Hi there, I’ve salvaged an old emitter from a broken CR123 light and re-used it to make that :
It’s direct drive, since I use some 3,6V primary lithium cells. My cousin gave me about 20 of those so I’m covered for next few years.
I soldered a reverse cliky switch and hot glued everything on a aluminum U profile for thermal dissipation. the reflector is epoxied on the emitter star. A length of paracord is glued on a piece of mouse pad and a piec of foam is added for comfort.
It’s really light weight so I can wear it for long time.
It isn't crappy if it works to satisfy it's function, and you're learning skills along the way that help prevent destroying expensive parts later on. Congrats! :beer:
Yup, I hoped that it was some li-ion rechargeable batteries when he shows me those…but after some researches on the interwebz, I found that someone tried to charge it…it exploded !
I saw a price of 4€, but SAFT is a french factory I think so…
Anyway, I got these free 8)
Thing is about those batteries and why we use them in critical comm equipment, they have a VERY flat discharge curve. They go and go, then —poof—, dead.
They were used in alarm system, to power up the sensor I think…I’ve yet to measure the current that this LED drains from the battery to have a approx. autonomy.
^This
I measured a current of 200mA, those batteries aren’t made for high drain so it’s limited.
But the brightness is sufficient and it offers me an autonomy of about 13 hours