Photon Fanatic Build, Ti Neck Light (Pic Heavy) *8-5-14 Upgrade*

Yes you should. No really, you should!

This is an amazing light through and through. Thank you for sharing it with us :-)

Bad news first? The PICcolo driver has failed muster. The prototypes made it back to Australia and there is an issue with the voltage regulation. Somehow the light will blink on hi regardless of what mode is coming on before it goes to the proper setting. So if you have mode memory set at Lo, the light will blink on hi first then go to lo. Not acceptable. I might could learn to live with that, but Matt hates it and is regrouping. And in truth, I’d like lo to be my default so the Hi blinkies would definately be a distraction.

So the Texas Poker will be getting a miniFluPic driver that doesn’t put out nearly the power. On the bright side I’ll have longer run times, on the fugly side all the searching for the highest output XP-G S2 or High Output Nichia 219 was for naught. Even the Efest IMR 10440’s are now overkill.

In truth, the light will probably be much more useable this way. But it won’t have bam! factor, we’ll see. But it would appear that I’ll now be lucky to pull 200 lumens where I was looking for something just over 300 with the PICcolo driver. 200 lumens in a pinky finger sized light is still a lot of lumens, no doubt! And this will also keep heat from being a major player in the life of my LED.

Perhaps Matt will get it worked out and I can make a swap down the road. Might even upgrade to an XP-G2 at that time, only time will tell.

And that’s part of the good news, cause now it won’t be much longer and I’ll have my Ti neck light! :slight_smile:

What incredible craftsmanship. I stare as the pictures in this thread in awe.

dood……………

This is amazing. Threads like this are my favorite, even though I don’t mod.

Sorry to hear your luck with the driver. Hope it all gets sorted without too much trouble.

For what it’s worth, I would go with a nichia219, but that’s me. Either way, this is one badass little light.

Nichia 219 it is! This is the 5000K variant at 475 lumens @ 1.5A, not the much lower output 4500K 92 CRI version. I have one on a SinkPAD copper star sitting beside me, thermally pasted to a copper bar 16” long, 1” wide, and 1/4” thick. Direct connected to a Lifepo4 with 3.35V it pulled 1.28A at the emitter and gives a nice white light, surprisingly bright! So this will be a good thing! :slight_smile:

The Dereelight reflector got mated to the copper heatsink today, mini FLuPIC should be installed shortly. I sent one of my Efest IMR10440 cells to test it with as that’s what I’ll be using in the light. That should be there Friday.

Getting close! :slight_smile:

Fred has shared the last of the pics he’s taken, they’re added onto the end of post #3. The light is in the mail and I’ll be taking some pics of my own in a few days! Can’t wait! Enjoy!

It's been a long journey; I bet you will be happy to finally have your wee gem in-hand.

I know it's been said already, but PF is a craftsman. I hope to someday acquire a fraction of his skills...

My Texas Poker is finally home, and a sweet little jewel it is!

Please pardon the quick photo grabs, had a photo shoot today and have been swamped so just grabbed some hasty snapshots.

And how about a beam shot from 25 yds away:

And for the record, I first contacted Fred 3 Months ago almost to the day. Waiting for the custom driver or probably could have had it a month ago. Oh well. It’s sweet, works beautifully…even surprisingly so and it’s perfectly executed. Win Win Win! :slight_smile:

Very nice looking light, are you sure you want to carry it around and scuff it up?
Whats the black flashlight in the first photo?

Thanks Bort, yeah I’ll be wearing it on a ti curb chain around my neck, don’t think my chest hairs will scratch it up too bad! :wink: It’ll get lots of use, already has in fact. And that beam is impressive in the dark, shines like a much bigger light! Yep, I’m a happy camper! :bigsmile:

The black light is an L2P with EDC+ Triple Nichia 219 pulling 2A between em.

The gold L2P is waiting for Matt’s Hyperion, Triple XP-G2’s at 5+Amps total! :slight_smile:

Through and through. Awesome!

Thank you for sharing this DBCstm

It is wonderful to see something so special come to fruition!

Simply amazing. Fantastic light. You’ve probably mentioned it somewhere but what battery and driver are you using? I cant wait to see the pill for the HD2010 he’s making. :wink:

Saaaweeet!

Love the pics, love the light, thanks for sharing.

Wow! Wow! Wow! What a beaut!!! :love:

The battery is an Efest IMR 10440 easily capable of 3A or more. This I know because I accidentally shorted it for a split second and it burned a blister on my finger! Dang thing is potent!

The driver is a mini FluPIC (10mm diameter!) with preset Lo, selectable Med (1 of 10 levels selectable in mode 5) and a full out Hi (which is supposed to only be 650mA but it’s very very bright on this Nichia 219 5000K) For some reason mode 4 is a blank. Mode 5 makes the selection for mode 2 (med) and it has a memory that kicks in at just under a second. Low voltage cut-off at 2.8V. No funny noises, no blinkies of any kind.

Who’s making a copper pill for a HD2010? I thought YOU were doing that for me?!? :wink:

My 5 year old is in love with it, thinks he should have it. (His very words) When told that it’s mine, he’s like, “Well have him make me one!”

Yeah yeah I know it’s not fair, but the EDC+ is one of 2 lights I have that has been tested in a sphere at 720 OTF lumens. The TP holds it’s own pretty well, of course the EDC+ Triple has more spill so the throw comparison is kind of a leveler to split the difference on the sheer size and battery power difference, not to mention 3 emitters.

Same settings, pitch dark out with not even a moon. Shot with the 5DMkII and 100mm Macro 2.8L IS. Settings mimicked what I saw. Cropped into the shot for a 5x7 @300 dpi from the larger 13x19 300 dpi shot to show detail on the oil drum 50 yds out. A tiny AAA format light that throws 50 yds! Not too shabby! :slight_smile:

In actuality the XP-G2 emitters in the EDC+ are very similar to the Nichia 219 5000K emitter. And they’re pulling 2A for a theoretical 700mA to each, which is just 50mA more than the mini FluPIC drives the Texas Poker. So the difference is mainly in optics vs. reflector divided by total number of emitters squared minus the ambient temperature and the weight of a Super Taco. Oops, sorry, got carried away there. But obviously the emitter comparison with the power it’s given is quite similar. Both lights have the emitters mounted on copper. Both are in copper heatsinks. One is awesome. One is black.

One light is just severely outclassed. :slight_smile:

that came out awesome! congrats on the functional work of art. jealous.