I'm attempting a mod on a Boruit Z001. I'm not necessarily going to do a lot of photo work with it, but I will show the mod attempt. I say attempt, because I don't know how this one is going to go.
It's already torn down. I may show some more photos of the individual pieces later.
This 7 led light needs a new driver and it has some other issues too. It's a light that I am doing for another member and he wants to see it hit 3+ amps per led. I'm not so sure that's a good idea, but, I'll try just about anything once, pass or fail.
My problem right now is the battery holder. It's in series and I want to go parallel with it. Series can't ever hope to do the amps needed for 7 leds in parallel, so I need the holder to be parallel. It looks straight forward. I've done them before, but this one is stumping me.
OK, the top three photos from left to right are; (Left) - the top side of the upper contact plate, with the aluminum cover on. (Center) - the top side of the upper contact plate with the aluminum cover off and (Right) - the bottom side of the upper contact plate.
You can see it's in series and one contact goes to the center and is the positive terminal with the brass button on it. The other two contacts just form the crossover path for series. The negative comes up through the three uprights that screw into the three outside holes. Positive and negative are both on top of this holder.
The bottom two photos show the lower contact plate. The one on the left is the bottom side where the switch is soldered and the one on the right shows the contacts. One contact goes to the center and feeds to one side of the switch and the other two are again the crossover for series.
What I did was to just bridge the three contacts on each plate and move all the springs to the lower plate. That makes it parallel. All the negatives on the bottom and all the positives on the top. It should work and by doing all the ohms checks with my meter, it does work. By metering it out, the negative path is connected to all three contacts once I bridge them and the switch still works to make and break the path. The positive contacts all ohm out when I bridge them and when I ohm out the upper positive and negative that mate to the driver, everything works as it should. There is no bleed off anywhere, nothing is crossed. OK, so I put in three batteries and I get 4.1 volts when I turn the switch on, but when I turn the switch off, I get 1,2 volts WTH?
How can I get 1.2 volts when the switch is off? Well, maybe the switch is bad. OK, so I remove the switch and I still get 0.6 volts. No switch now, just a blank spot with no way to complete the circuit from the bottom, to the top of the holder and it should read absolutely nothing, but it reads .6 volts.
But, when I remove the batteries, I get no reading of stray ohms through the meter. Circuit is incomplete, so how are the batteries getting power through when the circuit is not complete? I don't get it and I don't see how it could be a low voltage. If there was a short wouldn't the voltage read 4.1 volts? Why only .6 volts without the switch and 1.2 volts with the switch.
These are circuit boards, with defines paths and layers and they are very visible, as to the circuit paths, so anyone got an idea about what's going on here? The only thing I can figure out is that somewhere the layers are so close that the current is jumping. Something like a faulty circuit board, or one that was designed wrong. I can't see any other reason for it, but it must take current to complete, because just metering it with the ohm meter shows absolutely no bleed anywhere.
Anyone seen this type of thing before, or have any suggestions as to how to overcome it? My only options right now, would be a new holder, or make one and I don't like either of those options.
Problem Solved! I went back and removed the copper foil from the areas highlighted in Purple, on the photo below and put the springs and bridges back on. No more bleed of voltage any more. Works like a Champ!
Now it's on to the rest of the build.
So, I'm looking over the led shelf and the driver housing and I notice that the major OD of the driver section is smaller than the body ID at the same point. I would rather it was at least a friction fit, so that heat could be transferred to the head. It's too deep for me to measure with my calipers, so I have to sort of hit or miss judging the ID, so I started with some .015" shim. but that's too thick and .010" shim is also too thick, so I will have to go find some .006" and .004" shim. I want to wrap the section, like a sleeve, so that it's a friction fit, or as close to it as possible.
I thought about metal tape and I even wrapped some around the driver housing, but I really don't like the idea much. This light is going to be HOT and I don't trust the adhesive. I figure it will degrade and it's not a good heat transfer medium, so I will have to find some metal stock thin enough.
The batterey holder is finally done and will run 3x18650 in parallel now.
The original leds are going to be replaced. I have a feeling that this light had to have seen some real heat somewhere. Four of the leds in the light have cloudy domes and that is usually from excessive heat. New leds on copper stars are coming though.
The reflector was cloudy on top and even the lens had a cloudy film that I could not clean off with any normal cleaner or even alcohol. It was a thick film and it was like it had been baked on. You can't do diddly with a reflector, but I did manage to clean most of the cloudy film and even though it will have some haze from cleaning, it still looks better than it did.
The lens came out great and I managed to get all of the baked on film off it. I used Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish on both the reflector top and the lens. It's the gentlest polish I have ever seen, as far as lack of abrasives, but it cleans most anything I have used it on so far.
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I am waiting on Seven Qlite drivers to arrive, as well as Seven leds on stars. It may be later on in the week, or the week-end before I have everything.
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I'm still waiting on parts, but I figured I need to address the contact plate that the battery holder butts up to. Actually, it was the driver plate, but now it will just be a contact plate. It's a nice design, but it's not really made for high amps and I am modding it a little, but I don't see it will ever handle 21 amps.
The outer spring is not hefty at all. I found I could wrap it with copper braid and solder the braid to the spring.
I also put braid down in the center spring too.
Even with the braid, the outer metal covers fit and the springs still work as intended.
As I say, this set up is not conducive to running 21 amps. There's way too much resistance in it and the heat will be what does the damage. I am realistically looking more at 2 amps per led, for about 14 amps. That might work, for a little while anyhow...
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Let's get this thing wrapped up now.
From the pics above and below - 7 drivers in master/slave configuration. Qlite 3 amp drivers, but I took off some chips on them. Yes, you heard it, I removed chips. On 4 of the drivers I removed 2 chips and on the other three I removed three chips, to get the amp draw down under 15 amps. Since three of the drivers have a lower output, I wired them to three of the six outer leds. So the six outer leds are now 2280mA, 1900mA, 2280mA, 1900mA, etc. You get the idea. Really, you can't even tell a difference in brightness when they are all on.
The bottom right side driver is the master. I will hook power to it and ground to the two bare wires that ground all of the drivers thru the holes in the edges.
7 XM-L2 leds on Noctigons, sent to me by the owner of the light. They must be 1A, because they have a blueish tint when turned on. Just a slight blue/white.
What a mess! It's all wired up to the leds now. Talk about 10 pounds of **** in a five pound box. The aluminum sleeve will go right over and screw onto the led plate.
Wiring up the contact plate for positive and negative.
Testing... It works!!!
Buttoning it all back up.
Yes, the reflector is a mess, but with all that output, you can't see any inclusions in the beam.
Looks stock. No one will ever know.
OMG Beam Shots
The owner wanted to use the four mode set (4th. Star on the driver). The modes are supposed to be 5mA - 2% - 25% - 100%. Well, at 5mA it does not even turn on. I think that is all eaten up from dividing to 7 drivers. So, this is supposed to be the second level 2%, Really? 2%?
This is supposed to be 25%. Hell, it's as bright as a stock SRK. 25%..... Really??
The OMG 100% mode. Yep, it's BAH! (Bright as Hell!) 10,000 Chinese Ebay Lumens
I have never seen that area lit up that bright. Notice all the trees in the background are lit up too. Remember, with the small cups in this reflector, it's just about all flood. Well, it sure as heck is a flood of light. I'm getting sunburned standing behind the derned thing!
Still looking good, but it really does not throw well. Look at all the light out on the ground and surrounding area.
Yep, it's a flooder. By 120 yards out, it's done. It can barely light up the back of the pond... Of course, it's lighting up the WHOLE pond and the trees and the grass and it's drying up the earth right in front of it. By this time, it's very hot and getting dim.
OK, with my Panasonic 18650s, the light dims in about a minute. With my 20R 18650s, the light dims in about 3 minutes. I can't read the amps properly. The only spot to take the reading is across the switch tabs and I just can't get a good enough contact without slipping, but I did read over 12 amps as it was bouncing around. I would expect around 13-14 amps on start up, but it drops off real fast.
That's all Folks!.....