Spontaneous headlamp mod…
So I was walking down the isle of my local “home depot” style shop and saw a cheapo $8 3xAAA headlamp that looked like it could fit a triple, and as I have dual headlamp project ongoing I though I’d have a shot at making a prototype triple headlamp to see if it’s worth pursuing.
I ripped out the LED, resistor and small switch, and stuffed some triple optics to see if it would fit nicely. It fits but not perfect, the hole is a little too large so I slopped on some glue:
I stuck a S2 spacer on the back with artic aluminia adhesive:
I didn’t want to glue everything in place and at the same time didn’t want the hole thing to fall part with flashing new firmware versions so I kept the original battery case and put a hole in it for the spacer and wires, and stuffed in one of my G-16 programmable constant current / PWM hybrid drivers. I didn’t want to use my FET based F8, it would probably melt the plastic a little too quickly. It’s just an initial trial so 6 amps from 16 x 380mA 7135s is enough:
With my ongoing dual LED headlamp project I’ve gotten annoyed with the wires sticking out. So when I was just walking down the isle of the shop I happened to see this:
It says max 10 amps on the description and is long enough for two projects. I chopped it in half, took a 18650 case from another cheapo headlamp, soldered it in and it was good to go! Funny I didn’t think of this before, it’s a pretty simple solution and more than enough for a prototype:
I couldn’t use the original crappy small switch so I installed my own. I squeezed it in using the existing plastic as support:
The downside was that the rubber switch cover wouldn’t fit under. As this is just a prototype test I slopped on some epoxy and stuck it on the outside. I don’t expect it to stay there for long, but it should last long enough for me to evaluate if I want a headlamp with a triple in it:
So here it is, my triple XLP-HI headlamp prototype… spontaneously made within two days of simply seeing a cheapo headlamp in the store: