My fully custom 18650 Flashlight prototype with a 3D printed body.

For the past few months i have been working on this and i finally got some documentation and the prototype done.
This is a completely scratch designed flashlight that is powered by 18650 cells from old notebook battery packs.
It uses a fully custom circuit to drive the LED and manage the battery.

Fully 3D printed main body.
Dimmable in 31 steps, no PWM.
Rechargeable with a regular phone charger.
Uses a single 18650 Lihium Ion cell.
Battery level Indicator.
Three button interface.
Arduino IDE compatible microcontroller.
Full battery management and protection.

Light output: 197 Lumen.
Color temperature: 5000K
Color rendering index: 83
Efficiency at 100mA: 159 Lumen per Watt
Efficiency at 250mA: 119 Lumen per Watt
Runtime: TBD

Height: 110mm
Width: 45mm
Depth: 26mm
Weight: 130g (with battery)

Here is the full documentation including a ton of pictures:

dude :+1: looking great. I was gonna ask bout heat transfer but prob. not much heat generated….

Thanks!
Heat was the biggest problem, the final version will have a temp sensor on the LED and my goal is still to upgrade it to two LEDs instead of one.
It runs up to about 75°C with two LEDs, which is too much for the used plastic.
But, while heat was a problem, it is not a great concern anymore after quite a few practical tests and measurements.

It produces around 1.5W to 3W of heat, which is quite a lot on a thing this small.

order form?

Very nice, the three button interface looks promising, the top button to raise brightness and bottom button to lower brightness?

It is just a for fun project but i am thinking about a limited Kickstarter, Gofundme or other type of funding run.
Unless someone in china steals my idea beforehand and starts churning them out by the buttload :slight_smile:

At the moment, yes.
But since the light is programmable the buttons can take any task i want.
It only has one hardwired function, the light can only be turned on by the middle button.

The processor will only wake up from the power down state if triggered by one external pin, the one the middle button is wired to.
But after that the button can take on any other function.

I’m thinking this would come under machine made category if you did one for the next contest. Really amazing effort how you persevered.

very nice
I bet if you share the files for printing more will make it, it looks great!

Thanks!

Already uploaded them, the STLs are linked in the sidebar:

The thing still has a bunch of bugs to be worked out though.

Thanks!
It tried to break my spirit more then once :slight_smile:

Contest? What contest do you mean? ;

OL build from scratch contest
Indeed interesting where 3D printing would fit, I agree with RBD, machining!

Nice work, interesting :+1:

Very polished work. Thx for sharing. :+1:

Thanks, found it!
I will try to look out for the next one, although since I put everything together on another website, it kinda disqualifies me for the entry :slight_smile:

Thank you!

Excellent! It turmed out very nice…. :slight_smile:

This is very cool.

It’s good to see you succeed after all the ups and downs you had during the design process :beer:

Random thought: that not-quite-smooth 3D printed finish looks like it would be nice and grippy :slight_smile:

This light wouldn’t qualify for the next contest but you could start a new one when the next contest comes around.

Thanks!
Yes, the texture of the thing is very much a design feature and not a manufacturing artifact.
But to be honest, initially i wanted to sand and smooth it.
Until i realized that the texture is slip resistant, it fits the whole idea rather nicely i think.

The next one is currently printing, there will at least be another two versions i think, this is far from over :slight_smile:

Its good to see your light finished. That is one fine piece of engineering. :+1:

Thanks!
Just wait a few more weeks for the next version, just minor tweaks but i think it will work and look even cooler :slight_smile: