I had no idea how could I call this light, so I used the expression "Duty remote Q5 led". It does not help that I am not a native English speaker... :mecry: In Spanish, I would call it "luz de led Q5 frontal con conexión remota", which is not a direct translation 
The first time that I saw a Q5 led (in this forum) I was impressed, as having so much light from a so tiny thing was awesome... it looked like a small button to me, so I thought: "wouldn't it be great if we had this led in the pocket of a shirt, for instance?"
Then, a friend of mine who works in Law Enforcement needed a flood light, to be used when he issues tickets on the road, given that he needs both hands to write the ticket, hold the documents, etc... :thinking:
He liked the concept of the Zebralight, but he wanted to use a 18650 battery (perhaps there are Zebralights with this battery? I don't remember...) and most of all, he needed something that "blended" in the uniform, when not in use. Then, I searched in the forum, trying to find something like that, and given that I was not lucky, I offered him to "build" a light with this purpose on mind. It was fun!!
This is how this light looks when it is "off"
And when you turn on the flashlight, it looks like that:
I have no beamshots, but you all know how a Q5 led without reflector illuminates the whole area in front of the user. I love this technology!! :thumbsup:
This is what I used to make this light:
As you can see, it was a shampoo plastic bottle, an old cell phone charger, and a Q5 led. Also, it does not appear in the picture, but I purchased a Romisen DX flashlight, sku 7934:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7934
(it was one of the cheapest/simplest flashlights able to use 18650 batteries)
In my particular case, I had to cut a piece of the plastic cap, so that it looked like that:
And then, with a step drill bit, I opened the hole a little bit:
so that the led fits like a glove!
This is how it looks from behind. Totally flat:
Then, I opened a hole in one of the sides of the cap, and introduced the charger cable, soldering the led wires.
Another view:
I needed a heatsink, so I used a piece of an aluminum handlebar, and another piece of aluminum that I had laying around:
This is how it would go:
To "hold" the heatsink I used the "heatsink compound" from DX, as I have no arctic lumina or similar...
To "wear" the light on the uniform, I thought that it would be a good idea to use one of the DX "rare earth" magnets, so that one can place another magnet in the interior of the jacket, etc. It will look like that:
And I used some epoxy resin to stick the magnet:
And now it comes when I dissasembled the flashlight:
In this project, I intended to remove the glass, and place a black plastic in its place. I used the glass as a template, and then:
With the step drill bit, I opened a hole, off-centered, so that the flap of the flashlight holder would close better:
And assembled it again, reusing the O-ring:
And now I de-soldered the wires from the led:
Removed the led (no harm was done to the led ), and soldered the new wires:
(I did not take a picture of how the wires look with some shrink tube to protect them)
A couple of extra pics:
I hope that this can "inspire" you to create a better solution, as I am sure that there are lots of flaws in my design
This light does not replace a conventional flashlight (my friend always carry a regular one in his duty belt ), but it helps with some "flood light", inside a vehicle, searching something, etc, and of course, it is "portable", so that you can take the led from your chest, and use it as a regular flashlight, with lots of reach!
Notes:
* The user may use a cheapo holster to carry the flashlight, with the lower part open, so that he/she may turn on the light without taking the flashlight out of the holster.
* I need to improve this design, so that the led is a little bit recessed in its cap/host, to avoid any glare in the user. I am thinking about it these days...
* If I were to do this today, instead of a Q5 I would have used a P7, as its "wall of light" must be really awesome!!!!! In that case, I guess that it would be necessary to use a bigger "host" for the led, in order to use a bigger heatsink
Thanks for the great forum! :wave:
The first time that I saw a Q5 led (in this forum
) I was impressed, as having so much light from a so tiny thing was awesome... it looked like a small button to me, so I thought: "wouldn't it be great if we had this led in the pocket of a shirt, for instance?" Then, a friend of mine who works in Law Enforcement needed a flood light, to be used when he issues tickets on the road, given that he needs both hands to write the ticket, hold the documents, etc... :thinking:
He liked the concept of the Zebralight, but he wanted to use a 18650 battery (perhaps there are Zebralights with this battery? I don't remember...) and most of all, he needed something that "blended" in the uniform, when not in use. Then, I searched in the forum, trying to find something like that, and given that I was not lucky, I offered him to "build" a light with this purpose on mind. It was fun!!
This is how this light looks when it is "off"
And when you turn on the flashlight, it looks like that:
I have no beamshots, but you all know how a Q5 led without reflector illuminates the whole area in front of the user. I love this technology!! :thumbsup:
This is what I used to make this light:
As you can see, it was a shampoo plastic bottle, an old cell phone charger, and a Q5 led. Also, it does not appear in the picture, but I purchased a Romisen DX flashlight, sku 7934:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7934
(it was one of the cheapest/simplest flashlights able to use 18650 batteries)
In my particular case, I had to cut a piece of the plastic cap, so that it looked like that:
And then, with a step drill bit, I opened the hole a little bit:
so that the led fits like a glove!
This is how it looks from behind. Totally flat:
Then, I opened a hole in one of the sides of the cap, and introduced the charger cable, soldering the led wires.
Another view:
I needed a heatsink, so I used a piece of an aluminum handlebar, and another piece of aluminum that I had laying around:
This is how it would go:
To "hold" the heatsink I used the "heatsink compound" from DX, as I have no arctic lumina or similar...
To "wear" the light on the uniform, I thought that it would be a good idea to use one of the DX "rare earth" magnets, so that one can place another magnet in the interior of the jacket, etc. It will look like that:
And I used some epoxy resin to stick the magnet:
And now it comes when I dissasembled the flashlight:
In this project, I intended to remove the glass, and place a black plastic in its place. I used the glass as a template, and then:
With the step drill bit, I opened a hole, off-centered, so that the flap of the flashlight holder would close better:
And assembled it again, reusing the O-ring:
And now I de-soldered the wires from the led:
Removed the led (no harm was done to the led
), and soldered the new wires:(I did not take a picture of how the wires look with some shrink tube to protect them)
A couple of extra pics:
I hope that this can "inspire" you to create a better solution, as I am sure that there are lots of flaws in my design
This light does not replace a conventional flashlight (my friend always carry a regular one in his duty belt
), but it helps with some "flood light", inside a vehicle, searching something, etc, and of course, it is "portable", so that you can take the led from your chest, and use it as a regular flashlight, with lots of reach! Notes:
* The user may use a cheapo holster to carry the flashlight, with the lower part open, so that he/she may turn on the light without taking the flashlight out of the holster.
* I need to improve this design, so that the led is a little bit recessed in its cap/host, to avoid any glare in the user. I am thinking about it these days...
* If I were to do this today, instead of a Q5 I would have used a P7, as its "wall of light" must be really awesome!!!!! In that case, I guess that it would be necessary to use a bigger "host" for the led, in order to use a bigger heatsink
Thanks for the great forum! :wave:
