Build the e-switch assembly:
a. Replace the stock clicky with an e-switch board.
b. Bring SW- towards the front of the light, then down towards the batteries and out the hole.
c. Bring SW+ toward the back of the light.
d. You may want to trim some plastic from inside the plastic switch carrier, look forward some steps and do test fits to find out.
Install the LED, driver, etc into the pill.
Install your switch boot and e-switch spacer.
Install the switch assembly by threading all 3 wires together through the holes down to the the contact board area.
Solder together and heatshrink the SW+ wire, tuck it back into the hole.
Solder SW- and BAT- and BAT+ wires to the contact board.
Very nice kit wight. All the best for the sale. For what you are offering this sounds real cheap. I seem to remember the shapes from somewhere. Now only if I could remember where.
EDIT: I forgot in the giggles - Well done man! I don't think I ever saw such a elaborate kit sold anywhere on the various forums before. Marvellous opportunity for those stateside with acces to the host.
I haven’t come across this light before, but damn that PCB panel looks awesome! Might just have to get one to hang it on the wall or something, can it be scaled up to poster size?
Thanks folks! I’m pretty happy with the panel turned out.
I tried 7x pretty well rested Duraloops last night. I used 7x from the 8x set I’d used to do the 11.4A picture earlier in the evening. (I think that after doing several of those >11A blips and then resting for a few hours they were down to the 9-10A range with 8x.) With 7x current started higher and settled on a very solid looking 7A. IMO 7A is sane for a brief turbo, intermittent or brief strobes, etc. (7A Should be something like 49W to the LED, plus another 3-6W lost in the wiring, springs, and traces.)
These parts can also be adapted to work with older D-cell Maglites (the ones with no “D” in the serial number). The carrier itself should fit with no filing, same with the contact board. The caveats are as follows:
a. The e-switch conversion requires slightly more work.
b. The stock spring used back then is definitely too big to contact the rear contact pad. (The modern springs might be OK?) This is not a problem for e-switch use, only clicky use. If you insist on a clicky build you’ll have to install something to fix the contact issue. I’d recommend a straight section of 12AWG solid copper wire laid diagonally across the contact area and soldered into place. I haven’t measured, but I think that’s enough. Remember that (for 8s1p) you also need an airwire from the central contact provided at the top of the carrier back down to the contact plate at the bottom.
c. You’ll need to glue or screw the contact board in place, a press-fit will not work here. That’s no problem IMO and should allow for either bottom or top loading the switch assembly, depending on what direction you go with the rest of the build.
I plan to do some more work on the QX7136 driver over the holiday. I plan to take a closer look at how the PWM is affecting the IC’s DRV output and how that DRV output is affecting the FETs we’d like to use. I’m slightly hopeful that adjusting the PWM freq may do something agreeable.
I did some figuring. There is a lot to account for when estimating how much power will be dissipated by the FET. Under lighter loads the battery voltage will not sag as badly and resistances in the light will not result in such large voltage drops. Going from 7A to 3A may recover 0.5v in resistive losses alone. Then you’ve got another 0.1v per cell from the reduced sag.
I did some crappy math, really it was not good: I didn’t write anything down and I did not do exactly what I intended…
7s1p settles on around 7A DD. Dropping that down to 3A should result in around 1.8v (0.7 from Vf, 0.7 from reduced battery sag, and 0.4 from reduced resistive losses) for the FET to burn off. At 3A that’s 5.4W, which I think is fine as long as a TIM cube or potting is used.
8s1p really has the cells taking a beating in DD. When we regulate to 3A though, it’s the FET that takes a beating, dissipating ~9-10W with fresh cells. The LED is getting ~19W at that point, so you’re running at a pretty low efficiency. Once you get down to 1A you’re only dissipating 4-5W in the FET… but for ~6W output, so the efficiency figures still look very bad with fresh cells. With depleted cells things look much more rosy of course.
Generally speaking 7xAA is the most powerful configuration most folks should go with. Depending on how well you minimize resistive losses in the carrier & etc you should be able to keep a regulated 5A or 6A throughout most of the discharge.
EDIT: It’s worth noting that these efficiency figures are not entirely specific to this driver. Linear drivers which achieve more or less constant current without much PWM will be affected. 7135’s should not be expected to behave any better I think.
For the other three, not exactly. It’s mostly well known stuff though, so no worries:
Start with one of the carts listed above for the A20DD-SO8.
The MOSFET from that cart now functions with the linear driver as well as the DD drivers.
Eliminate the diode(s). (They are only used on the vanilla AxxDD-SO8 drivers and other similar drivers).
Adjust your resistor selection if you plan to use 2s li-ion (I’d probably use 47k & 4.7k for 2s). Doesn’t matter that much if you’re just doing NiMH, I have disable LVP in that case.
Double the number of 10uF caps - we need a C1 and a C2 now. C2 can almost certainly be 1uF, but I am currently using 10uF.
I’ll have to work on updated carts for these drivers. For now if you have questions about what’s required for a specific one of those drivers I should be able to answer.
As to shipping for the kit, I think it might not be that bad. Probably about $7 extra for USPS First-Class Package International Service. If you need/want a host I think that’s likely to push the shipping up some more.
I’m offering building & flashing services on a limited basis for $20 per driver. I’ll provide the components, reflow them to the driver, compile the firmware of your choice, and flash it to the driver. I think it’s much cheaper and better to do these things yourself, but this is a big project and I realize that some folks are better with the larger physical parts of the build than the smallest soldering.
This is so neat! I just stumbled here from the 3 MTG2 thread. That battery carrier and all the other boards are amazing! I have to apologize as I am not a huge fan of the host. But this concept could work for a number of different hosts. Do three 18650 cells or three 18500 cells occupy the same diameter/ space as a D-cell?
This kit should work well for AA’s in a vintage D-cell Maglite. The Maglite is a much higher quality host and should be a bit easier to assemble. Narrow AA’s will even fit 4x side-by-side in some newer D-cell hosts, but it’s a very snug fit unless you sand out the tube a bit.
Unfortunately even two 18650/18500 cells side-by-side are much larger than a D-cell at 36mm+ total. Three would be >38mm for sure, a D-cell is 34mm. In a host which fits a D-cell loosely enough to hold 4xAA you can probably fit 3x16650 or maybe 3x17650.
In the meantime I’m retracting my offer to build drivers for now, but also dropping the price on these kits! The clearance price is $25/shipped in lower 48.
These kits are still 100% workable, the included DD driver will allow you to build either a Lux-Pro 2D or Maglite 2D. If you want to build the linear driver that’ll work too, but understand it’s limitations before committing.
