I made an optional charging module for my DQG titanium extension tube light.
Made from copper, brass and carbon fibre tube this has a micro USB charging port supplying a tiny ME4056 charger board modified to supply 350mA charging current. Red & green charging indicators.
Remove the flashlight head to reveal the charging unit, click the tail switch on and plug in USB lead to charge.
I find the option of on board charging very convenient these days.Luminus SST-40 on 14mm Noctigon
MTN 15mm FET driver with GuppyDrv3 firmware
Cyan GITD LED surround
Hand made copper pill, charging unit & switch housing
Reverse clicky tail switch
Magnetic tail
Length - 104mm
Width - 17mm
Weight - 62g with 14500 cell
Max around - 1500lm OTF
Very cool! I have had that happen to 2 Mtn FET+1 drivers, I quit using them after that, just the straight up FET’s since. Thanks for figuring that out! :+1:
I got my noctigon quad mcpcb and angie optic today. So I made an aluminum spacer and got it mocked up in the light. I’m just waiting on the 351d’s from the GB to arrive before finishing it up. The optic is a bit small and doesn’t fill up the head but it’ll work just fine.
[quote=vinte77]
I got my noctigon quad mcpcb and angie optic today. So I made an aluminum spacer and got it mocked up in the light. I’m just waiting on the 351d’s from the GB to arrive before finishing it up. The optic is a bit small and doesn’t fill up the head but it’ll work just fine.
Thanks, it’s a Manta Ray C8.2. It’s a nice 26650 host with a c8 sized head. The shelf is very thick, I was surprised it took me so long when I was drilling the center hole.
The MR fits the convoy c8 stainless bezel and MR also makes their own stainless bezel too. The one on my light is the convoy one.
This host is noticeably better quality than the F13. The fit and finish is much better, and the host is a lot heftier for better heat sinking. It also comes with a/r lenses, but of course the price isn’t as good as an F13. But you get what you pay for.
Nice mod on the Manta Ray, I too love that look and will probably hunt it down and bag it.
Made a heat sink for the hollow headed Sofirn SF34 9x XM-L T6 today. (just got the light today) It made 1800 lumens stock, I then put a Q8 driver in it flashed with Anduril. A bit over 5000 lumens now. But the thin aluminum MCPCB was totally not sufficient for this, they had the reflector drilled and tapped for two screws to secure the MCPCB to it but they didn’t use any screws, actually just taped it together and added a couple of thin pieces of folded cardboard as spacers to keep it from rattling.
With a fairly thick aluminum heat sink and two screws snugging the assembly together, it works pretty well. I have to get some more 10mm SinkPAD’s to be able to use the new Samsung emitters but that’s next…
Re the MantaRay C8.2. I haven’t pulled the trigger, but, I inquired with the Ali Express shop to ask if they’d sell the host with an extension tube. They said they would. I wasn’t confident though whether it was an extension tube that mated with the stock 1s tube, or a one-piece 2s tube, which is what I think they use for their 2s XHP50 C8.2.
It’s not finished yet but I spent some time on a triple Rook conversion today. Built the new MCPCB shelf out of 18 & 22G copper I cut into rounds then soldered together. First I built the Puck then reflowed the noctigon onto it and reflowed the emitters onto the noctigon at the same time.
The tir is the deeply dished, pebble finish Cute. Emitters are what I had laying around.
Waiting on driver boards now, may piggyback something onto the stock driver as a contact till then but Idk what FW to use. It’s designed with a 25, 7135 + FET (if it were a click it’d run bistro), what do you guys suggest?
4 disks make up the puck (3 18G, 1 22G for proper thickness)
Press fit into light, center hole for 20AWG wires.
Nice work on the Rook C_k ! But wouldn’t the XP-L because of the higher Vf not be sub-optimal parallel to 2 219C’s ?
Edit: just checked the curves and it is not too bad, in fact the XP-L could well be putting out about the same amount of light as the 219C’s at the same voltage (but at less current so more efficient).
Pretty sure that textured CUTE-3 is a wide angle, if that’s so then it’s going to rob you of almost 33% of your output. I built a triple for a bike riding friend a couple of years ago and he put one of those on the light then complained that it wasn’t very bright anymore. When I got it back from him I tested it against the standard SS honeycomb pattern CUTE-3 and it (the sharkskin textured wide angle) was costing 1100 lumens!!!
Neat idea, but run-time is going to be pathetic on the Rook’s 3 14500’s…
Yea definitely sub-optimal but, as I hinted to in another thread, I’m just kinda getting back into it. The only money I’ve spent this go around is on EDC lights I NEED, all these old hosts / stalled out projects are just to “sample the goods”so to speak, see if it’s just a short lived rekindling of the old hobby or if I’m really back before buying new “toy” lights / hosts / parts I don’t really need.
I had two each XP-L’s and Nichia, this is just my preferred non-ideal combo knowing full well what I’m getting (such a large vF mismatch).
Dale, thanks for the heads up, I’ve literally had this optic for YEARS and always wanted to use it, didn’t realize it was THAT bad. Definitely intended for it to be an up-close light, we’ll see if I can live with it once the drivers done or not, I have some of the spot optics as well and with the MCPCB soldered / pressed into the head it’s cake to swap optics.
Runtime, well yea… I debated making is 3s NiMH vs 3p Lion, this way I can run those 840mAh cells (still get decent current since they’re 3 in parallel dividing the load) and end up with 2520mAh total (or 2.1Ah with efest 700’s for a higher drain option), either choice trumps the 1900mAh 3S eneloop option.
Not getting my fill of moddong on the rook’s head this morning I also fixed up an sk98 that had a good driver & led but suffered from another plastic press in tail.
Couldnt find a suitable retainer ring to do this one like I did the Zuseray a couple weeks ago so back out came the Cu sheet and shears for round 2.
Huge shout out to Old Lumens, his willingness and unhindered ability to take on the big projects with only hand tools is one of the things that made me realize I could try it too! Seriously if it wernt for him building amazing lights from raw materials, by hand, I wouldn’t even have started to take on the miniscule projects I do and all I’m doing is cutting & stacking flat sheet copper, he was making sheet into tube and building whole lights!!
Started as Cu sheet, made a washer with a step bit and a pair of knipex, pretty dang happy with how it came out (and the fact I didn’t leak one drop in the process, usually I cut the crap our of myself trying to drill a hole in the center of a round thing)
Luminus SST-40 on 14mm Noctigon
Thank you! :+1:
