With my wood lights, I sometimes joke that I don’t worry about making them waterproof because the glue I use is not waterproof.
Looks like a good start.
With my wood lights, I sometimes joke that I don’t worry about making them waterproof because the glue I use is not waterproof.
Looks like a good start.
Thanks for the reserch. I came to speleology only 10 years ago and have not seen duo era. Very interesting.
Good to see you are making a good light for caving, YuvalS.
Had some progress with the body today.I cut 4mm aluminum I had at home to the shape of the internal space of the light in order to have some mass to absorb the heat and conduct it to the rear end where I will place the heat sink.
Cut cardboard templates
Saw it using a Jigsaw
First I glued it in place with heat resistant RTV
Then I glued it with headsink plaster
And clamp everything together till it dry
I use the hide glue because it cleans up very well. The waterproof wood glues can appear to have the squeezed out glue cleaned of completely but sometimes when one clear coats (or stains) you see a difference in coloration where there was a dried and near invisible film of waterproof glue. It doesn’t always become apparent until too late, after clear coat has been applied.
A water proof wood light might float. Could be a cool idea. Maybe I’ll have to think about that one. Include a motor and propeller/fan that could cool it in air?
I spend a lot of time waiting for wood glues to dry.
A bit more progress today:
I had to file the heat sink so it fits to the roundish shape of the light and the helmet and also to add small piece of aluminum to fill a small gap left a the side of the light
Using the cardboard technique to find the correct shape for the heat sink
Fitting the aluminum piece for the small gap
Gluing everything with thermal plaster
And waiting....
After the Heat sink plaster cured, I did s bit more sanding to fit it perfectly to the helmet mount (had to leave a small gap to allow airflow to help with cooling.
I also drilled the place for a 12 mm waterproof momentary switch
Then, I drilled a hole for the switch wires (winch I forgot drilling before gluing :facepalm)
And (as promised) sealed all gaps between the aluminum and the original body with glue to maintain waterproof
That heatsink looks nice, definitely better than only plastic.
Good job with cutting and squeezing in the aluminium heatsink parts.
Good to see progress.
I’ve been stalled.
I took a break from working on the body and moved to the battery box.
Although the body is more interesting, the real challenge for me in this build is the battery box since it was designed for 4*AA batteries and the it is really hard to squeeze bigger 18650 cells into it.
another problem is the contacts, since I want to use 3.7V, one contact have to be placed on the lead and I have to find a way to wire this contact to the bottom part. I really have no Idea how to do it without risking with contacts or wiring problems.
Anyway, the first step was to remove all the old AA parts. Because the plastic structure is deep and none of my tolls was able to remove all the old parts and make place for 18650 I had melt the plastic at the bottom of the box using my old soldering iron (did it in a well ventilated place to avoid birthing melt plastic :) )
Original AA contacts
After melting the bottom parts
Not enough place for 4 cells
This project is up my alley! I’ve modded/retrofit l9ghts from incandescent to LED and it’s not easy so great job so far. For the batteries have you considered using 14500’s? They are not as high capacity as 18650, but you can use them in parallel for more capacity. Or just use 3 18650 unless you need series or series/parallel.
Imagine 8 × CR123As…
(16mm, not 18mm.)
Nice, “planning to change EVERYTHING”. Looks like an epic modification
Building a boat, are we?
A bit more progress today with the battery box today,
I decided to use only two 18650 in parallel so I will have space in the box for wiring and the cells will sit in the center of the box to keep it balanced.
Two decent capacity cells will last a whole day of caving on low (~150 lm) to medium (~300 lm) brightness with short periods of Turbo (~1000lm).
Placing the springs at the bottom of the box (and not on the lid) will pop the cells out so I guess it will be easier to changes cells.
First step was to create a template for the lower board
Than to copy it to the Prefboard (on the right is the prototype :) )
And cut and solder springs
I know that many BLF members are bypassing the spring but since my "Turbo" is only 2.8A, I decided not to use bypass.
Next step is it the wiring, I have some Ideas how to connect the contacts on the lid but still not sure what is the best way
And if that 2.8 amps is supplied by two cells in parallel it is only 1.4 amps per cell. IMO, you don’t need to bypass the springs.