I finished a light I started a few weeks ago I’ve dubbed ‘The Frankenquad’
It’s a Thorfire C8s host (last version, with the aluminum pill). I installed a driver I built using Lexel’s 17mm TA driver PCB design I ordered from Oshpark. I used an oddball 20mm DTP MCPCB with four WW XP-G2, arranged in a 2x2 array (4p/3v electrical configuration), I got on Aliexpress and connected them up with 18 AWG silicone wire. Driver and tailspring got 20AWG bypasses.
Not surprisingly, the beam had a big dark spot in the center, so I tried reaming out an OP reflector. That helped, but not enough, so I applied to DCFix. That did the job, nice clean ( & very floody) beam. I tried the original reflector and the beam was still nice and clean, so I left it in place.
When tested with a UT210-E clamp meter, it pulled about 11A from a fully charged LG HG2. Not bad, but I wasn’t happy with it.
So, today, I reflowed some 90CRI LH351D emitters to another one of the oddball MCPCBs. I used 2x 4000K and 2x 5000k, mainly to avoid depleting stock of either emitter too much. New test results: ~17A peak with LG HG2 or Samsung 30Q, >18A with a Sony VTC5A; lots of nice high CRI light (and plenty of heat).
I think that’ll do. More on my blog. No beamshots yet, though. I have to redo them now that the new/final emitters are in place.
The GT Mini came up recently so I added an Anduril build target for it. It’s the same as the D1S build, but with button LED support. In case that’s of interest to anyone. It’ll get updated periodically along with the other supported targets.
Last month I finally got me a pair of round-nose pliers, and started to go ham with messing with my lights. First “mod” I actually performed was put a green boot on my otherwise boring black Convoy M1; its boring black boot went to a grey 3/5 S2 in my wardrobe. Turns out I enjoy my torches with a little splash of color
Next thing I’ll mod is swap drivers on that one S2 and a C8, going from 3/5 to Biscotti, and swap the reflector and lens on the S2 for a strip optic. The parts are already on the mail, because Simon is just that cool :laughing:
On a vaguely related note, this frenzy got me to finally mess with a few small Thrunites I have. Jewelry tweezers allowed me to unscrew the pills on a Ti3 and a TiS to get access to the lens, and with a pair of regular pliers I unscrewed the bezel on a T10. Because I don’t love throwing shade at brands, but damn, bro, those lenses were disgustingly grimy :confounded: After I washed them and put them back, even the beams’ tints and profiles improved. I also took the time to adjust the T10’s bezel o-ring, that was a bit displaced.
Dug out my old X10vn out for my first “real life” spring bypass with 20AWG wire. Reading went from 88k to 94k Lux. Overall it’s a bit low compared to what others read, but I guess the increase is what matters.
Made the mistake of pre-tinning a bit too furiously and the wire lost at bit of flexibility on the ends of the silicone, but since the spring is so huge I could easily bend them a bit in place, now it’s perfect.
Nice mod and very detail information I have saved for future mods , Thank You
I do have a Question , where did you get that honeycomb work mat ? nothing rolls off that !!
I might have gone a little too far this time. Modified (again) my Noctigon M43.
It now has 12 Samsung LH351D W2 5000K emitters and makes 17,284.5 lumens on 4 Samsung 30Q cells. I used an FET+1 driver that I built, flashed with Anduril and utilizing the SIR800DP MOSFET, with 3 slave boards each also having the SIR800DP and an 350mA 7135 chip. Each of the 4 FET’s control one triple board. I don’t know for sure but I’m assuming power draw is in the 60A territory.
Lightning on Anduril at 17,000 lumens is pretty awesome!
Thanks! I realize I left out one important bit, my motivation. I was looking for an inexpensive, readily available route to a high output 3v light, so I wouldn’t need the bulk of multiple cells, the expense of a high-current boost converter or a special host/optics/spacers. A 3v Luxeon MZ was my first thought, but then I saw these MCPCBs. For less than $5 with XP-G2s and $1 for a bare MCPCB, I figured it was worth a try. I still have a few empty PCBs, so I’ll probably do some more builds. I did have to hack on a centering ring/spacer, and even then, it probably intercepts some of the output.
As for the work mat, it’s a silicone potholder from Daiso (a Japaneese “dollar” store in the US that sells primarily chineese manufactured products). I started using it to insulate the worksurface, but it is handy for keeping things from getting away.
I have an Astrolux MF02 modded to Fet driver and XHP70.2 with Andúril.
It made 9060 lumens and 226 kcd.
Now I removed the led and wanted to shave it. I made a little tool beacause cant find a good washer to help with the razor cut. If the hole was big enough then it was too thick. So find some aluminum sheet and choosed the best thickness and made this:
And after the cut it looked like this:
Then putted back in the head. It works:
It has a little yellow corona but not worse than with dome. It is not that ringy as on the pic. It is because the JPG compression:
Now it making 355500 cd and 7590 lumens which is good for 1192.5m throw.
Also replaced the SST40 in my heat colored L2 with Luxeon V. It make 150 lumens less and throws less also but it has larger hot spot and much nicer tint than SST40 so it stays in.
Zozz, the yellow corona comes from the phosphor that is covering the substrate. Since the 70.2 is a flip chip, there are no bond wires to break… use your razor blade and cut along the edge of the die in a straight down chop, like a guillotine, then push that phosphor that’s on the outside off the substrate. If you do this, where only the die has the yellow phosphor, your beam will look very much better.
Just be careful not to chip off the phosphor on the die or it will reveal the blue of the die and put out UV that could be harmful to your eyes. It’s pretty easy though, just be careful and take it easy.
Always have to be considerate of the high power, you SURE don’t want to be looking into something like my Meteor that’s making 17,284 lumens when Turbo is hit!
I’ve gotten used to being hit in the face with lumens, 7600 lumens doesn’t bother me like it used to.
May not be able to see sometime in the not-so-distant future, but hey…
Edit: Hmmm, so it’s said that the XHP-70.2 is like 4 XP-L dies, right? My Emisar D4S is making 7300 lumens with Samsung emitters, pretty intense to be sure. Don’t want to stare into it when it’s, say, in Lightning mode (Anduril), and the MCU decides to throw a few full power bursts… my Meteor either for that matter!
I’ve always heard that the output from a die with damaged phosphor emitted UV light? When MEM was working on the aspheric throwers and the XP-G3 came out, I did some unsuccessful de-doming and had bare XP-G3’s, wired one up in a zoomie just to see what it did. Found it giving me a headache which is the first danger sign of excess UV. Perhaps it was just that die or perhaps it was something else entirely.
It is not the UV that gave you headaches but the 450nm blue light. Eyes are very insensitive to 450nm so with a lot of it you still do not see it very well, while your pupils adjust to the amount that you see and not the optical power and thus are wide open.