3" head with 7 P60 sized LED drop-ins

Thought I'd share the latest thing I've schemed up. Sort of a poor man's colossus. Here's a mock-up preview of things to come:





Those are incan MOP drop-ins, I'll actually be modding and using SMO XPG drop-ins and the host will be a 2D Mag with the Gordon 3" head. Each drop-in will have to be reduced in diameter very slightly for all of them to fit. I'll be building them myself with slaved drivers and 4000K XPGs on 16mm stars. At the base of all of them will be a single 1/4" Aluminum heatsink, ~70mm across.

More to come as parts arrive.

where are u getting those host ?.....nice build so fare

las3r said:

where are u getting those host ?.....nice build so fare

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He is buying them from Harbor Freight the price is $5.99 on sale plus shipping

Drywolf said:

He is buying them from Harbor Freight the price is $5.99 on sale plus shipping

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Hang on, that's only half right, I'm getting them from HF, but they're costing me $17.99 before tax, $19.54 after tax. How do I get them for $5.99?

I think Drywolf has mistaken this one for this one and vice versa.

April fools joke?

las3r said:

April fools joke?

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Sadly, no. I really intend to build this, and while not nearly at the budget necessary for a Colossus or FM4 head and LedZep LED heatsink, it will be a rather expensive parts list, at least compared to the majority of my projects. I've decided on slaving together 7 of the KD V2 7135 based regulators with 5*380ma chips each, to drive each XPG to 1.9A on high, about 1/3 - 1/2 that on medium and ~10-50mA on super low. For the battery pack in the 2D, I considered a 2P IMR26650 pack, but to avoid building a tricky holder that could short out and kill me, I think I'll first try two of the UltraFire BRC 32600 LiFePO4 cells in series, which I know to sag rather heavily under load (unlike just about every other LiFePO4 cell). Each regulator will be heatsinked within its own brass pill and all the brass pills will sit in holes drilled into the 1/4" Aluminum flat stock, which will be sinked to the base of the head. The Mag switch will only carry low current to the micro controller of the driver, not the 13.3A of current delivered to the LEDs and regulators. I'm counting on the reflectors pressing against the 3" boro lens to point everything in the same direction. I have a single XPG in a 26mm SMO pill and I love the spot to spill ratio and perfect roundness of the hot spot. I'm looking forward to seeing the equivalent of 7 times that at once (more even, considering drive current). This could be a 3000 lumen LED monster with an actual decent hotspot. Fingers crossed.

Been sitting on the head, host, lens and 1/4" Al. flat stock. Was just waiting for the KD parts to arrive, then I'll order the LEDs from Digikey and get this project started.

Well, I finally received my parts order from KD today:
7 XPG SMO pills
2x5 packs of 16mm MCPCBs
6 (not 7) KD V2 regulators...WTF?!

That's what I get for buying exactly what I need and no more, I guess. Had I ordered 2 five packs instead of 1 5 pack and 2 individual drivers, I'd have everythig I need. I think I have an 8 chip version of that KD V2 driver that I was saving for my 4x XT-E project. If patience gets the better of me, I'll just remove the excess chips from that and get on with building this thing and putting the 4 LED light on hold. Anyway, stay tuned...

Subscribed....

This can be so much fun....love the idea.

*Subscribed*

Simple but has lots of potential .

Daunted by the task I created for myself in planning the construction of this light, I decided to outsource the machining of the reflectors and head. It would have been very difficult to achieve the desired result with a dremel. Having resigned myself to the idea of sending these parts out, I finally opened all the drop-ins. That's when I discovered that one didn't match...



That's the pic I sent to KD. They're sending a replacement...

Techjunkie said:

each XPG to 1.9A on high

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Missed this earlier. Ouch, thats will be a punch....

TJ - that's really a shame about the one reflector coming in MOP onstead of SMO. That's just like these chinese vendors though. Been there, done that.

Techjunkie said:

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You know, looking at that first photo, it seems like you could just use s 20mm reflector in the center (in place of the 26mm one) and then all the rest would fit without doing any milling to make them fit? I wouldn't think the smaller reflector in the center would not change the beam at all, considering it's going to be a huge floody light anyhow.
Just a thought...

OL, putting a smaller reflector in the middle will result in a gap around that one reflector. It would work if you remove one of the six surrounding reflectors (five around one smaller one), but, not if you keep the surrounding six the same size.

This looks like a sick build. I can't wait until it finished to see what it does.

This is a great idea. I want one.

Why start only one 7up project, when you can start three? While this 7 XPG project is only getting started, I've already begun planning the next two, both 7*XPE projects... 7 Ledil Regina 19mm reflectors in a 60mm head, donated by a 68 LED 4AAA lightl, and 7 Ledil Tina optics in a standard Maglite C head


Here's a sneak peek at the 7 Reginas in the 68 LED head:




Here's the 68 LED head compared to the Maglite C head (despite appearances, they do NOT lego together):


Here are the Tina Optics beneath the Maglite head they'll reside in and the Regina reflectors with the 68 LED head:

Say, you see how the tinas have a square shape to them? I've always wondered how they are to be aligned to the LED. I have a lisa that I'm curious about alignment. Do you think it matters if the corners go to the LED's corners, or if the corners go to the LED's sides? Maybe keep this in the back of your head for me when you are testing your optics? I'm almost at the point where I can test this optic with the LED I am going to use it with (3 years after ordering the optic hah hah )

bshanahan14rulz said:

Say, you see how the tinas have a square shape to them? I've always wondered how they are to be aligned to the LED. I have a lisa that I'm curious about alignment. Do you think it matters if the corners go to the LED's corners, or if the corners go to the LED's sides? Maybe keep this in the back of your head for me when you are testing your optics? I'm almost at the point where I can test this optic with the LED I am going to use it with (3 years after ordering the optic hah hah )

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Judging by the window on the back, I assume the flat sides of the window go with the flat sides of the base and the notches go with the corners of the base.

I don't know which of these two I'll do first. At the moment, I've only got enough XPEs for one of the two projects and haven't mounted them to the stars that go with either optic yet (the Reginas take really tiny 10mm round stars and the Tinas will get 16mm round stars). Also, I'm not sure if the 7LED driver I got from KD will attempt to drive them to 3A and kill them all, or if it will top-out at the max voltage specified, which would only drive them to the desired ~1A.

I'll get around to experimenting with the Tina vs. Regina before commiting to either one and let you know if I'm right about the optic orientation.