chuckolson
Newly Enlightened
Last fall, I ordered and received from Dat2zip a 3-watt Luxeon LED and a 700 mA BadBoy regulator & emitter board. A month ago I finally checked the LED at 100 mA, and found it produces a slightly warm, pure white light. So spurred by this good luck, I got busy and drew up some milling processes on a block of black Lexan.
I wanted to take advantage of the low internal resistance of NiMH AA cells, while keeping the package reasonably small. So it took the shape of two side-by-side rechargeables, with a top-surface switch close to my thumb and with the light emanating from the bottom face. To cool the 3-watt device I put 3.6 square inches of 0.040" copper plate flush with the top surface and screwed down in contact with the LED through a thin layer of Arctic Alumina. The NX05 optic wound up recessed about 0.15".
The only problem area I found is with the Radio Shack Submini-Slide-Switch - - electrically and size-wise, it's perfect. But it's easy to accidentally rub the slide ON in a pocket. So I had to make a small slide-lock that pivots on one of the switch mounting-screws and keeps the slide OFF in a carefully located slot. The pivot screw jams in tapered threads while being adjusted for needed resistance to keep the lock from rotating.
The result is a light that I call the "Monolith" with apology to the late Stanley Kubrick. "It stands up tall to light a wall, and when laid down, it doesn't roll". It has a typical NX05 flood pattern with a 750 fc center at 12 inches. Battery demand is about 1400 mA so that 2300 mA-h cells give it about an hour of continuous light, or more with intermittent use. It's a definite palm-warmer, but that keeps the LED junction easily under the 90 deg. C. limit for full life expectancy.
I wanted to take advantage of the low internal resistance of NiMH AA cells, while keeping the package reasonably small. So it took the shape of two side-by-side rechargeables, with a top-surface switch close to my thumb and with the light emanating from the bottom face. To cool the 3-watt device I put 3.6 square inches of 0.040" copper plate flush with the top surface and screwed down in contact with the LED through a thin layer of Arctic Alumina. The NX05 optic wound up recessed about 0.15".
The only problem area I found is with the Radio Shack Submini-Slide-Switch - - electrically and size-wise, it's perfect. But it's easy to accidentally rub the slide ON in a pocket. So I had to make a small slide-lock that pivots on one of the switch mounting-screws and keeps the slide OFF in a carefully located slot. The pivot screw jams in tapered threads while being adjusted for needed resistance to keep the lock from rotating.
The result is a light that I call the "Monolith" with apology to the late Stanley Kubrick. "It stands up tall to light a wall, and when laid down, it doesn't roll". It has a typical NX05 flood pattern with a 750 fc center at 12 inches. Battery demand is about 1400 mA so that 2300 mA-h cells give it about an hour of continuous light, or more with intermittent use. It's a definite palm-warmer, but that keeps the LED junction easily under the 90 deg. C. limit for full life expectancy.
