I can't put these damned things down!
I needed to mod another Solitaire, for a single 10440 light, but I am concerned about how hot they get. The last two I did were made wrong. I let the light work as normal, where the head turns up for on and down for off. That leaves the star all by itself and it gets so hot, so fast, that it ruins the led.
So, I'm off on another quest, to get more out of less, or nothing at all. An effort in futility and minutia.
Gray Solitaire, Nichia 219, TIR optic.
Had to sand the outer ring of the optic, to get it to fit in the head. Hell, I can't even see it.
The "pill", ends up being a flat piece of copper sheet, a piece of brass tube and a hand cut copper round for the positive terminal. I mean, there's nothing here that's over 10mm in diameter and it's so small, it's almost impossible to handle it with my hands. At least the light will now turn on by tightening the head down, causing the heat to go into the body (hopefully).
The finished pill, wired up and ready to go.
Remove the ano on the top of the body and it's ready to put together.
I ended up using AA to hold the optic to the star. It's so tight and so small, alignment itself may cause the dome to come off the led. Better off assembled and held together this way.
Finished. The stack is tall enough that the head can't screw down all the way, so I made a quick copper spacer ring.
Beam Shots - I used 3XAAA Alkalines to test the light.
It's bright! It also gets hot FAST. It is a WOW light, but after 30 seconds it's warm and after a minute, it's time to turn it off.
Useful? Hell no!
Fun? WOW.