Great advice!
How can i miss it? Already ordered a couple! Thanks Hrvoje!
Hmm. .. Are you sure that's 1D? I just looked at the cree chart and 1D is right adjacent to 1A with 6000k-6500k. From the photo it looks closer to 5000k. Not quite neutral, but not WC either. Man, if you could get Neutral stars... sell out within minutes.
How can I be 100% sure, I don't have a spectrophotometer so there is no way for me to tell the exact tint. I trust Shiningbeam sent me what I ordered and they definitely look very different from the 1As I have, but how do I know those are really 1A. I am positive I like the tint the best out of all the different tint emitters I have and that is what is important to me. Eventually I will find some neutrals on 16mm stars the ones I have now are on 21mm stars so I can't do much with them.
ooooooh. must... not... buy... more... lights....
(this month)
Nice work though!
I was able to find ONE "3s" bin on a 16mm star... last they had. I should have it in a couple weeks. Ebay seller JTS Galaxy has them on 20mm stars, but no 16mm boards. Everyone seems sold out of them...
--Bushytails
Actually by carefully shopping around it can be made for 16usd tops! Not trying to imply your work isn't of value. :) It is usually underappreciated and people think you're having way too much fun with that making one for free seems just right. :/ Charging 7-10usd to make one seems pretty reasonable to me.
2,20-3usd reflector/pill assembly (buying bulk)
4usd driver (buying bulk)
7usd XM-L 1A led (LCK-LED)
some thermal glue and isolation disc (less than 1usd for both, providing you already have them)
Solder.
Takes me 10min after the iron is well warmed up to make one providing you like the wires KD ships along the drivers. However it takes 10h for the fujik glue to cure properly.
Additionally 1 20mm oring cut to suit the pill size (above the emitter star) if you like to have a spacer between the reflector and the soldered conacts on star and also fine tune the reflector to star distance not to mention having it sit prefectly aligned which without isn't often the case. Slight tilting may occur.
Oh and btw, i found putting the isolation disc on the reflector instead of the star works best for me.
Budget-bender dropins vs. Budgeteer-bender dropins! who will win?
Specs: same
Parts: same
Quality: ... need a sample from both of you to test ...
Price: Budgeteer-benders are potentially $1 cheaper!
Seriously though, I'd love to see the budget-benders work out as a paying hobby. Then when I'm less poor, I'll be able to buy one. ;)
If 1d is accurate I suspect the 1A is even higher than 7kK. I wonder what drive current the cree tints are taken at.
Oh c'mon making one is pretty cheapish. Making a dozen is quite some money already. I often get material for around 5. Limited by the KD 5 pack driver deal.
Buying bulk can save you often more than 10% which means at least every 10th you make is vitually "free" usually every 8th.
My only grief... there is very little competition for selling decent DIY stuff. Manafont tried but failed deliviring good circuit baord and emitters at reasonable prices...
I just thought I could get rid of a couple of the 1As so I could make 5 more 1Ds. Considering Nailbenders are $40+ for the same exact thing. I figured the budget guys that can't solder could try them out. I can't see this turning into a business.
The Manafont drop in is still the best deal that's why I have bought 6 of them over time, but the fact that these have modes that are better thought out low, medium, high instead of low, high, medium, virtually no PWN and better regulation make them worth a couple bucks more.
When the lady in your life watches the purse-strings, self-sufficient hobbies are a good thing.
You're right about the costs and availability of DIY parts. I was looking at an emitter on a small board, and after shipping (from germany, in this case) it's 2/3rds as much as a complete chinese light of similar specs
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You are right that did not come out right it just seams like everything revolves around maximum lumens lately. I have a couple XPG R4 3Ds I am going to play around with, not everyone likes the same thing and for your use in fog and snow the XPG is a better option hands down.
I share the same opinion as BobK on this one....the xp-g R4 3D tint is currently my favorite emitter....(Sorry xm-l... You're a close second though!)
A 5000k XML would be my emitter of choice. Ufortunatly these are rather hard to find and expensive. :/
like this one? http://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut1125&cat=88 ;)
Looks like they're back in stock - they were out... and cutter wants $15 shipping, making that a very, very expensive led, given as you can get them for $7 with free shipping for 6000k... they really are hard to find!
--Bushytails
but they had (have?) free shipping on orders >99usd, so making a small group buy isn't that hard to make -I made one with my friend and we have two orders each over 100usd just for leds and optics
I am going to jump on the wagon with you guys. In the top photo there is a XP-G R4 3D in the middle I just built a drop in with a 1.4 amp Nanjg driver and the 3D emitter and all i can say is wow. It is really strange how it can change your perception of what light is supposed to look like. I am totally sold on the 3D were the 1D made the 1A look blue the 3D does the same to the 1D amazing. I am going to order a couple more of the 3Ds so nice.
I'll be jumping on doing this when neutral XML's on stars are more budget friendly.
@D.I.C.K.: What do you currently use to prevent the reflector from shorting?