My 2D P7 build..

stabby888

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Hello,

Here are some specs for my 2D maglite P7 that i'm building.

- 2D black maglite
- SSC P7 Led
- Buck Converter (Der Wichtel driver) >>link<<
- Stripped anodizing of the bezel and tailcap with pure drano liquid :devil:
- Modified switch thanks to cdrake261 >>link<< to find out about his services
- H22A heatsink >>link<<
- Survival tube >>link<< for 2 * 18650 (might get another one and a 2D extension later on)
- 2 * 18650 AW 3100 mAh >>link<<

I'm still not quite finished with the build since i'm still waiting for the driver to arrive since I messed up the first one and the
original switch that I had before. Or not really mess up but I could only utilize the driver in 100% mode since I didn't solder the S3 connection good and messed up the original switch when trying to make it a momentary one.

I will try to upload some pics later this evening when I figure out how to do it :)
Stay tuned.
 

PapaLumen

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Looks like you have it covered. Only suggestion would be to use the cree XM-L led instead of p7, but not huge amount in it.
Why did you strip anno from bezel?
 

stabby888

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Ok, here are the pictures as promised.
And papalumen thought the maglite would look cooler without the anodizing. You know how we all like to make it unique :cool:
Oh and the XM-L led will be utilized in a future build..I'm thinking 1D with rebel reflector and deep heatsink. Waiting dor H22A to make those available.

Here are the parts used for the build
cimg7625a.jpg


New Vs Old switch
11122011133.jpg


When ols switch was in the 2D mag. Can't really see it that good but there was almost nothing in there. Messed it up pretty bad.
11122011132.jpg


Maglite opened up. Next to the allen key you can see a Radioshack rocker switch used temporarly to still be able to utilize the mag. That is going to change :)
11122011131.jpg


11122011130.jpg


Wired up for a little testing
cimg7626.jpg


And then there was light :party:but still only 100% mode :ohgeez:
cimg7627d.jpg


Right now it's waiting for the new driver and i'll just have to wire it up to make it how I wanted it to be at first.
 
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Der Wichtel

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For what is the green cable being used for?

edit:
nevermind, just noticed that it's coming from the switch
 

stabby888

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ok..so received the buck converter yesterday in my mailbox.
As eager as I was connected everything but it doesn't seem to be working properly:(
First problems is that it won't stay on for long or not at all. Just 1 bright flash and then turns off.
Other times when the it does stay on I cant change modes. It's like it's not meant to be:hairpull:
Anyone have any ideas or pointers to make it work?..Or is there something that I'm doing wrong?

oh and cdrake261 that is a electric swatter you saw. used on mosquito's, fly's because there are a lot of them especially at night.
 

stabby888

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I didn't. i had it made by cdrake261. it looks good cause it's not clicking anymore when pressed. just up and down. could that be the problem?..at first i suspected the batteries to not have enough voltage. But when hooked up to the car battery it's giving the same symptoms described earlier. Just one flash and then nothing else. I tried the old one with just the negative and positive connections and that one works fine. Even when hooked up to the car battery. Just a question der wichtel..any way i could test the driver to know that that is not the source for the symptoms?
 

stabby888

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when connected to S3 it's not doing anything. But that's strange since when I connected it with the old one it was working just fine. granted without the S3 but still working. Any other ideas maybe?
 

stabby888

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Ok got some updates for you. I'm going to start by saying that that this is nobody's fault and i'm not blaming anyone.
This issue just needed some investigation and patience..(especially my side) :)

Ok so let's start. First thing what I did was to try to make the driver turn on or at least let the LED stay on and afterwards figure out
the mode switching. To turn it on i started by connecting positive to positive and negative to negative. Led flashed for a second and turned off. I guess you can call that initiation process of the buck converter as it now knows that there is voltage and it;s now just waiting to get turned on (sounds wrong) :nana: To have it turn on, you would normally press the switch..i knew that that connection was not working because it wasn't doing anything when pressed. so I decided to just start by poking the S3 connection on the buck converter (when connected to battery) And voila. Led turned on (and stayed on) but still only at 100%. even when poking the S3 connection on the converter it stayed at that mode even tough it flickered for a second but didn't actually change. And with poking i mean poking it with some metal part(torx tool for the screw or the alligator clips)
That was not good enough for me so i went back to this diagram to better understand the situation and here's where the fun part start.

buckconverterb.jpg


You can see that the switch part has to the negative of the battery and the other to S3. In between will be the switch to change the modes that is. So that's what i did with my alligator clips. connected one clip to the negative connection of the battery and the other end would be my "switch". I would just make it touch the S3 cable temporary and see what it would do. And of course it changed modes and almost made me blind too:laughing: especially that strobe one. But that din't stop me. I now knew that the problem lied in the switch. Someway somehow it wasn't making that momentary connection. Some metal parts inside were not touching each other well enough (so wrong)

So opened up the switch (just the top part) and saw that that was what was happening.
13022012173.jpg


You can't really see it but those side metal parts you see inside, those are the one's that needed connection from another metal part when the switch was pressed. That other metal part is a tiny round metal piece that should be going down (when switch is pressed) and making contact with those 2 side metal parts.
13022012179.jpg


For now I just wanted to ignore that part and used my own metal part. Some old pci bracket what seems to be a soundcard was used as the momentary switch for now.
Here are some pics of that and also a vid at the end.

Initial setup
13022012171.jpg


Switching from 3% to 100%
13022012177.jpg


13022012176.jpg


13022012175.jpg


13022012174.jpg


And lastly a video:
LINK


Excuses for all my blabbering and the bad image quality but just wanted to get that out.
Next step want i'm going to do is make that round metal piece make a good connection with the 2 side pieces when the switch is pressed.
Than i'm happy happy happy:) Must say that this also happened to me when I first attempted this project alone. those metal pieces not touching and only to be able to use 100% mode. Now that I see my mistake I will try to check those options first before crying and saying that it's not working and who knows, maybe someone will read this one day and make good use of it too before going through hell..:devil:
Patience and careful analyzing that is all that's needed and afterwards you can smile big and show off that light :naughty:
 
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