Really a great job expecially for build quality!
Thanks. This light is certainly meant to be a very robust flashlight, it has to be.
Manual lathes are only good for little fiddly bits. You don't get to make threads, you don't get precision CNC control for repeatability, and every tool you need to add costs more than new flashlights. I am happy to have this unit with the basic minimum of accessories but I wouldn't take on a whole new light on it. But I might take the time to actually design the "perfect" flashlight using CAD. CAD doesn't try to remove your fingers or put holes in your walls. Now if only there wasn't so much competition in this endeavor :tired:
It is easy to make 1000 flashlights from a home brew design. Once you got it on paper, a 1000 units can be had pretty cheap. It is your personal quality control that will make these better than any other light out there if the design is solid and the prints are accurate. Unless you plan to do this as a business however, you will never make a dime for your time and effort. The lucky ones break even.
I'd -like- to fill a niche market with this effort. The light is too big to market. But the concept is solid. And I know the need and interest is there. But I have more work to do.
I have looked at this driver a few times. Obviously it doesn't have the modes I'm looking for. What I didn't see is that it specifically has a boost function. It seems that it simply goes to a low mode if the input drops below regulation.
Here is the dying Rev Jim's Panasonic 2350mah cell. The opening you see the full 1A draw at 3.1V... and in the following 5 minutes, the NANJG low battery warning kicks in.
This is the XM-L running on high at 1-amp. This is simply amazing for these simple drivers. You could watch the current meter move. I will try to get vid up when I get more cells charged and drained.
I did the 1Hz battery run last night. I got 06:30 out of RevJim's Panasonic 2350mah cell. The light got notably warmer than with the police flash. Oddly enough, but understandable, it started running cooler as time progressed although the emitter's draw remained at 1 amp. The excess heat must be coming from the driver which has to sink the excess watts of the newly charged cell.
The light continued to draw 1 amp until the last 10 minutes of the charge. I absolutely love how these batteries perform with such consistency throughout 97% of the battery life when linked to an XM-L at low power .
Even the battery protection circuit is somewhat moot as the driver will reduce power draw and warn the user with a slow low power flash. As long as the flashlights are attended to, there is no need for protected cells in this application.
6 hours is plenty for normal bike rides but for the longer endurance rides, I will be using the police mode.
One last test will be the conventional fast flash (I need to see what frequency that one really is for the NANJG drivers).
One other thought... "how would these perform at 700mah?" Definitely worth consideration.