# Finally finished: Aspheric SST-90 3D Mag-Lite



## samotronta05 (Mar 26, 2011)

I have finally finished my aspheric SST-90 Mag-Lite, but let's start at the beginnig of the story.

Everything started back in summer 2009, dyson72 and me finished our first homemade mod, a minimag with a direct driven ssc-p4. It was quiet bright, but not bright enough, so we decided to go for the ssc-p7, which was the brightest affordable led at that time.

But then problem begann to start...,
what batteries should we use?,
how do we regulate the current?,
and finally how do we mount the p7?

Last things first, dyson72 as professional lathe and milling machine operator was like, "ahh that shouldn't be that hard, i can lathe something tomorrow. We just need to messure a few...". Anyway he kept his word and the next day we had some nice ssc-p7 heatsinks. 

So i had to keep on working on the power supplying part of the flashlight. First fo all i decided to use A123 batteries, because they are a lot safer than the "China Lithiums" and i already made bad experiences with exploding batteries. Since the voltage von three a123 batteries is around 11 volts i had to design a buck driver for the led.

Buck driver? "Can't be too difficult!", now more than two years later i realise how wrong i was. The first three attempts went up in the magic blue smoke on ignition. The fourth one worked, but i wasn't quiet happy with it. It wasn't a led buck driver, but more of a constant voltage buck regulator with a linear current regulator. But finally after nearly one year was gone i had a working ssc-p7 flashlight.

A few month later the SST-90 was annouced, so we bought some, since they were the ideal led for a high power aspheric build with the single chip emitter. So again dyson72 made some lovely heatsinks for us within a few days, while i almost spent a year creating a driver. The driver i created in that time was capable of 9 amps in theory. 
But guess what happend?

No, you're wrong. No blue smoke, but it became nearly 100°C in less than a minute, so way to hot to use inside a flashlight. So i had to begin from scratch building a 9 amp buck driver. 
Since i'm not an electrical engineer it ended in endless hours of reading datasheets and explanations. 
As a few of you, who also tried to build a driver from scratch, may have found out, it is one thing to know how it works, but another thing building one. Finding the right components and dimension them right is quiet difficult.

In October 2010 finally the sst-90 buck driver was finished. The first time i fired it up it was like "Ouch, thats bright".





After a few test i had the confirmation that this was the first real and complet success, here are the specs ans measured thing of the driver:

- input voltage 8-16V
- output current 9A
- switching frequency 500kHz
- efficiency 84-87% (depending on input voltage)

A few weeks later also the pcb was with the mcu was ready and i could fit everything together. Some little mess-ups in the software and the pcb with the avr mcu later and the final version of the aspheric sst-90 build was complete.









Some of the features:
- variable dim speed
- 10bit pwm solution
- programable strobe
-flash mode
- overtemperatur shutdown
- voltage indicator using leds in the switch of the Mag-Lite
- all settings are alterable via pc or smartphone

Yes i do know that the last features is a bit over overengineered and but its just a gimmick, since i had some bluetooth modules lying around. You don't belive my, my Mag-Lite has bluetooth?, then check out the video as well.

There was one last problem to solve, we noticed during some outdoor test. The aspheric lense needed a bezel, because otherwise the spread of light blinded you all the time. Since this was a work that fell into dyson72's resort, it was done within a week. So one nice morning he sent me this picture of the lovely black anodized bezels:





This, i think, is the right moment to actually thank him for all the nice bezels heatsinks etc. he created for me, the trust he put in me and the time he waited patiently while i messed it up.
So now we come the most important part: Pictures!! : ) I know you're tired reading my german's bad english, so here we go:





Modified vs. original switch





The SSC-P7 and SST-90





Aspheric lens form DX





Batterie indicator





The heatsink with mounted SST-90






Best regards 
Alexander

Veiled profanity removed.


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## samotronta05 (Mar 26, 2011)

Beamshots:




Control





Mag-Lite 3C "flood"





Mag-Lite 3C "throw"





LED LENSER Hokus Focus "flood"





LED LENSER Hokus Focus "throw"





SSC-P7 at 10%





SSC-P7 at 100%





SST-90 at 10%





SST-90 at 100%









Control





Mag-Lite 3C "flood"





Mag-Lite 3C "throw"





SSC-P7 at 10%





SSC-P7 at 100%





SST-90 at 10%





SST-90 at 100%



And beacuse i know you all like some more pictures, here are some radom:



































And last but not least the video of the HTC application:


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## samotronta05 (Mar 26, 2011)

Reserved for Updates


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## Nokoff (Mar 26, 2011)

what's the range on that bluetooth? ...what did I just say...
*THAT'S SICK!*


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## PapaLumen (Mar 26, 2011)

:bow:


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## Ilikelite (Mar 27, 2011)

so when do these go for sale?


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## flex76italy (Mar 27, 2011)

Ilikelite said:


> so when do these go for sale?


 

+1 :thumbsup:


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## Walterk (Mar 27, 2011)

Great build ! 
Like the long range beamshot to the tower and the lightpainting.


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## Slartibartfast (Mar 27, 2011)

:bow::bow:
Wow. Homemade driver with bluetooth control from a smartphone? The bar has been raised. That is ubercool.


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## PCC (Mar 27, 2011)

Very nice build. 

The bright ring around the edge of the spill (if you can call it that) is probably the result of the reflection of the inside of the heatsink surrounding the LED itself. If you paint/mask it in black then that should go away.


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## Al Combs (Mar 27, 2011)

That's a really nice build! Do you plan I selling the regulators? Temperature sensing, continuously variable output, battery indicator, bluetooth, this regulator has it all. I like the LED's for monitoring the battery level.

Somewhere I saw a thread where a guy made his own switch cover to allow the use of LED's in the switch while maintaining water tight integrity. Sorry I didn't save it. Basically he made a two piece mold of the original switch cover from candle wax. When it cooled, he filled it with silicon glue to make a duplicate of the original. I guess a plaster mold would help accelerate the drying process.

Since you mentioned being blinded when downrange from the light. I never personally tried this but thought it was a good idea. If you wet sand just the edge of your DX aspheric with fine emery paper and then paint the edge flat black (like a camera lens), it will help eliminate the "aspheric ring". Also flat black flock paper on the inside of the heatsink will help with the spill that doesn't contribute to the big square. I'm not sure how flock paper will react to the high temperature. Flat black spray paint is almost as effective as flock paper.


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## samotronta05 (Mar 27, 2011)

Al Combs said:


> Somewhere I saw a thread where a guy made his own switch cover to allow the use of LED's in the switch while maintaining water tight integrity. Sorry I didn't save it. Basically he made a two piece mold of the original switch cover from candle wax.


Actually we also did this, but instead using wax, we made one out of aluminium.
http://twitgoo.com/1s0doy
But since we used 2k silicone to fill the mold, the resulting cap is quiet soft and it's a bit complicated to keep it in place over the switch.


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## Kani (Mar 27, 2011)

Almost getting sad. Trying to collect knowledge n order to build my own Dive Light with sst-90, but can see it will properly just end up as ridiculous compared to this. It is absolutely fantastic. God job.


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## scraps (Mar 27, 2011)

absolutely amazing. I was just mucking around trying to find some info to help with selection of a new edc, and i found ?!THIS!? I honestly had no idea people were doing things like this. i think I'm going to have to build my own, would you be willing to help with component selection, schematics, or better yet. just sell me one?

keep up the good work.


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## HarryN (Mar 27, 2011)

Very impresive. As you say, it is a lot easier to understand the theory of drivers than to actually build one. I know that one first hand.


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## hellokitty[hk] (Mar 27, 2011)

You make me feel dumb.
:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:


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## onetrickpony (Mar 28, 2011)

That is just fantastic, well done.


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## toby_pra (Mar 29, 2011)

HOLY COW!


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## nightwatchman (Mar 29, 2011)

That light is amazing . The thought and skills are a cut above nice job .


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## andersonEE (Mar 29, 2011)

This is awesome. I would love to see a build thread on that buck regulator...but would completely understand if you choose not to.


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## Craigit (Mar 29, 2011)

Any binning info on that sst-90. I'm loving the color on it. I also love the beamshot to the tower, wicked.


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## dyson72 (Mar 30, 2011)

We used a SST-90 WM-DE 2250lm @ 9A.


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## COAST (Mar 30, 2011)

Nokoff said:


> *THAT'S SICK!*


 
Thats exactly what i thought when i saw that!!!!


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## Techjunkie (Apr 1, 2011)

This picture is beautiful... can you explain it? (How you did it, what we're looking at, is it a long exposure shot?) Thanks


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## maskman (Apr 1, 2011)

Techjunkie said:


> This picture is beautiful... can you explain it? (How you did it, what we're looking at, is it a long exposure shot?) Thanks


 
That photo piqued my interest as well. I'm looking forward to the answers to your questions.


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## Al Combs (Apr 1, 2011)

Techjunkie said:


> This picture is beautiful... can you explain it? (How you did it, what we're looking at, is it a long exposure shot?) Thanks


The EXIF header says it's a 15 second exposure. I think he's walking towards the camera with the light in his right hand, while swinging it from side to side in front of him. That accounts for the trails on the ground that are slightly tilted with respect to the path. The "ropes" in the air are the camera's line of sight view of the reflection from the inside of the aspheric bezel.

It's a great shot, however he did it.:twothumbs


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## dyson72 (Apr 1, 2011)

Al Combs said:


> The EXIF header says it's a 15 second exposure. I think he's walking towards the camera with the light in his right hand, while swinging it from side to side in front of him. That accounts for the trails on the ground that are slightly tilted with respect to the path. The "ropes" in the air are the camera's line of sight view of the reflection from the inside of the aspheric bezel.
> 
> It's a great shot, however he did it.:twothumbs



Almost correct.
Alexander (samotronta05) had to walk backwards (away from the camara), because otherwise his legs would appear in the photo.

Here are some full Res pictures:



cell phone tower




control shot




SST-90 Beam


Some Lightpainting...



with the SST-90




With the SSC-P7

And for all speedfreaks an Autobahn gif 





Greetings from Germany 
Patrick


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## Al Combs (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for letting us know. Do you have a hi-res shot of Alex walking backwards? That is a great shot.


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## sledhead (Apr 1, 2011)

Speechless - Bluetooth control of a flashlight! Who would have thought? Fantastic - :thumbsup:


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## samotronta05 (Apr 2, 2011)

Al Combs said:


> Thanks for letting us know. Do you have a hi-res shot of Alex walking backwards? That is a great shot.


Here we go: Klick (3,61MB)

And since you liked them so much a few other lightpaintings, even if they are not the best and i'm not sure whether we made them with the SST-90 or SSC-P7.


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## Techjunkie (Apr 2, 2011)

Those are awesome. Thanks


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## missionaryman (Apr 3, 2011)

Everything about this thread is awesome, in 2005 when I first started fiddling with lights simple strobing made us all go starry eyed - now - blue tooth control and light painting in the same thread - I'm having a similar reaction to the double rainbow guy!!!


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## samotronta05 (Apr 3, 2011)

Ilikelite said:


> so when do these go for sale?


If there are enough interested, I can actually imagine selling a kit of driver and controller.





Features of the driver:
- Input voltage: 6,5-18V
- Output current: 9A / 3A (2 versions)
- Efficiency: 82-87% (@9A depending on input voltage)
- PWM dimmable

More to come next week


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## Al Combs (Apr 3, 2011)

Thanks for the pong-jong link to the full-res version of your light painting shot. It'll be my wallpaper for the next week or so. Here's a funny story. I use IrfanView for my slide viewer. I resampled the low-res version of that shot to my 1920x1080 desktop. The soft staircase appearance of the "light ropes" looked just like a PWM flicker. Which made sense to me at the time. So when I downloaded the full size version I thought, "Where'd the PWM go?" Sorry, first day with a new brain...:laughing:

As far as the driver, I think people would definitely be interested if you wanted to sell these.:thumbsup:


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## Nokoff (Apr 3, 2011)

would the 3A version run something like a triple XM-L rather than single SST90, any issues there?...posting my interest as well for your driver and controller....and for the single emitter will you have any more of those bezels made? :thumbsup:



samotronta05 said:


> If there are enough interested, I can actually imagine selling a kit of driver and controller.
> 
> Features of the driver:
> - Input voltage: 6,5-18V
> ...


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## nightcacher (Apr 3, 2011)

truly a artist. Never saw pictures like that, well done and thanks.


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## andersonEE (Apr 4, 2011)

Mind telling us which bluetooth module you used?


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## flex76italy (Apr 4, 2011)

samotronta05 said:


> If there are enough interested, I can actually imagine selling a kit of driver and controller.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




ok, can you open an interest list?
I'm interested.


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## nightcacher (Apr 4, 2011)

samotronta05 said:


> If there are enough interested, I can actually imagine selling a kit of driver and controller.


 
+1, I'm interested also. Uber cool


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## archer6817j (Apr 4, 2011)

I don't often say this...but that's the coolest thing I've ever seen! Eat *that* big flashlight manufacturers! 

So what is the diameter of that driver? Would it (at all) be possible to pack a less powerful driver into a smaller diameter or is the output not that relevant to the size? I assume the bluetooth and such takes up some space. On the other hand, could you pack it into a stack of 2-3 disks that are 17mm in diameter?


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## dyson72 (Apr 4, 2011)

Nokoff said:


> will you have any more of those bezels made?



If there are enough people interested (>10) I will certainly produce and sell them. 

Here is one cool thing: The SST-90 Mod in CAD.
http://pong-jong.de/cpf_sst-90/cad/Cad.html (Please open with Internet Explorer)

Greetings from Germany 
Patrick


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## kingkong (Apr 4, 2011)

i'm interested in the driver with BT.


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## doctor ladd (Apr 4, 2011)

dyson72 said:


> If there are enough people interested (>10) I will certainly produce and sell them.
> 
> Here is one cool thing: The SST-90 Mod in CAD.
> http://pong-jong.de/cpf_sst-90/cad/Cad.html (Please open with Internet Explorer)
> ...


 
Count me in I can't wait to have a nice sst-90 set up!

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


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## The_bad_Frag (Apr 5, 2011)

I would really love to see that...

2 guys lost in a forest at night. 1 guy with that flashlight and his phone the other without light.

**sst-90guy turns his superlamp on**

*other guy*: Hey we are tottaly lost but we have a super bright light. Could be worse.
*sst-90guy*: *playing on his phone*
*other guy*: What the f? Here is no mobile phone network! Stop playing around and find a way out of the forest!
**the flashlight dims**
*other guy*: Oh great! Next time charge your flashlight you idiot! Now we get eaten by bears!
*sst-90 guy*: What? What? WHAT? Can you please just shut up? I just dimmed my flashlight with my phone to get more runtime and now Im loading my gps-navigation to get out of the forrest.

The other guys face ->


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## archer6817j (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm "interested" but do we have any idea on cost?


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## tjhabak (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm interested in a kit.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


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## dyson72 (Apr 6, 2011)

If you would like buy you a bezel....







click -> here <-


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## RepProdigious (Apr 6, 2011)

"Just add bluetooth" 

Sounds like a quote from the Big Bang theory, brilliant but true. Great light man!!! Also love the light-paintings!


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## LilKevin715 (Apr 7, 2011)

Wow I'm speechless:bow:

I would even go as far as to patent/license your idea of the driver/BT control if you could. Hopefully a flashlight company wont try to make a rip off of your design.


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## samotronta05 (Apr 7, 2011)

Nokoff said:


> what's the range on that bluetooth?


I've never tested that and it depends a lot on the transmitter you use and the antenna you use. But i think with the class2 module it's around 5 meter and with class1 module inside it's probably somewhere around 25 meters, maybe more.



Nokoff said:


> would the 3A version run something like a triple XM-L rather than single SST90, any issues there?


Should be no problem to run up to 4 leds (max current 3A) in series , but i will check that before actually selling them.



andersonEE said:


> Mind telling us which bluetooth module you used?


BTM-110 and BTM-222 from Rayson Technology 



archer6817j said:


> So what is the diameter of that driver?


At the moment the prototype has a diameter of 28mm, but if you really need it a bit smaller i can shrink it to a diameter of 26.5mm. That's the absolut minimum, since 26.5 is already the diameter of the coil.




archer6817j said:


> I assume the bluetooth and such takes up some space. On the other hand, could you pack it into a stack of 2-3 disks that are 17mm in diameter?


No way, i can fit it inside that little space.
The current design consists of 3 layers with 28mm diameter:
1. The actual driver
2. The main-pcb with the mcu
3. The bluetooth module



archer6817j said:


> I'm "interested" but do we have any idea on cost?


I haven't calculated everything, but should be like this:
- Driver: 9A version: ~30€ 3A version 28€
- Main-pcb and Controller: ~25€ (inclusive future software updates)
- Bluetooth: 20-25€
- Direct drive output stage: ~ 10€

The following combinations are possible:
- SST-90 / P7 / XM-L Driver + Controller + Bluetooth --> as seen here 
- SST-90 / P7 / XM-L Driver + Controller --> communication/ settings/ updates only via cable
- SST-90 / P7 / XM-L Driver --> single mode, no battery / temperature monitoring and cutoff
- Direct drive output stage + Controller + Bluetooth 
- Direct drive output stage + Controller



Anyway I would like to say thank you for all the nice comments.

Best regards,
Alexander


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## archer6817j (May 21, 2011)

Any more news on this? I'm still interested


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## bigricknl (Dec 14, 2011)

Any chances for multiple kit's available soon ?

Realy intrested !!


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## wolfy (Dec 14, 2011)

WOW, first time Im seeing this thread, great light. I would be interested in a driver with bluetooth.


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## hron61 (Dec 15, 2011)

i would be interested in a just add batteries light. if of course the price is reasonable. 
that is just the craziest flashlight i have ever seen. very cool indeed.


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## RCantor (Dec 15, 2011)

Amazing acommplishment. How do you change the levels without a cell phone? I would love to see this run a triple neutral xml. I hope you do patent the driver/BT combo.


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## RCantor (Dec 16, 2011)

Oh, and to be clear, I want one. Maybe 2. I hope you start selling them.


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## Nos (Dec 27, 2011)

Any updates, im interested too


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## CMAG (Dec 27, 2011)

Nos said:


> Any updates, im interested too


+1


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## Al Combs (Dec 27, 2011)

Unfortunately neither samotronta05 nor his friend dyson72 have logged onto CPF in over half a year. So they are not going to see your requests. There is no email address in either of their profiles, so there's no way to contact them.


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## dyson72 (Jan 5, 2012)

Update!
We are currently working on an improved version.
But in the last few months we both had only very limited time for this Project.
Stay tuned for more....


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## Nos (Jan 6, 2012)

dyson72 said:


> Update!
> We are currently working on an improved version.
> But in the last few months we both had only very limited time for this Project.
> Stay tuned for more....



I will  and i am glad to see this project going on


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## mohanjude (Jan 8, 2012)

I am glad to see the project moving on - hopefully the improved version has even more cutting edge stuff.. 
Please don't leave things too long as others will be catching up...


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## finges (Jan 11, 2012)

nice built ... would like to see a update


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## freeloader700 (Jan 13, 2012)

I want to do the same thing with the lens but use an HID. I have some 1000k 9004 bulbs hanging around and been thinking of doing something like this.


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## Thallid (Jan 14, 2012)

Very nice flashlight, indeed! I bet you need that big heatsink with 9 A going through the LED. 

Nice pictures too!


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