Mod - GarryBunk's SecurityIng HD-016 (It's Finally Done!) - Pic Heavy

^ LOL. Good one. I took some "before" beam shots, but I'm trying to make sure I have the right ones. You take much better beam shots than me (by like 2000 million percent). Hoping you have some befores and take some afters. I have to say that I really love the tint of the emitters you provided. I'm going to order some. I thought I had that same tint, but mine are slightly different. That small difference is big though.

Mike C wrote:

. . .

Were you able to have any control over what the light steps down to when thermal protection kicks in?

In the end, I opted to keep the step down temperature at the stock 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The biggest reason was to reduce the likelihood of step down when Garry is riding because the step down is very drastic (goes down to .26A). Since the light will be handle bar mounted, it seems like a fairly low safety risk burn wise. If Garry puts the light on an aluminum mount and aluminum handle bar like he said, I think he will have no stepdowns. I didn't expect such a big lag (body reaches 166 at kick down), but I think it is a plus for this application. The aluminum mount will bring down the temp fast.

Yes, I will try to get some "after" beamshots in the same locations that I got my "before" shots. I'll post them up when I get them.

-Garry

Got in a short ride on the local rail-trail last night to test the light. This light rocks! Huge wide flood with decent throw (throwy head lamp really combines for a killer combo) and with my favorite 5B1 tint! In use this thing gets hot quick! While I was riding with it (mostly slow. perhaps 8 to 10mph) it did not kick in. This was with the simple stock plastic mount (need to upgrade to aluminum GoPro style soon).

Some pics (description above the photos):

Low (I think it's level #2 on the KD driver as I mistakenly entered program mode and am unsure where I set it back to):



Medium (level 7):



High (level 10):



Stepped back from the bike for a shot to show the full flood on high:



Excuse the photos as I was not carrying a tripod and I had my camera mounted on a cheap handlebar mount that had a lot of play in it. The camera also mounted on an angle due to being on my riser bars so I had to tilt the bike to make the photos appear level :) .

I was NOT using a helmet light (nor wearing a helmet), but while riding I did hold my Convoy M1 XM-L2 T6 4C on my head to simulate and it looked great! Provided all the throw I needed.

Comparison "backyard beamshots" coming in the near future.

-Garry


Hats of to you ImA4Wheelr. What an extraordinary amount of effort has gone into this light and it works not that I had any doubts.

Thanks for the feedback Garry and the compliment MRsDNF. I really like those trail beam shots. You must have had a late night making that happen. I have to give you credit for the light's rockability. It was your concept to combine the beams at all power levels, go 5B1 tint, AR lenses, improve the heat sinking, and to controll all that with a solid mountain-biker-safe UI. I'm honored you asked me to make it a reality.

MRsDNF, you always seem to notice the critical parts of a process/build. You are right that it was a lot of work. It also was close to not working. I just about gave up several times. Garry was good at keeping me in the game. Now that it's done, I'm grateful to him for that. I learned tons from this build and it forced me to grow in areas I tend to neglect. I really noticed my growth last night when putting the final touches on my Rook. I'm a better modder now. I also learned that custom builds are definitely not my cup of tea. I really admire the folks like you that undertake them. It takes a special skill set and attitude to be successful at it.

EDIT: How do you get the pictures scalable to the screen like that Garry?

EDIT2: Fixed cap in MRsDNF. Sorry about that.

About the pics, I use the advanced post editor and on the "appearance" tab at "dimensions" you put "100%" (or whatever size you desire) in the first box and clear the second box. That simple.

-Garry

Ok, here are my beamshots I promised. I was in a rush to beat a storm coming, and didn't notice the first shot was way out of focus (I did almost get some shots with lightning strikes in the background!) Also, the original beamshots had a wrong white balance setting and appear more blue than they should (should appear a crisp cool white). My modded beamshots are with the KD driver programmed at levels 2,7, & 10 (I think low is "2", but I never confirmed that after my accidental reprogramming). Keep in mind the stock light was only driven at +/- 1.4A per emitter and now it's modded to 2.4A per emitter. Original beamshots are only with both LEDs on (no sense comparing single throw / single flood shots).

Modded Beamshots, distance to the two trees is approx. 185 feet (I aimed at the tree to the left). Approx. 275 feet to the house off to the left of the tree.:

Low:

Med:

High:

Wooded "simulated bike trail":

Low:

Med:

High:

Mouseover's with original Un-modded Light (Mouse Out=Original, Mouse Over=Modded):

Yard:

Wooded:

-Garry

Really nice beam shots. Really dig the tint of those emitters. Really make the colors pop too. Thank you.

I think the beam shots belong in your bike light thread though because that is a great go to thread to see the beam shots from all your bike lights. Or, maybe make a copy the above post there.

Done. Yeah, the tint difference really does makes things "pop out" better. Even though the white balance was off, it still affects the appearance of everything not just the light output, so the detail you see with the wrong white balance is still the same detail you'd see if I had the white balance correct.

-Garry

Awesome mod. Seems like a lot of work though! Hard to understand transplanting the KD2 MCU was really the most effective solution given that you are unable to reprogram it. But the light seems to have turned out great.

I’m sure you are aware the 7135’s are spec’ed for max 6.0V (7V in absolute maximum ratings). I am curious how you have it connected?

Seems to me you could connect VDD to the midpoint between the emitters and that way the 7135’s never see the full battery voltage (it would see roughly half), but would still regulate the current. Another way to think of this is you wire it up like a normal 1S flashlight, but put an extra emitter and an extra battery cell in series with the battery supply (The extra battery cell would raise voltage, but the extra emitter would sink most of that). Current through both emitters would be the same, just as current through both battery cells would always be equal. Hope it makes sense. Can’t think of a downside but haven’t tried in practice.

Or perhaps you have it wired up to B+ and the parts are more robust than the datasheet indicates. Either way, I am curious how you have it wired up.

ImA can speak to the wiring. The KD2 MCU still retains the programability.

-Garry

Hi AceOne and welcome to the forum. The 7135's are connected as follows:

  • Batt - (Ground) is connected to the large GND pin.
  • LED - is connected to the OUT pin.
  • PWM out from the MCU is connected to the VDD pin.

I may not be able to satisfactorily answer your question about why it works as I don't have any formal electronics training. I can tell you we have been using 7135's to drive 2S and, I think, even 3S LED's around here for some time. The key is to not have too much voltage differential between the voltage source and the Vf of the LED's.

The data sheet refers to the max voltages being in relation to Ground. So Ground and OUT seems to be OK based on that. OUT should be the differential between supplied voltage and the cumulative Vf of the emitters. So in a 2S light, it will be about double that of a 1S light. Given the high Vf of the XM-L2, this added voltage overhead is welcomed and is still well below the datasheet max. The PWM output from the MCU is limited to its Vcc (or is it called Vdd?) feed which is around 5 volts. For extra protection, I have really heat sinked the 7135's well. Another protection is that the FW/Driver set up steps down output way before the thermal protection built into the 7135's kicks in.

Hope that helps. Maybe a member with deeper electronics knowledge can give you a definitive answer.

The project was a lot more work than we planned as we had to change direction a few times. We really wanted to develop a nice Attiny13 solution for cyclists, but the chip just has too many limitations. Luckily the KD driver came around because it has pretty much all the functionality Garry wanted. The only bad point being that it drastically steps down for thermal protection.

EDIT: Been meaning to correct the above for some time. Not sure if I am right though. So if anyone knows better, please chime in.

Hey everyone,

since all the uniquefire modders are gathered here, I have a question on the long term stability of the driver when operated with 5 V (USB power bank, going with the idea of: 1 item, at least 2 purposes). The bank would be a 4x 18650 Panasonic NCR 3400mAh rated 2A at 5V.
Regarding ledomans review and measurments, both LEDs on: 1.2A at 8.4V (10W) and the 2.2A at 3.4V (7.5W), it should work quite fine (though the 3-LED indicator will always be blinking or with one LED on), but does it cause any harm to the (stock) buck driver to be constantly operated at 5V?

Last but not least: Kudos for the mod, you guys put a lot of effort into that one and it pays out! Well done!

I don't think there would be a problem operating at 5V input. It wouldn't be very efficient due to your power bank wasting energy to boost to 5V needlessly.

-Garry

Needles to say original HD-016 is powered by 8.4V (2S2P 18650 cells) and moded one is designed to be powered by 4.2V (if I'm not wrong). So stock HD-016 won't run from USB power bank unless you raise the voltage to at least 6.6V.

No, my modded one runs on 8.4v. If I remember correctly, the original driver did operate on 4.2v input - pretty sure of that.

-Garry

Nope, see my review https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/29350 . So in either case USB power bank won't be usable unless you place step-up converter in between. Pretty useless.

Hmm . . . see post#47 in your review thread.

-Garry

Thanks for the posts, like I wrote, ledoman testet at 3.4V even. Also someone said, it worked fine down til 4V. I have tried it with an 5V USB bank and that worked as well, not that brigt, but that might have been because of the low output of that bank. So it works, but does it cause harm to the buck?
I think about getting a powerbank with an adjustable boost (5-13V), so i could rise the voltage up to 8.5V, but I guess that would be more inefficient than maybe 6V?
(I know, there are losses from 3.7V -> 5-8.5V -> 3…4V for the LEDs and I’ll have to figure out the optimum for the powerbank regarding runtime, but for the sake of simplicity in handling and less devices/multiple purposes, I want to do it that way.)

Ok. I didn't remember that it can run so low.

Still, you can't run it at full power (both leds on) if your bank can't provide enough current. When you lover the voltage you would need higher current gaining some more looses in the wires. Very likely you would need somewhere up to the 3A from the power bank.