Skylight's entry to the 7th BLF Old Lumens Contest 2019 - modified light category [Matainvoy ML18S FINISHED, video added]

Giveaways and Contests
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I have done a few more things in the last few days.

- Soldered double BlueSwordM Gen3 silver plated BeCu springs on the tail switch board

- Changed the black switch cover to a white one

- Reflowed the 18 LH351D’s to the MF01S MCPCB

Some fotos before the reflow with clean board


Applying the solder paste and placing the leds


After the reflow



Some leds are not placed perfectly but they are not too far off. I had to widen the holes a bit to make the legs of the optic fit.


The last picture shows the special tool used for widening the holes on the MCPCB without damaging the led domes :sunglasses: . :smiley:

- Soldered 18AWG wires and double BlueSwordM Gen3 BeCu springs to the driver board


Next thing to be made is the copper spacer.

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Look what has arrived on last Friday: my Sofirn SWITCHES: :open_mouth:

You don’t see any switches? Well, me neither! :wink: :smiley:

But seriously, I won’t complain at all about getting BLF Q8 drivers instead of switches. That’s a nice surprise and an incredibly good deal because I always have good use for those drivers.

The only problem remaining would be that I need a switch for my build. So I thought I will take the switch out of my Sofirn C8F host and see if I can get the green and red indicator leds to work with Lexel’s driver. It would be awesome to get a red switch when the battery is low.

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Looking Good ” Skylight ” :+1:
Cannot wait to see more :smiley:
I like the 18 gauge wire, some of my lights need that too.
Also you have a sweet hotplate too ” UYUE 946-1010 LED Display Preheating Platform ” :+1:
.

.

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Thank you, CNCman. :sunglasses:

Yes, the hotplate works well and is definitely needed for soldering a 300g copper spacer. :smiling_imp:

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The date at the top of each post represents the actual day when I have worked on the flashlight. It is not that I have finished it all today.

02/19/2020

- Tested the length of copper needed with a stack of copper coins (2- and 5-Cent coins)

- Cut three 3cm pieces from the 16mm copper rod

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02/21/2020

- Soldered the three 3cm pieces of the 16mm copper rod to the 6mm thick copper plate. I had to file them a bit to make an even surface for soldering.

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02/22/2020

- I prepared some thick copper wires to fill up the empty space around the copper spacer inside the flashlight.

- Removed the black ring in the switch cavity and fitted the switch inside with a little filing.

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02/23/2020

- Removed the anodisation from the parts inside the flashlight that will be in contact with the copper spacer. This may improve the thermal contact.

- Also, I drilled a hole in the copper plate where the wires will pass through. The ‘legs’ of the copper spacer needed some filing to maximise the contact surface with the flashlight body. With my hand saw they got a bit different lengths and are slightly crooked.

- Soldered some 30 AWG wires to the switch and prepared 28 AWG wires for the aux leds.

- The silicone switch cover needed to be shortened a bit, otherwise the switch wouldn’t have worked.

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02/23/2020

- Soldered all the wires and assembled the head with the switch, copper spacer and thermal paste + glue

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02/24/2020

- The thermal glue had time to dry overnight with the flashlight closed and thin foil to protect the MCPCB from being glued as well.

- I tested the aux leds with the multimeter. Looking nice. :heart_eyes:

- I put the MCPCB in place with some good 10 W/mK thermal paste underneath and connected the wires for it and the aux led board.

At the first attempt the aux leds did not work, only the green lighted switch.

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02/25/2020

The next day I send Lexel a PM and he told me to connect the aux led board directly to the battery voltage. I did that and the aux leds worked. They are not MCU-controlled though and are always on unless the tail switch is turned off. The green switch leds are controlled and have the three options of Anduril and can also be turned off. The red switch leds did not work together with the green switch leds so I unsoldered and isolated that cable.

The pictures of the aux leds are located in the next post’s picture gallery as I took the photos later.

With the aux leds now working I would like to declare the Matainvoy ML18S FINISHED ON 02/25/2020. :student: :sunglasses:

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I added some GITD tape underneath the optic and took lots of fotos. Here is a little picture gallery to show you those beautiful aux leds.

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:heart_eyes:
What a light!!!

That must be awesome in person/hand!!!

Great work! I liked how you used the coins to have a good measure of the height needes for the copper rods :wink:

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Here is a comparison of the Matainvoy ML18S, the Astrolux MF01S and the Convoy L6.

Some whitewall beamshots

Matainvoy ML18S

Astrolux MF01S, Matainvoy ML18S, Convoy L6

Astrolux MF01S, Matainvoy ML18S

Matainvoy ML18S, Convoy L6

And here are the outdoor beamshots. Whitebalance is 4500K, settings 3.2s F7.1 ISO400. The tree in the back is 150m away.

Control

Matainvoy ML18S, high and turbo

Astrolux MF01S

Convoy L6

My modded flashlight that I called Matainvoy ML18S has a new home as well, a big Maxtorch flashlight bag. It is the only bag that I ever managed to fit a L6 inside and it is definitely better than the generic white box.

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That is one beautiful light! Great job with the copper spacer! Just wondering why connect the aux led direct to the battery? What is the issue with the original connection config?

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Gorgeous Light ” Skylight ” Great build :+1:
Its hard to believe that was even possible to do. :sunglasses:
So much talent in this years competition, Wow :smiley:

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Thank you, MascaratumB. Yes, it is an awesome flashlight if you hold the whole 1042g :smiley: in your hand and it lights up everything with a huge smooth hotspot. :sunglasses:

I needed something variable and thin and that was where the coins came to my mind. I’m glad I tried it before because if the copper spacer is not high enough the leds are not in the optic like they should be. First I wanted to cut 24mm but with the coins staples I found out that I actually needed 29-30mm.

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Thank you, YogibearAl. That copper spacer was certainly not easy to build with only a hand saw and some filing.

In the first configuration the aux leds did not light up. The board is designed for 8.4V. Only the next version (v3.1) can be MCU-controlled and turned off if desired. This is the first version and the simpliest way to drive aux leds is to just connect them to the battery with the right resistors and parts on the board.

Well, at least I have an MCU-controlled lighted switch. After some experimenting you will leave the aux leds on one brightness anyway and if a flashlight has aux leds where is the fun in turning them off?

With some more electronic knowledge you could drive the board over a small FET like Lexel told me but that is too complicated to realize for me.

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Thank you, CNCman. :slight_smile: Once you have that copper spacer the rest is not too difficult as the L6 is like it has been made for this MF01S optics and MCPCB.

I could have done also a simple mod but it always needs to be a bit challenging, right? You need to test your abilities and maybe try some new things.