Hello,
well after buying some Solarforce hosts (still in the mail) i decided on trying to build my own drop in too… (also got the into-outdoor.com T6nw one incoming for a starter)
My soldering skills are pretty decent, and have a little knowledge about electronics (built some arduino stuff, so maybe even give programming the Attiny13 which seems to be on the 105c a try some day )
Did a lot of reading here already an seen a few topics about building own p60, but they all go all the way with 2800ma or higher drivers, and that is not what i would like for my own built. (want not so high output and run not to hot)
The questions for me as being a newbe with this:
this driver is 1750 Ma, is this a problem for the led, because it is 10w led ? I
do not need 1100 lumen, my tought was with 1750ma feed to it at max it does maybe 400 without getting very hot or am i completely wrong at this assumption? With a low med high, i might have 10 - 100 - 400 lumen (or something like that) ?
if on high it is to bright for my needs, i even could de-solder one or more extra 7135 from the driver board ?
And the drop in module says it is for XR-E, not XM-L, wil it fit my needs and fit for the driver and emitter for a floody light?
Thank you, That last thread is very informative, had not seen that one yet
If it works as i expect and from what i read, removing 7135’s form the board wil lower the output (and heat), i might have to go as low as 3-4 7135s to get my desired output (at max level).
Programming a board with an Attiny13 and 8*7135 at 50% level wil do the same ? or wil it still use more amps, and/or even be very inefficient ?
I have a second vote for the Qlite driver. I built my first P60 with one from Fasttech (8*7135) but the low PWM really annoyed me. It would whine in the medium and low modes, and anything in motion looked would look like a strobe. The Qlite has a much higher PWM so it is not noticeable (I feel like I’m a little sensitive to it, LED christmas lights annoy me too because of the flicker), no audible whine, and you can get a really low moonlight mode.
For the heat, I really haven’t found it to be a problem. For longer runs I’ll just use a medium mode and if I want a burst of light I have the maximum available. The only downside is that you’ll have one more mode to cycle through. I don’t know about efficiency vs PWM though, I would be interested in seeing results if anyone has run some tests.
I might be someone who does not need a light to show off a whole lot of lumens, (altough that is cool too 8) and one day i might build or buy something to do so) but for now want something to work with…
I like the idea of the p60 dropins, because you can buy/build them for the purposes you need, and swap m out when needed. No big pile of complete lights hanging arround, just 3 or so hosts and a dozen dropins for all kind of needs…
I don’t believe in one light for everything… Its like lenses on a slr camera…
And a edc walkaround i already have… A tank 007 e9…. :bigsmile:
(And i bought the axml2 dropin from intl outdoor too)
Its a very practical choice, The choice for a board with little amps is done because i want i light wich i can run for about an hour or so on full mode, on one or two 18650, and step down one or 2 modes temporarely if needed.
For example, i did a night walk in a zoo last year, where you had to walk in the dark and on paths wich had no pavement. But when entering animals quarters, the light should be dimmed, not to disturb the (sleeping) animals…
If the ft drivers are really junk, i might be able to reprogram, them (if there are attiny on them) and get better pwm.
Or get the qlite driver after all….
And make some friends happy with a free light …
Well, yesterday the fasttech (or should i say slowtech? Almost a month) order came in, a couple of different drivers, 2 empty pills and 2 leds (not all shown in the picture)
Now i need to figure out what to use to use for thermal transfer from the led to the pill, i still have some thermal grease from my computer, would that do, or do i need better stuff ?
And yes these contacts are small pesky things to solder…
Some guys recommend sensor safe RTV (ultra gray) from autozone, and/or epoxy (best would be artic silver epoxy) [it’s more or less permanent] where the softer stuff is easier to remove
When soldering to the star make sure you don’t leave the solder blob up high it can short to the back side of the reflector
Tnx gonna dig in to that! But for now i try the thermal paste first.
Learned an old lesson again during the soldering…… Materials like brass are good heat conductors…. Should not touch the pill right (or even within a minute or so) after soldering the pill to the brass…… J)
Just did a quick test with 3xeneloop and some small wire…. It works
One little problem, it gives a high pitch whine at the medium level
Can that be solved ? Or is it just the cheap driver ?
Now ill let it cool for the day, tomorrow going to apply the thermal and figure out the stars.
Couldnt resist! Finished it…
Soldering the driver to the pill is a pain in the as. Need to keep it from coming loose when attaching or removing the spring. The brass sucks so much heat….
I find ALOT of flux on the pads helps, but you need a pretty hot soldering iron (and above 45watts) to melt the solder on the emitters otherwise the heatsink sucks the heat away and you get a nasty solder blob or cold solder joint
Altough my soldering skills normally are pretty descent, to do the pill you have to be more a plumber than a technican.
Soldering the led was ok
My soldering station is mainly for electronics (Weller whs40) and is only 40 watts, that doesn’t help with the pill soldering.
Might have to get me a bigger plumbing iron for the pill….
As technican i never use flux separate, some if the solder i have altough have flux in its core.
Ill get me some flux and try if that helps for the pill.
My best results with the pill come from using my old Weller D550 soldering gun. Before assembling the dropin, I use the soldering gun to pre-tin two or three places on the pill where I will later solder the driver. I do the rest of my soldering with my lower power soldering iron. The pre-tinning makes it easy to solder the driver to the pill with my regular soldering iron.
The pill really gets hot when using the D550 soldering gun. I did once brand my fingers with the hot pill by not letting it cool long enough.
