Tri-Rebel Star Flood Monster

[TigerhawkT3]

Cool mod! Where'd you stuff the current limiting resistors?

 

[KrisP]

Great light! I've just ordered a C2, tri-rebel star and an AW 18650 cell

You know there's a 3-Rebel optic that has a matching 3-Rebel Star, right?
It was intended for the RGB market but surely would kick *** in the white flashlight market too!

This?

Cool mod! Where'd you stuff the current limiting resistors?

He said it's direct drive and starts around 733mA with full charge.

 

[ambientmind]

i know there are some optics out there, i just wanted to make something a little different than the normal lights out there. no resistors were needed, with all that current draw it all evens out off of the 18650.

 

[TigerhawkT3]

If it's three emitters DD of a single 18650 with no driver(s) in between, they'd have to be in parallel. If there aren't even any resistors, this mod might run into current hogging issues.

 

[KrisP]

Do you know of a single board that will bump 3.2-4.2v up to 3 x Vf of the rebels and limit current to 700mA or so? The only thing i've found is the Shark board from SS but it requires modification to limit it to 700mA.

I would hope that these tri-rebel stars would have fairly well matched emitters anyway. I'll be sure to check the Vf of each emitter when mine arrives

 

[eebowler]

Doesn't it look like the hotspot has a smiley face in it?

 

[ambientmind]

Doesn't it look like the hotspot has a smiley face in it?

ha ha ha, i thought that also!

 

[mcmc]

This is great - I've been knocking around the idea of trimming off the back of a reflector and using a cluster of rebels in it...you've brought it to reality! =)

If you moved the Endor board up or down a little, to slightly defocus, do you think the beam would smooth out a bit? I'm thinking about having an Endor mod done in an HDS and trimming the back of the reflector there too.

The current hogging issue...this is a problem with all Endor boards, no? B/c they're all parallel? Or can it be wired such that each led gets its own drive?

 

[cmacclel]

This is great - I've been knocking around the idea of trimming off the back of a reflector and using a cluster of rebels in it...you've brought it to reality! =)

If you moved the Endor board up or down a little, to slightly defocus, do you think the beam would smooth out a bit? I'm thinking about having an Endor mod done in an HDS and trimming the back of the reflector there too.

The current hogging issue...this is a problem with all Endor boards, no? B/c they're all parallel? Or can it be wired such that each led gets its own drive?

The Endors come from the supplier in series. The problem with running these in parallel like TigerHawk refers to is that unless each emitter's forward voltage is the same each LED is going to see a different amount of current.

I have done this many times in the past with no problems to date but I always make sure the foreward voltage is within .1v.

Great MOD!

Mac



Mac

 

[ambientmind]

This is great - I've been knocking around the idea of trimming off the back of a reflector and using a cluster of rebels in it...you've brought it to reality! =)

If you moved the Endor board up or down a little, to slightly defocus, do you think the beam would smooth out a bit? I'm thinking about having an Endor mod done in an HDS and trimming the back of the reflector there too.

The current hogging issue...this is a problem with all Endor boards, no? B/c they're all parallel? Or can it be wired such that each led gets its own drive?

if you move it "out of focus" it actually produces a donut beam like a single led would out of focus. where it is sitting is the best i could focus it. maybe using a diffusion film on the lens would help to smooth it out, and mac-thanks for the compliment, that means a lot coming from you! you make some amazing lights! if anyone hasn't checked them out, do it! i'm just bummed i didn't have the money for a ostar mag from him. it is a thing of beauty!

 

[Icarus]

Nice mod! :thumbsup:

Why did you open the hole in the reflector that much? :thinking:

 

[mcmc]

Probably to hit the focus point, as he mentioned.

 

[KrisP]

I have all my parts now... And several questions

The rebel star is too wide to fit into the C2 heatsink. Did you just grind it down so it would drop in? I am thinking of just using a Dremel to 'help' it fit.

Since the star is larger than the original Cree "star" it overlaps the holes for the wiring. How did you get your wiring from the underside to the top of the star?

Did you raise the star or stick it directly to the stock heatsink? Or did you just unscrew the heatsink slightly to raise it?

I'm also replacing the stock driver board with a tri-flupic so I have some modes... But now that I have all the parts, i've found the stock driver board is 18mm in diameter and the tri-flupic is 20mm in diam. This should be fun to overcome


Thanks in advance

 

[ambientmind]

I have all my parts now... And several questions

The rebel star is too wide to fit into the C2 heatsink. Did you just grind it down so it would drop in? I am thinking of just using a Dremel to 'help' it fit.

Since the star is larger than the original Cree "star" it overlaps the holes for the wiring. How did you get your wiring from the underside to the top of the star?

Did you raise the star or stick it directly to the stock heatsink? Or did you just unscrew the heatsink slightly to raise it?

I'm also replacing the stock driver board with a tri-flupic so I have some modes... But now that I have all the parts, i've found the stock driver board is 18mm in diameter and the tri-flupic is 20mm in diam. This should be fun to overcome


Thanks in advance

those were all the same problems i had. its not very easy to do, it takes a little time. I think my star was just slightly too large to fit, i just nipped the corners of the "wings" of the star off, and pressure fit it in with aa underneath it for heat transfer. i had to make all new holes for the wiring to fit, i put the star in(without aa), marked where the holes would be, pulled it back out and drilled the pill. then glued the star in, wired it and used a blank 18mm driver board to connect all the wires to. your problem with the tri-flupic was why i made mine direct drive. i cant find an 18mm driver that will power all three off of an 18650. when i have some time, i'm going to try and make some sort of custom Frankenstein board to regulate this thing. i just have too many projects going right now for that. good luck, let me know how it turns out!

 

[KrisP]

Well, I got half way through it...

I used a Dremel to grind the star down, this took over an hour as the grinding bit was worn. Then I used a drill bit to elongate the holes in the pill that already exist and created one extra. Then used the drill bit to grind the star cutouts (where you're meant to screw it) so the wires could come up. I have one negative and 3 positives coming through, then linking the negatives on top.
I found that the battery spring has a fair bit of movement so I attached the tri-flupic on to the lip of the pill rather than inside the lip. The pill is 20mm in diam, so the board is flush with the pill.

I left my AA at home, so i'll glue the star, solder the positive wires on and drill the reflector out tomorrow... Hopefully it works


Thanks for your help!

 

[KrisP]

I finished it and it works, but my reflector issue is much worse than yours. I have a BIG dark spot in the middle of the beam which I could only reduce slightly by unscrewing the pill to raise it. I ordered a 36mm x 40mm FL aspheric from surplus shed to see what that does. It will be well out of focus so it should just be a wide beam of light, like when you screw an aspheric Mag head all the way down. I guess i'll see in a couple of weeks when it arrives I'm just using it without any reflector for the moment because the beam bothered me so much.

 

[LiteFan]

Cool Mod

 

[ambientmind]

I finished it and it works, but my reflector issue is much worse than yours. I have a BIG dark spot in the middle of the beam which I could only reduce slightly by unscrewing the pill to raise it. I ordered a 36mm x 40mm FL aspheric from surplus shed to see what that does. It will be well out of focus so it should just be a wide beam of light, like when you screw an aspheric Mag head all the way down. I guess i'll see in a couple of weeks when it arrives I'm just using it without any reflector for the moment because the beam bothered me so much.

how is it with the flupic in there? i'm curious as to what effect this has on current and runtime. any idea what youre getting to each emitter?

 

[KrisP]

Unfortunately, I can't measure the individual current draw... The star was hard enough to solder to the first time, i'd rather not do it again. The total current draw, at the tailcap, on the highest setting is about 2.1A. The circuit didn't like me measuring the output, it would power up for about 3 seconds and then turn off. It works fine with the tailcap on though. It also wouldn't let me change modes while measuring the current either.

I have the flupic set up so it turns on in HIGH, then second function is set to the lowest possible output. The low level is more than enough to see around my shed. I'd love to know what the current draw of LOW is.

 

[ambientmind]

Unfortunately, I can't measure the individual current draw... The star was hard enough to solder to the first time, i'd rather not do it again. The total current draw, at the tailcap, on the highest setting is about 2.1A. The circuit didn't like me measuring the output, it would power up for about 3 seconds and then turn off. It works fine with the tailcap on though. It also wouldn't let me change modes while measuring the current either.

I have the flupic set up so it turns on in HIGH, then second function is set to the lowest possible output. The low level is more than enough to see around my shed. I'd love to know what the current draw of LOW is.

very cool! :thumbsup: i only wish we could convince on of the geniuses on here to build us a smaller board with something like 3 levels on it to fit in this light and drive the leds at ~1000mA, ~200mA, and ~30mA. that would be great!