500 Lumen - AAA Flashlight (photos) - Work In Progress

[stoli67]

+1 on the SW Tipedo for me... I will take one in whatever you produce !

[the_guy_with_no_name]

This is totally a homerun!

Thanks
Not quite there yet, but definitely getting closer.

Tipedo. Yes please.

got it

I want an SW Tipedo! Stonewashed Tipedo!

thanks kaichu,
glad you made it back safely

tgwnn

p.s. just 1 more day of work so hope to be posting a lot more very soon

[Chrisdm]

Make mine a neutral Tipedo... In fact ill take 2...

[the_guy_with_no_name]

+1 on the SW Tipedo for me... I will take one in whatever you produce !

Make mine a neutral Tipedo... In fact ill take 2...

Thanks very much guys.

The Tipedo will be slight while away still, but sure looks like its popular enough to produce.

The lab is going to be on slo~~~w mode over the next month but the clip production is underway,
I will be doing battery tests and preying they can get the driver working as per spec, within the size constraint.

The body for the most part looks to be perfect as does the beam pattern.

I will definitely send out the next subscriber update with all the glorious details before the year is out!

tgwnn

p.s. still need to do the glove test, but the selector ring is proving to be nice enhancement to the standard twisty.

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Quick update...

I could not wait any longer to pull apart the Torpedo to take a closer look at the pcb/driver and see what I could see....

(I was hoping to check the thermal & magnetic sensors to see if they could be adjusted).

It took a bit of effort to detach the head and as I pulled it apart, the negative lead that goes from the XML to the pcb became/got/ripped off the board (a tad too much power).... feint.....fall over.....

I soldered it back but the board is made of a somewhat special, thin and flexible substrate and part of the board came off with the lead.
So, no light after soldering it back....

I'll take another look tomorrow and see if I can repair it (its the 6500K).

The good news is, there is still another working Torpedo (the 5000K) and I took the opportunity to take some close ups of the inner parts so I will post those too.
In the production version, the circuit and head will be potted but we purposely left it as is to (supposedly) make it easier to open. In the worst case, I can still get some beam shots of the 6500K, direct driving power to the head (with a few resistors to moderate power) but with a bit of luck, it might come alive again.

The circuit is a real piece of art and very creative approach to fitting so much on board,
but it may need some tweaking though as the hall sensors (magnetic sensors) are a little too far below the selector ring in my opinion.

Was feeling somewhat shocked for the first 5 minutes, but its a good thing Im sure (just not sure why its a good thing yet) and I'm over the shock now too

tgwnn

p.s. If I can fix the circuit, I may just pull it out completely, detach the XML, and hook it up to some measuring equipment to measure everything possible (current output, and draw, etc)

[rlcrisp]

Are you using a Flex PCB? Fancy! Never heard of anybody doing that for a flashlight driver.

Hopefully there is a component that the cathode trace led to and you can just solder your wire directly onto that

I'd be curious to see pictures of the driver. I can very much appreciate the art that goes into cramming lots of stuff onto a PCB.

[Got Lumens?]

Hi Guy,
All is sounding good. Just think many decades ago all that stuff would have been hard wired and about 20X bigger. Is the PCB multi layered? If so you may need to check the schematic to get the proper reconnects that broke off with the wire. A stare and compare to the working one should give you the paths that need to reconnected. You always could just have the factory send you the unassembled proto parts for testing and evaluation, that would allow you to do what you need to do without any future 'shocks'(pun). I too am also looking forward to your updates and pictures as well.
GL

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Are you using a Flex PCB? Fancy! Never heard of anybody doing that for a flashlight driver.

Hopefully there is a component that the cathode trace led to and you can just solder your wire directly onto that

I'd be curious to see pictures of the driver. I can very much appreciate the art that goes into cramming lots of stuff onto a PCB.

Thanks rlcrisp,
yes, not sure if its a flex but its a flexi
I did solder onto a component but didnt seem to work, will check again more carefully this evening.
Will post some pics in the next day

Hi Guy,
All is sounding good. Just think many decades ago all that stuff would have been hard wired and about 20X bigger. Is the PCB multi layered? If so you may need to check the schematic to get the proper reconnects that broke off with the wire. A stare and compare to the working one should give you the paths that need to reconnected. You always could just have the factory send you the unassembled proto parts for testing and evaluation, that would allow you to do what you need to do without any future 'shocks'(pun). I too am also looking forward to your updates and pictures as well.
GL

Thanks GL,

Its a flexible pcb, double sided and kind of rolled into a tube fit into the cavity under the selector ring.
They'll be sending another early in the new year with the 4500K so its ok.
I did very very carefully open the 5000K model to compare exactly, which was a help of course,
and thankfully nothing came apart on the 5000K.

tgwnn

[flashflood]

Make mine a neutral Tipedo... In fact ill take 2...

Same. I would even consider a TAurpedo or a Ptorpedo. But only in neutral, of course.

[Craig K]

Wow I have not been around for a while but things seem to be looking pretty good with the Torpedo, good luck with the final product tgwnn.

[Cataract]

Thanks rlcrisp,
yes, not sure if its a flex but its a flexi
I did solder onto a component but didnt seem to work, will check again more carefully this evening.
Will post some pics in the next day



Thanks GL,

Its a flexible pcb, double sided and kind of rolled into a tube fit into the cavity under the selector ring.
They'll be sending another early in the new year with the 4500K so its ok.
I did very very carefully open the 5000K model to compare exactly, which was a help of course,
and thankfully nothing came apart on the 5000K.

tgwnn

ooOOOooo... fancy! I wanna see the pics too! Flexi PCBs are more resistant to shock since they can flex, but soldering comes apart easily... good to hear that potting is part of the plan; it should make for a heavy duty light.

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Same. I would even consider a TAurpedo or a Ptorpedo. But only in neutral, of course.

Thanks

Wow I have not been around for a while but things seem to be looking pretty good with the Torpedo, good luck with the final product tgwnn.

Hi Craig,
Thanks for chiming in.
We've made a lot of progress and hopefully on the final stretch

ooOOOooo... fancy! I wanna see the pics too! Flexi PCBs are more resistant to shock since they can flex, but soldering comes apart easily... good to hear that potting is part of the plan; it should make for a heavy duty light.

Thanks Cataract,
Im gonna see if I can get the 6500K working again, work on my other thing, then will aim to post a photo or 2 of the flexi
(about an hour or so but I dont have a clock in that room)

tgwnn

[the_guy_with_no_name]

I fixed it!!

I think the new connection was making contact with another component and causing a short,
so I re-did the connection and carefully covered it with tape, and presto!! Good as new

Here's a photo of the circuit/driver:



The clump of solder on the photo on the right side, is the repair job. The dark circle below it,
is where it got ripped of the board.
These are close ups but obviously the whole thing is TINY.
The small center photo is the bare board with no components mounted.

btw, I just checked the low mode against my ZebraLight H30 and the low on Torpedo is definitely lower.

Ok, now I can sleep in peace and work on the update tomorrow.

tgwnn

p.s. thanks for the repair tips!

[Diablo_331]

How low is the low on a H30? Is it around .1 lumens like the newer ZLs? If it's any lower than my sc51c then this is officially the perfect pocket rocket for me!

[Sno4Life]

How low is the low on a H30? Is it around .1 lumens like the newer ZLs? If it's any lower than my sc51c then this is officially the perfect pocket rocket for me!

Low on the H30 was 4 lumens, but full flood no hotspot.

[Sno4Life]

How low is the low on a H30? Is it around .1 lumens like the newer ZLs? If it's any lower than my sc51c then this is officially the perfect pocket rocket for me!

Low on the H30 was 4 lumens, but full flood no hotspot.

[the_guy_with_no_name]

Low on the H30 was 4 lumens, but full flood no hotspot.

Thanks Sno4Life.

How low is the low on a H30? Is it around .1 lumens like the newer ZLs? If it's any lower than my sc51c then this is officially the perfect pocket rocket for me!

Diablo,
I'll test against some other low output lights as well but Im guessing its definitely < 1 lumen and very likely < 0.5

tgwnn

[RCantor]

I just advertised this on another AAA titanium thread so before a whole 'nuther crowd of people come salivating over this I say previous posters in this thread get first crack at the final product

[MiWaFreu]

Great light! I'll take one.

Michael

[kaichu dento]

I fixed it!!

I think the new connection was making contact with another component and causing a short,
so I re-did the connection and carefully covered it with tape, and presto!! Good as new

Here's a photo of the circuit/driver:



The clump of solder on the photo on the right side, is the repair job. The dark circle below it,
is where it got ripped of the board.
These are close ups but obviously the whole thing is TINY.
The small center photo is the bare board with no components mounted.

You're a rock star!

[higbvuyb]

The real thing looks excellent; great work tgwnn.

Just one thing - to me subjectively, it would just look perfect if the knurling was aggressive and each set of 3 bands was joined into a thick band of knurling, a bit more like a Nitecore EZAA. I know everyone wants so many different options, but is a knurling option possible?

[the_guy_with_no_name]

I just advertised this on another AAA titanium thread so before a whole 'nuther crowd of people come salivating over this I say previous posters in this thread get first crack at the final product

Thanks RCantor,
I will give you plenty of notice before the order page goes live so you can have your finger on the trigger.
Also, I'll try to accomodate the demand as quickly as possible.
In order to make it in on budget, Im going to have to make a significant number of Torpedo's so for the standard version,
I hope to be able to satisfy everyone within a 4 week period.

Great light! I'll take one.
Michael

Thanks Michael

You're a rock star!

Thanks kaichu, just lucky

The real thing looks excellent; great work tgwnn.

Just one thing - to me subjectively, it would just look perfect if the knurling was aggressive and each set of 3 bands was joined into a thick band of knurling, a bit more like a Nitecore EZAA. I know everyone wants so many different options, but is a knurling option possible?

Thanks higbvuyb,
Im planning on making the knurling a little more agressive in the production version.
The workshop needs to buy some additional tooling to do it so they are leaving that till last but I think it will prove to be satisfactory.

Also, as the light is actually small, there is not too much space between the bands (not sure there will be much practical difference with 1 solid band vs multiple smaller ones).
Not sure about knurling options (in terms of band size/number) at this stage but I do hope the grip on the final version will be just what you need and will certainly let you know if the option is possible.

tgwnn

[Lighteous]

I have been beseiged with end of year deadlines so I haven't been on CPF in awhile. I was curious about the progress of project Torpedo and ended up here reading about your significant progress over the past two months TGWNN! Congratulations! I will be looking for the advance order "heads-up". I'm in!

[stoli67]

looks great.... I knew it would!

[the_guy_with_no_name]

I have been beseiged with end of year deadlines so I haven't been on CPF in awhile. I was curious about the progress of project Torpedo and ended up here reading about your significant progress over the past two months TGWNN! Congratulations! I will be looking for the advance order "heads-up". I'm in!

Thanks Lighteous,
Its a busy time all round.
Still a fair amount of work to get it to production quality but I do think most of the difficult "stuff" is done.
Currently working on the subscriber update and hope to put that out tonight (need to wait till dark for some beamshots).

looks great.... I knew it would!

Thanks stoli,
I know I am biased but I do have to agree with you on the "looks great" part

tgwnn


Part 2