50mm aspheric DirectDive XM-L U2 in copper

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Hi, Yesterday I made this thrower, and first of all I must say THANKS to Match for the “XML direct to copper” investigation :slight_smile:

Some pics: http://postimage.org/gallery/17k3idgy/

The_ PILL

With the led soldered on it (I used a little bit of FUJIK with the emitter’s -, I tried without it at first but it was in short, so reflowed again.


Size comparison with the SRKING

Second emmiter installed…

SRKING on the LEFT (i can’t see it, but it was turned on pointing to the wall)

Same here, SRKING on the left:

I used an XM-L U2 1A for this. The first LED I installed was perfectly soldered in the pill, but afters hours of trying I couln’t stick the positive wire into the LED’s , because the copper didn’t heat enough… after too many tries, I dedomed it and then it was destroyed… so I started all over again, but FIRST I put some solder wire in the with the led on it’s original star, and then reflowed it in the copper. The second reflow wasn’t so good as the first one, it is a bit off-centered… but it was the best I could, I should fix it to get a perfect square.

No driver used, direct drive is the way to go in this case. No magnets used either to enlarge the battery.

I don’t have a luxmeter yet, one is on the way (may be two more weeks). I want to post lux readings and then de-dome the LED to compare LUX readings.
What do you thing of dedoming the led in this case, is it a good idea or bad? I just want a super thrower with XM-L, so it’s better if the beam is too tight and narrow.

Thanks for watching :slight_smile:

2

Looks good. Will you be posting some night time beamshots?

Cheers
Matt

3

I dont really understand the beamshots but it looks super cool! I wonder how far itll throw. Btw whats the current draw with 2 18650s?

4

OK, I’ll try to post night beamshots late tonight.

Try to point a flashlight with DAYLIGHT, outside to a wall, it is too bright, even a KING’s beam is invisible in the wall (Triple XM-L, well driven).
With two 18650… it will burn the LED, it is direct driven, no driver used, so current could be ~5A or maybe ~6.5A, it depends on the battery used (XTAR 2600 without protection board in this case) and on the resistance from the wires, the switch, and with the body and copper pill. I think I can’t get an exact measurement with a DMM, just an approximation.

I’m anxious to receive the LUX Meter, I think it could be around 95KLux

5

Now THAT’s what I call a pill! How in the world did you heat that up?

Like you, I was inspired by Match to reflow solder an XM-L direct on copper, but the perfectionist in me ruined two XML-U2s before I put that project on hold :~

I should have kept the negative solder pad like you did so I’d only have one lead to solder on…oh well I’ll try it it again once I get more emitters in! Thanks for the tip!

6

I did it in the kitchen when nobody was around :stuck_out_tongue:
I let it in the fire for two or three minures, then turned off and put the LED in place with a precission tweezer.
Something like this did the job:

7

Ah I knew there had to be a burner involved somewhere. Thanks!

8

Very nice FX. Looking forward to the night shots. A small piece of copper can be a bugger to solder let alone the big chunks.

9

Beamshots!! Higher res pics: http://postimage.org/gallery/83zsut4/

There was a nice moonlight for walking around, but BAD for beamshots... so here is what I could get so far.

Palm tree at 160 meters 20x zoom (mouse over image to see the beamshot)

The same palm tree but without zoom (just as a control shot)

Now, at the LEFT, there's a church, that's the next target: Control shot

The church is at 570 meters - 20x zoom, mouse over for light ON

Another shot... Mouse over for light ON

And the following are just to see the beam:

Map from my position to the church:

10

holy crap it throws 570 meters. very well done

11

Nice work! You ever think of selling these? :D

12

Great work. It looks like a laser beam :slight_smile:

13

very well done!

14

Nice job.

15

Many thanks to all for your support :slight_smile:

Nah, I’m a bit piggy and did this for hobby and because I didn’t have any aspheric. The LED is not perfectly centered, it is 0.5mm off center and it does not produce a perfect square. I can fix it but it means diss-assembly all and heat again… may be later, it is on the must do list (and de-doming the LED too).

Here is another pic (click to enlarge)

16

FX-32,

Woot! Outstanding work! That looks like it throws like a champ. Nice work on the heatsink, and I agree...daytime beamshots are the bomb. Btw, you must have missed that little tip from my post... for I did the exact same thing as you when I first mounted my emitter: I forgot to tin the pads and for the life of me could not get the stinking wire to stick. Second attempt was a bit better for me :)

A hint for led centering - Since you didn't make a riser, just use a taper bit on your lathe to scroll a 8mm circle on the top of the heatsink, then it should be a bit easier to line it up. This could also be done with a protractor.

Again, really nice work on this...and that setup should put out more lumens than any star mounted emitter. I'm eager to see your de-domed results, and now want to build one of these myself.

-Match

17

Very nice and well constructed build. Looks like a kick butt thrower. I do a similar build, one of which is rifle mounted with button cell powered fet tape switch in red. Really need to update my thread.

18

*DROOL*

Congrats FX-32, that's a nice thrower. Now *ahem* think you can do this three times over and DD a KING? That would be crazy cool.

19

Thanks!, you should make one flashlight like this, it’s not expensive and it’s really nice.
I red that part, but I thought you were referring to the silicon part in the contacts instead of “sticking” the cable when reflowed into the copper…

Today I dedomed it, I wanted to wait until the Lux Meter arrives to compare but I couldn’t resist. Before taking apart the dome, I reflowed again the led and now it’s perfectly centered, this time I haven’t used fujik in the positive part under the emitter, instead, I took measurements and with a knife I made a line of 1x4mm so the positive is “floating”, I made this because with fujik it couldn’t stand parallel with the copper.
What I still need to do is to polish the LED with felt wheel, as it is right now, it throws considerably better with a smaller hotspot. I will post more pics later. I like to see the LED without dome, it is so tiny and produces so much power :slight_smile:

Thanks, I saw your post before getting the parts, I started looking if the lens fits the host, and searched for some builds to see if is or not a good idea :slight_smile:

De domed KING? nah, I don’t want to diss-assembly my king, and I like it’s flood and throw like it is… but I would like to de dome other flashlights now that I did it with an XM-L :smiley:

20

Newer beamshots, now dedomed XM-L. Just three pics, mouse over to see the result.

Luxmeter arrived, I measured LUX at ten meters and then did the conversion (x100). The result was 66Kcd, I expected a higher value, maybe I did something wrong... don't really know.