The local police were kind enough to remind me last night that I had a headlight and license plate light out on my old 1999 Mazda 626. So, for various boring reasons, I couldnāt just replace the bulbs over the license plate, so I got the LED replacement, and just soldered it in where the old fixture used to be.
Before (attempting to install the LED bulb with the old fixture):
Almost done:
After I finished soldering, and āpottedā it (with hot glue), it worked. Since I also replaced the headlights, hopefully I wonāt get another visit from the po-po tomorrow night. Assuming it is still working then
I bought the light as a host. I have no idea what happened to it but the insides were a scrambled up mess of shredded wires. The battery pack was still solid but I wanted to turn it into something I could use standard 18650ās in. Surprisingly easy mod actually.
I started by ripping the battery pack apart. Inside were 6 samsung 2600mAh pink batteries. Some of my favorites actually. They were still all holding a charge and after testing were still right at 2600mAh, so that was a nice bonus. On the negative end of the pack there is a board that connects to the tailcap electronics. I took that board our, scratched the traces clean for spots to solder three springs onto. There was a spot where the negative wire was soldered. On that spot I soldered a piece of silver braid and folded it around and soldered it to the back side of the board. I then sanded off a spot on the inside of the battery carrier to match that silver braid. Very tight fit so it was perfect. I cut a piece of thick paper to cover the electronics between the board and the electronics. Now I had my bottom set up pretty much like a SRK.
I stacked my six batteries inside and tested to make sure that each of them was making the proper connections. I then cut three pieces of dowel that would slide in-between the batteries and up against the inside of the battery carrier. Once I knew that they were all going to fit and work correctly I took them out one at a time and applied JB-weld in a line on the dowels that would epoxy the dowels to the side of the battery carrier. I then used a small dowel to jam down the center really tight. This held the dowels in place while the epoxy dried. It worked perfectly. I now have a SRK type battery carrier for 6x18650.
For the positive end I used a old SRK driver, wiped clean of parts as a contact board. About an 8th of an inch needed to be filed off the sides to make it fit and I needed to solder a strand of copper wire around the edge for the negative to make contact.
From that contact board I hung a BLF FET driver and used it to power a de-Domed XHP-50.
The side switch fit a horn switch and threaded in perfectly with itās own nut behind it and it didnāt need to be modified at all.
So now I have a OLIGHT SR-90 Intimidator that runs on standard 18650ās using a DD FET driver (Ramping IU) running a de-domed XHP-50.
To say itās a super thrower is a bit of an understatement. It easily lights up trees at a kilometer away.
Nice, sounds like a monster. I would estimate itās at least 3000 lumens and 500Kcd. Do you not have a lux meter? I bet Iām not the only one who would like to hear some numbers for all these high powered lights you make.
I have a lux meter, I just prefer not to post numbers more often then I have to. LOL Too much to argue about if you do. Letās just say I have built several throwers that go above 500kcd and this one is one of them. But whatās really impressive to me about this one is the amount of light that reaches out at a quarter mile. In that regard itās the best I have built to date. If I were going for numbers alone I would drop in an XP-G2 S4 de-domed and use a buck driver, even then Iām not sure it would beat it in KCD, it probably would but it would depend on how well I could get it to focus.
Yeah, yeah, always picking on me. I need a safe space now. :innocent:
I might have to take some beamshots of it one of these days. For now you will just have to use your imagination. Picture Putin bare-chested on a Grizzly chasing Trump with his hair flapping in the wind, riding a Giant Red Kangaroo, both shielding their eyes from the magnificence.
Thanks and I bet that TK61 rocks, probably fairly similar to this one. Just tons of lumens blasting a tight beam a looooooong way. It impressed me and I donāt impress that easy. XHP-50 dome off in these big reflectors is really something else. Great combo.
Ps. If you ever do convert you pack, make sure you have three strong springs about an inch long. I almost started with springs that were too short. I tested the size before I put everything together and had to find some longer ones. I didnāt do a spring mod yet either, Iām not sure if I will. I think Iām getting pretty close to maxing this emitter out as it is.
Here is a couple picās of both, in the SR90 I pulled the brass sink and cut a 32mmx.500mm deep pocket in it to center the Maxtoch XHP70 board, didnāt take any pics, shaved XHP70 P2-1C, then just piggy backed a 5 level FETDD driver.
The TK61 I made a pressed in pocketed 8mm stepped copper sink, direct soldered the board to the copper sink and cut the bottom of the reflector off. I went with the XHP50 J4 5A0 for that old school Incan tint because I want it for Hunting, Storms, all around bad weather light, didnāt think I would like the tint till I went for a walk in the rain, it was a good decision! It has a 6 level + moonlight FETDD piggy backed to the contact board. Like how the shaved XHP50 throws in these big reflector lights too, minor artifact associated with these quad dies, very easy to live with when shaved, very impressive big beam with down range distance!
Figured I might as well have a TK61 flood/thrower to go with my TK61 XHP35 L/R thrower!!
Thanks for the tip on the SR90 battery pack springs, very good to know, and thanks for sharing Brad!!! :+1:
No pictures of the actual work, just the result. I built a black Jaxman E2L from host to 18350 flashlight: BLF X5/X6 driver, 3x Nichia 219B V1 sw45 R9080, very dim lighted tail. Jaxman has improved the led-shelf in the black host compared to the first batch of grey hosts: the ledboard-shelf is super-flat (hardly any AS5 paste was need to fil up the gap) and the board fits without sanding the sides, very nice!. The host and parts (I ordered the board and optic with the host) were very good quality (but I swapped the green o-ring for the lens for a clear one, and I used a short S2+ battery tube from Simon), the build-up was easy and very fast (maybe an hour), and then I made the lighted tailcap and that costed me the rest of the day before it worked and did not interfere anymore with the driver UI :facepalm:
No, nothing at all, is the optic on your light sitting in the right position?
Before people start wondering: the beam is not pink, my phone picks up red way too well, possibly because I damaged the CCD with uv-light last year.
Thatās good to here. I just got my grey host from RMM and will be sanding the MCPCB sides. Was the shelf hole big enough for the wires, or did you have to make it bigger? Apparently I will need to enlarge mine.
That looks sick.
Did you have any issues with fibers getting lose when you drilled the switch hole?
Also, have you seen sanded carbon fibre? I think the matte look is very cool, maybe even better than glossy.
Not sure if it is less durable without the coating though.
