MtnDon's Entry, 2017 (5th Annual) BLF Old Lumens Contest, Handmade Category

I wired the USB port up to the power in terminals of the TP4056. Some kaptan tape was used to temporarily tape it in place. Then a brass escutcheon pin wasdriven in through one of the unused board connection points to secure the USB port board from pulling out of the block when unplugging a cord. Escutcheon pin = fancy name for a decorative nail. That’s it in the middle of the 5 holes along the one edge. The pin head will require a slight dimple in the wood cover plate.

After careful measuring the TP4056 was affixed to the copper plate using Arctic Alumina adhesive and some kaptan tape to ensure electrical isolation from the copper plate. Inside the charger board recess, lower left edge, you can see two small greyish looking circles. Those are fiber optics.

Here we have a test underway. The charger is charging. The red light from the LED on the TP4056 board is piped through the fiber optic so we can see a charge cycle is underway. A change of lighting has made the wood appear more red than it really is. The color of the padauk will change over time, as both light and air does cause a shift to darker shades.

Rather than wait for the Samsung cell to reach full charge I changed to a fully charged Panasonic cell. The blue LED light now illuminates to indicate a full charge has been reached. (The charger was previously tested and it does function properly. I was just in a hurry for the photo.)

The charger side, opposite side of where the fiber optics exit. The copper plates are affixed using brass screws. They do multiple duty as access cover for the TP 4056 board and a heat sink.

That’s it for now. Gotta get back to the shop. Thanks for looking.

One more image for tonight.

I have a few things to note.

The upper left side bore hole, the one with the penny visible in it, is where the 18650 cell is located. Plus end is inserted first. There is a spring at the bottom end, the + end and another spring soldered to the down side of the penny. The short walnut dowel rod fits into the upper end of that bore hole to hold the cell firmly between the + and the - contacts.

The cell is not meant to be removed for charging. The cell can be changed out if that is necessar, by removing the three Phillips head screws that secures the wood back plate, similar in concept to the LiPo that CRX used in his beautifully crafted entry for this years contest. Changing the cell is a bit more involved than with a conventional flashlight with a threaded tail cap but is still less hassle than my laptop or an iPhone.

As things sit right now some of those visible wires are not yet connected. The ends are just pushed into the various nooks and crannies to allow me to trial fit the cell with the connector plates. The walnut plug is long enough to fit the flat top Panasonic 18650B cell. The springs provide sufficient squish room to allow for a button top, maybe a protected cell. I have not tried one. The driver is equipped with LVP so I don’t really feel the need for a protected cell.My plan is to use the flat top as I have a few without homes.

Maybe I can get this done tomorrow. :slight_smile: I need to fit the driver and connect it to the MCPCB/emitter, mount the copper emitter plate, complete the wiring and see to a few other details.

Thanks for looking.

It’s really coming together now Don :+1:

I see you went the smart route & didn’t braze any of the copper…… :person_facepalming:

:smiley:

Reviewing my original design notes, the first thing on the page is “practice brazing”. I skipped, never got around to, that step, though I did get some Fuze-CleanFS. The acetylene bottle has been empty for months though… keep forgetting… :frowning:

C’est fini!!

It’s finished!. Here’s the back with the driver installed at the right and all the wiring complete. Kaptan tape used to keep the wires out of the way. I glued a piece of tool drawer liner to the bottom; just visible to the left.

This is it, upside down. The back plate has been installed with the three 8-32 aluminum screws.

A three quarters frontal view, from the brown wood side…

Three quarter frontal view from the orange (padauk) side…

Showing the rear plate…

The rear with the other, brown panel, side…

Showing the bottom…

Views with the LED lit… There are 6 brightness levels; reverse clicky switch. I did the pictures on either level 1 or 2; I forget. Getting old. :person_facepalming: The 2 x 7135’s (700mA) give plenty of illumination for the intended use. In fact I’ll probably never run it on high. The driver is a Nanjg 101-AK-A1 that came with 4x7135’s. Two of them are now in a parts box.

:slight_smile: :beer:

I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

Well, there’s three things I didn’t have going for me; Design notes, Practice, & Acetylene….

I managed to clean mine up over the weekend, & it’s not too bad now. I may still be able to use Yellow Submarine for a sound track :smiley:

WooHoo! That looks great! :beer:

What a lovely talking piece to have on a table/desk, etc.

Congrats, Don!

Yessir! That is one of it’s intended uses. Thank you.

I have several USB power heads and cords right at hand there so keeping a charge will be easy. I put the store bought goose neck LED lamp away.

Good to see the finish Don. How did you do the radius’s on the corners? They look so neat.

Cool :+1:

Looks smaller & better than I thought it was now seeing it next to the laptop, what are the dimensions?

Looking at a side, say the brown wood side with the copper plates, 4-15/16” ( 125 mm) wide x 5-9/16” (140 mm) tall. The block is 2-11/16” (67 mm) thick. The diameter of the original large hole through the block was 3-1/8” (80 mm).

Nice, thanks. I thought it was a lot bigger but that’s quite cute :slight_smile:

The edges were radiused with a router bit. IIRC :person_facepalming: it was a 1/4” (about 6 mm) radius. Looks to be too big for the smallest bit I have which is 1/8”. The router spins that at 27500 RPM’s. A sharp carbide bit provides a very smooth finish .
EDIT: I compared it to the completed bookshelf unit in the shop… yes, this light block is 1/4”.

Thanks for the update. I’d have radiused my hand if I used a Router. :person_facepalming:

Next time make the LED a levitating ball using induction :slight_smile:

nice end result.looks great

Someone was wondering if there was sufficient heat sinking. I wondered too. So a while back I ran a full throttle test. Full throttle being 700 mA. I should have posted before.

The ambient temperature was 70 F, 2 C
After three minutes the copper plate the led mcpcb is mounted to was at 76 F, 24.5 C
At 13 minutes the copper was at 78 F, 25.5 C
After 30 minutes the copper was at 82.5 F, 28 C and the wood block measured directly above the led was at 88 F, 31.2 C
A full hour after the start the copper was at 83.2 F, 28.5 C with the wood warmed to 89.4 F, 31.9 C

I run the light mostly at 50% and it barely seems warm.

When charging a half depleted cell, the charger copper plate heat sink runs about 7 degrees F higher than the base temperature of the wood, finger tip warm.

So there is no chance of turbo accidentally happening? The wood catching fire that is. :slight_smile:
Amazing light Don. Its a whole different skill set working with wood. My left thumb can vouch for that. :slight_smile: