More to come real soon.
First mod is a Solarstorm SP03 that will be modded to 3x XHP70 leds in parallel and will run on a RMM FET driver for 9-10 amps per led, with 2S/4P 18650 Li-ion cells.
Second mod will be a re-make of a 4xSSC-P7 light, that will use 4x XHP70 in series with a Taskled HBFlex driver and 5x26650 Li-ion cells, in a 6D Maglite. The head and heatsink are, (I believe), a LED zeplin heat sink and a 5 mega head. I am not positive of the head, but the heat sink is a LED ZEP heat sink, that was made for SSC-P7 leds and will be modified for the XHP70.
More to come this week-end, when I have some time to work on them.
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02/13/15 - We had a cold snap here, so not much is being done in the garage. I did manage to reflow all the XHP70 leds to copper mcpcbs and I did manage to get four of them onto the copper topped heat sink, in the four-up light. The copper plate is screwed down to the big heat sink and the stars are held down to that plate with a very thin layer of Arctic Alumina thermal adhesive.
I will still need to adjust the height of the reflectors, to get the best beam, but I will be doing that after I have the driver wired up and the light together. Then I will go back and make adjustments. I think I will need to make spacers, to lift up the reflectors, but I don't know for sure yet. That heat sink/head combo right now weighs in at 1 pound 7 ounces. Hey, I will probably need all that mass for the heat these things are going to put out.
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The HBFlex is wired up. I did this setup just like I do all my other Mags. The switch is a momentary SMD switch, mounted in the stock switch housing and the driver has a copper heat sink added, to help keep it cool.
Once it's all in the body, the copper heat sink touches the body.
The leds are wired and since this all has to screw together, I will run the +/- wires up in, but not solder them till the head is screwed on, so I don't have to deal with twisting wires, while screwing the head on.
The light will use 5xMNKE 26650 cells with a copper extension, to make the length correct for the 6D Maglite.
It works. I have to program the Taskled driver, which should take me several hours, but hopefully, after going thru 32 pages of the manual, I will have the light working properly.
That's it for now. I consider this half of the build finished and the other light will be worked on this week-end.
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The two bodies for the SP03 are done and the switch and cover is done.
I used the drill press, with an end mill bit and a dremel #115 bit, to do all the "mill work". It took several hours and a lot of four letter sentences, but I did get them together and it looks fairly good.
They were a tight fit, as in push together hard fit. I used JB weld on the joints, but I left enough aluminum to aluminum, to keep the bodies working as ground.
The switch went together fairly well. I also used a little JB weld around the edges of the switch hole, so when the copper was pressed in, it will help to keep it in once it hardens.
There's not a whole lot more to do right now. I will make the copper led shelf and fit it into the head, but since RMM is doing a custom driver for this and since Oshpark usually takes 3 weeks or more, I figure this thread will sit for a month, till I can finish the SP03.
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02/15/15
I finished up the rest of the head and that's the last of the work for a while, till the driver comes in.
Stars are mounted with AA and 18ga wires are used.
I had to make thin spacers between the reflector and the leds, with plastic washers. I had to dremel them out to fit and sand them thin with a sanding block.
That's it till the driver comes.
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02/28/15 IT'S COLD!!
It's so cold that I don't even want to be out in the shop, but I was having withdraw symptoms, so I had to try to finish the SP03.
The driver that RMM designed for me. It came ready to go, along with a temp sensor.
The temp sensor got fried, my bad. I will have to get another one, but the driver is fine and ready to go.
Snaps in place real well.
The tail end. Working on the spring plate. I removed the stock springs and went with heavier ones, along with copper braid.
8 brand new Efest purple 18650s. Time to light it up.
It even works, but after about 15 seconds on high, smoke comes out. Probably not good.
The smoke is the spacer rings that I made, to go under the reflector. The ceramic substrate gets so hot, that the rings melted where they touched the edges of the leds. I will have to figure something else out. Maybe metal, but I can't put that on the stars, for fear of shorting, so possibly metal stand offs between the leds, to rest the reflector on them. I don't know for sure yet, but I hope the answer eludes me till spring time. IT'S COLD out HERE!
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