Get me started to build my first light

trailhunter

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I'd like to give it a shot by building my own flash light. What are the tools needed as well as electronics to build my first light and learn?
 

archimedes

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I'd like to give it a shot by building my own flash light. What are the tools needed as well as electronics to build my first light and learn?

Moved to Homemade / Modified

There are already an enormous number of threads on many aspects of this very topic.

A extremely vague and generalized thread of this type is rarely helpful, but if you could be a little more specific, we'll see how it goes.

Are you machining your own host ?

Are you planning to simply assemble pre-made parts, or develop your own drivers ?

Will this be incandescent, HID, LED, or other ?

What is the planned size, output, power source(s) , time, and budget, for your project ?

Let's start with those questions....
 

trailhunter

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
1,095
Moved to Homemade / Modified

There are already an enormous number of threads on many aspects of this very topic.

A extremely vague and generalized thread of this type is rarely helpful, but if you could be a little more specific, we'll see how it goes.

Are you machining your own host ?

Are you planning to simply assemble pre-made parts, or develop your own drivers ?

Will this be incandescent, HID, LED, or other ?

What is the planned size, output, power source(s) , time, and budget, for your project ?

Let's start with those questions....
Thanks, mobile devices turns us into literary idiots.

For the host, I've seen Convoy used quite often so likely a convoy c8 body, single LED for now (oslon or nichia). As my skillset increases, I'd want to build a tri or quad led setup. For now, just a single 18650 host.
 

archimedes

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Thanks, mobile devices turns us into literary idiots.

For the host, I've seen Convoy used quite often so likely a convoy c8 body, single LED for now (oslon or nichia). As my skillset increases, I'd want to build a tri or quad led setup. For now, just a single 18650 host.

Although my second post above was before your response posted, this is indeed a slightly different question.

EDIT ... I think this thread might be more along the lines of what you are now asking ...

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=427689
 
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HarryN

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Pleasanton (Bay Area), CA, USA
I would like to suggest that for your first LED based lighting project, do something very simple.

Rather than trying to take all of the steps at once - including cramming it all into a small space, consider to just take a piece of wood, mount all of the parts on it, and use this to make a working light. After that start adding the optics, and then start on the more complex and annoying step of fitting it all into a body.

The parts to make a proto light on the board are not that expensive and will let you test if you really like the selections that you have made before going through the full effort.

For this first step, just use:
- A battery holder
- an LED mounted on a star board
- A driver (controller to manage the current)
- a switch

And - some sun glasses for when you turn it on.
 
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