step down with trim input. Found some having a pot but I feel I can not just drive the middle pin with an analog voltage. Would need either the schematic or even better, some hints from the board designer. Any help on this possible?

Well, guess these is my first bunch of questions. Thanks for any help!

Juergen






PS. sorry, the picture seems quite big.

:welcome:. Nice toy. Where can I buy one? Change the xenon lamp using LED solarforce 225 lumens, very bright and can see distance. There is two choices on this replacement upgrades, one have one setting only which give out 225 lumens and the other have 5 setting which you can have full power, medium, low, strobe and S.O.S. For the backup which you don't need because LEDs last 50,000 hours, but if you still need one just get the same one and pput it to the other side, and also if you need full power then you can turn both on which is give you very bright infront of your boat.

Just wonder, how long do you normally use this boat at one time?

Hi Gladius01,

thanks for your reply!

You could buy the basic version of the boat here (Germany http://en.koederboot.de/ )but I'm sure you get such stuff in US as well!. I tuned my boat a bit: all the lights, sonar depth finder, handle etc... The boat costed me at that time ~€700 + €300 material I added into... However, very usefull toy for fishing from shore

During one night session the boat makes ~1km way, 30..40 mins in total... with 14Ah no problem.

So you would opt for the Surefire light. Do you now:
- if that fits in a Walter Xenon? Or waht body do I need ... focus is needed?
- and how could I dimm that via RF? I need to dimm the light down when the boat comes back to me, as looking into 200 Lumen is no pleasure. This is in general a issue I have no ideea how to approach. What I would need is a current control driver with voltage input for dimming. (i.e. the controller pin would need to undestand analog voltage) which in my view can't work with the standard (xFlex) driver. Maybe Shark would do it?

Rgds
Juergen

Well, for the LED, this driver is rated to 3.6-9v so it should work.

Maybe you could have the LED on a tilt board, when it's coming towards you, have the light tilted down so it does not shine in your eye.

Just because it has focus doesn't mean it will have no spill. You would need an optic if you don't want spill. But then you loose focus.

I'm thinking the above driver(or this one if you don't need 4, but this one has a bit less output), a Cree Q5 on a tilt-able heatsink with this optic.

:welcome:

Use a Cree XRE LED and an aspherical lens in a maglite and you will get a beam that is focusable to a tight line with almost no spilllight.
Look here for example.


Shark driver would maybe work, but remember that it is a boost driver, so you would need an extra battery for the light.

Why not use one of the drivers that use on/off sequences to switch through the different levels?
Search for flupic here on CPF
Or use two lights, one for the way out and one to find back.
Maybe laser pointer would work for the directionfor the direction?

Where exactly in bavaria are you?

Hi all.

and to pyro: guten tag! I'm from Augsburg. And you?

Thanks for the replies. I guess the aspheric lens sounds as my solution. I will try a laser as well.

I found the solution for hooking up a driver pot to my boat. for all electronic freaks and if there is anybody else looking for this crazy application: this circuit replaces a tap and accepts analog input voltage for adjustment. I should have googled before .... it is called a "voltage to resistor converter". ( http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/3284 )


All I need now is a step down converter (5..6V input), adjustable current up to 1A and of course: a potentiometer/tap. Exists something like that?

Juergen

I don`t know a step down converter wit an adjustment pot.
Could you use the filtered output of the receiver?
If that supplies about one amp it would be easy.

I am about 70km from Augsburg, so it would not be a problem to see if the lens fits your needs.