One of our Military customers uses these Honeywell HT Parts. They are an 8051 microcontroller that can survive 300C operating environments. Yes, that's 572 degrees F. Hot.
They're about 800 dollars each (the standard 8051 that they emulate is about 5 bucks).
Guess what their leads are plated with? Yep.. Gold.
PPtk
Thought everyone might like to see what the 3-XML Module can actually do. This is a short video comparing it to a solarforce L2P with Manafont Ultrafire 3-Mode Dropin.
This particular module is populated with Cool-White T6 emitters.
PPtk
Would this only work with Cree XM-L's, or boards with Nichia NVSL219AT-H1 4500K, 92 CRI LED's (obviously limited to 1.5A driving current) would be possible to order as well?
Unfortunately, that Nichia LED is physically quite a bit smaller than an XM-L (3.5mm square vs. 5.0mm square), so it will not fit on the board. There is, however, no reason at all that this board couldn't be adapted to accept that emitter, and if there is demand, I'm happy to oblige.
PPtk
Agilent will always be HP to me...
Old test equipment never dies, it just gets passed on to the lower schmucks. Actually, a lot of it is irreplaceable even today. I have some 50 year old equipment that no commercial equipment available today can even remotely touch. An old HP5370 freq counter can be had for $100. It can measure a single-shot pulse width down to 20 ps... ever price a new unit that can do that? The HP3458A meter has been in continuous production for over 25 years. Nothing has ever improved on it (or probably ever will... it operates at the limits of what silicon technology can achieve)
My electronics lab has over $1 million retail of equipment that cost me under $30,000 because some other idiot just had to have the latest and greatest gizmo, ignoring the fact that the old stuff had better specs and was actually serviceable and had full service manuals available. If I need a piece of equipment, I can almost always buy it off of Ebay for less than I can rent it for a month.
HP used to plate everything with heavy gold. That did give a lot higher chance of just the right amount of gold dissolving in the solder to cause problems. The light flashing of gold on today's boards probably does reduce the chance of issues. In one group of HP equipment that had joint problems, the most problematic joints were those in areas that were exposed to the most airflow from the fan. Perhaps an interaction with something in the environment or lower temperatures accelerated the problems?
I still have tons of "HP" Test equipment, and I totally agree with you - it will always be HP to me. Hell, even my desk calculator is an "HP". The heavy gold may absolutely have contributed - most studies have found anything more than about 3% total gold content in the joint can start to cause issues. Today's micro-inch thick plating, however, maintains a total gold content of far less than 1%. Phosphorous from the Nickel must also be maintained in a pretty thin margin, but again, it's been handled.
Lower temperatures causing the issue seems strange to me, but anything is possible. Perhaps it's actually that the problematic parts (HOT) were purposely placed in the flow of the fan - and these "HOT" parts accelerate the problem.. Chicken/Egg thing.. Did the fan cause the issue, or did that parts that needed the fan have the issue..
PPtk
cool! That'll make things much simpler (ish) :)
Hi PPTK,
Do you plan to have this also installed in a custom alu host to be used as secondary offroad light, same as your other much bigger light bar?
It would be interesting to know if you have this plan, as this setup looks promising for car use, but I don't have the tools to make a host for it...
What about a compact, finned billet alu spotlight, with easy bolt-in mount capability (two threaded holes on the bottom are ok), lexan stone-proof front lense, waterproof.
Asking too much?
I don't know about others but I have a little temp controlled soldering station that I may or may not be able to use with the required skill - and a video would give me an excellent idea as to how to do it - and whether I might be able to. I would LOVE to see a how-to video!
How did I miss this post? This looks fantastic! Excellent video comparison and pics.
Time to start making that custom host...
You were too busy trying to melt an XM-L on top of a block of copper and aluminum - that's how :)
I actually wish the video portrayed it better - it's pretty darn awesome in person. I love the CUTE-3 Optics, beautiful spot and then suddenly it's spill and your eye can't really decide where it transformed from one to the other. Very natural looking beam.
And custom hosts for this thing are easy - 35mm diameter by 16mm tall space to put them in and one screw hole and you're done. No secondary driver to worry about.
Thanks again for the contest prize - that was a really cool offering.
PPtk
I'm not big on spoilers regarding future activities, but I will say.. Anything is possible :)
PPtk
A video of me soldering up a module is definately on the to-do list.. Unfortunately, so are a lot of other things. These 24 hour days.. Who thought them up?
It'll come - i just can't promise when.
PPtk
A big day.. The first professionally assembled modules are done. Here are some pictures of the assembly.
Test Panel, 4 Modules Populated (Just in case something went very wrong - luckily, it didn't.)
Close-Up view of one module:
Module with TIR optic in place:
Additionally, I know how some people really like their LOW low's, so here are two photos of the module running at minimum brightness. Input voltage (battery voltage) has nothing to do with this. In fact, I'm supplying the module with 18V in these pictures.
And to get a much better idea of just how LOW that really is..
Yes, those really are the indicator lights on my keyboard for NUMLUCK and CAPS Lock and the charging LED on my Cell phone. When I say LOW, I mean LOW.
Module sales are just around the corner now - I've just got to finish up the software.
PPtk
Sweeeet...
great job, you must feel pretty pleased with yourself!
Thanks Matt. Of course, there is always a bit of pride taken when a design comes to an end and a product is born - This isn't exactly the first of those for me though, so it's a little dulled :)
I am definitely happy with how it performs. It's a really cool little module.
PPtk
true, true. I'm usually happy when whatever I make just turns on! That's the scariest moment for me.
I don't think you'll find anyone on here that would disagree with you :D