Modifying Silva Headlamp

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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Hi all!

I'm new here, so I wasn't sure if my question belongs here or in the headlamps forum, but since it is about modding and DIY parts, I figured I'd go here :-)

I have both a Silva 478 and a Silva 480 headlamp with 10 and 20 W halogen bulbs. I'd like to keep most of it, but fit something with an XM-L onto it.

The story is that I've been running night-orienteering for 20 years and used one of them the last decade or so. I always felt they gave a lot of light, but nowadays people are fleshing out NOK 6000 or more (~ USD 1000) for a LEDX lamp, with 2500 lumen. The insanity! :-) I once figured I should sell refurbishment kits, but MagicShine has something that sells in local stores for reasonable prices, so I'll drop that. Myself, I figured I need an upgrade, but the Silva 480 headset fits well and is really stable, it should be, it evolved over 40 years or so, I'll keep it... Besides, the NiMH battery that I have should be possible to reuse, it is a 9Ah 6V battery, and it still performs OK.

I'd like to meet or exceed the specification of a Silva XCL headlamp, which means at least 300 lumen and 120 m throw. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?

That's the background. I've been looking around, and it seems to be some nice 52 mm drop-in modules on DX. I think it would be interesting if I could upgrade my headlamp with new drop-ins as they become available. It is not too hard to put together driver, lamp, heatsink and so on, but I usually have little time on my hands, so using drop-in modules seems like a compelling alternative. There are much fewer such drop-ins around than P60 modules, but I figured a P60 can never have more than one LED, can it? So, what options do I have if I want to stick to drop-ins?

Mounting something on the headset seems easy enough. There are two holes 37 mm apart sticking 30 mm out from the headset. I need something to mount with screws between those holes. I always find a lot of flashlights that can take drop-in modules, but units to fasten on the forehead I haven't found. Not too easy to describe something when you don't know what is called, I hope it was clear enough... :-) My next question is: Are you aware of any such things?

Finally, the electrical stuff: I have no specification on my battery regarding the discharge current it can sustain. Am I right in assuming that it can sustain any discharge current if the discharge is slower than the brightest light I used to have? For example: The 20 W halogen bulb would last 2h40mins when the battery was new, so since it is specified at 9Ah, it would be able to supply an XM-L with 3A since that would discharge it in 3 hours? (which again means it would have >3C, right?)

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These aren't the dropins you're looking for, but some ideas here:

Note that if the pictures aren't showing, you need to sign up and log in. They don't spam you in my experience.

Mounting would be a fairly simple plate with the two edges bent down. (You'll see from the pictures.) The emitters are XPG or XPE... with optics you can get somewhat throwy, but they aren't going to make a dedicated thrower.

One note about connecting the Lux-RC drivers. See this thread http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/danger-beast-may-burn-your-eyes-literally-699758.html , in particular posts #78-81 regarding the connectors to use.

With the parts you already have, you could be at 700 or 1100 lumens for a little over $100 USD (?700 SEK?)

For what it's worth, there's been lots of talk on CPF about P60 headlamps, but I've never seen one come to life.

Good luck!

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I remember seeing at least one prototype of P60 headlamp. Probably it was even open for sales but not exactly 100% sure...

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Er, I sit corrected... http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?323904-Feeler-Custom-P60-Headlamp-(with-prototype!) . Apparently, some are built and available. They're a bit more caving than running, I think.

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Thanks a lot for the responses! Yeah, none of these are exactly what I want, but interesting to see nonetheless! The requirements for running is quite different from caving, but now I've learnt the word I was looking for: "Housing" :-) So, I need a housing that can support the drop-in modules that I want...

The local hackerspace has a 3D printer now, so I could in principle try to make something that could wrap other components, but if I chose that path, what else would I need?

For now, I've ordered this headlamp (which is on backorder, I don't know why). Perhaps I could mod that with an XM-L, but it doesn't seem to meet the ideal of an drop-in module based upgrade path and reuse of the stuff I have, but it was cheap.

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I can't tell for sure, but the dx link looks like a Magicshine of some variety. If you get it and find that it's not floody enough, search for something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Angle-MagicShine-Gemini-Lupine-Headlight/dp/B004WLCLQY

The 3d printer sounds interesting, but what material is the housing made of? If it's plastic (even plastic that can withstand high temperatures), it won't be able to dissipate heat from a modern led.

For what it's worth, it's Chinese New Year, so I don't think DX/postal service are doing anything until the end of January. At the best of times, DX is notoriously slow, so keep a close eye on the 45 days from now that you'll have to raise a Paypal case. After 45 days, you have no recourse. (If it was me, I'd probably cancel the order and do it again at the start of February. Just my opinion, though.)

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OK, thanks for the warning about DX!

My idea for the 3D printing, yes, it is plastic, but if parts of the reflector is exposed, sufficient heat might be able to dissipate. Also, since I'm Norway, I'm usually using the headlamp in temperatures around freezing.

Yeah, the headlamp I ordered is similar to MagicShine. The XM-L magicshine isn't very far from what I could use, it is just that it has an awkward mount. I wonder who really manufactures MagicShine parts, perhaps there are some around that would be willing to sell parts...

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Not Magicshine, but you might find similar parts here:

(Admittedly, it's from the US, so shipping will be pretty horrible.)

Regarding the plastic housing, if you go down that road, take a look at what Petzl has done with the Ultra... it's got 5 or 6 leds that are vastly under-driven (350 lumens total) in a plastic case.

One other thing to tempt you: Ahorton is just bringing out v3 of a light he calls Spike. Not cheap, but crazy bright and getting less heavy each version. Still cheaper than a Lupine Piko.

Can you tell that I spend too much time thinking about headlamps?

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If I were looking to put together a 1000 lumen headlamp for biking I'd...

OPTION 1
start with an XM-L bike light, use a piece of 1/8" aluminum flat bar to rig a mounting bracket, and mount it on the headstrap from an inexpensive crap light. Cut off the old light where it pivots leaving the base and headstrap. Mount the bike lamp to it and use the remote battery pack from the bike light strapped to my waist.

OPTION 2
Or just get this headlamp for $11 which e1320 has confirmed will take a p60 drop-in. Add in an Ultrafire 3-mode XM-L drop-in for $16. Replace the 3*AAA battery pack with an 18650 holder like this waterproof battery box for $2 and wire it for parallel cells (long run time).

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Wow, yeah, it seems you spend a lot of time thinking about it! :-) What he's done to the Marwi is very close to what I'd like to do, but then with a 52.7mm housing... I wonder if I should just buy a 52.7mm drop-in module and start experimenting with building things around it...

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Actually, I've been running with many crappy headstraps. They loosen all the time, and in night-orienteering, you spend most of your attention keeping the headlamp on, which is better used on navigating... So, that's actually a big part of why I'm doing this, I have a really good headstrap I'd like to keep.

Yeah, that sounds more like what I want to do! It seems to be fastened to the headstrap with a screw underneath, which should make it trivial to attach it to my headstrap. Hmmm, time to cancel my order for the previous lamp, I guess... :-)

But will it not run too hot?

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Yeah, that sounds more like what I want to do! It seems to be fastened to the headstrap with a screw underneath, which should make it trivial to attach it to my headstrap. Hmmm, time to cancel my order for the previous lamp, I guess... :-)

But will it not run too hot?

[/quote]

Run faster! :)

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Hehe! :-) I would if I could, but nowadays, I'm an overweight father of two children, so I am far from the shape I used to be in. But this is part of the plan to do something about it.

So, I've cancelled my previous order and ordered this, and a lens. Seems like I would need a switch of some kind too, that's not on the drop-in, right? Or better yet perhaps a base that again would suspend against the springs.

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I've taken this up a bit again (though I haven't got the drop-in yet). I've been looking for switches. I've seen there have been a few threads here on clicky-switches for XM-L, but I haven't seen any definitive recommendations for such things yet. The problem is that it draws 3A, and I may even need more in the future. I found a 5A waterproof push button switch over at Alibaba. That seems pretty neat, doesn't it? Anyone aware of somewhere these are sold in smaller quantities?

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Another option for you, this one is super lightweight and very well balanced. I just picked this one up for 9 dollars from Dino Direct and I highly recommend it. It takes an 18650 battery so it has awesome run time and it comes with a wall plug to recharge the battery. It has a real nice flood beam and puts out tons of light on low, high is overkill even more so if you mod it to an XML. If you can solder the emitter is easily swapped out for an XML. I did the XML mod and it pull .5 amps (250 lumen) on low and 1.5 amps on high (550 lumen). If you can solder this is a great deal I think 550 lumen is plenty to run with.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/cree-q5-230lm-3-mode-white-led-headlamp-1-x...

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Thanks, E1320, but when I cancelled my previous order for a headlamp, I decided to abandon my original plan to buy a small headlamp and study it to build my own. I didn't plan to actually use it, as I'm very skeptical towards these headstraps. They look like the one I started out with when I was 13. It is some really rough running we're doing in the bush. The headlamps take frequent impacts from branches of trees (and an occasional trunk "*ouch* where &#%¤ did *that* tree come from?" :-) ), and the real advancement was when they started to produce hard plastic headmounts that would go lower back in the neck in the 80-ties. They would fix the headlamp well to your head, but were uncomfortable, so the last generation is based on a long evolution and I don't want to take a step back from that. So, my project is to create a lamp to mount in the headstrap, not just find an OKish headlamp.

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Is that a momentary (closes the circuit for as long as the button is pressed) or a regular (click on/click off) switch you need?

For a momentary: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-Momentary-OFF-Red-Push-Switch-Boat-Car-/140686539902?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item20c1923c7e

(lots of listings... you'll have to sort out which one has the best price/quantity)

If it's an on/off switch, Judco makes switches that seem to be well respected. You can get rubber boots to make them at least highly water resistant. The only source I've used personally is Digikey, which will be a right pain to order from, as their overseas shipping is insanely high.

You can find a few high amp Judco switches here: http://www.hoffmanamps.com/MyStore/perlshop.cgi?ACTION=enter&template&thispage=Switches&ORDER_ID=!ORDERID!

(international shipping might be expensive there as well, but at least it's a human instead of a corporation, so you might get a better deal on a small package)

Other possibilities:

http://uk.farnell.com/apem/ipr1sad2/switch-on-off-blk-blk-btn/dp/1082441 (EXPENSIVE!, and only 2A)

Good luck!

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It has to be regular, if momentary means that I have to hold it down to get light... Or does it? I looked at judco switches yesterday, but had a problem finding someone that sold it. I'll have a closer look, thanks!

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... you're right: a momentary switch would have to be held down to get light.

The place where momentary switches get used are drivers that want a "click" of power to change modes. Power is usually provided directly or with a different switch.

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