biffa
New member
Thought I'd update my progress with home made lamps.... Previous post here: http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=6444.msg88301#msg88301
I've found some useful online resources for design checking your lamp design here and here
Anyhow my new lamp is a turned aluminium housing (done by myself which is why it's a bit wonkey) that has then been anodised (paid ?15 for two lamp casings to be done). The design has a separate backplate so that I can fit in two driver boards and uses an Oldham spade bracket. Each of the LEDs is driven separately and controlled by the two switches on the side of the light. The design uses 2 Cree XM-L LEDs which each driven by a Taskled H6Flex driver at a maximum of 2.8A, this gives a combined output of (an estimated) 1800 lumens - far more than you'll ever need and enough to loose all your caving friends but it is an immense amount of fun! The nature of the drive boards means that the max drive current could be set lower so as to maximise battery life. One LED is a diffuse beam and the other has a Carclo optic to give a beam - not as tight as a Scurion beam and I don't know how it compares to a Little Monkey light.
Sorry for picture quality:
Battery wise I use the DealExtreme Trustfire 18650 protected Li ion batteries wired into a 7.4v pack. These then use a waterproof connector again from DX and are encapsulated in Plastidip. I also add a polyswitch to limit the maximum current out of the pack and leave the over charge/discharge protection to the internal cell circuitry.
All in I think this lamp has cost ?100-110. Only disadvantage I can see so far is that the headset weighs 250gr by itself.
I've found some useful online resources for design checking your lamp design here and here
Anyhow my new lamp is a turned aluminium housing (done by myself which is why it's a bit wonkey) that has then been anodised (paid ?15 for two lamp casings to be done). The design has a separate backplate so that I can fit in two driver boards and uses an Oldham spade bracket. Each of the LEDs is driven separately and controlled by the two switches on the side of the light. The design uses 2 Cree XM-L LEDs which each driven by a Taskled H6Flex driver at a maximum of 2.8A, this gives a combined output of (an estimated) 1800 lumens - far more than you'll ever need and enough to loose all your caving friends but it is an immense amount of fun! The nature of the drive boards means that the max drive current could be set lower so as to maximise battery life. One LED is a diffuse beam and the other has a Carclo optic to give a beam - not as tight as a Scurion beam and I don't know how it compares to a Little Monkey light.Sorry for picture quality:
Battery wise I use the DealExtreme Trustfire 18650 protected Li ion batteries wired into a 7.4v pack. These then use a waterproof connector again from DX and are encapsulated in Plastidip. I also add a polyswitch to limit the maximum current out of the pack and leave the over charge/discharge protection to the internal cell circuitry.
All in I think this lamp has cost ?100-110. Only disadvantage I can see so far is that the headset weighs 250gr by itself.
Reckon you could probably lose the carbide bracket now.
