wquiles
Flashaholic
Forum member Donn asked me several months back if I could work on a "special" project for him. Donn wanted a custom Mag light using the 6-die Ostar LED, but his goal was for this light to have the most throw possible, since most all lights using this die simply have a wide beam and not much else.
We went back and forth with several ideas, possibly using a 45mm reflector (same one I used on my McG45 custom light), or perhaps the large 3" reflectors that he was getting from another forum member. I recommended trying this out on the 3" reflector as the one it would have the best chance of working out for throw, even though I have not seen any light using this reflector/LED combination – something new and exciting for sure!
We then talked about how to drive this LED. From prior projects I knew I could count on the MaxFlex. Since the Vf of this LED is somewhere in the 20V range, this then dictated what battery source of 18 volts or less, to keep heat dissipation in the MaxFlex at a comfortable level. Donn and I discussed the choices we had, and Donn suggested two of the Kai 8.4V battery packs, which then determined the 4D body size.
Donn sent me all of the parts, and 3 reflectors: a smooth reflector, an orange peel reflector, and a stippled reflector. Prior experience with the 4-die 5W luxeon told me to try the smooth reflector first – so that is what I convinced Donn we should try first.
Thanks to forum member Mac, I knew that the LED had to reside "somewhere" inside the reflector to have any hope of achieving proper focus. Since this 6-die LED came mounted in a star, I naturally had a catch 22 problem: To "try" a reflector meant that I have to not only bore out the reflector quite a bit to have the star go through this big hole, but also have the LED mounted in some sort of "fixture" that would allow some focusing to determine the optimum range – basically I had to almost assemble the light to find out if it would work or not – definitely not for the faint of heart.
Donn understood the risks of creating this light and agreed for me to give it a try, so here follows the pictorial process of the birth of Donn's custom light – the QDOMM4D15 – the Quiles Delghi Ostar Mirage Man 4D 15Watt. Note that many great things here in the forums, this custom light is possible by contributions from several great forum members:
The QDOMM4D15:
- Designed and built by Quiles (with lots of good feedback from Donn)
- Custom head/reflector/glass by Delghi
- Custom HAIII 4D body/head by Mirage Man
- MaxFlex driver by TaskLED
- 2x Kai 8.4V cell packs
- special thanks to Mac for helping me with the LED/reflector focusing questions I had for him
So here is the package of parts I got from Donn (smooth reflector already inside the 3" head):
Here you can see how big of a hole I would had to make in the reflector to get the LED to rest inside the reflector:
Like with my McG45, the reflector is so long, that the end of the reflector actually goes inside the body of the light. I used a trick I learned here in the forums to see how deep the reflector would go:
When I removed the head, I was then able to measure how deep the reflector sits:
Since these LED's can get hot at the high drive levels, I designed a custom heatsink that would be the largest possible, and that it would mount the LED in a tower/pedestal so that I could have possible range of focus by screwing the head in/out.
So I got some good old round Al piece and started the long process of getting the custom heat sink made:
Now, to make the tower/pedestal I had to make a custom cutter for my lathe. I used a hex wrench, which I had to cut/taper in my grinder. Because it was so thin, I had to use another cutter to hold it in place:
Here is the new cutter in use:
And here is the end result of the tower/pedestal:
Here I am using a regular Luxeon star for a reference. A sharp eye will note that I made the DIA of the pedestal smaller than the size of the star – I did this since I will make the star as small as possible – the goal being to make the hole in the reflector as small as possible:
Once I cut the heatsink and getting the other side smooth, I checked for length – it was still a tad long (the heatsink rests on the split ring, at the top of the switch):
I cut some more, and now it fits almost perfect:
Then I need to work on the other side, as I need enough space for the driver, plus some room for the wires on top of the switch:
I then cut to the final length, and now it fits like in my paper design:
I then proceeded to work on the LED tower/pedestal. I wanted to cut 6 holes to match the star, but I needed something to hold the heatsink without damaging the edge I just finished earlier, so I created a holding ring from some plastic bushings I had in my work area:
I locate the center with my laser guide:
And then proceeded to get holes made every 60 degrees:
Three of the holes were drilled all the way through to give me a couple of wiring alternatives:
Since I wanted to make sure the LED was centered perfectly, I created a centering fixture out of Delrin:
Now, I placed the LED in its mount, with two-part Thermal epoxy, picked two of the holes as guides (to keep the LED aligned), and placed the heatsink, LED, and centering fixture in a small D-size body:
Once the epoxy is dry, it looks like this:
I then proceeded to very carefully "trim" the excess star material until I get it down to the DIA of the tower/pedestal:
I now go and make a big hole in the reflector. Luckily, I was able to re-use the centering ring to keep the reflector in place:
Now, after all of this work, I can finally test if my initial design ideas/measurements would hold true.
Seeing that mechanically everything worked out, I wired the LED to test it with my bench supply:
When I first powered the LED from my bench supply, I almost felt down when I saw this almost perfect beam on the wall. Best of all, the focus point "is" adjustable like I hoped it would be:
So I started to work on wiring the driver (actual driver on the top right just in case you were wondering!).
I did a quick test and verified that the driver works fine:
Although the battery differential and the Vf times the current is not huge, I still wanted to give the driver some thermal relief, so I cut this small round Al piece to provide a thermal path back to the actual heatsink:
With thermal epoxy, I glued it to the board, then the board to the heatsink:
I then added a few drops of two-part clear epoxy to keep the driver firmly in place:
I of course had to modify the stock switch to momentary, which the MaxFlex requires. I will do another tutorial on this "D" switch as it is very different than the "C" switch. I tested it to make sure the switch worked well: open circuit while not pressing the button, and short circuit while pressing the button (0.2 Ohms is the resistance of the probes):
I then mated the switch to the heatsink:
and added the split ring – it will lock in place once I push everything down into the body:
Then apply some liberal amount of thermal paste, and push down in place. Clean excess paste once in place:
Install batteries, hit the switch, and pray that all that hard work paid off:
"A view to a kill" (futile attempt at James Bond humor …)
So the big question now, how does it work?
All photos with Canon Rebel XT on tripod. Manual focus, manual exposure, 2 sec @ F4 from Canon 24-105mm lens set to wide angle. MaxFlex set to the 1Amp table – shots on highest level.
Beamshot #1 – Pointing to the side of my neighbor:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
Beamshot #2 – Pointing to a group of trees across the street:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
Beamshot #3 – Pointing down the street, so that you can see more of the sidebeam:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
That is for now. Donn's new light will leave towards him first thing Monday morning. Thanks again Donn for letting me work on this custom light for you - it was fun :thumbsup:
Will
We went back and forth with several ideas, possibly using a 45mm reflector (same one I used on my McG45 custom light), or perhaps the large 3" reflectors that he was getting from another forum member. I recommended trying this out on the 3" reflector as the one it would have the best chance of working out for throw, even though I have not seen any light using this reflector/LED combination – something new and exciting for sure!
We then talked about how to drive this LED. From prior projects I knew I could count on the MaxFlex. Since the Vf of this LED is somewhere in the 20V range, this then dictated what battery source of 18 volts or less, to keep heat dissipation in the MaxFlex at a comfortable level. Donn and I discussed the choices we had, and Donn suggested two of the Kai 8.4V battery packs, which then determined the 4D body size.
Donn sent me all of the parts, and 3 reflectors: a smooth reflector, an orange peel reflector, and a stippled reflector. Prior experience with the 4-die 5W luxeon told me to try the smooth reflector first – so that is what I convinced Donn we should try first.
Thanks to forum member Mac, I knew that the LED had to reside "somewhere" inside the reflector to have any hope of achieving proper focus. Since this 6-die LED came mounted in a star, I naturally had a catch 22 problem: To "try" a reflector meant that I have to not only bore out the reflector quite a bit to have the star go through this big hole, but also have the LED mounted in some sort of "fixture" that would allow some focusing to determine the optimum range – basically I had to almost assemble the light to find out if it would work or not – definitely not for the faint of heart.
Donn understood the risks of creating this light and agreed for me to give it a try, so here follows the pictorial process of the birth of Donn's custom light – the QDOMM4D15 – the Quiles Delghi Ostar Mirage Man 4D 15Watt. Note that many great things here in the forums, this custom light is possible by contributions from several great forum members:
The QDOMM4D15:
- Designed and built by Quiles (with lots of good feedback from Donn)
- Custom head/reflector/glass by Delghi
- Custom HAIII 4D body/head by Mirage Man
- MaxFlex driver by TaskLED
- 2x Kai 8.4V cell packs
- special thanks to Mac for helping me with the LED/reflector focusing questions I had for him
So here is the package of parts I got from Donn (smooth reflector already inside the 3" head):
Here you can see how big of a hole I would had to make in the reflector to get the LED to rest inside the reflector:
Like with my McG45, the reflector is so long, that the end of the reflector actually goes inside the body of the light. I used a trick I learned here in the forums to see how deep the reflector would go:
When I removed the head, I was then able to measure how deep the reflector sits:
Since these LED's can get hot at the high drive levels, I designed a custom heatsink that would be the largest possible, and that it would mount the LED in a tower/pedestal so that I could have possible range of focus by screwing the head in/out.
So I got some good old round Al piece and started the long process of getting the custom heat sink made:
Now, to make the tower/pedestal I had to make a custom cutter for my lathe. I used a hex wrench, which I had to cut/taper in my grinder. Because it was so thin, I had to use another cutter to hold it in place:
Here is the new cutter in use:
And here is the end result of the tower/pedestal:
Here I am using a regular Luxeon star for a reference. A sharp eye will note that I made the DIA of the pedestal smaller than the size of the star – I did this since I will make the star as small as possible – the goal being to make the hole in the reflector as small as possible:
Once I cut the heatsink and getting the other side smooth, I checked for length – it was still a tad long (the heatsink rests on the split ring, at the top of the switch):
I cut some more, and now it fits almost perfect:
Then I need to work on the other side, as I need enough space for the driver, plus some room for the wires on top of the switch:
I then cut to the final length, and now it fits like in my paper design:
I then proceeded to work on the LED tower/pedestal. I wanted to cut 6 holes to match the star, but I needed something to hold the heatsink without damaging the edge I just finished earlier, so I created a holding ring from some plastic bushings I had in my work area:
I locate the center with my laser guide:
And then proceeded to get holes made every 60 degrees:
Three of the holes were drilled all the way through to give me a couple of wiring alternatives:
Since I wanted to make sure the LED was centered perfectly, I created a centering fixture out of Delrin:
Now, I placed the LED in its mount, with two-part Thermal epoxy, picked two of the holes as guides (to keep the LED aligned), and placed the heatsink, LED, and centering fixture in a small D-size body:
Once the epoxy is dry, it looks like this:
I then proceeded to very carefully "trim" the excess star material until I get it down to the DIA of the tower/pedestal:
I now go and make a big hole in the reflector. Luckily, I was able to re-use the centering ring to keep the reflector in place:
Now, after all of this work, I can finally test if my initial design ideas/measurements would hold true.
Seeing that mechanically everything worked out, I wired the LED to test it with my bench supply:
When I first powered the LED from my bench supply, I almost felt down when I saw this almost perfect beam on the wall. Best of all, the focus point "is" adjustable like I hoped it would be:
So I started to work on wiring the driver (actual driver on the top right just in case you were wondering!).
I did a quick test and verified that the driver works fine:
Although the battery differential and the Vf times the current is not huge, I still wanted to give the driver some thermal relief, so I cut this small round Al piece to provide a thermal path back to the actual heatsink:
With thermal epoxy, I glued it to the board, then the board to the heatsink:
I then added a few drops of two-part clear epoxy to keep the driver firmly in place:
I of course had to modify the stock switch to momentary, which the MaxFlex requires. I will do another tutorial on this "D" switch as it is very different than the "C" switch. I tested it to make sure the switch worked well: open circuit while not pressing the button, and short circuit while pressing the button (0.2 Ohms is the resistance of the probes):
I then mated the switch to the heatsink:
and added the split ring – it will lock in place once I push everything down into the body:
Then apply some liberal amount of thermal paste, and push down in place. Clean excess paste once in place:
Install batteries, hit the switch, and pray that all that hard work paid off:
"A view to a kill" (futile attempt at James Bond humor …)
So the big question now, how does it work?
All photos with Canon Rebel XT on tripod. Manual focus, manual exposure, 2 sec @ F4 from Canon 24-105mm lens set to wide angle. MaxFlex set to the 1Amp table – shots on highest level.
Beamshot #1 – Pointing to the side of my neighbor:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
Beamshot #2 – Pointing to a group of trees across the street:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
Beamshot #3 – Pointing down the street, so that you can see more of the sidebeam:
- Ambient
- Surefire M6 with Regulated HDM6 LiIon pack – MN21 bulb
- Donn's QDOMM4D15
That is for now. Donn's new light will leave towards him first thing Monday morning. Thanks again Donn for letting me work on this custom light for you - it was fun :thumbsup:
Will
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