I’ve got myself a W-878 zoomie as the basis for an under-car work light (I wanted an even, wide spread of light from a relatively small source).
I intend to fit it to a swivel clamp and mount this on some sort of box - with a view to perhaps installing a parallel battery box in it at a later date.
In the meantime I’ve run into a few issues - and as this is my first mod, please bear with me.
The PWM is noisy. I’ll probably be using the light at full whack, but on those occasions where I might want to lower the output the whining is going to drive me bonkers.
I’m also none too sure that that driver has any low battery warning on it, which is a feature I’d very much like to have.
It’s also a 5 mode jobbie, complete with unwanted disco modes that have to be cycled through as it has a next mode memory.
So, it’s a driver swap.
It’s a 20mm board - and for the least amount of faff I’d like to put another 20mm board in, but failing that I could install a step-down adapter.
I’m aware that zoomies don’t deal with heat* that well - and a tailcap measurement at full tilt gives me 1.2amp…and the light is plenty bright enough…so my first consideration would be to find a driver that runs reasonably cool and that has the safety features I want.
I’d also very much like not to have any PWM noise (or visibility) - and can get by with just two modes (high/med). A basic default to high mode would be just fine.
So, any recommendations for a suitable driver? I’ve had a bit of a browse, but to be honest my forte is more in the mechanical side of things than the electronics and at this stage in my modding career I don’t think I’m savvy enough yet to make the right choices.
*I’ve noted that this light has a hollow pill - so the first thing I have to do is fill it up. Got some copper rod on order, and although my big lathe is out of order I have a small benchtop one that will be good enough to turn a push-fit plug on.
I have had several of those lights and never any driver noise, have you checked to make sure the driver is tightened in? Not sure you need to worry about filling in the pill either since its a big hunk of metal, driven low and hardly gets hot really, unless you are going to leave it on high indoors or something. I’m no help for a driver though, these have only been backup or toss to a friend type lights when going hiking, never really considered it worth the effort to mod, its cheap and very good for what it is, and the battery versatility makes it perfect for a backup light: no matter which kind of main light I take with me, it can take the batteries.
You can order TexasPyro open source boards from OSHPark and if you know how to use a hot air rework station you can do it yourself
Cheapest route is to get the 20mm adapter boards from FT and put a 17mm Nanjg on it…but a full size board would be best
You really don’t need to fill the pill…but a 20mm sinkpad or noctigon then epoxied to the shelf would go ALOT farther than beating yourself trying to fill the pill…
Put some noalox on the pill threads to aid in getting the heat out of the pill to the body
Personally I find glare far more relevant with auto work lights. Too bright and close up work becomes difficult. For example reading the details of a semi shiny alloy part number (which is never at the right angle for view anyway) between the firewall and engine and all you get is glare. For car type work, Id go for something with a moderate level of high. With a single 26650 4000mAh it should run for longer like that too, and cooling might be ample as is. So if youre going to play with drivers, Id have that in mind myself.
Is it CW or NW, CW tends to wash out colours of say wiring looms, not helpful with your bum up, and head down under a dash.
I fitted a copper plug into the hollow pill - there was hardly any thermal path from the star to the pill save for a tiny shelf around the edge, and although I suspect the LED isn’t being driven that hard it just seemed like a copper plug would add a touch of ‘belt and braces’.
Besides, it was kinda fun to do - even if the time I spent on it could have bought me a ‘proper’ light…
I ordered a couple of drivers from intl-outdoors - a Nanjg 101-AK-A1 and a Nanjg AK-47C20, primarily for the low-voltage cutout. If they don’t get used in this mod I’m sure they’ll get used in something else. I can turn up an adapter from stock brass.
I’ll give the reflow suggestion a miss…maybe I’ll work up to that sort of thing at a later date.
As for the whining on lower modes, it seems much quieter now after having removed and refitted the driver - and splashed a spot of thermal/silicone grease here and there.
Good call on the tint/glare - I’ll see how it goes, and if necessary fit a neutral or warm LED (looks to be CW at the moment).
I’ve got the light mounted on a mic clip and it’s been running indoors at full tilt for 45 minutes now on an 18650 laptop pull…it’s barely warm to the touch.
The drivers and other parts arrived today from intl-outdoor and I decided to fit the AK-47C20 first, just to see how it performed - and I think I’ll stick with it. It’s as bright as it was before, and certainly at least as bright as an SK-68 on a 14500. That’s about as bright as it needs to be for the job - and I have the extended runtime capability when I get some 26650s as well as the low voltage cutoff.
I can now look to making up a base.
I’ve found a mic clip that fits the light’s body perfectly, so this will give me a mounting point as well as providing the ability to tilt the light.
