Prototype off-road/boating spotlight - King COB!

Looking at yours again, I much like the mobile app control and LCD display. I may have to get one now when I have more discretionary cash…

Well, I’d like the boost converter to run somewhat efficiently, and I don’t know if I want to spend any more cash for decent 18650s… Especially when I have all these LiPos sitting around from my DIY drone days (which really was not that long ago hehehe.) Maybe not too bad for a 36V COB, but for 48V @ 3.6A I’m not so sure how efficient the boost converter will be working then - I could be wrong. The other thing is capacity - I have 5200mAh, 7500mAh LiPos already. I just don’t want to spend too much more than necessary on this project, so trying to work with what I have. I also don’t want to kill my good 18650s - I save those for my flashlights. These could be handheld, but I would consider them to me more of a “portable outdoor lighting solution” that I can run on max for more than a few minutes. Unless you happen to know of an LED boost driver that will work. I have a TaskLED HyperBoost, and I’ve seen Matt VoB light a 3590 in a GT with it, but he used 8 18650s in series by modding the carriers from parallel to series.

I found these on Alibaba… $20 with aluminum housing. The shipping is a bit high, but I ordered a couple anyway 10deg. FWHM

If this works out, it’ll save me a bit of engineering a housing and lens for a reflector…

Looking at their Alibaba page, they have some really cool light modules as well.

That’s pretty darn cool if I’m reading this right.

I need to figure out how to post images here. I got a mechanical model for the LEDiL Angelina reflectors so I’ve been plugging away at drawing the required custom components.

I have problems too… I try the “insert image” tool above the comments box, put the URL in, and nothing shows up. So I’ve just been linking to my Google Photos (my Flickr account is almost full.)

I’m pretty curious to see if their 10deg. FWHM claims are true, but if it’s anywhere near 20-30deg. I’ll be a happy camper. Would like to see your drawings if you can link them.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/47268

I’ve tried a million times, but the images do not appear. Maybe you can take one of the links I posted above, and post the image, so I can see how it is done? Am I missing something?

Here's your problem...

You need the right type of image URL that ends with one of those extensions.

A lot of people have trouble with Google Photos.

You might need to use another image hosting site.

Poking around in google photos, I’m not sure it’s possible to use them as an image host.

Most of the other forums I frequent have their own image server … widget… built in.

Yeah, I’m going to have to accept living life on a lower plateau and just link the photos for now…

Here’s a quick render of the battle lantern.

Nice rendering! Seems like you have enough room for everything insode…

Yeah, I pulled out a pile of old 18650s that I have last night and realized I could probably fit 12s2p inside it with that little LEDiL reflector if I wanted to. Though, I’m actually thinking about using 3s 18650 battery holders for maintenance reasons. (3s are the largest I’ve found to date) I’d like to put a balance connector and charge connectors as well on it but I’m not quite sure how to do that safely.

Digikey has 4s but it’s pin mount… Though you could probably just grind or snip off the pins and solder on leada.

Found models for the COB and Ideal mounting components.

So… Do you have machining capabilities? This looks pretty cool. I should be getting those TIRs in this week so I won’t draw anything up until I have them on-hand - because if I can use something existing as a host I will.

Speaking of which, I got in the CMT2890 so I get to play with that a little…

I have access to a Tormach PCNC1100. It’s a piece of junk but I can use it whenever I want. :wink:

Soon, I may have a running manual lathe and a Bridgeport as well.

LOL… I have an import mini-mill, of which I purchased only the castings, machined for the motion components, and installed precision LM rails and ground ballscrews. Though I’m growing out of the open-loop steppers I have installed and looking to install either servos or closed-loop steppers. I also have a manual mini lathe that needs to be tuned up.

What are you using for CAD/CAM?

I have a copy of FeatureCAM that I use… mostly because I know how to use it. I need to install a copy of Fusion 360 and see what that is like. I’ve heard it is very capable but can be a pain.

We just had all the stepper drivers on the Tormach fail. I managed to repair two and then switched the A-axis drive to Z. I looked at upgrading to polyphase and to closed loop. Closed loop seemed really expensive and upgrading to polyphase would have been my choice if the $5 12v regulators didn’t fix the drivers.

The biggest failings of the Tormach are the ways and the spindle. The ways just have so much slop in them. Even with fairly tight gibs, you can still easily move the table 0.003”. If it was my personal machine, I’d consider tearing it down and scraping them or going to linear guides. The whole machine is just kind of junk. The new MXs are crazy overpriced for what they are even though they now have linear rails and servos. If the new 1100MX was ~$15k and had a 3HP spindle, it would be about right for a home shop.