YuvalS's Hand Made Class, 7th Annual BLF/OL contest entry topic

Always nice to see your progress.

I see you have a long weight. :person_facepalming:

We call that a BFH Steve. For those times when the LFH just won’t get it done…. :wink:





Hammer is very important tool for caving (less important than light, butt still...) carrying one out of couple hundreds meters dip cave is a doubtful pleasure.

Today I finally started working on the FW.
I used the opportunity to build a third (and fourth) hand after the parts were lying on my desk for months:

Then I solder an Arduino shield with 2 LEDs and a momentary switch to help me develop my costum caving FW for 2 separate emitters:

As usual, programing the Attiny using Arduino was pain in the A** but finally I managed to burn the "blinking" test program

With all that black magic going on I’d lock those helping hands up at night just to be sure. :stuck_out_tongue:

Although I already made my own helmet mount, I decided to change it and go for the common GoPro mount.

I bought an aluminium mount but had to modify it in order to fit headlamp instead a camera and also to shorten it in order to keep the light closer to the helmet

Then I had to cut part of the heatsink in order to make space for the mount as close as possible to the body


And the final result


Now I have to drill in my helmet, not sure I am ready for this irreversible step

3M doublestick tape….VHB



Is it strong enough? I tend to hit my head in rocks while caving (hence the helmet)

There are several varieties. I do not know all there is to know about which one for what job. BUT, the VHB tape is used to hold the aluminum metal panels to the welded steel or wood framework of some cargo trailers. Many trailers use screws to secure the panels, but there are some that have no exterior screws showing. Those are VHB taped. I have used VHB for small projects and it has worked extremely well.

I would have used it to affix the wood skins to my contest entry, but the only tapes I have on hand are too thick. But probably ideal for a helmet light.

have used this one on many things.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BT0A6MG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Check out this article

Nice idea for a mount YuvalS. What did you use to cut the heatsink fins out to fit the mount?

Thanks, I will check it

I took this idea from some commercial lights.

Cutting the heatsink was challenging, I used most of my Dremel bits the most helpful was the engraver

If you do end up using double sided tape, I recommend using a mount with the largest possible area for the tape. It will be much more durable.

Logo’s are attached to car bodies with similar tape, typically 3M. VERY difficult to remove once pressure-set in place. An absolutely clean surface is required of course for the adhesive to stick at full strength.

I think the stuff you guys are on about is acrylic adhesive tape. 3m make the original stuff, though you can buy it anywhere. As DB says, once that stuff gets hold of the right surface, it’s not coming off in any hurry - on the wrong surface it will fall off just as easily lol! It loves plastics, but not oily types ( I don’t mean covered in oil)
This is the stuff , but you can get it on double sided foam too.

I think I will use a glue, so isn't regular (paste) glue will be better than double sided?

In addition, manufacturer recommend not using any glue nor stickers on the helmet, what do you think? Can it weakens the helmet?

It is time to start working on the circuit, I had an Idea to try print the PCB at home but most of the components are still on the way from China
Luckily I did got some drivers for other project and can use them:

  1. In order to separately control 2 LEDs (Flood and Spot) I have to use both PWM pins of the MCU. (pin 5 and pin 6).
  2. Pin 2 (PB3) will be set as a pull up input and be connected to GND by a Momentary NO switch.
  3. Pin 3 (PB4) will be set as a digital output and connected to a blue (red is in the lost package) LED for battery indication.

Since I have to use a Nanjg 105C and a 1.4A single mode Drives, the control of the 2nd driver will be connected to Star2 (pin5 - OC0A) of the Nanjg.

The blue led will be connected to Star3 (pin3 - PB4)

And the switch to Star4 (pin2 - PB3)

H’mmm. Someone else to be scared of. Didn’t know you were into black magic. :stuck_out_tongue:

Startin soldering, first I had to add 4 more AMCs to the 1.4A driver in order to allow maximum output of 1000 Lumens for each LED

Unfortunately it wasn't the tiniest thing I has to soldar, but first I cut the outer GND ring of the Nanjg 105C to allow easier and stronger soldering to the stars:


Finally I soldered 1806 resistor and LED to star3:


This is the first time I am soldering SMT parts by hand and it wasn't fun.
Next step is optics.....

Yessir. Those are difficult to work with. You have a certain amount of bravery to venture into that

Have to agree with Don here. Nice effort. :+1: