My first light build project. A hunting light gift for my father-in-law. Feedback Please?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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I posted this on another forum. I copied it here hoping you guys might look through it and give some feedback….

Hello Everyone, this is my first thread I’ve started and I’m hoping to keep it in a logical order. First a little background on myself. I’ve been lurking here for years but I’ve never had what I thought was enough knowledge to actually contribute anything. I’m a pretty handy guy and can fix/build about anything with enough time and a few brains to pick for information. I have a basic understanding of electronics. I’ve tinkered with a little bit of everything from RC planes to woodworking to welding.

I’m hoping to build my father-in-law the ultimate coon hunting light for Christmas. I figure if I start now I may get it done by then . Why you ask? Well mostly because I think I can do this and I enjoy making/building stuff. But also (if my thinking is correct) I can build the ultimate hunting light at much less cost than what even a plain jane light might cost to buy. And lastly I think it would make him very proud. The project will be along the lines of the one found here…
http://starhuntinglights.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_35&products_id=140

As you can see that light claims to be 1100 lumens. The light head uses a total of 7 leds, 5 white and 2 red. It also says that it uses 21 volt NIMH battery with a run time of 9 hours in it’s brightest mode. It has 4 brightness modes. The light also has a selector switch to choose between the 2 red and 5 white leds.

I’m not a coon hunter myself, but I would think that length of throw and battery life would be most important. Some of the lights on that site also have what is called a “walking” light which seems to be a light incorporated into the battery housing to illuminate the ground. I also wonder if it would be wise to incorporate a flood beam into the light housing as well as the spot light. I’ve also noticed that some lights have a “strobe” feature (I’m not sure of the purpose unless it “blinds” the raccoons. And lastly instead of a 4 position switch some of the lights have what I assume is a rheostat for an infinite amount of adjustment.

So here is a list of features that I hope I can come up with:

Long throw spot (good tight beam at maybe 200-300 ft?)
Flood light
Red light
10 hours battery on brightest
Walking light shining on ground from battery pack
Strobe and/or SOS effect (probably least important)
Infinite brightness adjustment
The head will be handheld at times as well as cap mounted so heat might be an issue…

So as you can see I’m going to have to build several lights into 1 package. Is it possible? I hope so…

I’m going to add that I have no idea how to do the strobe/sos…

I haven’t done a lot of searching for parts but I have found a few possibilities. This site has a drop-down menu that shows 1500 lumens and this is one of the choices:

and here is a matching spot lens:

and here is a possible driver with dimming capabilities:

and I hope this is the potentiometer for dimming:

So for the flood light capability I guess I could use a second led the same as above but use this lens:

For the red I’m hoping this will work:

and for the lens use the same spot as used with the white above.

Now for the walking light. I’m thinking this LED:

with this lens:

and this driver:

Ok, now for the housing I was thinking of using aluminum tubing 3” outside diameter with .5” wall. That will give me a 2” inside diameter which is more than enough room for the reflectors. I will have plenty of wall thickness to cut some grooves in for more surface area. It will also give me plenty of thickness to screw a lexan cover to the front as well as an aluminum cap over the rear. If I need more than the 3 reflectors then I can go to .250” thickness. I’m hoping this size will also help keep heat to a manageable level. This light will be handheld at times.

I haven’t decided yet on batteries. I’m a little worried about li-po from a safety standpoint. But it’s not out of the question. The driver says a minimum of 10 volts so I’ve chosen this pack as a possible:

but it weighs 3.65 lbs. It’s a 12v pack at 10,000mah.

In li-po this is a possibility:
http://www.all-battery.com/111volt-11000mahheavydutyli-polypackwithpcb-2.aspx
although it does show out of stock at the moment. It’s 11.1 volts at 11,000 mah. It only weighs 650 grams or 1.4lbs

I still have to consider the belt, housing for switches and electronics and wire. But I think that’s the easy part.

So how do I hook it all up? I’m probably gonna need some help on that part but here’s my thoughts. From the battery I will go to the driver ( I assume the driver is connected to the dimmer separately), which will then go to a three way switch (to select either spot, flood, or red). Then that will run up the cable (six wires) to the light head. There will be a separate single on/off switch for the walking light.

Well that’s the project. I hope you folks will look through the parts and ideas and let me know where I’m screwing up. Thanks for your input!

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Sorry to say, but all your links come out as 404 - page not found errors.

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Sorry about that….

I fixed it…

Greg

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Assuming it would work?? I don’t know enough about it to say. But, Keeping the batteries charged? If you start hunting at dark, say 8:30 in summer. And go til say 2 am. Assuming he is a good shot and hasn’t lost a dog, he needs a 5 to 6 hour run time?? Sound about right? Keeping that thing juiced up is gonna be a issue.

Whatcha think? Hobby chargers??

On to a fun tip:
On the Lipo’s: Guess it depends on your relationship with him. If he is a narcissistic father in law? Get him a bunch of lipos and make it where he can charge it while holding the light. Get him a nice pair of jumper cables and show him how to wire it directly to the car battery! :wink:

Some of you may know what I mean! :bigsmile:

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Thanks for your reply Ric Flair….It’ll tell my age a little, but I saw Ric Flair wrestle at my local high school gym when he was starting out with Smokey Mountain Wrestling….but that’s a whole other story…lol

As far as run time I calculated that as follows….
10,000mah divided by 1500mah times 80% efficiency equals 5.33 hours. So that part sounds right on the money with what you said. I am kinda assuming that these hunters only use the lights on high when they are actually spotting the coon. My guess is that they use it on lower power the rest of the time. So hopefully overall run time may be substantially more.

And I was thinking of both a house charger and a vehicle charger much like you describe. Maybe even adapters for cigarette plug or battery clips.

My real concern is whither or not I’ve chosen appropriate electronics, reflector’s and LED’s for the idea. I almost feel like my led’s may be overboard and I wonder if they will generate too much heat for handheld use. I want to create him the best light I can but there’s no real need to create a light that’s capable of being seen from the moon either. I guess real world test are the answer. But I don’t have an unlimited budget so I want to shop as smart as I can.

And as far as what type of fellow he is….honestly I’m very lucky. He would be so excited that I built this he’d blow a gasket. He’s easily pleased and thinks I’m the greatest guy ever….lol

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I don't have any input at this moment, but I wanted to say Welcome to BLF Medic265.

Sounds like a great idea for a light. You've done a lot of home work already. Definitely seems like you will need to build it from scratch. If you haven't, you should consider entering into the Scratch Build contest. You'll still get members assistance and maybe you might win something while your at it.

Best wishes

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Thank ya sir…I may just do that!

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So I’m getting ready to order parts…

Anybody got any input before I do?

Thanks
Greg