I stopped off at Tractor Supply on the way to work and picked up this Spotlight. I need something to put the 3000K MT-G2 I have into and I figured maybe an old school Direct Drive light might be fun with the 3000K led.
It comes with both the 110v and 12v chargers and a shoulder carry strap.
It's only rated at 250 lumens and that's fairly close to the truth. It boasts an Aluminum body. Well the rest looks like plastic, so we will see what gives.
It has an H3 6V Halogen bulb in it. I am guessing that it's 25 to 35 watts. It also has that small ring of 5mm leds for a "map light".
OMG, I forgot what the old incans looked like. Yes, it's fully charged.
Nothing to write home about. It has just about no spill at all and a fairly tight spot, but no real power.
The reflector is metal and measures 90mm max diameter, with 85mm ID at the top and depth is 35mm to the bottom of the reflector, (not counting the bulb holder at the bottom). The lens is glass, but it's cheap glass and not very good, but it's better than plastic I guess.
With the reflector removed. The "head" is all plastic. That's not going to be good. The "Aluminum body" is just a shell and has plastic on both ends, so it's even worse.
Back end.
Battery isn't even held in place other than the two plastic ends.
Handle assembly.
Battery is 4 amp hour. Might be OK for the mod, but it won't last long.
Here's the MT-G2. I think I will use an SST-90 star, since it's thicker than the MT-G2 star and neither one is copper, so why not use the thicker one.
I do not have a clue as to how I will heat sink this thing yet. It will be a surprise to you and me.
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5-22-13
I managed to do a little today. I got the bulb socket cut off the reflector
and I figured out how the heat sink will be made. I'm just using left over parts here. I'm not buying anything more. I have decided that as it heats up here in TX, I will be backing out of modding for the summer, so I will just use what I have for now and only buy hosts, till I run out of money, cool air or desire. The heat is winning already.
The flat plate sits down in the plastic housing. The copper bushings go thru the housing and rest on the aluminum body. When the plate is screwed down, it hits the bushings. The heat sink will be screwed to the plate and hopefully a little (very little), heat will transfer to the body. I decided not to worry, as the 4000mA SLA battery should run down quickly and it won't last long enough to overheat that large heat sink anyhow.
The copper tabs are to get the wires away from that huge reflector base, so it does not short and so I can get it as low as possible.
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It's Done, not much to look at
The heat sink assembly and led in place in the head.
Finished, reflector is stippled and glass is in place. You can see it's not coated glass as well. Told you it was a cheap light.
I would estimate that it might be drawing from 1.5 amps, to 2 amps from the battery, direct drive. I don't think the battery is capable of any more and I'm not worried about heat at all, as the battery drains fast enough, that the light will never get hot. The 3000k beam looks like an incandescent. Just like all the old lights with what looked like very dim beams. It's not dim, but because of the yellow look, it seems to our eyes/minds that it is dim.
Oh well, win some, loose some. I knew this was going to be a flop from the git go, as it's an incandescent reflector and a 3000k led. Incan reflectors do not work with leds, unless you want a floodlight. Well that's what it is, a floodlight. I am guessing that it won't reach 30 yards, but it will light up everything to the front and sides within that 30 yards.
I will do a couple beam shots tonight, for whatever that's worth.
BEAM SHOTS
Total flood light. Incan yellow look. Totally worthless. Range is about 10 yards max.
Can you tell I'm not happy? I'm not sure, but most likely I will just take the led out of it and get rid of the light. It's heavy. It's bulky. It's nothing anyone would want to lug around. It's ugly and I just wish I hadn't done it.
That's all folks.....
