The Handspike

I've spent a lot of time turning cheap Chinese flashlights into aspheric throwers, so I decided to build the light I really wanted from the ground up.

I call it the Handspike

I start with a little slug of copper with a raised section exactly the size of a Cree XP thermal pad.


Add a little solder, an XP-C Q4 and heat on the stove until it reflows.


Turn it upside down and solder some leads onto the exposed XP-C pads. Then feed the leads through holes in a copper pill.


Add a little thermal paste and screw it in from the back with M2 screws.


Add a 17mm driver (4x7135 in this case) and screw the assembly into an annodised 7075 aluminium body.


Pick a colour (Red, Blue, Black) and an aspheric head size (27mm or 66mm).


And that's how I make a Handspike.


Some extra details:
McClicky in the tail.
18650 in the tube.
2.6 mm orings throughout (2 for head, 2 for tail, 1 for lens).
Triple thread on head and tube for fast flood - spot adjustment.
Room in the pill for epoxy and glow powder.
Holes in tail for a cord or lanyard.
Tailstands


I can also make extra pills with Cree XM and XR packages.



With 3 LED options, 2 lens sizes and 3 colours, I can play dress-ups all night!


It's a pretty simple body. No branding, just a nice aggressive knurl on the head, body and tail


So far I've just assembled one pill with the XP-C at 1.4A and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm getting almost double the intensity I used to get out of an XR-E at 1.05A on an MCPCB (both using the same 27mm lens).

It all went together quicker than modifying a Chinese torch and the end result is much better anyway. The main advantages are the forward clicky, great thermal path, big orings and a flood-to-spot in half a turn of the head.

I can also use the copper slugs in a P60 pill to improve the thermal path. The direct solder to copper is essential with the XP-C.

No beamshots. You all know what an XR-E aspheric beam looks like and Saabluster has shown off the XP-C.

Sounds awesome.



Are you selling them?

Nice work! Nicely done LED mounting.

How is the beam with the 66 mm and the XP-C, I bet it's quite narrow?

I only have four bodies so far (two black, one red and one blue). So they aren't for sale. Later on I'll make some more and start selling them locally (mainly to friends and people I meet through camping). Small quantities like this are always pretty expensive. I think the cheapest I'll be able to sell them is for $100 each with the 27mm head.


:welcome: Thallid. Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the LED mounting. Soldering directly to a big chunk of copper is about as good as it gets, but I'm mainly happy that it was so easy to do.

Yes the 66mm lens with XP-C is pretty tight and about 3-4 times brighter than with the 27mm lens.

I would be interested in one with the larger head, if you go into production.

Very nice work.

I would definitely be interested in one of these should the opportunity present itself.

Me too!

I would be interested in the copper PIL

The copper pill or the copper slug onto which the the LED solders?

The pill isn't much use by itself, but I think the slug should work in lots of applications, especially P60 dropins.

I'll put a few up for sale in my salesthread sometime.

Let's do a USA group buy!

Hello Ash, I'd definitely be interested in buying a complete reflector-less P60 drop-in (XP-C + driver) to to suit my Dereelight DBS aspheric (and one of those funny little LED collars for extra lux would be an added bonus). Drive it as hard as you think it can cope with for running a maximum of 3 minutes at a time (it's just for fun, not serious life saving duties). I can send the DBS over to you if that will help.

PM or (preferably) email me if you are interested - I don't mind funding a bit of your R & D :thumbsup: greg [at] gc [dot] id [dot] au

Thanks for the interest guys. No group buy yet though, I don't have enough and won't do for a while.

Gregozedobe, sorry I don't think I'd be able to give you what you want, at least not in a short time. I've got so many projects on the go at the moment, that I need to stop accepting new ones and actually finish a few.

ahorton said:

Gregozedobe, sorry I don't think I'd be able to give you what you want, at least not in a short time. I've got so many projects on the go at the moment, that I need to stop accepting new ones and actually finish a few.

Click to expand...

No worries Ash, if you feel the urge sometime in the future let me know. I'm very happy with the stuff you've done for me in the past. :thumbsup: