another headtorch diy

hello again, after success with my previous effort, i have come up with a plan of sorts for my next venture.

i know its a headtorch but theres pretty much nill machining info in the headtorch section so here goes...

I have had 2 tripple XPG's with one narrow and one medium lens floating around for over a year now with no plans for them untilll now, ive also a few rotary switches which i have been dying to use for a long time, so here is a rough plan of what i intend to do


drawings are not to scale but as close as i could get with smartdraw

I have never actualy had a plan previously, all lights were off the cuff so to say, so this is roughly what im looking to create subject to change obviously, we will see how it turns out in the end.
It will be a slow one and will update soon
It will be used for work only and outside open to weather and envirorment, i am a bit concerned at the ammount of metal and possible weight as i plan all alluminium

Open to comments

here is part 2, some metal to mark out


here transferred to alluminium


and after a few hours nearly there but still in the rough

Hi

Looks great!

Your diagram shows 12v 6400 mAh - will this be a sealed lead acid worn in a belt pack, or a stack of smaller cells?

What drivers do you use?

(I'm gathering info for a future project - I really like 12v lead acid cos they are so tough, easy to trickle charge, etc... but this is the first 12v project I have seen in my short time on cpf)

Thanks
Pete

late reply, much has been on the backburner for a while due to family events, but now time to crack on with this one.

The battery im using is a chinese li-ion voltage 12.6 to 10.8vdc, the driver is a dx driver, not sure off hand the model but will probably have photo's later on of it, i would stay clear of lead acid unless its a small one, but why use a PB battery when there is so much better choice out there

The battery will be in a pouch carried either in pocket or more likely waist belt

Here is the hole for the swivel/mount bieng cut


and here tapped for M8


and the bar bieng cut down to size to be threaded, i decided on steel here for added strength



pilot drilling for cables






here cutting a recess for o-ring and lens

recycler said:

The battery im using is a chinese li-ion....i would stay clear of lead acid unless its a small one, but why use a PB battery when there is so much better choice out there

Click to expand...

Thanks, the more people I talk to, and the more I research, the more it really appears that Li-Ion is the way of the future Although they have tricky recharge requirements (Constant current for a while, constant voltage etc etc.), you can buy a $2 chip to take care of all that for you - they are not as scary as they first appear!

The metalwork's looking great, too!

Thanks
Pete

hello again, this is a blast from the past but on we go
ive made some changes and now 90% complete

changes were to the driver and switch housing as this thing was going to be to damn heavy, ive incorporated them into the rear of the head,
also modes now are 1 red/2red/3white/6xpg toggle back for 5 modes-low/med/high/strobe/sos, the xpg optics are 1 narrow and 1 wide

its getting to the dark time of the year again so time for a few more builds i think

here is the 5mm cluster
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here some bits

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testing

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nearly there

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TriggerHappy said:

. . . . appears that Li-Ion is the way of the future Although they have tricky recharge requirements (Constant current for a while, constant voltage etc etc.), . . .

Click to expand...

This is exactly the same charging system used for Lead-Acid batteries ! Constant voltage current-limited boards are readily available.

It's discharging that's more critical for LiIon. If you over-discharge a lead-acid cell you will shorten its life. If you discharge a LiIon cell below 2.5 volt it's sudden death - but protection PCBs are cheap, small and readily available.