stanley Fat Max XML spotlight !!!

[Techjunkie]

Went to Walmart to pick up another XML FatMax for my Dad and they are sold out of the XML FatMax now, I took a picture of the smaller FatMax spotlight ($39.99).

At least that one's waterproof. It doesn't say as much on the outside of the XML version's packaging, but when you dig into the manual, the warnings about getting it wet would be laughable if they weren't downright alarming. To quote myself from a post in the BLF thread:

About the Li-Ion nature of the light… the same area where I was impressed initially is also where I think Stanley missed the mark a bit. Baccus Global / Stanley put enough warnings about not getting this light wet in the manual to make you think they'd sold the Mogwai to that kid in Gremlins. If I can infer anything from the warnings, which I'll reproduce below, it is the following:

• Unlike other (better) Li-Ion power tools, this light must not use one of the safe chemistries, but rather ordinary LiCo (laptop) chem
• Like laptops, this light is not waterproof and therefore should never be used outdoors in the rain, or under any damp/moist/wet/maybe even humid conditions
• No one who owns a boat, and therefore has need for an on-board spotlight should ever consider making this light that light
• People in earthquake prone areas should not own this light, nor should it ever be taken off-roading in a 4×4

From the manual (selected excerpts):

• Do not clean this appliance with a water spray or the like
• Do not drop or throw spotlight. It contains glass and a lithium-ion battery pack. Improper use can result in serious injury, fire, or death.
• Lithium-ion batteries can explode in the presence of a source of ignition. Do not use the product in the presence of an open flame.
• Do not place this lithium-ion battery powered unit in fire or apply heat to it.
• Do not subject this lithium-ion battery powered unit to strong impacts or shocks. The battery in this unit contains safety and protection devices which, if damaged, may cause the battery to generate heat, rupture or ignite.
• Do not expose this lithium-ion battery powered unit to water or salt water, or allow the battery to get wet.
• Avoid storing this lithium-ion battery powered unit in the basement, bathroom or other areas of the house that are or may become wet.
• Do not leave this lithium-ion battery powered unit in direct sunlight, or use or store the unit inside cars in hot weather. Doing so may cause the battery to generate heat, rupture, or gnite. Using the battery in this manner may also result in a loss of performance and a shortened life expectancy.
• Never charge this unit near heat or flammable objects.
• NEVER THROW WATER ON A BURNING LI-ION BATTERY! If a lithium-ion battery does catch on fire, it will burn even more violently if it comes in contact with water or even moisture in the air. A fire extinguisher must be used.

There's more precautions in the care and maintenance sections, but you get the idea.
I was going to get another one of these for my kid for Christmas, but I think I'll just get him a Mogwai instead, it'll be safer

 

[kramer5150]

I was finally able to get my Stanley fatmax apart today. They key was a new 3mm allen wrench. I guess mine was more worn out than I thought...
Remove the front rubber bezel piece, 4 allen screws and heatsinks. Use a sharp knife and cut the foam gasket tape underneath the rubber bezel, at 2 locations where the halves come together.


Remove the kickstand by prying off the 2x black covers and 2x screws. The part is flexible plastic so just carefully stretch and pull it off.


Remove black screws around the perimeter


Pry the handle grip HERE: Its rubber skin glued onto plastic, so make sure your knife edge gets underneath the plastic frame layer.




Remove one more screw in the handle


You should be able to lift the halves apart.
Circuit board. Just as I feared everything is Integral on one board. Charging circuit, HI-LO program modes and EPROM controller + LED driver. Modding this is going to be an "all or nothing" affair. Thats kind of a bummer.



Cast Aluminum heatsink, LED star and 3 screws



Plastic reflector (mine was very dirty and dusty, this was pretty much my main reason for wanting to take it apart, that and of course scoping it out for mods). I was also able to center the LED better.... no more egg shaped hot spot.


This stupid thing however was my biggest peeve about the light. They use a rubber gasket around the lens, and its really too small and thin of a material. So it "falls off" the glass, and into the path of the light under its own tension. Imagine trying to stretch a ~1/4 thick rubber band around the edge of a dinner plate. My solution was to cut it and alleviate the tension so it would stay snugly in-place around the perimeter of the glass without sliding off and into the reflector area. Thank goodness thats fixed!! They got it right though with a well made glass window. Its not AR coated, but its better than the cheap plastic I have seen on other LED spot lights.


2x18650 in series. The additional wires are for the balance charging circuit built into the OEM board.


2000mah spec'd, made in China


Higher res images of the board (56K!!!)
Can anyone ID the current sense resistor?
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/6532/dscn2517s.jpg
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8356/dscn2520c.jpg

I re-attached the heatsinks and ran the light on the bench for 15 mintes. It did get very warm, but not what I would consider alarmingly hot, or skin-scalding hot. So it most definitely is under-driven to some degree. Neat thing about this design is I could touch the flat area RIGH beneath the heatsink and really monitor thermals from the source of the heat, all the way through the conduction path. I believe its most definitely a cast aluminum chassis assembly. The temperatues rose slowly and uniformly through all the heatsinking materials. At no point could I feel a drastic difference in temperature resulting from the thermal junction between the cast metal and the black anodize metal. IMHO Stanley engineers did their homework on this one.

It probably wouldn't be too hard to mount a TIR optic in there and get a more open flood-beam.


Current draw from the 2x cells: Really easy current load on the cheap 18650 cells. I forgot to take a measurement on LO though... Oops.


Flipped the meter to read AC-Hz and I could not measure any PWM.


I think theres some real mod-potential here. Especially for a spot-use, short burst kind of thing. I think the heatsink should be fine with ~3A. The OEM switch is spec'd at 25V / 5A.

 

[orbital]

^

Hardcore!!!

 

[Erik1213]

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7865/dscn2511d.jpg
Is that the led bin printed on the star? Just...backwards?

 

[kramer5150]

Is that the led bin printed on the star? Just...backwards?

Could be, 1C is on the pale side and this light definitely leans more on the colder side of the spectrum.

I have a pair of Panasonic CGR18650EA cells on order and I am meeting up with Craig tomorrow to pick up one of his 3A-7135 drivers and a T5-5000K on a 20mm star. Hopefully I'll have this one up and running proper in a week or so.

 

[eebowler]

kramer: :thanks: for the pics! I'd love to get this light!

 

[PCC]

I have a pair of Panasonic CGR18650EA cells on order and I am meeting up with Craig tomorrow to pick up one of his 3A-7135 drivers and a T5-5000K on a 20mm star. Hopefully I'll have this one up and running proper in a week or so.

Hmm, let me guess: both cells in parallel, 3A driver using the stock switch? Are you going to use the Low switch to change modes?

 

[kramer5150]

Hmm, let me guess: both cells in parallel, 3A driver using the stock switch? Are you going to use the Low switch to change modes?

yup... the XML has a low enough Vf and the 7135 is very reliable and decently effiient these lower voltages. Parallel cells can charge easily internally and the 3A will get shared between the two. I'll probably get another 7135 and double stack it for 3.35A. Theres probably room in there for a 3P cell arrangement.

I am going with a neutral tint emitter, one thing I have noticed with these XML throwers is their pale tint really washes out color at farther distances. So I might take a hit for spot lux intensity, but I am hoping color resolution will make up for it.

 

[StarHalo]

I was finally able to get my Stanley fatmax apart today.

Some quality pics there, not many lights get such detailed inspection, nicely done.

Still waiting for the SST-90 direct drive mod..

 

[kramer5150]

Some quality pics there, not many lights get such detailed inspection, nicely done.

Still waiting for the SST-90 direct drive mod..

Thanks!!
Looking forward to seeing your mod too. Should flood out a lot more than the XML.

 

[Techjunkie]

+

A bit more info from David @ Baccus Global:

" I can tell you that the battery pack consists of 3x 18650 lithium-ion batteries in series at 11.1VDC..."

>>>> I asked what the XM-L was driven at, he wasn't obliged to that info

Gotta be 3A+

_________________________________________

You should get back to David @ Baccus Global and set him straight (only 2x 18650 for 7.4VDC).

 

[kramer5150]

Can someone take a look at the pic below?
Someone on another forum thinks the R050, R050 and "T" parallel resistors on the bottom right are the current sense resistors. Do you guys think thats correct?
FWIW, the black and red wires at the bottom right power the XML.

thanks!!

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8356/dscn2520c.jpg

 

[orbital]

You should get back to David @ Baccus Global and set him straight (only 2x 18650 for 7.4VDC).

+

Yep,, I gave him a follow-up email.


btw, really good work kramer^^^

 

[Techjunkie]

Can someone take a look at the pic below?
Someone on another forum thinks the R050, R050 and "T" parallel resistors on the bottom right are the current sense resistors. Do you guys think thats correct?
FWIW, the black and red wires at the bottom right power the XML.

thanks!!

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8356/dscn2520c.jpg

I'm inclined to agree, based on their proximity to the XML leads and the fact that in both your hi-res pics, they're the only SMD sense resistors valued at less than one ohm.

 

[Benson]

So.... 15Wh/1.3h = 11.5W average.
Or, assuming the batteries are delivering 8V at that 1.34A reading, 11W; close enough.

If we figure 80% efficiency, that's about 2.8A to the emitter, for 900 lumens or so, which fits with 700 OTF. If it's not getting real hot at that level, I think it might be worth kicking it higher than 3.35A...

 

[turboBB]

I received a bunch of PM's for comparo's between this, the 7G9 and TN31 so here are the respective indoors and whitewall shots for each. All shots taken on a Panny FZ150 @ f/2.8 and ISO-100 w/exposure settings as follows:

Bounce and 5m
Custom WB and fixed shutter speeds of 1/8, 1/40 & 1/80. Distance to door is 5m (16.4ft) away. Bounce shots under same conditions but w/shutter speed @ 1/4 and light placed right above camera.

Whitewall
In sequential reading-order from top left: 1/25, 1/100, 1/800, 1/1600 on AWB (light is ~.4m to wall / camera ~.59m):

STANLEY FatMax
Indoors (5m)
High




Low

For details of the above indoor shots and comparo vs. many other lights, please check Epic Indoor Shots Trilogy

Whitewall Hunting




Crelant 7G9 (review)
Indoors (5m)
High

Med


Low

For details of the above indoor shots and comparo vs. many other lights, please check Epic Indoor Shots Trilogy

Whitewall Hunting




ThruNite TN31 (review)
Indoors (5m)
L6




L5


L4


L3


L2


L1

For details of the above indoor shots and comparo vs. many other lights, please check Epic Indoor Shots Trilogy

Whitewall Hunting




I'll try to get some outdoor shots as time allows.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[orbital]

^

Tim, you would get a huge :twothumbs if you could get a lux measurement on the FatMax.



...always wondered why lux wasn't done at say 10meters??

 

[turboBB]

Ooops sorry, forgot to mention that I measured it to be 58.7K lux for the Stanley | 57.2K for the 7G9 | 87.2K for the TN31. All measurements done physically at 1m after 30 seconds from turn on.

 

[Shikar]

Ooops sorry, forgot to mention that I measured it to be 58.7K lux for the Stanley | 57.2K for the 7G9 | 87.2K for the TN31. All measurements done physically at 1m after 30 seconds from turn on.

Thanks for all your work!!!

Regards.

 

[Techjunkie]

I can't decide if seeing the $50 Stanley side by side with the $140 Crelant and $220 ThruNite above makes me like the Stanley a little bit more or want those other lights just a little bit less.