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I'm almost embarrassed to post this, after the recent unveiling of Troutie's quad MC-E retina burner 
and Cloggy's magnificent home-brewed driver/pcb for his triple MC-E.
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Nothing groundbreaking here, just my first DIY led bike light (but not my last....I've already got parts stockpiled for at least a couple more ideas). So......
What I wanted was a really small, lightweight helmet light that was brighter than my TR-801 torch, and didn't cost much to build. And maybe a little different than the others out there. What I think I've done here is crossbred an Amoeba with a double DIY Dinotte. (I hope that doesn't break any scientific ethical standards!). If you take two of the DX1920 8° optics, two Cree Q5s, two DX 3256 drivers, a couple switches and some wire and stuff it all into a pair of 3/4" (19mm) square aluminum tubes, here's what you get:
(my apologies for the crappy cell phone photos....my camera should be back from warranty repair soon, I hope.)
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It's about 2.25" (57mm) long x 1.5" (38mm) x .75" (19mm). I finished it a couple weeks ago, but I've just figured how to free the photos from my phone (pay a 25¢ per photo ransom to Verizon Wireless :madmax: The lighthead weighs 1.75 oz. (50 grams). Cost came to under $30 (US) for the parts. Of course my total expense was more, since the aluminum comes in 4' sections, DX drivers and optics come in multiples of 4 or 5, and I needed to buy things like AAA and epoxy. But that just means I'm well stocked for future builds
I started with two 2" long pieces of Al tubing. I needed something to mount the led stars to that would conduct the heat to the outside, so I cut two squares of 1/4" (6.5mm) Al for heatsinks. This was probably the trickiest part of the build....getting the squares to fit perfectly in the tubing, and setting them at the exact correct depth to work with the optics. I came up with a method of using two wooden spacer blocks to get it right. Here's an exploded view, before assembly (and a completed tube on top, drilled for the led wires).
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The long spacer goes in first, from the back. Spread a thin band of AAA inside the tubing right above the spacer. Then press in the 1/4" Al heatsink (press harder, it's a tight fit!), then the other spacer, and clamp it up.
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If you remembered to wax the spacers before assembly, they should come right out. Theoretically. Even with wax, I had to drive a small screw into the blocks and pull with pliers to free them. I then drilled through the heatsinks for led wiring, and joined the tubes side by side with JB Weld epoxy.
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Once that was cured I got out the Dremel Tool and cut a notch out of the rear center wall, so wiring could pass between tubes. Then sand the epoxy seam flush, soften the sharp edges and corners, and sand to a 600 grit finish
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Next the optics had to be modified to fit into the square tubing. My original plan was to set the optics without the holders in silicone (they fit the i.d. of the tubing well). But Znomit proved to us that this is a bad idea, and Salty suggested that it was easy to mod the holders. It was easier than I could have hoped. I took a piece of the square tubing and pressed it down over the cone of the holder, leaving marks in the plastic. With a razor knife it was very easy to cut small notches so the holder would go into the tubing up to it's front ring. Then I put the holder face down with the square tubing over it and made a straight cut flush with one side. Then pop in the optic and a couple swipes with sandpaper flushes the optic with the cut side.
An un-modded optic on the left, middle is notched, right has the flat cut:
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I installed the leds the same way Troutie did on his "insane quad MC-E": put the leds in their holders, a thin coat of AAA on the back of the stars, then press the holders into the case. It worked great. I had soldered the leads onto the stars and threaded them through the heatsink in this step too.....made that step in the soldering easier.
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Time to wire it up. I found some plastic end caps at the hardware store that fit the tubing. And some switches at Radio Shack that fit the end caps. The positive lead from the battery goes to both switches, then to the central (+) pads on the underside of the 3256 drivers. Negative battery lead goes to the driver's (-) pads (anywhere on the underside outer ring). The led (+) and (-) leads go to the appropriate points on the other side of the drivers. Hook up the battery, flip the switches, and if everything is right, it lights. It does! :cornut:
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I put several coats of liquid electrical tape over all my solder connections, and around the outer edge of the driver boards, to prevent shorts to the aluminum case. Then carefully stuffed it all into the tubes, put a bead of silicone inside the ends of the tubes, and pressed in the end caps.
All that was left was to pull out the optic holders and reinstall with a bead of silicone, and then install the optics into the holders, with the tiniest bead of silicone, just on the flange (I promise!) to seal it
It works great. Theoretically it should be putting out over 400 lumens. It certainly looks twice as bright as my TR-801 torch. I'm running it on 4 AAs. With both leds lit, standard NiMH 2500mAh AAs gave me 1.5 hours of light but the batteries were getting warm....apparently not good. With Eneloop 2000mAh AAs I get over an hour before it starts dimming, and the batteries are happy. I'm going to hack an 8 x AA holder into 4s2p configuration; that will give me 4000mAh and over 2 hours....and even more since I can switch off one led on the slow climbs.
Whew! That was a long post for such a little light....thanks for reading along, and I hope you've enjoyed the show! I sure have...now on to the next light :thumbsup:
JZ
and Cloggy's magnificent home-brewed driver/pcb for his triple MC-E.
What I wanted was a really small, lightweight helmet light that was brighter than my TR-801 torch, and didn't cost much to build. And maybe a little different than the others out there. What I think I've done here is crossbred an Amoeba with a double DIY Dinotte. (I hope that doesn't break any scientific ethical standards!). If you take two of the DX1920 8° optics, two Cree Q5s, two DX 3256 drivers, a couple switches and some wire and stuff it all into a pair of 3/4" (19mm) square aluminum tubes, here's what you get:
(my apologies for the crappy cell phone photos....my camera should be back from warranty repair soon, I hope.)
It's about 2.25" (57mm) long x 1.5" (38mm) x .75" (19mm). I finished it a couple weeks ago, but I've just figured how to free the photos from my phone (pay a 25¢ per photo ransom to Verizon Wireless :madmax: The lighthead weighs 1.75 oz. (50 grams). Cost came to under $30 (US) for the parts. Of course my total expense was more, since the aluminum comes in 4' sections, DX drivers and optics come in multiples of 4 or 5, and I needed to buy things like AAA and epoxy. But that just means I'm well stocked for future builds
I started with two 2" long pieces of Al tubing. I needed something to mount the led stars to that would conduct the heat to the outside, so I cut two squares of 1/4" (6.5mm) Al for heatsinks. This was probably the trickiest part of the build....getting the squares to fit perfectly in the tubing, and setting them at the exact correct depth to work with the optics. I came up with a method of using two wooden spacer blocks to get it right. Here's an exploded view, before assembly (and a completed tube on top, drilled for the led wires).
The long spacer goes in first, from the back. Spread a thin band of AAA inside the tubing right above the spacer. Then press in the 1/4" Al heatsink (press harder, it's a tight fit!), then the other spacer, and clamp it up.
If you remembered to wax the spacers before assembly, they should come right out. Theoretically. Even with wax, I had to drive a small screw into the blocks and pull with pliers to free them. I then drilled through the heatsinks for led wiring, and joined the tubes side by side with JB Weld epoxy.
Once that was cured I got out the Dremel Tool and cut a notch out of the rear center wall, so wiring could pass between tubes. Then sand the epoxy seam flush, soften the sharp edges and corners, and sand to a 600 grit finish
Next the optics had to be modified to fit into the square tubing. My original plan was to set the optics without the holders in silicone (they fit the i.d. of the tubing well). But Znomit proved to us that this is a bad idea, and Salty suggested that it was easy to mod the holders. It was easier than I could have hoped. I took a piece of the square tubing and pressed it down over the cone of the holder, leaving marks in the plastic. With a razor knife it was very easy to cut small notches so the holder would go into the tubing up to it's front ring. Then I put the holder face down with the square tubing over it and made a straight cut flush with one side. Then pop in the optic and a couple swipes with sandpaper flushes the optic with the cut side.
An un-modded optic on the left, middle is notched, right has the flat cut:
I installed the leds the same way Troutie did on his "insane quad MC-E": put the leds in their holders, a thin coat of AAA on the back of the stars, then press the holders into the case. It worked great. I had soldered the leads onto the stars and threaded them through the heatsink in this step too.....made that step in the soldering easier.
Time to wire it up. I found some plastic end caps at the hardware store that fit the tubing. And some switches at Radio Shack that fit the end caps. The positive lead from the battery goes to both switches, then to the central (+) pads on the underside of the 3256 drivers. Negative battery lead goes to the driver's (-) pads (anywhere on the underside outer ring). The led (+) and (-) leads go to the appropriate points on the other side of the drivers. Hook up the battery, flip the switches, and if everything is right, it lights. It does! :cornut:
I put several coats of liquid electrical tape over all my solder connections, and around the outer edge of the driver boards, to prevent shorts to the aluminum case. Then carefully stuffed it all into the tubes, put a bead of silicone inside the ends of the tubes, and pressed in the end caps.
All that was left was to pull out the optic holders and reinstall with a bead of silicone, and then install the optics into the holders, with the tiniest bead of silicone, just on the flange (I promise!) to seal it
It works great. Theoretically it should be putting out over 400 lumens. It certainly looks twice as bright as my TR-801 torch. I'm running it on 4 AAs. With both leds lit, standard NiMH 2500mAh AAs gave me 1.5 hours of light but the batteries were getting warm....apparently not good. With Eneloop 2000mAh AAs I get over an hour before it starts dimming, and the batteries are happy. I'm going to hack an 8 x AA holder into 4s2p configuration; that will give me 4000mAh and over 2 hours....and even more since I can switch off one led on the slow climbs.
Whew! That was a long post for such a little light....thanks for reading along, and I hope you've enjoyed the show! I sure have...now on to the next light :thumbsup:
JZ
