Conversion of an Ra Twisty to a Nichia Triple.

peter yetman

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Hopefully Dan won't mind me posting this here, if it's a problem I'm sure we can move it.

This will be an ongoing thread that I'll update as I do the work.

Here's some of the bits. There's a complete reflector next to the bored one.
parts.jpg



I ordered a spare reflector and bezel from Unique Titanium.
I took the reflector to my local machine shop and asked him to bore out the reflector into a tube. The optic and MCPCB are 20mm and he managed to bore the tube out to 19.5mm and still keep some strength in the walls.
tube.jpg



With a bit of work with some abrasive paper I smoothed the inside walls of the tube and made the MCPCB a little smaller. The optic fitted snug into the end of the tube.
Unless I'm mistaken there is a front and back to the tube there seems to be about one more thread at the front, that's why I marked that end with some red cord.
I fitted the optic to the MCPCB and they both slip into the tube with a tight friction fit.

optic2.jpg



Next I ordered some 20mm aluminium spacers 5mm thick and some washers 1.5mm thick to use as a heatsink shelf for the MCPCB.

The 5mm aluminium spacer is just right, after a slight slim down it is now a tight friction fit inside the tube, just have to cut two slots for the wires to the MCPCB.
heatsink.jpg



Here it is with the holes cut for the wires.
heatsink2.jpg



The MCPCB has arrived back from CRX, look what a lovely job he's done. He's even polished the back of the board.
mcpcb2.jpg



I'm expecting the Twisty to arrive in a few days, it's sitting in UK Customs at the mo......

I've soldered the wires to the board, put Knapton tape around the inside of the tube, added Thermal Paste between the board and heatsink.
head.jpg



And it works.....
beam.jpg



Because the module that I've built has to be screwed into the host, the wires need to be 50mm or so long to take up the twisting. I'm a little concerned that there may not be enough room behind the module to accomodate them. Much as I'd like to use the 5mm heatsink, if I use a 1.5mm washer there should be enough room. I've slimmed down a washer and fitted it, just in case. I'll know when the host arrives.
washer.jpg



I've decided to go with the 1.5mm washer for the heatsink, it does give me enough room to coil about 50mm of the two wires in the recess. With that and a little room inside the head I should have enough slack.
I fixed it in place with green Loctite, cleaned off all excess and then bonded it in place with thermal resin.
resin.jpg



The Twisty host has arrived.
twisty white.jpg


twisty red.jpg



I did play with it for a bit, just enough to allow me to realise that the tint was far too cool for me and that while the secondary red emitter was a good idea, I'd never use it. I had a secondary red on my WASP and disabled it.
Here'e a shot of the Osram emitter before I removed it.
osram.jpg


It was just a matter of desoldering the contacts and lifting the emitter off.
The negative tag is the one nearest the large Earth bolt.
open.jpg


The solder tags seem quite fragile. I initially connected my new module with slightly longer leads than I wanted, just in case. It all functioned perfectly so I shortened the leads and resoldered them. The solder tags seemed to just dissolve, and I ended up managing to connect the positive lead through the heatsink shelf and soldering the negative to the ground wire connected to the large Earth bolt.
The excess leads fit well into the void under the module, given that I hope to never have to mess with the wiring again I'm going to use medium threadlocker on the lower threads of the module so i can only unscrew the top part to access the optic and lens.
open2.jpg


When I had the head apart I was able to measure the voltage and current before I soldered the second wire.
Voltage on High 3.4 volts - Current on High 1.6 amps.
On High I would guess the light puts out about 500Lm compared to my OR Nichia Triple on 30% this step-down after 10 seconds to a more sensible 250 ish lumens.
closed.jpg


complete.jpg

The programming we know, is a bit of a nightmare on this light and I've managed to make the first and second positions the same, so I now cannot program the light by toggling between Low and High. I'm now attempting a Factory Reset which in proving a pain. I will get there, it's just a matter of time.

I managed the Factory reset eventually, once or twice conventionally and with better results with this rig.
I bet Henry has one of these…
rig.jpg


There's something about the emitters on high that causes the thermal protection to kick in before the driver has reset. It seems in this configuration I'm not going to be able to reset the light.
Now I know that the front end is a success, I'm now going to remove Henry's Driver (sorry) and put in an Icarus from Prometheus.
Here's a few pictures during the removal and clean up….
inside.jpg


resin2.jpg


inside2.jpg



I'm going to make the shelf for the Icarus driver out of 22mm copper pipe and two copper washers. The larger washer has a 16mm hole in it for the driver to sit on and the smaller one has a 17mm hole so it sits around the driver and will contact the negative edge of the driver to the top of the body tube, completing the circuit.
copper.jpg


I'll glue them together with Thermal Resin.
Here's the finished copper shelf.
shelf.jpg



The wires go to the gold pad in the centre and the pad on the right. There's an "L" between them and a + next to the center one and a - next to the side one.. I didn't notice this and wasted a lot of time having soldered to the outside ring and to the right hand pad with the +ve. Fortunately the driver survived.
icarus1.jpg



Here's the Icarus Driver mounted in the shelf.
mounted.jpg



And finally the whole thing fitted inside the head.
icarus.jpg



The driver is a nice tight fit inside the 17mm copper washer, but I was getting intermittent flashes on the lower levels. I've made a small solder bridge between the outor ring on the driver and the washer. I now have solid light.


So I have my complete light. At the moment it's set to the default settings as trying to get the driver programmed with a Twisty is next to impossible, a bit like the original driver.
I'll live with it for a bit and then I'll make up a clicky rig to do the job.

Having learnt the programming using a clicky rig, it it now very easy to program it using the twisty. I'm very impressed with the Icarus driver, I shall use it again.

Conclusions (for my reference as much as yours)

Consider anodising the host to make it pretty and to avoid earthing problems.

Solder the driver to the 17mm copper ring before building the shelf. Less heatsink to help soldering.

Glue a 21mm i/d around the 17mm washer to stop any solder bridging the gap.



Thanks for looking.
P
 
Last edited:

Modernflame

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Thanks for sharing this, Peter. You've got me thinking about buying a triple. Is that optic sandwiched between two O-rings, like they come from HDS?
 

peter yetman

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The optic is flush against the original lens which has an O ring between it and the bezel. I may try and use an O ring between the optic and the lens later on.
P
 

emarkd

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Great project! Can't wait to see how this turns out!

One word of warning, which you may have already thought of -- when you have to slightly shrink an mcpcb like that its easy to accidentally expose the conductive layer's edge, leading to the possibility of shorting to the solid core of the board or to the wall of the host. Test before powering up :)

Looking forward to your updates.
 

peter yetman

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Thanks for the warning, I've filed the solder pads back slightly from the edge to save them shorting to the tube. Also I've checked that they aren't shorting to the base. I may well paint a little nail varninh arounf the edge of the pads too.
Keep the ideas coming, this isn't a rush job.
P
 

Lithium466

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Use some liquid electrical tape or Kapton tape instead of nail polish.
Nice job so far! Now I want to do that to my twisty! What driver are you going to use?
 

peter yetman

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Thanks, I'll do that.
The driver is my next decision.
I wanted to retain the battery board, but at the moment I can't see a way inside without destroying it. In the first instance I'll rig it with Henry's driver still in place.
I haven't worked out how much current his driver supplies (100Lm Twisty) but it's probably not enough. I only want to run this at a maximum of 300Lm, so I'll need a programable driver.
H17f comes to mind, I'm also tempted by Jason's Icarus, I know it's expensive and I can't see that it does much more than Dr Jones', but the warranty and after sales may be worth it.
P
 

Lithium466

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I guess around 1000mA on high mode...or something like 3,6W ;)

H17f has my vote, Dr Jones is a great guy and will provide support if needed (at least in my experience).

Is/was your Twisty a high CRI ?
 

peter yetman

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Don't know if it's Hi Cri, but it's the lovleyest warm light that I've seen. My Nichia 219B does highlight Red a little more, but overall It's very pleasing.
Thanks, I'll try with the Henry Driver first, if it does and amp it may well be enogh for me. I do like the way the switch works.

P
 

Lithium466

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Must be the Seoul high CRI then ;)
If you don't use it, don't throw it away, send it to me haha!
 

peter yetman

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I spent an interesting afternoon yesterday trying to reflow the Triple MCPCB.
I've got the hang of doing single ones now, but three at a time needs more practice.
I posted the board and emitters to CRX who is very kindly going to reflow them for me.
Also, just fitted the heatsink, pics in first post.
P
 

Modernflame

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Better safe than sorry. I also applaud the decision to keep the existing driver. Very curious to know how much light you get @ 1A.
 

peter yetman

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Yes, I'm curious too. The driver in this is very simple, but it works perfectly.
Looking at the output charts for the BOSS, 1 amp to 3 Nichias should give me a reasonable output. Can't remember off hand what to expect but I feel confident.
Aslo, I'm not going to touch this particular Twisty, as it's just right for me. I shall wait for however long it takes to pick up another.
P
 

peter yetman

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The reflowed MCPCB should be here in a couple of days, and a host will be here in about 10.
Updates to the top post soon.
I'm getting quite excited.
P
 
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