"but hey! it works!" contest - suggestions?

Hello my friends!

I was reading all that great and impressive build logs from the 3rd annual DIV contest.

and i enjoyed them a lot! thank you guys for your impressive and entertaining work!

But I have neither the machines or skills or funds to compete there

(and maybe i am not self-assured enough ...)

So I came up with the idea to make a contest for the cheapest mod/build.


main goal is to show examples for easy / cheap modding so anyone is motivated to try!

help finding parts that are known to work - make it easy and/or cheap ;)

possible categories:

  • category A: cheapest build at all (from scratch - all used parts have to be calculated)
  • category B: "best invested money for Lumens gain" (having a <50 USD light already in the drawer? mod it!)

rules:

  • both categories must include links to sources and prices of all used parts, so others can click on your links and redo your work
  • also include pictures how it was built (any language is welcome as long as google translate can handle it)
  • category B i want to see: sum of used parts vs. measured lumens gain (eg. from 300 to 600 Lm investing $5.99 = $1.99/100 Lm)
  • if you are machining parts: you have to calculate the price you charge for that piece - sent to the user who wants to redo your mod! (and are willing to do so)
  • no need to be a beauty! (you can post the link to a "nicer looking part" instead the uglier, but working one)
  • handheld or headlights only
  • existing mods are welcome! but the parts must be still available
  • no builds which give a sh*t on safety (like wires clamped to a unprotected cell and DD a floating LED)
  • ranking will be made with a open poll for each category


Having my 3k posts to reach in mind I will give a prize for every category (will look what i can get / or I ripp lights off my shelf)

If one wants to jump in with free stuff for prizes feel free to do so! so the second (or more) places might get something too

Winners choose from available prizes in the pool: Cat A 1st - Cat B 1st (- Cat A 2nd - Cat B 2nd - Cat A 3rd - Cat B 3rd.... if we get donations)

THIS IS IN ELABORATIG STATE ! - FINAL RULES AND DEADLINE WILL BE ANNOUNCED

thanks breinrules!

Hye, it’s like this contest is made to accomodate my last creation…crappy XR-E headlamp

This sounds like something I might be able to pull off. Life got in the way with my BLF Scratch-Made Contest build. It never really got off the ground. If I get a chance, I’ll still probably do it later. But, this is a much easier contest for me, because I don’t have a lot of stuff sitting around like some of these other guys, and I also don’t have a lot of skill. So, maybe I’ll get in on this one. Thanks for the chance M4D M4X!

Great contest, M4D M4X, I like the criteria sofar! The scratch build contest appears too ambitious for me, I will finish it some day but the deadline has passed :-( . I hope I can handle this one :-) and meet the to-be-announced deadline!

First now.

Its my chance to show off my triple xpe(xtreme potato energy) light

What a guy, I tell ya! What a GUY! :bigsmile:

OK, a contest I can actually win :slight_smile: I’m out of state but when I get back home I’ll sent the pics of the most budget of LED lights ever built from flashlight parts. Been too embarrassed to mention it here so far, but now maybe I can. I may not be able to give links to parts though; the host was bought on clearance at retail long ago and I hope exceptions can be made for things like that.

Phil

Sounds like a likely winner to me :-) , just shoot some pretty pictures pointing out the rough gritty threads, the sloppy solder work, the cheap ano and the counterfeit led and presto!

i think we can accept also builds from the last year…

but main goal should be to show something which can be reproduced !
so links to get the needed items are a must…

members new to modding should be motivated to try without being afraid of loosing a lot money if it goes south….

What about those that don’t have a way to measure lumens? Can we estimate emitter lumens with output graphs?

Maybe another category of most money spent for least output gain with a functional light.

Easy: use a Luminus LED and a bunch of Titanium

Not going to participate because I allready did the mod, but… Ultrafire F13 with four XHP50

Initial china lumens: 1200 — Final theoric led lumens: 11200.

Parts:

- F13 flashlight: don´t remember exactly, but about 10$

- 4 x xhp50 = 31.56$

- fet driver kit: 5.89$

  • Copper and machining: free (I did the machining but have no acces to a lathe any more :frowning: )

Ratio: 0.4745$ / 100 lumens

LOL!

Least cost effective yet, nothing but trits for light output. That'd be what...$500/lumen or something?

While I certainly agree that results should be repeatable, the host I refer to could be any cheap generic and there is not a specific model or even type needed to do a duplicate of this. Shucks, you can even get everything locally offline to do this build. To top it off it’s even useful. How about a $0.25 LED flashlight sans batteries; I could do that tomorrow or nearly any day and so could almost anybody To make it clear right now without pics would spoil the surprise and ten people would do the build before I could get in the game. Once you see you’ll understand- promise. I just can’t do that till I get back home.

Phil

then link a 1 usd light you know it works with and calculate with that in Cat A
whould that work?

This is a cool and great idea for a contest! :bigsmile:

I like this idea, I don’t think I have any chance of building something good, but I might try to participate in this one.

I think you just did. :slight_smile: