BTU Shocker Triple MT-G2 with a twist -- Aiming for >100Watt ~9000Lumens -- With external 2S power pack, handle etc...

Haha yeah, this build is properly vintage style! :face_with_monocle:
For other retro BLF enthusiasts, you’ll notice those KaiDomain 7135v2 boards used as slaves. Those used to be all the rage before programmable Nanjg 105s came along.
Good riddance to that rubbish though :wink:

Planning happened this time last year so the approach is more than a little outdated I’m sure.
Things advance so fast around here, it’s awesome :slight_smile:

You might consider to change it to an electronic switch, that would reduce wire resistance and switchresistance….

I definitely considered changing the setup for an electronic switch when I started back on this project, especially with all the cool new driver firmware that’s around!

But it would have no effect on resistance since non of the main power is actually going across a switch. Power circuit to the LEDs is solely controlled by the 7135 slaves which are in turn activated or deactivated by the MCU board, the only thing actually getting switched on and off by the clicky switch in the trigger is this MCU board.
Hehe, if I was sending 18Amps across that sprial switch wire it would look something like this…

8)

Here’s a little update on the front end of the light.

Made up a cardboard template to make sure the emitters would be aligned nicely in the reflector, no centering rings will work and the emitters will be bolted down so getting things accurately aligned and in place is proving to be a fair challenge.

Looks about right :slight_smile:

Making a nice little nest for those Mt-G2s :slight_smile:

More to come soon.
Cheers Linus

…and all the emitters are nailed down! :bigsmile:

Fairly big milestone this, glad to get it out of the way as I can now make serious progress assembling and wiring up the front part of the light. Connecting Leds with the drivers etc.

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Next stop is drilling the LED wire holes, and I also need to mount a registration pin that will stop the reflector from spinning when the front of the light is tightened down. I really don’t want to have any worries about accidentally dedoming these leds or anything like that.

And for those wondering, the copper squares are intended to sink some heat into the massive reflector. I have some more to cut to shape an add.
It’s a true “brushing the excess heat under the carpet” type of solution but should hopefully keep heat sag a little lower during the first few minutes…or rather seconds… :stuck_out_tongue:
They’re sanded very flat and just tall enough to make contact with the reflector once it is tightened down and pushes onto the led’s silicon skirt.

W - O- W !

:open_mouth: great job!

Thanks M4D M4X!

Just been sent this pic by MRsDNF and I’m pretty excited! Thanks again Steve!

It’s a BTU battery tube machined out to accept 4 18650 cells and it means I’ll also be able to configure this light in a 2s2p 18650 battery configuration for those times when a bulky battery pack isn’t ideal. Awesome :slight_smile:

Small update:

Received the 1uF micro capacitors yesterday so proceeded to slap one onto my frankenstein MCU board and flash it with STAR off time firmware.
Tested the driver last night with the default cap timeout values and the smile on my face was massive, this is what I call a reverse clicky UI! :bigsmile:

Just brilliant! Any thoughts of going for a momentary switch are gone completely.

I also tested the voltage cutoff with default values (128/118) and with my 47k resistor mod the step down seemed to kick in at around 5.35v. Bit low but not bad without any adjustments.
Of course I have to factor in any voltage losses in the cable before the MCU in order to monitor the true battery pack voltage (which can be quite significant at around 0.6v@18A) so this figure should give me an actual battery cutoff voltage closer to 6v.
I’ll probably tweak this to give me a safe cutoff near 6v for using internal 18650 batteries (which don’t see the voltage drop from the cable) and then I’ll just have to accept a higher cutoff when using the battery pack.
Fine by me since I don’t intend to run the lipo packs down that far anyway.

So the driver is ready to be installed. LED wires holes are also drilled so there’s not much stopping me from slapping the whole thing together now. Yay! Expect beam shots soon!

we expect…

Just made this sticker, have a feeling it will be appropriate here… 8)

Steady progress on the internals tonight.

Redesigned the main Battery negative connection on the driver board. Two nuts and a threaded bar now make removing the main connection possible without disturbing the copper post/slave driver at the same time. Want to make sure I can remove these main connections easily to make maintenance and adjustments easier.

I also added some AA and one of those compressible thermal putty pads to each 7135 board before clamping them down. Can’t hurt to keep those 7135s cool. Main heatsinking will be through ground ring soldered to the copper posts however.

Next was building the positive wiring beneath the led shelf, had to make sure this would align properly with the holes in the shelf and fit neatly between the driver assembly and the shelf. Keeping the wiring as thick as possible here to lower resistance loses.

And here is the driver assembly fully sunk into the head. Leaving just enough space to pack a couple coils of 14Awg cabling for the main power and of course the MCU board and it’s own wiring. The BTU driver cavity may seem generous but I’ll be using every last bit of it with this setup. :stuck_out_tongue:

Paramount is that I can easily get to the MCU board and reprogram it even after everything is assembled. Should only be a case of unscrewing the contact board and pulling it out.

And here is the front showing the wires coming through the led shelf.

Looking forward to seeing this running!

Did you plan all this or is it just happening? My head is spinning.

Great work!

Keep going and keep the updates coming. :)

Bit of both :wink:

But to be honest I had a fairly solid idea of how all this was going to go together and it’s mostly going to plan, no nasty surprises yet…touch wood!
If I had a lathe I’d have turned down the back of that aluminum slug holding the drivers a bit. Just to give me a few more mm of breathing space on the rear side of the driver cavity.
But considering it’s just a random part I found in a box it’s actually pretty close.

Here’s the rough 3d plan of the driver setup from a year ago, turned out pretty close. :slight_smile:

Massive image dump incoming!:

Sorry…but I’m pretty pleased with how this is coming together and it’s hard to show how it all works without a bunch of angles :stuck_out_tongue:

The driver assembly is done!
Barring a few last bits of insulating heatshrink this element of the light is ready to roll :bigsmile:

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The MCU board is connected to the rest of the driver and the contact board by three detachable pin connectors.
Black is battery negative/ground, Red is batt positive switched by the clicky switch and Black/Red Stripe is the PWM signal going to the slave drivers.

Contact board, MCU and wiring. Hmm will all this spaghetti really fit in that driver cavity??

All of it should go together something like this. I need the extra length of main power cables to let the assembly twist down while tightening up the center contact board. It’s only a half turn or so at most but important that none of the cables are too short and get in the way. I also want to be able to undo and move the contact board out of the way enough to get access to the MCU later for reporgramming, more on that further down…

These are the main power cables coming from the contact board and the copper contacts that will get bolted to the driver assembly. Small black wire coming off this goes to the MCU ground connection.

And this is how it connects up to the driver assembly. (Still need to properly insulate the positive connection before final assembly)

Here’s another angle showing the wire carrying the switched positive from the clicky switch through the aluminium contact board holder and to the MCU

Not much room to spare! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Just to prove it all works and goes together as it should, here’s a crappy gif showing the assembly process.

And again I want to be able to get to the MCU for easy reprogramming so here is what the in-light reprogramming process would look like.
it’s just a matter of unscrewing the contact board retaining ring, wrangling the power cables out of the way and fishing for the MCU board. :slight_smile:

Job done!
Now…where did I put those Mt-G2s? :wink:

:slight_smile:

Orsm. RBD has your MTG-2 leds. They are with the reflector he last 18 months ago.

I guess I’ve been away too long, who or what is an “RBD”?
And more importantly how do I go about liberating my MT-G2s from such a thing? They’re kind of important to this build…can’t be waiting another year to get this thing finished :stuck_out_tongue:

Actually I wept slightly seeing the newest MT-G2 Q output bins on IO, mine seem rather antiquated in comparison.
Can I get this thing finished before the MT-G3 is announced? :wink:

RBD would be Rufusbduck. He lost from memory a reflector along time ago and its just stuck in my head for some reason so put two an two together rattled it around in my head for a Nano second and came to the above conclusion. I had the same problem when I built my shocker with the MTG-2 led being updated. I wont tell you what I ended up doing. As far as finishing before the MTG bazillion comes out will I suppose depend on how quick the mailman comes.

i cant wait to see it finished…