Jerommel's Hand Job 2018 - 6th annual BLF / Old Lumen Scratch Made Light Contest

Yeah, maybe i’ll send it to some globalists… :smiley: :partying_face:

But it’s true, it’s gonna have a harder time venting.
I decided it was not that important.

Nice work Jeroen. Looking forward seeing the end result.

:smiley: :+1:

Well, let’s hope not that it will end like that… ^

I will update this evening / night with pics.
Had a bit of a set back, but that’s what you get when you build hastily and without proper planning up front…

Me too ! :beer:

Pics from yesterday and today with (quite a lot of) text:

So, the copper tube was too narrow to get the battery in, or rather, to get it out again.
I originally planned to hammer the tube over the internal assembly (battery, charger PCB, switch and driver), but this didn’t seem wise, so after looking for anything to ream the tube out, this was the only thing i could use:

Subtle tool…
This SDS drill is just over 20mm across the chisel point, and i used some household scrubbing fluid along with it.
This did the job, but the outside of the tube got a little wider too, and not evenly, so…

…the outside had to be sanded back to (near) perfection.

Drilled the switch button hole too.

Also drastically enlarged the centre hole in the shelf, because…

…this is how close the driver board will be to the shelf, so i needed to make some room for the slightly thick wires (22 AWG)…
This doesn’t look beneficial for the thermal path from LED’s to the shelf, but i figured it would still be good enough.
The LEDs are mounted on a DTP copper LED board, and although it’s a thin LED board, i think it will still conduct the heat pretty well to the shelf.
…but i did enlarge that hole more than necessary…
O well…

Switch button hole.

The tube is not 1 mm too long, as it turns out…

Not yet sure how to finish the tail.

Size comparison with 2 compact 18650 lights:

(Yes, the DQG is empty…)

_
_

And then, i noticed some problems in my plan…

It was the lack of a plan, i guess…

The USB port sat pretty deep, so it could only be charged with a long micro USB plug, and then it still didn’t go in far enough to snap in place…

The charging indicator LEDs didn’t line up nicely either with the side (at 90° of the USB port / switch.

Conclusion: the charger board should move a little towards the wall of the tube to solve these things.
But i used epoxy… No way i can move it…

Additionally, trying some switch boots, the switch was sitting a bit deeper than i would have liked.

And another problem with the switch itself occurred !?
Probably too much heat when soldering, but it had some problems every 8 clicks (full rotation of the inner parts every 8 clicks, or, i think it’s 8, could be 12 too…)
It could be traces of super glue too that crept in too…
Injecting WD40 with a syringe did help, and possibly it will improve further with use.

SOLUTION:
I have plenty of those charging boards (ordered 10 of them at the time).
I have another 20700.
I have a bunch of small Omtens.
I have another LD25 driver.
…so i make another assembly… :person_facepalming:

That’s a lot better.
It cost me a PCB trace though (that’s why the 1st attempt ended up so deep), so i had to lead the + to the indicator LEDs with a wire (yellow).

The switch has to be glued on top of the the charger IC again, but both go more towards the outside.
Need something on the back of the switch to glue it to the charger IC.

A bit of cotton from a cotton tip swab drenched with super glue will do.

Driver on top etcetera, and compared to the first assembly:

Goals met for now.
Bit of a waste of parts on the first assembly though…
No idea what to do with it or the parts it consists of…
All epoxied…
O well, who cares. :beer:

CONTINUED HERE

That is Prototype #1. :wink: Seeing far enough ahead to avoid all part fitment issues can be quite difficult, especially when working with such a compact size. Good going though!!

Nice progress. Part of the fun is overcoming issues that pop up, when building by the seat of your pants :zipper_mouth_face: :beer:

Whew, that stinks (having to rebuild). But at least there was time to do so and you had the parts around. Other than the waste of parts, building a prototype certainly helps you figure out how not to do things! :smiley:

Is it the top of the 20700 cell casing that stops the USB plug from being inserted all the way, or the opening in the copper tube? If it’s the latter, then maybe the first build isn’t completely hopeless. You could make your contest light using build number two, to get the best results, but still continue to make number one into a less-than-perfect version with a larger opening for the charge port and a small metal or plastic extension for the button on the switch that’s too far back.

Yeah, the copper pipe is in the way with #1
The mechanical electrical problem with the switch kinda sucks too…
We’ll see. :slight_smile:

Looking good Jerommel! Keep up the good work. :+1:

Nice work!

Wow. This looks real interesting. Good on ya for entering. :beer:

Progress has been slow, and i planned on getting to a working light today, but i have to wait for glue to dry now.

Pics and text:

I made a hole for the charging indicator lights.
Drilled a hole, put some Scotch ‘magic’ tape on the inside and filled the cavity with Kafuter UV curing glue.
The tape is frosted, acting as a diffuser.
Nice idea, but didn’t last…

I have an average to short micro USB plug in the charging port, and still some room to spare.

And then it was time to do some epoxy sculpting.

Switch button boxed in by epoxy, because i want to make this light as waterproof as possible.

A switch boot will fit over the button, shutting it off from water.

And also the USB port is surrounded by epoxy now.
The port itself is set in super glue and epoxy, so any water can’t really go through the port because all is sealed form the rear.

This was a bit dumb:

Had to make a new pair of holes for the LED board screws, in order to align the optics with the switch.
Why didn’t i think of that before?? :confounded:

Screws with rather large heads, but the right length.
Had to scrape some of the traces on the LED board out of the way to prevent causing short circuit.
Used a black marker to mask the mayhem…

Meanwhile, i ground some 1.5mm off the head length, also getting rid of the damages.

…needless to say, i dropped it AGAIN after that…
But after some cussing, hammering, squeezing and sanding it all ‘buffed out’ fairly nicely.

But this is the problem with this build…
The copper is actually too soft to make a light out of.
It would be okay if it was thicker, but it’s just 1 mm wall thickness…
So i’m looking for another tube, maybe aluminium, maybe brass, to slide over the light, to add some strength, particularly for the head.
But i’ll build it like this first, then we’ll see what we can find, or not…

Time to glue the assembly in place in the tube !

Kafuter is really handy stuff.
I put some in a syringe and filled the gaps between the epoxy and the copper.
Used a Singfire 324 with 395nm LED, shining around inside the cavity.

Also glued the battery in the tube the same way.

And the USB port.

It’s pretty strong stuff when cured.
And very thin so it creeps where ever it can.

So what about the Scotch tape?
Well, it damaged when i had to do some filing inside the tube after opening the USB hole a bit more to the right to get better alignment.
So in stead of the tape a put a bit of Kafuter there in stead, and made that surface frosted with a diamond powder coated file.
That was okay, although not as even as the tape…
But somehow either the Kafuter or some of the final addition of super glue got onto it, so it’s not entirely frosted anymore…
In fact, it looks quite messy now… :weary:
I think some particles got stuck in there too…
Too bad, but oh well…

So after pouring in some super glue, intended to creep between battery and copper tube, i added some more epoxy between driver and shelf, all just to make sure the insides aren’t going anywhere.

So now it hangs in my bathing room against the air intake, in order to suck away the fumes of the drying super glue.
I’ll leave it hanging there to tomorrow afternoon.
After that, i can put in the LED board and optic.
If i don’t wait for the super glue to shed its fumes, it might well deposit a white haze on the optics, so i’m not taking the risk.

To be continued…

:+1:

What sort of epoxy glue did you use?

This one:

^ Does not contain metal, by the way.

Update:

No pics, just some reporting on the disasters of building this light…

I dropped the damn thing AGAIN !!

Big dent in the head….

BUT, i managed to un-dent it AGAIN ! :+1: :beer:

And then i put in the triple LED board, and somehow (i suspect how it happened though…) i have a short circuit, probably in one of the LEDS.

I’ve had it for today… :weary:

I did glue a switch boot over the button, or rather, over the cylinder in which the button sits.
That went quite well. Drying now, should be cured tomorrow.

To be continued……………

Persistence man… keep at it.
Will be a really nice light when done.
Great work so far.