Thanks reg.
Happy light building 🙂

Smudge

Hello trout,got new mail address so sent it over.Many thanks Reg

Trout YHM ta

Trout, got your email regarding demoing a 2 x XML & replied, would like to pick it up asap, could you reply please

Interested in a pair of XMLs optics and driver, but wanted to use my existing Hope2 housing and battery – have you got a price please?
Thanks
Tom
PS did e-mail but seen you’ve had problems…

Thanks trout,to those who cant get through be patience,worth the wait extremely nice bloke,many thanks Reg..

Trout, or others…

I’m part way through my build and at the stage of gluing the optics on to the stars. The stars are fully screwed down on to the heat sink, but when I put the optics on top they protrude above the internal flanges of the casing.

I thought the clear plastic lens cover is glued flush on to the internal flange with the optics below, however with the optics as they are the cover will just sit on top of the optics in a sense ‘floating’.

Is that correct or should the optics be far enough inside the case that the lens cover fits firmly on to the flange (as it looks like on page 2 of this thread)

Hope this makes sense…

Hi Dunc

no the lexan cover sits on the lenses and is then glued in

you want a small blob of glue on the flanges for the corners of the optics

the corners of the optics sit on or just above the ledge`s

I’m part way through my build now, unfortuntaely a broken wrist has stopped me.

I decided to spray paint the casing with this http://www.plasti-kote.co.uk/Product/pcode—4427/pccode—6751 which is rated to 120 degress so should hopefully be ok and only cost £3 a can.

I was expecting the build to be harder than it was and the case etc to be quite basic. However what you are actually getting is a well engineerd kit to put together at home!

This is what that part finished light looks like.

and fron the rear with power cable still to be fitted…

with cheap ebay battery which will be frame mounted in an old SMART lights battery pack.

FunkyDunc – I couldn’t get my Ebay battery like yours to work properly, the light turns off after about 1 minutes use, there is nothing wrong with the battery as its fine on a 4x XPG set up, but I think that it just can’t supply the current that the XMLs require.
I currently use 4x 18650 batteries with no problems.

OK finally got my lights fully built and hit a BIG problem.

The cheap Ebay battery has a charger, but even after 8 hours charging the green charged light didnt come on. SO I ran the light not knowing if fully charged or not. It ran for 95 minutes on full and then switched off, no flashing for low volatge.

Ive tried recharging but as thesurfbus above says, it is now only lighting for approx 1 minute before shutting off.

So basically probably not a good buy!

Whats the next cheapest way of getting a reliable battery pack working? Is it 18650 cells I wouldnt have thought 4 x would give much run time on full??

Which cells and charger would people recommend?

Thanks

for battery packs try someone like

rcmdirect

for one of the RC retailers in the uk usually one of them will have a special on the Li poly pack you want

for a cheap balance charger try one of the esky units are good

I’ve been using li poly’s for seveveral years without any problems but have a look at the safety faq’s on some of the RC sites (as long as you treat them with respect they’re fine)

I’ve got the 900 version and I’m using 2 18650’s in series?? to give me 3.7v and 5200mah (helmet mounted) yeah it probably won’t give me much burn time at full whack but not planning on using it on full all the time anyway!

I think this is smudge from this forum who has a good reputation for supplying batteries
http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/index.html

+1 for Smudge. He helped me with an old TrailTech HID
My current Troute light is Smudge batteried and runs for ever!

Yup Smudge is the man!!

Dunc I have a few battery packs in stock with chargers if you are stuck
They are of course Smudge packs

Trout – YHM

Thanks troutie, I can also vouch he only sells my batteries & chargers.

Troutie YGM.

Ok its between a smudge pack or a DIY 4 x 18650 or 6 x 18650 unit.

What kind of run time on full are people getting with a home made 4 x 18650 cell pack?

Ta

Ok dumb driver setting questions (sorry)

I have made my battery pack 6 x 3.7v Li-ions. In a 11.1v 4800mah configuration.

What should I set the current drive level at, and the voltage cut off level? Is there some formula for working it out?

I assume that if I reduce the current drive level I get longer burn time but less brightness, and too high a current drive level I fry the LED’s and reduce battery life?

Ta

Hi Dunc

Voltage cutoff 3 volt per cell or parellel pair so 9 volts

drive current for the h6flex not over 3 amps
but either 2 amps or 2.8 amps will do nicely

better runtime on the 2 amp setting though .

Thanks for the quick response!

Is black cat still doing the drivers and are there ones which don’t get knacked by the current.

Hi Trout,

Is it possible for you to modify some Hope Vision 2 lights? The housing looks a bit tight for fitting new Leds and optics but do your think it would be possible?

Cheers

Never had a vision 2 in bits or in my hand so cant comment on its upgrade ability .
but am prepared to give it a coat of looking at .

Off to the geeky light forums to search as sure I have seen one on there that has been done

Quirrel Black cat is still on ebay but he never did the drivers for these diy lights they were taskled Lflex or H6flex http://www.taskled.com

Can you modify a old trail tech hid housing to a LEDs? I’ve got one of smudges 14.4v lion batteries to use with it.

Hope 2 tinkerer

Cheers for the links guys. I could send you mine Trout if you don’t mind having a look at it, I’ll happily cover cost/time.

I got 2hr 40 mins on FULL last night before I had to switch the light off and go to bed!

I’m surprised how much run time I got. Recharging the batteries tonight and will have a re run (switching on earlier) to see how long a full charge lasts.

The only down size is the charge time which is about 4 1/2 hrs per 2 batteries…. think I might have to order another charger from DX.

Might then turn the current drive up to 2800 and see if that makes much difference to the already stupid brightness!

Anyone know of a source of xpg’s. my cutter quad has come away from the board yet again, second fail. I’ll take an Xre next time as I’m fed up fixing them.
Anyone in the uk got one?

Trout when i get the pennies together I’ll have one of those mk3’s!

I posted this on a seperate thread, as wasn’t sure if this one was still alive.

My DIY XML light which uses a TaskLed H6Flex driver with 2 XML LEDs in series stopped working at the weekend.
I went to turn it on and it flashed once, and now doesn’t switch on, I have checked there is power getting to the board, but apart from that I am not sure how I can test it.
Just checked the TaskLed website and they won’t have any H6Flex drivers until mid November, are there any other drivers I could use, its a 14.8V smudge battery pack.

Thanks Doug

Sent you an email Trout mate. Interested in any type of DIY kit your doing 🙂