Just a possibility at the moment. It's a go now. Nope, it's just an idea that did not turn out.
A "D" Maglite, (?Soon to be 1/2 D - 2x16340 IMR parallel? - or just a single 26650 1D).
A Frosted Aspheric.
15 Nichia 119 leds, (maybe 500mA each?).
A couple copper discs.
A crazy person at the wheel.
Nurse, More Pills Please!!
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The Nichia 119s were sent to me by another member here. He sent a bunch of them and after the fiasco this morning, I am glad he did.
First off, I cut out the larger copper disc. I drilled a hole in the center and then I used the dremel #115 bit and opened up that hole, till it allowed for the smaller disc to fit inside without touching. Then I marked where the leds would go and I filed flats on the edge of the smaller center disc. The flats were to help the led pads line up better with the disc.
Then I tinned the leds fairly heavily. I did not tin the copper. I just fluxed the heck out of it.
My first try was with a thin aluminum plate under the discs. I used double sided kapton tape to hold the discs in place and I thought I would be able to heat the aluminum from below. That was the fiasco. The aluminum plate warped like crazy and before I could do much, the solder melted and cooled again, so when it cooled, the aluminum went back into normal shape and flexed everything enough that most of the led substrates cracked. It was a horrible sound of death...
Good thing there were more of the leds. The second attempt was with a copper bar under the discs and three pair of vise grips holding the discs in place. This is what I should have done the first time, but I was trying to cut corners and ended up shooting myself in the foot, so to speak. This attempt was much more successful.
It lives! I tested with 3xAA Alkalines in a plastic holder. It works great and now I can move on to the rest of the build.
There's a lot to do. I will need to cut down the Maglite, decide on what type of switch I want, fit the led plate into the head, make a heat sink, etc....... It will be a few days, but the hardest part is done. Getting those 15 leds aligned was very stressful, especially after screwing up the first batch.
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Update - I decided to run wires to this thing and just fire it off direct, with the lens on top, to see what it would be like. It's terrible. Very dim, even DD with a 26650. The frosted aspheric really kills the output by a massive amount. With the lens off, the thing is darned bright, but with it on, it's more like a nite light.
Just not my cup of tea. I am glad I did this first. This way I can still use the 2D for some other build, since I did not cut it up yet.
