I wanted to give up on this light, but I just could not do it. I even threw it in the trash, but I retrieved it and went ahead and finished it.
Three the Hard way. Of course in Vegas it would be 4 the hard way, or 6, 8, or 10, but I can call it as I see it.
First a little Vegas music
Now, the mod, or should I say, the brainstorming part, where my brain gets cloudy and the headache booms in the distance, right before I see the white light.
Guess...
Here's a video to help.
3AA NiMHs in series, but not end to end (long way). More like is in a battery holder, for a shorter and fatter light. The video hopefully explains something. Three 2AA Mags cut down to 1AA. One head. Three NiMHs in series. One XM-L. One Driver. A lot of modding work and hopefully some Las Vegas Luck...
More to come... (don't you hate it when I drag stuff out like this?)
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A few photos of how the jumpers will be made and how they will fit in the tubes.
Two of the plastic bushings are sanded till they will fall in a body tube. Then they are drilled for the small plastic tube crossover. A wire will run from a contact on one bushing to a contact on the other via the small crossover.
I filed the slot with round files till the plastic crossover would fit in.
Here's how the jumper assembly will fit in the bodies.
With the tail cap screwed in. The slot did not affect the tail cap going in.
Of course the other body has to be filed so it can mate up, but you can get the idea.
I will probably use 3/8" flat Nickel Silver rounds for the contacts. Of course two of the four contacts will need springs, due to the fact they will touch negative ends of the batteries. I have some very short gold plated springs for that. This is all just practice. I have not cut the bodies down yet and I am using the original tail ends for practice. I will have to do it all over again when I cut down the bodies.
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04-07-2013
I decided to change things up a little. I am going to go with 4xAA NiMHs, instead of 3. I don't want to cut down the bodies more than I have to, so I will use 2AA in the LED body and 1AA@ in the Incan bodies. I have gotten a little done, mainly getting a groove cut in the second body and making a couple of copper pieces.
I made a tiny copper bushing out of some sheet copper and formed it to fit over the center plastic crossover.
I got both of the slots in the bodies to be the same length and width, so the copper bushing will touch the bottom of both grooves. When the tail caps are tightened down, there is enough pressure on the crossover that it grounds the two bodies. I even metered it.
This will be the end cap (or end caps), for the other ends of the Incan bodies.
Once they are permanantly in place, I will solder them together to keep the bodies from shifting and to ground the bodies together, so all three bodies will be grounded. I will also pin them to have a better ground.
It's been labor intensive so far. Everything is hand work and custom fit, but it is going as planned with no surprises. That scares me...
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04-12-2013
Here's the finished contact assembly that fits in the tail ends of two bodies.
battery side
tail cap side
This is the assembly that had me wanting to throw it all away. This is revision 3. It seems to work. This goes in the cut off ends of two bodies.
I used copper couplings to hold the bodies together. Then I filled in between the bodies and the couplings with Epoxy.
The headache assembly in place. Now I have ground through all 3 bodies.
Testing with Alkalines. I have a complete circuit, so I have a good ground now, finally!
I am doing some painting on the light and stripping the tail caps, to be polished. The head is ready to go, so it should be ready to fire off tomorrow night.
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Glam and Beam shots are in Post #4