Chief_Wiggum
Enlightened
Thanks to MR Bulk for the inspiration for this one. Although, I'm not as clever as him, so I couldn't fit 3 CR2s in and squeeze 9V out of it. But I did manage to get a BB750 in there /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Anyway, here are some pics and notes from the construction in case anyone's interested. This is a great light. I love the size and even though it's not regulated, it's still super bright.
Start out with 1 Brinkmann Legend LX, a V4U 5W HD Luxeon, a 30mm optic from Elektrolumens and a BB750 from the sandwich shop.
The toughest part of this mod, is by far the heatsink. I don't have a lathe, but I do have some files, a drill, a $19 propane torch, and a Craftsman drill press stand /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I ordered a piece of 0.75" copper from www.mcmaster.com and reused a heatsink I had made for a 3AA Legend mod earlier. I soldered them together with the torch and the filed and sanded the smaller piece to fit inside the lip of the LX. This took a loooong time and come to think of it, I should've just bought a piece of 0.50" copper instead. Oh well. I ended up with this:
Here's how it fits in the LX:
I then started on the BB750. I should have done this last, but didn't realize it at the time. After it was soldered up and potted onto the slug with Artic Alumina Epoxy:
Next I started on the optic. With it's rim, it's too large to fit inside the LX's head. So I used my RTX (like a Dremel) with a cutting disk and sanding drum to slowly "turn" the optic down. I say "turn" beccause I turned the optic with my left hand with I held the RTX with my other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif (big laughs from the lathe owners here). Lots of masking tape used to protect it.
Next up was to fit the lens. I knew I wanted to use the glass lens I bought from flashlightlenses.com, but with the optic, lens, and o-ring in place, the bezel ring wouldn't screw down all the way. So I took the RTX with a cutting disk to cut off the lip holding the o-ring on the bezel ring. That bought me the space I need to screw the ring all the way down with the lens and optic (no more o-ring) in place.
Once that was all done, I used some more thermal epoxy to join the slug to the body.
Then disaster struck. After mounting the LS, I remembered I needed to ground the BB and the LED to the slug /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif I figured (wrongly) that I could just heat up the slug with my soldering iron and solder the ground wire to it. While I was trying out that bright idea, I managed to melt the LS with the soldering iron /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif and at the same time break off the negative lead /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
$30 later, having repaired the ground wire, and made the ground connection, I mounted the (new) LS and fired her up.
Whoa, that's bright. But the beam had a hole righ in the center. By unsrewing the head just slightly, I can get a pretty even beam, although with a slight loss in brightness. No big deal.
I also had a Fraen optic lying around, so I trimmed up the mounting base and dropped it in. Same problem, slight hole, and it's beam isn't as nice and the 30mm. So out it came and back in went the 30mm.
Anyway, I like this light a lot. It's small, super bright, regulated, and lot of fun.
Lessons learned:
- Don't pot anything or attach components until you're all done soldering
- Instead of soldering the ground connection, you can also make a small narrow cut into the heatsink, insert the ground wire, and stake with a small center punch. Thanks, tvodrd!
I'll try and add some beamshots later.
Beamshots. These were all taken at the same exposure and with white balance set to daylight. The LED beams are all white with slight blue or purple tints.
5W HD BB750 30mm:
SF M2 with HOLA
Legend 3AA direct drive with 1W R2H:
Arc LSH-P with Q4J:
Mag 3D with 20watt MR16 direct drive with 12aa alkalines (the hotspot is about 4x the size of the M2's):
Finally, the LX with the Fraen optic:
Anyway, here are some pics and notes from the construction in case anyone's interested. This is a great light. I love the size and even though it's not regulated, it's still super bright.
Start out with 1 Brinkmann Legend LX, a V4U 5W HD Luxeon, a 30mm optic from Elektrolumens and a BB750 from the sandwich shop.
The toughest part of this mod, is by far the heatsink. I don't have a lathe, but I do have some files, a drill, a $19 propane torch, and a Craftsman drill press stand /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I ordered a piece of 0.75" copper from www.mcmaster.com and reused a heatsink I had made for a 3AA Legend mod earlier. I soldered them together with the torch and the filed and sanded the smaller piece to fit inside the lip of the LX. This took a loooong time and come to think of it, I should've just bought a piece of 0.50" copper instead. Oh well. I ended up with this:
Here's how it fits in the LX:
I then started on the BB750. I should have done this last, but didn't realize it at the time. After it was soldered up and potted onto the slug with Artic Alumina Epoxy:
Next I started on the optic. With it's rim, it's too large to fit inside the LX's head. So I used my RTX (like a Dremel) with a cutting disk and sanding drum to slowly "turn" the optic down. I say "turn" beccause I turned the optic with my left hand with I held the RTX with my other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif (big laughs from the lathe owners here). Lots of masking tape used to protect it.
Next up was to fit the lens. I knew I wanted to use the glass lens I bought from flashlightlenses.com, but with the optic, lens, and o-ring in place, the bezel ring wouldn't screw down all the way. So I took the RTX with a cutting disk to cut off the lip holding the o-ring on the bezel ring. That bought me the space I need to screw the ring all the way down with the lens and optic (no more o-ring) in place.
Once that was all done, I used some more thermal epoxy to join the slug to the body.
Then disaster struck. After mounting the LS, I remembered I needed to ground the BB and the LED to the slug /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif I figured (wrongly) that I could just heat up the slug with my soldering iron and solder the ground wire to it. While I was trying out that bright idea, I managed to melt the LS with the soldering iron /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif and at the same time break off the negative lead /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
$30 later, having repaired the ground wire, and made the ground connection, I mounted the (new) LS and fired her up.
Whoa, that's bright. But the beam had a hole righ in the center. By unsrewing the head just slightly, I can get a pretty even beam, although with a slight loss in brightness. No big deal.
I also had a Fraen optic lying around, so I trimmed up the mounting base and dropped it in. Same problem, slight hole, and it's beam isn't as nice and the 30mm. So out it came and back in went the 30mm.
Anyway, I like this light a lot. It's small, super bright, regulated, and lot of fun.
Lessons learned:
- Don't pot anything or attach components until you're all done soldering
- Instead of soldering the ground connection, you can also make a small narrow cut into the heatsink, insert the ground wire, and stake with a small center punch. Thanks, tvodrd!
I'll try and add some beamshots later.
Beamshots. These were all taken at the same exposure and with white balance set to daylight. The LED beams are all white with slight blue or purple tints.
5W HD BB750 30mm:
SF M2 with HOLA
Legend 3AA direct drive with 1W R2H:
Arc LSH-P with Q4J:
Mag 3D with 20watt MR16 direct drive with 12aa alkalines (the hotspot is about 4x the size of the M2's):
Finally, the LX with the Fraen optic:
