Build Log: The 1.5V Project

[gunga]

Wow! Awesome! I am one if those who prefers smooth spill transition.


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[tobrien]

I keep saying it, but this really is amazing

 

[calipsoii]

Wow! Awesome! I am one if those who prefers smooth spill transition.


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I keep saying it, but this really is amazing

Thanks guys!

After several hours of testing, I'm coming up with the funniest voltage results when running the light on High.

Voltage under load
Energizer L91: 1.52V
Duracell Quantum AA: 1.37V
Surefire SF123: 2.79V
Sanyo Eneloop AA: 0.92V <-------- ????

The only explanation I can possibly think of is that my Eneloops are old and decrepit. All my CPF research indicates that voltage under load for Eneloops should be around 1.2V. Mr. Happy did an excellent chart of that here. I'm currently running my entire stable of Eneloops through the Maha charger on Analyze + Break-In mode to see what comes out of it. I have a sneaking suspicion the cells are the issue and not the circuit. Just doesn't make sense that an alkaline would smoke a freshly-charged NiMh in performance.

Speaking of circuits: this is plain nuts. 470lm on 1xAA? When I started this project (long before starting the thread for it, FYI ) the Quark line-up was just pushing 160lm. Unreal progress in only a few years! This damn light has never been in anyone's hands other than my own and it's already old, dim and expensive. :laughing:

 

[tobrien]

wanna borrow some Amazon branded Eneloops? I have eight or so brand new ones: http://amzn.com/B00CWNMV4G

 

[calipsoii]

wanna borrow some Amazon branded Eneloops? I have eight or so brand new ones: http://amzn.com/B00CWNMV4G

Whoa, I had no idea Amazon was selling them! I'll just order up a pack tobrien, no worries.

My Eneloops are behaving much better after a night of conditioning on the Maha. The charger reports ~1800 mah for each and after an hour on High in the light, the cell still reads 1.19V instead of ~0.56V. I should probably deep-cycle them more frequently, I didn't realize their performance could get so poor without it.

 

[tobrien]

Whoa, I had no idea Amazon was selling them! I'll just order up a pack tobrien, no worries.

My Eneloops are behaving much better after a night of conditioning on the Maha. The charger reports ~1800 mah for each and after an hour on High in the light, the cell still reads 1.19V instead of ~0.56V. I should probably deep-cycle them more frequently, I didn't realize their performance could get so poor without it.

well I'm not saying they're definitely eneloops but they should be I'm assuming. mine seem like good quality cells

 

[chadvone]

Amazing. I have read this thread twice since I stumbled across it earlier today. I am interested in one of these when your ready to sell.

 

[Illum]

Beautiful work, little light certainly has came a long way from the beautiful stained oak test bed hey:huh:

Are you going to be selling these? The firmware changes sounds cool too...

forget the light, I'm interested in your old lathe, the 4500

 

[calipsoii]

Amazing. I have read this thread twice since I stumbled across it earlier today. I am interested in one of these when your ready to sell.

Hiya chadvone, welcome to the thread! I'm really glad you enjoyed the read - documenting the build has been a nice way to show the progress/setbacks the project has gone through.

Beautiful work, little light certainly has came a long way from the beautiful stained oak test bed hey:huh:

forget the light, I'm interested in your old lathe, the 4500

Oh yeah, you bet. When I built the wooden testbed I'd never stood in front of a lathe before. :duh2: Learned a lot throughout this project and got a sweet pocketlight out of the deal too. The old lathe still serves me well as a dedicated milling machine, cutting flats and drilling holes where the new lathe can't.

-----

After a much-needed holiday I'm back and feeling rested and rejuvenated!

I spent a few hours today working on a square punch. I've been machining the reflector centering rings out of Delrin but cutting the square hole in the middle by hand. It's tough to get the square perfectly centered in the ring, which causes the emitter to sit crooked in the reflector. I figured if I had a square punch I could just bang the square into place instead.

Since the punch needed to be quite stiff, I decided to experiment on a small piece of stainless steel purchased from my local shop. It's 304SS, which has a 45% machinability rating (compared to the 100% I'm used to with brass). I've been told it's a real bear to work with and they were right. I have no plans to make anything more out of it.

The tiny ring in the middle is for positioning the punch and the square is for making the marks on the Delrin. I'll probably need to finish the cut with an X-Acto knife.

The square is the exact size of a 3535 LED (so any XP-series emitter).

I haven't had a chance to use it yet so I'll let you know if it does what I need it to.

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[calipsoii]

Quality vs. Quantity

I do believe it's time for a mini project update! So what have I spent the last few weeks doing? Cursing, mainly. I've complained about it before but sometimes these projects just aren't a lot of fun!

Exhibit A: the scrap results of trying to replace the driver board in prototype #002.

I pulled the old board out of the light, flashed the firmware onto a new board and... it didn't work. Neither did the next 2! I spent a week troubleshooting the circuit design and the firmware trying to track down why things suddenly wouldn't work and found nothing.

Feeling very dejected, I pulled a 4th board from my dwindling supplies and it worked brilliantly the first time. ARGHHHDSJAHDASDJK. The other 4 must have had solder issues that I couldn't see, not sure how else to explain it. At least the PCB design and the firmware are ok. *phew*

While I was in there tinkering I swapped the emitter out to one I've never worked with before:

It's an Osram Oslon SSL80:

• 80 degree angle of emission (which is crazy tight compared to the 150-170 degrees that are standard)
• 4000k
• 90 min (96 typ.) CRI

But of course with bullet points like that, you're asking yourself "why does no one use this LED?!?"

• Cree XP-G2 4000k 80CRI: 122lm @ 350ma
• Osram Oslon 4000k 95CRI: 79lm @ 350ma

It's a lot dimmer - noticeably so. But oh man, the COLORS!

Is the 80-degree beam noticeably different than a 150-degree one? Oh yeah.

I spent a lot of time this evening trying to capture the beam & tint of the light. I didn't have a lot of success, but I'd say this was the best batch of photos at illustrating how it looks. I locked as many settings as my camera would allow.

• White Balance: daylight
• Shutter: 2s
• ISO: 200

Tint falls right in the middle between an A2 Aviator and a 119 Haiku:

The blue ring around the SSL beam isn't your imagination - it's actually there. For some reason Osram produces the emitters with a tiny patch of die that isn't covered by phosphor, exposing the blue photon pump underneath. You can't make it out with your naked eye - need an aspheric lens or a magnifying glass to see it. With a stippled reflector or a diffuser it disappears, but in a smooth reflector that bit of blue makes it into the beam. No idea why they make them that way but it's been reported on a couple other flashlight forums as well.

Truth be told, you can't much tell when in use. It's a really nice beam.

So there we go! The project isn't dead, it's just busy wasting circuit boards and taking night photos. I promised a coworker a torch, so I'm working on his now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cheers!

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[gelandangan]

This is a totally awesome thread.
I am glad that I read this from front.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[tobrien]

spectacular

 

[calipsoii]

A Host Does Not a Light Make

Thanks for the comments guys!

Just got back from a week in the mountains - it was very relaxing.

I've spent the last couple days working on my co-workers light. On proto #002 I just eye-balled the clip so I had no measurements or anything recorded for it. For this next clip, I've been making jigs and taking measurements and drawing schematics. Takes a lot of time but it'll make the next clip go a lot faster.

The body of his light is now complete and looks very much like proto #002.

But none of the internals are done, so it still has a ways to go.

I got a chance to whip up some LED centering gaskets using my square punch - they look pretty good but I won't know for a few days until I try to use them.

The bulk of the remaining work is going to be soldering together the driver. After that, everything just needs assembled into its housing.

This torch will be getting a 90CRI 3500k SSL150 so I'm excited to compare the 2 emitters side-by-side and see which I prefer. I'll post about it in a few days.

Cheers!

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[scout24]

Liking the beam shape and tint on that SSL80! :thumbsup:

 

[calipsoii]

LED's and 003's

Except for punching the #003 serial number stamp on it, my coworkers light is complete! With some incremental improvements over #002, this is the best one yet and I'm very happy with the design & function. If I had the cash I'd walk into a machine shop right now with my schematics exactly as they are and ask for 25 of them.

I put an SSL150 (not SSL80) in this light. 3500k this time instead of 4000k. 90+ CRI. First time I turned it on the very first thing I said was "god that's gorgeous". This torch has (without a doubt) my favorite tint and beamshape of any LED light in my house right now. The Fenix TK20 narrowly beats it in tint, but only narrowly, and the beam on this one is nicer. Unbelievable, especially considering I put a 1/8" hole in the reflector with a power drill and stuffed a 3mm LED in there. Side-by-side right now, I prefer it over a N119 Haiku and even my coveted Oveready N119 Eiger.

It's getting late so just a couple shots to hopefully give you an idea what I'm seeing.

First the beam shape (ignore the tint, it's not accurate in this shot). The 150 degree emitters works so well in this smooth reflector! Tight hotspot with a much less pronounced transition to spill compared to the SSL80. It has this 3-ringed bullseye pattern with a soft fade between each ring that I find stunning. Love it.

Next, the tint. If you like incandescents, you're gonna love this. Same color temp as an A2 Aviator to my eyes, but with the expected loss of CRI when comparing the two side-by-side. Note the huge spill covering the left garage wall.

Finally the colors - true and accurate so far as I can tell. Things lean a little yellow just because 3500k is a little yellow. Right now at night? So pleasing. During the midday sun, probably not so much, but I don't need a torch during the day.

As you can probably tell I'm a little smitten right now. Hopefully my coworker enjoys his light - goodness knows he's listened to me babble on about this project for the last 3 years! Next up is some documentation explaining how to program the firmware and access its features so he's not totally lost.

Then - another light. I cannot wait to get #004 done.

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[darkknightlight]

That looks awesome! And the color rendering does look fantastic. I look forward to more updates!

 

[gunga]

So, kick starter or pre-order so you can pay that machine shop?

I call dibs on #9 or 18.




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[yoyoman]

+1
I would be willing to pre-pay (even though the last time I did this I had to wait a very long time and read a lot of stories about bacon).

 

[Megatrowned]

Your work on this light keeps amazing me. I really hope one day you are able to sell some of these.
Just out of curiosity, what wavelength is the red LED that you're using?

 

[calipsoii]

Thanks for the comments and for following along guys! Part of me (the greedy part) wants to keep #003 for myself, it just turned out that nice. :devil: I think the LED surprised me most - I hope all of the emitters I bought are this nice and it wasn't just a one-off beautiful one.

So, kick starter or pre-order so you can pay that machine shop?

I call dibs on #9 or 18.

Heh, I haven't even gotten a quote from a machine shop yet gunga. With the amount of fiddly machining that went into this I would be scared to learn the total! The driver pill alone has 3 pieces - most lights just seem to jam the driver boards up into the pill and I think I know why: costs. 100 pieces is considered the absolute lowest MOQ by most shops in town and most aren't interested in running any less than 1000. The CNC time is simply more valuable making oil-field parts in this province. Considering the quote for 100 Lamplighters (crazy simple design by comparison) I wouldn't be surprised if 100 of these torches cost well into 5-figures.

+1
I would be willing to pre-pay (even though the last time I did this I had to wait a very long time and read a lot of stories about bacon).

I'll keep that in mind yoyoman, thanks for the vote of confidence. Pre-pay has such a potential to go south quickly that I don't think I'd ever want to put myself into that situation. We have so many examples around here of what happens when money changes hand before goods.

Your work on this light keeps amazing me. I really hope one day you are able to sell some of these.
Just out of curiosity, what wavelength is the red LED that you're using?

Thanks Megatrowned! This light actually got a warm-white 3mm (~3700k) LED. It's a nice specimen and looks roughly like the 5mm WW ones I used to love in my A2 rings. The deep reds I have on-hand are 660nm and a gorgeous ruby color.