Custom Headlamps, Lighting Systems & Battery Packs

[Therrin]

A good friend of mine owns a very successful machining business. They're one of the few places in the US that work with beryllium and beryllium alloys for the Gov, and for nuclear power plants and weapons and such. He's been in the industry for 30 years, and was the senior VP of operations for a major machining corporation in Los Angeles till he decided to start up on his own.

He and I had a great conversation about the possibilities of working together to create specialized products. I basically design stuff in SolidWorks, and he'll help tweak the designs a little based on his experience. Then he'll pop them out with his CNC machines and other equipment, using aluminum or whatever I specify, and make me a couple prototypes. I'll test them, then suggest revisions, until we get a product we like; then market it to niche customers who have a need for such things.

The handheld light market is fairly overrun, but with custom high output headlamps.... not so much. There's the Stens, there's the one some of you MU guys have, there's a couple others floating around, mostly on CPF. But I figured this would be a great opportunity to build it how *I* want it, for mine exploring. Currently working on several different design models. Single, Double, Triple, and Quad LED units. They'll have custom battery packs as well, which can be mounted on the helmet, or on your body; and be designed to match what the lamps need, but for different battery types, so that the user can select what batteries they want to use (within limits).
Also working on using designs which incorporate 'dropins', so that the output is easily user-selected in the field. (within ranges matched to battery sources).
Another idea is to use QD picatinny mounts, and supply single or double slot picatinny rails that you can easily bolt to the side of your helmet. This will keep the units very low profile, but by using QD's in this manner (quick disconnects), you can unplug your batter pack cable, then slide the light right off your helmet easily without tools.

And possibly other custom light bodies which would be configured to attach different places, or of unusual configurations which people would like to have and use, but can't find readily available.
Hand-held light bodies could also be made if there's a custom need of some kind which isn't met through other available sources.


So.... If any of you have any ideas, suggestions, or end-use needs for custom lighting; please post them to this thread and/or PM me with the details, and lets see what we can come up with.
I'm not advertising or anything right now, this is basically R&D at the moment.

[Kiel]

Went on my first trip this past weekend with my new mr 11 housings with quad xpg's. I was very happy with the output they provided. Running an 8 cell 18650 5200 mah setup. I had some issues with the battery and charger were still working out though.

[Derek]

The one problem that we have run into with custom lights is trying to jam as much power into a small package as we can without reaching thermal dissipation limitations of the metal and LEDs that we are using. The sets that we are using now work excellent, but I would like them to be a bit smaller if possible.

[Mike369]

I really like the picatinny rail idea. With me being a military guy I love the rail system. I love to be able to easily customize my setup for the different environments. I never though about a rail system for my helmet. That is something that I am going to have to try with my setup now.

[Kiel]

The one problem that we have run into with custom lights is trying to jam as much power into a small package as we can without reaching thermal dissipation limitations of the metal and LEDs that we are using. The sets that we are using now work excellent, but I would like them to be a bit smaller if possible.

Jeff's were pretty hot this weekend even after only 1 couple hours, yours def need heat sinks. Mine were not even warm to the touch but are heavily heat sinked

[Joanne]

Re: Custom Headlamps, Lighting Systems & Battery Packs

Acknowledging my nerd tendencies, your project sounds like a lot of fun. I've toyed with the idea of building a headlamp, but I just don't have the skill set to undertake such an effort. That said, I have given it some bit of thought.

Having access to CNC machining is a HUGE benefit. Hand machining the light heads immediately puts the cost of a lamp into a price range that few of us can afford. Most of the lamp builders over in the UK are using Oldham lamps for the shell and refitting them with modern internals. It's cost effective but immediately restricts the design and creates heat dissipation challenges that tend to have kludgey solutions.

There are a couple of good threads on www.mine-explorer.co.uk discussing their home built headlamps.

Roys Superlamp
Speedy Special 2

A couple of questions that come to mind:

Are you going to design your own driver boards? Using commercial ones would reduce development time and they're inexpensive, but you would have to design the lamp shape to accommodate the board. Not good or bad, just a consideration.

Are you planning on using rechargeable battery packs? Some of the discussions that I have read talked about purchasing chargers from someplace like Deal Extreme, the modifying them to hook up to the battery pack. That keeps them from having to develop an intelligent charger for the lights.

One thing I like about Apex is the fact that it is almost like two lights in one. One mode is a primarily a flood with high and low. The other mode is a long throw light with high and low. The majority of the time I use the flood mode for walking around and only use the spot lamp is for large stopes or looking down shafts. Incorporating LEDs and reflectors with different light characteristics (rather than just multiple lamps to increase output) would be a good option in my mind.

I love the idea of designing a light head to accept drop-ins. That would make upgrades/mods super easy. You might draw some customers from CPF with that concept!

One last thought .... for now at least. If you are considering manufacturing the lights for sales, in addition to the mine explorers and cavers, the mountain bike community is large and doesn't seem to mind spending big bucks on their hobby. Manufacturing a handlebar bracket to hold a picatinny rail would open up that market to you.

Good luck with your project!!

Joanne

[Derek]

The one problem that we have run into with custom lights is trying to jam as much power into a small package as we can without reaching thermal dissipation limitations of the metal and LEDs that we are using. The sets that we are using now work excellent, but I would like them to be a bit smaller if possible.

Jeff's were pretty hot this weekend even after only 1 couple hours, yours def need heat sinks. Mine were not even warm to the touch but are heavily heat sinked

The current lights we have don't really have much of a thermal problem, but if we wanted to go any brighter with the current design then we would have to do something different. What set did you finally end up getting?

[Kiel]

http://www.nightlightning.co.nz/adventure_lighting_products.htm

I ended up with the quad blast xpg x 2

[Joanne]

http://www.nightlightning.co.nz/adventure_lighting_products.htm

I ended up with the quad blast xpg x 2

Wow! That's some SERIOUS lampage. Does it ever set fire to the timbers in the mines?

Joanne

[Therrin]

All hope of keeping this thread only about the stuff that I'm building, with questions pertinent to them only...just pretty much went out the window. :P

Ya'll need a Lighting subsection on here under Tech Talk

Are you going to design your own driver boards? Using commercial ones would reduce development time and they're inexpensive, but you would have to design the lamp shape to accommodate the board. Not good or bad, just a consideration.

We're looking at both methods. Building our own would allow us the versatility to build and design as we choose, as you mentioned. But it also adds complexity that I'm not sure we're interested in at this point.

It'd be optimal to find existing driver boards that we could integrate into what we're building and just use them that way. I tend to stay away from DX stuff because their quality can be extremely questionable, even though their stuff is usually really cheap. ("you get what you pay for")
And it's not that I'm not perfectly able of constructing and soldering the components myself, but since this is being done on the side and isn't the sole focus of my time; it'd be nice to use pre-made components.

Are you planning on using rechargeable battery packs? Some of the discussions that I have read talked about purchasing chargers from someplace like Deal Extreme, the modifying them to hook up to the battery pack. That keeps them from having to develop an intelligent charger for the lights.

Was actually planning on making packs that you could take the batteries out of and charge them separately. Where you get the charger from is pretty much up to you.
Some systems you can use either primaries or rechargables. I think that would be best, to have the option. But the required values have to match up the right way, and the physical dimensions rarely match between the two.
I had considered doing it so you could charge them in sets, while inside the custom packs, but that posed a few more problems. And with typical lights which use primary cells, for example, you'd remove them from the pack to change out fresh ones anyway.
So if you were to pull the cells out to charge them, then return them to the pack, that would be fine with me, for my intended use.

There's a variety of what you *can* do. But it's not all easily interchangable. Most electronics savvy people who have the headlamp with the waterproof connector cord coming off of it can rig up batteries to work with it, matching to the values of what the light requires, if they don't like the battery setup.

I think it'd be nice to offer it in several different ways that people would like, but you'd always have someone that wants it done in some oddball way, and in this case they could easily just set it up like that themself.

For the first headlamp setup I'm looking at using four LEDs connected to a pack of four to six 18650's.


I've another friend who's very knowledgeable at this stuff. I'll start with an idea, and then he and I hash over the details till we have everything figured out. Then we both work on the design parameters, then I send the information off to my machinist.

[Therrin]

Has anyone used the new XM-L's yet? I'm looking at them on Cree's website right now.
I had originally intended to work with the XPG's and the MCE's, but it looks like Thrunite and some others already have dropins out with the XM-L's in them. I'm tempted to pick one up for my L2 and see how I like it, then decide to build another system around it or not.

Does anyone else on here use solidworks?

[ExpUt]

...Does anyone else on here use solidworks?

I used it often for my last two years of engineering school, I still dabble in it from time to time when time allows, which unfortunately is rare.

[UnderUtah]

I am a SolidWorks user; I designed the Mine Team's custom lights in SW2008. I am not a "power user" but merely stumble my way through. Were you looking for specific help designing housings?

[Therrin]

Ahhhh, you're the guy! Stuart had mentioned you to me once before when I was asking him about your guys' lights. Previous to that I had asked another person about them and he just said "you can't afford one", and wouldn't tell me who built them. LOL.

I actually used AutoCad in college, and a few years ago used SW quite a bit to design parts for mini subs, but I haven't used it in years until just recently. I have an old copy of 2004 that I use, and occasionally I log onto a virtual machine through a friend and use his 2008/9/10 versions.

Before I had seen your version I had also been working on a dual-emitter-dual-unit system though it was wired differently. Also playing with designs which use single modules which can be attatched anywhere on a helmet, dual modules which can attatch on the side or middle/front, and triple modules with either 3 in a row, or 3 in a kind of triangular arrangement.
For quads I had the split design, like you use, and had toyed with the idea of 4 in a row, front and center; but I didn't end up caring for it too much.

Would you mind discussing what you used to build the mine teams lights? Even over PM or something if you want? I was interested to see what kind of LED's you used in them, and whether they were single mode or multi-level, magnetic switched or clicky, etc...

I'm working right now on a few platforms that use dropins. And for that, or for handhelds, making pure copper "sleeves" basically which are each measured and machined for a specific dropin so it fits it perfectly (big springs removed), and then the dropin-in-the-copper-sleeve fits inside the housing.
This was my idea for giving excellent thermal conductivity between the dropin and the housing. And I have a few other ideas for heat exchanging for use of high power LED's without fear of burning them out, since the air in the mines doesn't always move much, and the only bleed-off is by air moving over it while you're walking or moving.

I don't mind designing from the parts on up, but I liked the idea of building dropin platforms so they can be adjusted by the user, given that the voltage/amperage levels of the battery packs have to match up.

[Kiel]

Have you checker out the mt br forum. I prefer their forum over candle power any day, plus it gets a lot more traffic. Lots of info over there