SST-50 Mag 3D with deep Rebel SMO reflector

Here is my not yet finished SST-50 light.
I think this one will become one of my favorite lights because of its good beam characteristic. I started planing 2 months ago and today I got some free time to start building.

Here is the build log:

First I soldered some enamelled copper wires to the LED. Had to use pretty much flux




Then glued the LED to the "LED-Socket" with Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive after cleaning the remains of the flux.




After that I put on some thermal grease and screwed the socket onto the heatsink:



soldered the driver to the LED...



Currently I'm still waiting for the batteries so that's as far as I got. Anyway, I put the heatsink into the Mag and hooked it up to the bench power supply to take some beamshots






The beam is very clean and can throw pretty far but can also be adjusted to a useful flood. This is by far one of the best beams I've ever had. Did I already mention that I really like it?

SST-50 @ 5A


compared to an underdrivern SST-90 with strippled original Mag reflector:

SST-90 @ 5A


Both at the same time:



Unfortunately the wires from my power supply are not long enough so that I can't take outdoor shots. I hope the batteries will arrive soon.

EDIT:
OK, got the batteries yesterday and took some beamshots outdoors:


It's really incredible how far it throws!

Awesome work, as always! I wish I wasn't so broke, because I really want a triple P7 light!

Great job! Cool beam!!

Looking good, nice heatsink. You really have to get that led low to make the rebel reflector work but its totally worth it.

You going to offer that heatsink?

Mettee said:

Looking good, nice heatsink. You really have to get that led low to make the rebel reflector work but its totally worth it.

You going to offer that heatsink?

Click to expand...

yep

^Gurthang said:

Wich,

Oooh me like! Great heatsink design, very clever. What gauge wire used on the LED? I'm guessing you used enameled "magnet" wire.

Click to expand...

Yes you are right. The diameter is 1mm so that should be AWG18. The advantage of these wires is that the resistance is very low compared to an equally thick wire with usual insulation. Furthermore they can be easily soldered to the LEDs. But disadvantages are low flexibility and the weak insulation layer which can be damaged. But since these are used between LED and driver there shouldn't be any problems as these aren't moved that much.

Der Wichtel, I didn't something similar with one of Mac's heatsinks he offered a while ago and a hipCC. I was surprised to see that the rebel reflector focuses right at the upper edge of the heatsink's pedestal. Even driven at 2.8A, this thing is a light cannon, but I can't help but wonder how much light is being lost because of the reflector.

Here, on this pic you can see the height of the focused LED.
The deeper the focal point is the more light is being reflected which makes this reflector much better than the standard light bulb mag reflector where the focal point is in the middle of the reflector. This is ok for light bulbs since they have a 360° radiation pattern but for LEDs with max. 180° ( because they do not emit light backwards) you want a reflector with a focal point as deep as possible to collect most of the light on the reflector surface.

Cool, so you will be selling these, that is good to know.

I have a few questions, Does the head screw all the way down or just enough to cover the o-ring? And I assume they are ano'd, or will be?

eta: and it looks like you left a good amount of room for heavy gauge wires, the BL heatsink I have used does not have much room for anything bigger than 24g.

the head screws almost all the way down. I wanted to have a good flood as well so the LED sits a little bit higher. There is still pretty much room that covers the o-oring.

Yes, the heatsink is anodized.

sweet, if you want to send me one for testing I am open to it :devil::nana:

Where did you get the reflector?

I used a deep SMO reflector from a W300 ultrafire (35mm dia) and was quite impressed.

The reflector comes with the new Luxeon Rebel based Mag-Lites:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/250681

You can contact Mag-Lite and order one seperately sometimes they will give you one for free. But you'll need the new host anyway otherwise you won't be able to screw the head all the way down

@ Mettee: I'm still waiting for the parts. The heatsink above was only a sample for testing before starting production. If they ship the parts on monday then I think I'll have them on Wednesday.

Any chance you could make just the small insert the LED mounts on from copper? That would be awesome. Either way, this looks to be a popular item.:twothumbs

Well, I thought of that but as you can see on the second picture the wires are pretty close to the edge so a non insulated socket will cause shorts very easily. Furthermore I think that the problem is not getting the heat out of the LED to the Heatsink but rather dissipating the heat from the Mag-Lite body.

Is the LED pedestal self-centering?

Wich,

Great thread and a great light. When I was deep into DIY audio I used lots of magnet wire and I'll agree, the enamel / varnish used on that sort of wire is not very forgiving around metal [scrapes & scratches].

I will offer a single thought, Michael Percy Audio offers both Cardas 18ga. and Kimber 20ga. single strand wire w/ a very thin teflon jacket. MUCH tougher than enamel.

Perhaps a nice option for a DIY group buy....

@ irv_usc:
yes, as can be seen on the 4th picture

@Gurthang: never heard of suche wires, interesting.

Hey DW,

No one asked yet I dont think, and its not important to me...but will there be an SST-90 version of this? Or maybe I missed it.

Cant wait to get one and try it out. Looks like the fit and finish is outstanding.

On a side note, and to add...when I did a custom one of these for a P7 with the rebel mag reflector I used the standard version mag body. The new version(or led) body has roughly .150 thousands less thread on the head end. So I had to sink the LED deeper into the body to make it work. I think to make this heat sink work with the older style body all you will have to do is remove the lip on the heat sink and let it rest on top of the switch. Or something like that. Maybe you can offer that option DW.

Mettee said:

Hey DW,

No one asked yet I dont think, and its not important to me...but will there be an SST-90 version of this? Or maybe I missed it.

Click to expand...

Yes, there will be a SST-90 version. All parts just arrived 15minutes ago. Just have to check them out.

On a side note, and to add...when I did a custom one of these for a P7 with the rebel mag reflector I used the standard version mag body. The new version(or led) body has roughly .150 thousands less thread on the head end. So I had to sink the LED deeper into the body to make it work. I think to make this heat sink work with the older style body all you will have to do is remove the lip on the heat sink and let it rest on top of the switch. Or something like that. Maybe you can offer that option DW.

Click to expand...

That's what I thought as well so I made the lip only 1mm thick so they can be filed away easily. But that won't help very much because the new reflector is wider at lower height so they will touch the threads of the older body. Which is why Mag-Lite removed a few mm from the threads of the new bodies so that the head can be screwed all the way down.