My new caving light

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Postby Realms » Sep 2, 2007 12:44 pm

Very nice work Fiddle caver. Me likes :grin:
never stop imagining what could someday come to pass...
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Postby bsignorelli » Sep 3, 2007 10:21 pm

Allens light was really really nice though the wide angle spread of the Scurion was much nicer (Allens light is more of a spot).

But ... that is something that could easily be "fixed" by making one of the three LEDs into an unlensed wideangle one like the Scurion had. Do that and you'd not have any complaints from those of us who got to touch it this weekend.
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Postby Jeff Bartlett » Sep 3, 2007 10:58 pm

i think i'm still blind in my right eye
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Postby paul » Sep 4, 2007 6:52 am

You might be interested in this Stenlight/Scurion comparison currently on UKCaving.com.
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Postby FiddleCaver » Sep 4, 2007 10:55 am

The only complaint that I got was about the weight, which is something that can be easily fixed. I'll just shave some aluminum off the design in a few areas... It made me think though that it would be nice to build one with only one LED, but still super bright.
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 5, 2007 12:17 am

FiddleCaver wrote:It made me think though that it would be nice to build one with only one LED, but still super bright.


I figure that two is a good number because you can devote one to flood and the other to spot type duties. Although an orange peel reflector or similar could probably achieve much the same result or perhaps a drop down diffuser like the Petzl myo XP? uses?. might stop people being blinded? Although I don't really like the diffuser idea.
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Postby Jeff Bartlett » Sep 5, 2007 5:56 pm

FiddleCaver wrote:The only complaint that I got was about the weight, which is something that can be easily fixed. I'll just shave some aluminum off the design in a few areas... It made me think though that it would be nice to build one with only one LED, but still super bright.


you should just make a Scurion knockoff (1 unlensed flood, 1 tightly collimated spot) that doesn't cost 600 [CENSORED] dollars =)
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Lighting options

Postby karst97 » Sep 14, 2007 6:25 pm

Nice case for the light!

I put together a number of lights a few years ago based on the 5W Luxeon and a homebrew step-up current regulator. Now that places such as TaskLED create small pre-built regulators for reasonable prices, it's pretty easy to build your own light even if you don't have that much experience doing these things.

The main problems after that have been the housing and the brightness control.

I prefer step-up regulators myself for various reasons I won't go into, so I've been waiting for a long time for the MaxFlex to be debugged, which has a similar one-button interface as the bFlex that you use. Both solve brightness control & waterproofness issues as momentary-contact waterproof switches are fairly easy to find and relatively bombproof. My analog brightness adjust was the weak link in my design.

So that leaves the housing, and probably the most expensive part of the light if you machine your own. I ended up using a CPU heat sink and some plastic bits glued on to provide protection for the LED and circuitry.

Based on raw parts cost, one can build a Seoul Z-Power U-bin based light with 2 LEDs for around $70 (excluding battery). When running them at an amp, raw output before lens & cover losses should be nominally around 440 lumens.

I've recently hacked up my single 5W Luxeon light and used two of the SSC LEDs in it, and it is around 4X brighter. I'm still stuck with 700mA max current since that is what the Luxeon required (and I don't want to tear apart my sealed case), but the light is still really bright.

Anyway, if someone could come up with a reasonably priced housing for 2 LEDs that would also take a waterproof momentary switch, making new lights would be a piece of cake and pretty darn cheap.

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Postby FiddleCaver » Sep 14, 2007 7:43 pm

My housing costs $50 bucks to have machined. I could do it myself for about $5 bucks, but I don't have a mill or a lathe. This however is a problem I've recently solved so I'll probably have some more lights going soon.
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Postby werewolf » Sep 17, 2007 1:05 am

xcathodex wrote:i think i'm still blind in my right eye



This is what I worry about with the new super bright lights, eye safety. What if you get a full dose of this one in your eyes?
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Re: Lighting options

Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 17, 2007 2:04 am

karst97 wrote:So that leaves the housing, and probably the most expensive part of the light if you machine your own. I ended up using a CPU heat sink and some plastic bits glued on to provide protection for the LED and circuitry.
:
:
Anyway, if someone could come up with a reasonably priced housing for 2 LEDs that would also take a waterproof momentary switch, making new lights would be a piece of cake and pretty darn cheap.
Scott


Well... sort of had a solution to that (for 3LEDs though). I was looking at using the front section of a C or D maglite for a 3 Seoul LED headlamp but it would still need some work ie cutting down the Maglite and getting wires and switches into it. That said there is a fair few off the shelf modding bits and pieces for maglites including heatsinks and the rest of it. There is also a fair amount of aluminium in the head so it would provide a pretty good heatsink. Lots of converters that fit nicely into the maglite too.

I've sort of given it up lately though because I'd probably make a smaller 2 LED light if / when I do it.
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Postby potholer » Sep 18, 2007 7:08 am

I'd have thought the work necessary to adapt a Maglite head would be quite large - about all it would really provide would be a front glass and bezel.
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 18, 2007 7:20 pm

potholer wrote:I'd have thought the work necessary to adapt a Maglite head would be quite large - about all it would really provide would be a front glass and bezel.


Making 3 or 4 LED Maglites is quite popular so there are quite a few heatsinks and electronics made to suit that you can buy of the shelf, you'd need to shorten the body way down and arrange something for a new switch and to get power inside body. Maglites AFAIK are reasonably waterproof and are certainly rugged.

Maybe it's not a good idea I don't know...
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Postby potholer » Sep 19, 2007 3:53 am

There's certainly a lot of stuff you can put in the head for torch mods, but cutting one down for a headset would seem to leave you with a tube with a glass front.

As far as heatsinks go, is there much that needs doing apart from conducting heat to the body?
That wouldn't seem to require much material.
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Sep 19, 2007 7:05 pm

potholer wrote:There's certainly a lot of stuff you can put in the head for torch mods, but cutting one down for a headset would seem to leave you with a tube with a glass front.

That's all I really wanted it for, just a housing nothing much else. Although I did start wondering if because different sections are adonised whether this could used to get power inside the head without drilling through hopefully keeping it more waterproof? although the adonising on th maglite I have at home is rather worn on the threads so I was afraid it might start to conduct.

potholer wrote:As far as heatsinks go, is there much that needs doing apart from conducting heat to the body?
That wouldn't seem to require much material.


I'm not sure the heatsinks I was looking at seemed to try to have as much mass as possible and the largest contact surface with the maglite body as possible, I'm guessing this wasn't all for no reason, the cooler it can keep the LEDs the better, some conversions were driving the LEDs pretty hard.
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