Urgh, I’ve been playing in my 3d sandbox again…and that usually means new things need to be ordered from china very soon!
This time I wanted to cook up a functional, decent looking and completely removable blower module.
Here’s the result using various random bits of metal and plastic (see if you can spot the other half of the AC plug pack case that I also used to make the trigger housing… no waste here! ) and a nice black aluminum lens hood to act as a duct to contain and direct the airflow across the pill section.
The duct covers the entire surface of the pill and should offer some nice options for directing the airflow. Maybe it will work well enough in this configuration, with the air going around a bit before blowing out through the gap between the heatsink fins and the back lip of the hood. Could have part of the exhaust area blocked off to control the flow better… or I could seal off the hood all the way around and drill some exhaust vent slots/holes on the opposite side to the blower. Not sure yet.
Everything is picatinny rail mounted of course for easy removal. Power will be provided by a socket on the tailcap and the usual spiral cable to make the connection. There’s also plenty of room inside the improvised elbow joint to house some electronics to control the fan. I envisage a basic control pot sticking up the top of the assembly at the elbow for starters.
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And of course you’ll notice the shorty configuration of the light has made a comeback.
I think I have a good way of making this configuration work now so when my spare BTU parts finally arrive via the rusty bucket express I’ll give it a go.
This quick image slap-up shows the shorty look on the real thing. This one’s actually a bit too short but you get the idea, it’s much more compact and quite a lot lighter.
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Btw if you’re a bit insane like me, have a BTU shocker gathering dust and fancies the look of what’s going on here. I’m contemplating building a few more of these lights (hopefully much improved upon this prototype) over the next couple of months.
I’m having a lot of fun building and testing this thing but there’s only so much money/time I can justify spending on it. Unfortunately having built this one I see so many ways of improving upon it should I build another. If I can build a few lights for other people I have an excellent excuse to keep tinkering with this thing! :bigsmile:
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Here’s a quick breakdown of what I’d try to do for a V2.0 of this light. (Copied from a PM I sent to another member)
-Shorty Body configuration like above but with power indicator led built into trigger switch housing. Same reverse clicky with off-time driver UI, my personal favorite combo atm.
–9000mah 3s LiFePO4 9.9v battery pack (LiFePO4 chemistry for the better suited voltage overhead and stable discharge performance) Plus constant >9v availability for a VERY wicked DD mode. XLRs will probably be replaced with Speakon high power connectors to handle DD turbo currents. Also twin power relays in pack will be replaced by power mosfets for smaller resistance loses and lower power consumption.
The pack will also have a nice new display on the outside showing pack voltage and current draw. Otherwise the same as prototype.
-Drivers based on Wights Linear 7136 Driver with DD turbo.
Modes: High, Med Low etc tuned to users preferences and stable long run performance. Driver running off-time STAR firmware modified to handle the DD bypass.
Turbo: With the extra LiFePO4 voltage on tap I can easily see maxed out Mt-g2s on DD. Over 12Amps per emitter for short bursts (heat limited short runs of course but >12,000lumens @ ~300watts should be possible). That’s also not just on a fresh charge but you’ll have a very impressive turbo up your sleeve basically all the time until the battery is dead! (this is a rough idea, the drivers and packs need to be tested to see precisely how they behave…but I’m certain this power source and driver combination (provided the driver tests ok) is going to be a better way to go than my 7135s and 2s lipos).
-Active external cooling module as shown above. If I can figure out a nice way of having it temperature controlled I will. Otherwise a pot to dial in fan speed. (Note: The light in general won’t be particularly water proof but this part will certainly not hold up to getting wet!) This cooling system also won’t be able to keep up with turbo mode temps (nothing much would beyond a dunk in an icy lake!) but it will certainly help with the cooling down periods between blasts! Which to me is frankly almost as important. And of course it will enable longer stable running on the “lower” modes.
-Improved heatsinking mass behind driver cavity. Given the new driver approach I should have a bit more space to work with to improve the thermal paths for both the led shelf and the driver mosfets themselves.
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So shoot me a PM if you’re at all interested and we can discuss things. Warning: parts cost alone is close to 450dollars so the term “budget” doesn’t really apply here.
Cheers
Linus