Juggernaut
Flashlight Enthusiast
Your eyes do not deceive you! A new ultra high powered Incan build in 2019
So I've had my underwhelming NightHunter II flashlight for years now, total garbage less than 300 lumen output, less than 50,000 Lux even with the short arc bulb. Only 45min run time. Just a waste of space. I always wanted to do something fitting with the host. Now I have!
It started with wanting to build a 64663 bulb light, but I quickly realized there was no reason to not push this well into crazy with the long life 64665.
For those new to to hotwire lamps the 64663 bulb is the highest wattage "low" voltage incan bulb available. At 400 watts 36 volts it will make 16,000 lumens at its rated life of 50 hours or so.
This bulb has been used in I believe 3 light builds a decade ago. The hyperblitz, Mag Ele II, and a Big Beam hand lantern.
Hotwired this bulb can push past 20,000 lumens.
It does have a brother the 64665. A long life version of the same bulb. Same stats 400 watts 36 volts but with a 500 hour rated life.
According to sylatjnie this bulb can be pushed to nearly 50 volts and make over 690 watts and beyond 34,000 lumens. As I have no recollection of a light utilizing this lamp primarily I figured that be a cool place to start.
Now this is a HUGE lamp, but the Nighthunter is an equally cartoon sized light. It also has a very deep heavy aluminum reflector which should remove the downsides of using such a long bulb.
First thing was hammering out all of the internal ballast and electronics.
I'm completely baffled how the switch works. Magnetic? The inside of the tube is seamless under the switch. The battery also only made contact on one end with no polarity thru the body. If the switch relied on some sort of magnet switch I see nothing on the electronic board that lined up under the switch to receive such a wireless control. It doesn't line up with anything important. It also seems so odd they'd choose such a route whatever it be. Was it to keep water proof? Because this light was originally killed while using it in the rain! No O-rings on the bezel or charging port!!
Now that we have the guts out. I cut those off and remove the ceramic bulb holder.
Here we can see just how close the old bulb and new bulb's arc / filament focus points are. Nice!
However that presented a problem.
After drilling out holes to mount the new bulb holder that places the lamp too high. Despite a lot of thread to focus its just out of range.
Time for the angle grinder.
more like it! Now both bulbs will sit approximately in the same total filament height.
Drilling the holes first was a good idea as I could use the old round lamp holder as a guild to keep everything in the right place.
Installed
Lastly I took a stepped drill and bored out the reflector to take the new massive oversized bulb.
Before:
after
Hooking up some leads to the wires to my Can Light's 28.8 8S li-po pack I get a great beam "tight" beam perfect focused "granted a big hot spot"
The next part is building a battery pack.
I'm unsure if I can hit this bulb with 12S, as of now no one has ever tried it.
If I do the pack ideas are
Simple but messy 4x 3s 2,200 Li-pos in series. These should JUST fit inside, and be very crowded with all the wires.
12x 18650 cells in a custom pack with balancing leads. This would be the cleanest and easiest battery to deal with, however I'd need to find someone to build the pack for me.
Lastly and the route I likely will take. 1x https://www.ebay.com/itm/1200W-20A-...m=263384782573&_trksid=p2054502.c100227.m3827
Running off of a single 4s 5,200 Li-po (half of my Can Light battery pack) this will be the cheapest solution as I already have the batteries. Also should allow me to dial up the voltage as close as possible to the limit instead of juggling between 3.7 volts + or - without a soft starter.
So I've had my underwhelming NightHunter II flashlight for years now, total garbage less than 300 lumen output, less than 50,000 Lux even with the short arc bulb. Only 45min run time. Just a waste of space. I always wanted to do something fitting with the host. Now I have!
It started with wanting to build a 64663 bulb light, but I quickly realized there was no reason to not push this well into crazy with the long life 64665.
For those new to to hotwire lamps the 64663 bulb is the highest wattage "low" voltage incan bulb available. At 400 watts 36 volts it will make 16,000 lumens at its rated life of 50 hours or so.
This bulb has been used in I believe 3 light builds a decade ago. The hyperblitz, Mag Ele II, and a Big Beam hand lantern.
Hotwired this bulb can push past 20,000 lumens.
It does have a brother the 64665. A long life version of the same bulb. Same stats 400 watts 36 volts but with a 500 hour rated life.
According to sylatjnie this bulb can be pushed to nearly 50 volts and make over 690 watts and beyond 34,000 lumens. As I have no recollection of a light utilizing this lamp primarily I figured that be a cool place to start.
Now this is a HUGE lamp, but the Nighthunter is an equally cartoon sized light. It also has a very deep heavy aluminum reflector which should remove the downsides of using such a long bulb.
First thing was hammering out all of the internal ballast and electronics.
I'm completely baffled how the switch works. Magnetic? The inside of the tube is seamless under the switch. The battery also only made contact on one end with no polarity thru the body. If the switch relied on some sort of magnet switch I see nothing on the electronic board that lined up under the switch to receive such a wireless control. It doesn't line up with anything important. It also seems so odd they'd choose such a route whatever it be. Was it to keep water proof? Because this light was originally killed while using it in the rain! No O-rings on the bezel or charging port!!
Now that we have the guts out. I cut those off and remove the ceramic bulb holder.
Here we can see just how close the old bulb and new bulb's arc / filament focus points are. Nice!
However that presented a problem.
After drilling out holes to mount the new bulb holder that places the lamp too high. Despite a lot of thread to focus its just out of range.
Time for the angle grinder.
more like it! Now both bulbs will sit approximately in the same total filament height.
Drilling the holes first was a good idea as I could use the old round lamp holder as a guild to keep everything in the right place.
Installed
Lastly I took a stepped drill and bored out the reflector to take the new massive oversized bulb.
Before:
after
Hooking up some leads to the wires to my Can Light's 28.8 8S li-po pack I get a great beam "tight" beam perfect focused "granted a big hot spot"
The next part is building a battery pack.
I'm unsure if I can hit this bulb with 12S, as of now no one has ever tried it.
If I do the pack ideas are
Simple but messy 4x 3s 2,200 Li-pos in series. These should JUST fit inside, and be very crowded with all the wires.
12x 18650 cells in a custom pack with balancing leads. This would be the cleanest and easiest battery to deal with, however I'd need to find someone to build the pack for me.
Lastly and the route I likely will take. 1x https://www.ebay.com/itm/1200W-20A-...m=263384782573&_trksid=p2054502.c100227.m3827
Running off of a single 4s 5,200 Li-po (half of my Can Light battery pack) this will be the cheapest solution as I already have the batteries. Also should allow me to dial up the voltage as close as possible to the limit instead of juggling between 3.7 volts + or - without a soft starter.
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