Need help making/modding headlamp

Greetings,

I'm very new to this forum and am very glad that I found it! I didn't see an introductions forum, so this is my formal intro. I have always been interested in lights and flashlights so this is great!

Anyway I want to either make a headlamp or mod one. I have had the urge to mod one of the ones that I have (Black Diamond, over-priced POS, and a Home-Depot $5 Piece-O-Junk that is brighter than my $45 Black Diamond). Either way, I'm not happy with either.

Here is what I am thinking about. I want to have much more battery life and I don't want to have to carry it on my forehead. I am thinking of making a battery pack that I clip on my belt and run a wire that plug into the head strap. Thoughts on this? I figure this will allow me to put the best batteries I can in a pack on my belt, and maybe double/triple them up for longer life..

As for the light, this is the cheap light I can mod and this is the Black Diamond.

I was told that I should try a Seoul P4 in the cheap head lamp, but don't know if that is the best route. I'm willing to start a new project if anyone is willing to teach or lead me.

One thing that I would like to mention is that I am going to be able to do some aluminum metal casting. I can make my own custom heat sinks and possibly reflectors. I would like to avoid this if possible for my first project as I would like to try something fairly simple.

Does anyone know of any projects to make very bright head lamps (that don't break the bank) or can someone guide me on with one of these?

Thank you for any "light" you can shed on this project

cheap light: get a Seoul P4 in the brightest bin available, on a "Star", or "round" base, it does not matter.

unsolder the contacts to the old led, remove it, put new led in, solder, done
thats called "emitter swap"

(PS: the heatsinking material is crap, if You have time, cut out some Aluminium sheet, maybe 1-2 mm thick, in the size of the whole epoxy plate and put that under the led. Give thermal paste between and then fix the led)



Black Diamond:
You could also "just" do an emitter swap, but be4 that make a macro pic from the front, just to let us check what led is mounted. Maybe it is a good one already and thus the effort would not lead to any bonus



in General both have the "problem" that hikers are not light creeps like us, they want small and light (= small (and thus bad) batteries) and low power (for runtime).
If the light, after the emitter swap, is not bright enough, You would have to mod the driver
(but also improve heatsinking!!). Much effort and not too easy. Probably better to simply buy a Priceton Tech EOS

well, likely you could put a seoul P4 U2 bin (sold in cpfmarketplace)
If there is a luxIII in there currently output may go from (just guessing) 40lumens to 80 lumens.
Its good to try, to learn, because it's there. and it's a lot nicer to be able to finish a project.
I totally recommend it.

Just realise the form factor itself has placed constraints. poor power supply, plastic case means poor heatsinking. :welcome: by the way, but you'll find that all your favourite manufactures were using you, selling you 5 year old crap but with really nice shiny plastic cases. The cases are a bugger - i can make a light 4x brighter that lasts 4x longer, but it doesn't have that nice shiny plastic case
(a AAA cell is a pretty poor fuel. it's useful b/c 3 can run the led. But with a boost circuit ($3 and up to $70), or lithium cell (3.7v) you can have a light 3 or 4 times brighter)