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Here is a fun Idea I was working on last night.
I documented how I prepared a MXDL, a Mohrenberg Hotlights 18650 host, and a Aurora Cree 18650 hosts and adding a driver heatsink that gives continuous runtimes for the Flexdrive V5 Set to 1.5A. I used a gold dollar that makes contact with the pill which basically turns the entire host into a heatsink for your driver. Right now you are asking what good does this do with no Flexdrives available right now but with a little luck they should be available again soon.
For more information on these hosts or would like to see more of my reviews and tutorials please visit my compilation page.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/d...difications-compilation-53944.html#post759223
First get a gold dollar. I like to use these because they both fit perfectly into these hosts and they make a solid contact with the host body for heat dissipation into the whole body. Now the dollar is mostly copper and is pretty cheap for $1.
Golden Dollar: 8.1 grams in weight, 2 mm thick, and 26.5 mm length.
Golden Dollar's overall composition:
* 88.5% copper
* 6.0% zinc
* 3.5% manganese
* 2% nickel
MXDL
I picked up a MXDL 3405 host on DX and a heatsink from Jayrob. I like the silver one but there is also gold and the one seen the most around here the black. I actually have a gold one on order. This unit has Jay's version 2 heatsink that is fitted for a custom copper module that he sells as well.
The first thing to do to get this mod rolling is to take the dollars to a grinder to flatten the points that will have contact. First the lip on the bottom of the coin that will sit on the pill.
Then the area on the coin that the driver will sit.
Then drill two hols for the wires to go through.
Get your thermal adhesive out and apply a light amount and attach the driver. I use alligator clips to hold it in place while it hardens.
While it hardens you can prepare the pill. Start by clipping the wires on the LED driver.(in yellow) Also it has been noted that this emitter has aluminum on the bottom side that could be used as the heatsink as well. This host can also accept an 18650 with a slight easy modification to the tailcap. See this LINK for instructions.
When you get it off I decided I did not like the dinky little positive wire so I drilled it out all together.
The board on the bottom is not held in too tight so I added a little krazy glue in the two holes to hold it in place.(marked in yellow)
I take a little spring that came out of a 3XAAA holder and clip the spring about half way.
I solder it in from the other side to hold it in place tight and attach the new positive line.
I also add a little extra solder to the top side for a solid contact for the battery.
Next you want to make you connections in the pill. Start with the bare ground wire. Use heatshink tubing.
Solder the lead and slide you shrink tubing down over the bare wire and the connection you just made.
I like to use a butane jet lighter and heat the tubing until it fits tight over the wire.
Now solder up the positive wires together.
Now get some thermal adhesive and attach the coin to the pill and leave pressure on it for fifteen minutes.
When it is fully hardened screw it into the host handle.
Solder a diode to the wires from the driver.
Screw the head on to the host body.
Jayrob has great heatsinks for this host. There is a Version 1 and a Version 2. They can be fitted for Aixiz , Meridith or custom copper modules.
Version 1
Version 2
Put the diode in the heatsink, slide it into the pill, screw on the retainer ring and add a lens. That's it now you are ready to lase.
I wanted to get a driver runtime test so I took the diode and put it in my Max Sink from Flaminpryo. And the test just made me drop my jaw. Since youtube limits duration of videos with the basic account I have split the video into three parts. sorry I would have preferred to have one continuous video. You don't need to watch the whole thirty minute run but this just is there to show it can be done.
All I can say is wow. 30 minute run without the driver overheating while set to 1.5A.:eg:
If you look here the gold coin fits very snug on a lip in the host. I won't get into much detail here on preparing the pill of this host if you are interested it is covered pretty well in this post. LINK
Again I go through the same steps as before. After preparing the coin with the grinder I drill a hole in the coin and mount the flex on it.
Solder you positive wire to the contact in the pill. You can see in this picture the lip that the coin will sit on.
I like to put a little tape over the contact point.
Use some thermal grease to affix it to the lip inside the pill.
Solder your diode on and you are almost done.
Put your heatsink in place and screw the head on.
Here is a six minute run this time with all components in the host.
So I decied to add my Aurora Cree 18650 host to the party here. I picked one up on DX. And got a Copper Heatsink from Jayrob. For this one I will be using a Nickel for the driver heatsink.
I worked on setting up my 18650 host today. A nickel will fit nicely.
Here is the pill as it is unaltered.
I take the pill and grind the lip off it. Then I flip it upside down, put the little board for the contact points in and secure it with krazy glue. You can see the pill is sitting perfectly flush with the walls of the host. I will hit the host edges down with the grinder a little bit to expose the bare metal.
Then I tested to make sure that my contact points are good.
This is how the nickel will be bonded with the host. It has enough room you could mount the Flexdrive on the inside or outside of the pill.
Here is the host with the head screwed on.
With the copper heatsink that I got Jayrob it leaves about twice the height of the flexdrive in the cavity under the heatsink.
Ground the nickel down on both sides.
Drilled a hole for the wires.
Then I ran the wires through the hole.
Then I attached the coin to the pill with thermal adhesive and pressed it tight for 15 minutes.
When it has hardened here is what you have.
Got my Flexdrive and mixed up some thermal adhesive.
After mixing I spread some on the face of the coin with a thin coat. The less the better.
Then I pressed the driver down on the adhesive and held it tightly for 15 minuets.
When it has hardened I soldered the wires in place to the battery and this is what I have.
I screwed the head on.
Then I slid the copper heatsink from Jayrob in and it fits great.
It is hard to tell but there is plenty of room still above the driver.
Popped in a diode.
Now I must have done something wrong because the flexdrive was set to the correct range. I had it in my ehgemus host set to max and it was putting out 1.5W. But for some reason I can only get 1342mW. I have blown up two pyroloads by shoving way too much current into them and for way too long. So I am waiting on an industrial strength one that can handle 3A and I have no immediate way of testing the current on a boost based drivers. I did put a lot of pressure on it when I was bonding it to the coin? I have also taken this diode out and put it in my bench supply and it is giving 1589mW set to 1.5A. If I had to guess the driver is only outputting 1.2-1.3A. I wonder if the pressure I used when bonding it to the coin could have damaged the range select solder points I did on the driver?
Anyway I still ran the test to see how long it would run with the coin mod.
Here is a 5 minute run with the smaller mass of the Cree 18650 heatsink compared to the MXDL or the Hotlights. You can see the power drops quickly in this host.
Ok so I put a new flexdrive in this unit and it is now running at full power. On the downside I think removing the old driver from the heatsink broke it. I was going to put it in a small build and now I get nothing out of it.:cryyy:
So there it is. You could use something other than a gold coin but I thought it was a neat idea. Hope you enjoyed.:thanks:
Also for builds that are two small for the gold dollar most quarter's, nickel's, and penny's are mostly copper in certain year ranges as well. One of those may fit your build. You can check Google for the year of the coin and it will give you a break down of the composition. The size should not matter as much as making a solid connection with the host so the heat can dissipate into the whole body.
I documented how I prepared a MXDL, a Mohrenberg Hotlights 18650 host, and a Aurora Cree 18650 hosts and adding a driver heatsink that gives continuous runtimes for the Flexdrive V5 Set to 1.5A. I used a gold dollar that makes contact with the pill which basically turns the entire host into a heatsink for your driver. Right now you are asking what good does this do with no Flexdrives available right now but with a little luck they should be available again soon.
For more information on these hosts or would like to see more of my reviews and tutorials please visit my compilation page.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/d...difications-compilation-53944.html#post759223
First get a gold dollar. I like to use these because they both fit perfectly into these hosts and they make a solid contact with the host body for heat dissipation into the whole body. Now the dollar is mostly copper and is pretty cheap for $1.
Golden Dollar: 8.1 grams in weight, 2 mm thick, and 26.5 mm length.
Golden Dollar's overall composition:
* 88.5% copper
* 6.0% zinc
* 3.5% manganese
* 2% nickel
MXDL
I picked up a MXDL 3405 host on DX and a heatsink from Jayrob. I like the silver one but there is also gold and the one seen the most around here the black. I actually have a gold one on order. This unit has Jay's version 2 heatsink that is fitted for a custom copper module that he sells as well.
The first thing to do to get this mod rolling is to take the dollars to a grinder to flatten the points that will have contact. First the lip on the bottom of the coin that will sit on the pill.
Then the area on the coin that the driver will sit.
Then drill two hols for the wires to go through.
Get your thermal adhesive out and apply a light amount and attach the driver. I use alligator clips to hold it in place while it hardens.
While it hardens you can prepare the pill. Start by clipping the wires on the LED driver.(in yellow) Also it has been noted that this emitter has aluminum on the bottom side that could be used as the heatsink as well. This host can also accept an 18650 with a slight easy modification to the tailcap. See this LINK for instructions.
When you get it off I decided I did not like the dinky little positive wire so I drilled it out all together.
The board on the bottom is not held in too tight so I added a little krazy glue in the two holes to hold it in place.(marked in yellow)
I take a little spring that came out of a 3XAAA holder and clip the spring about half way.
I solder it in from the other side to hold it in place tight and attach the new positive line.
I also add a little extra solder to the top side for a solid contact for the battery.
Next you want to make you connections in the pill. Start with the bare ground wire. Use heatshink tubing.
Solder the lead and slide you shrink tubing down over the bare wire and the connection you just made.
I like to use a butane jet lighter and heat the tubing until it fits tight over the wire.
Now solder up the positive wires together.
Now get some thermal adhesive and attach the coin to the pill and leave pressure on it for fifteen minutes.
When it is fully hardened screw it into the host handle.
Solder a diode to the wires from the driver.
Screw the head on to the host body.
Jayrob has great heatsinks for this host. There is a Version 1 and a Version 2. They can be fitted for Aixiz , Meridith or custom copper modules.
Version 1
Version 2
Put the diode in the heatsink, slide it into the pill, screw on the retainer ring and add a lens. That's it now you are ready to lase.
I wanted to get a driver runtime test so I took the diode and put it in my Max Sink from Flaminpryo. And the test just made me drop my jaw. Since youtube limits duration of videos with the basic account I have split the video into three parts. sorry I would have preferred to have one continuous video. You don't need to watch the whole thirty minute run but this just is there to show it can be done.
All I can say is wow. 30 minute run without the driver overheating while set to 1.5A.:eg:
Mohrenberg Guidesman 18650 Host.
If you look here the gold coin fits very snug on a lip in the host. I won't get into much detail here on preparing the pill of this host if you are interested it is covered pretty well in this post. LINK
Again I go through the same steps as before. After preparing the coin with the grinder I drill a hole in the coin and mount the flex on it.
Solder you positive wire to the contact in the pill. You can see in this picture the lip that the coin will sit on.
I like to put a little tape over the contact point.
Use some thermal grease to affix it to the lip inside the pill.
Solder your diode on and you are almost done.
Put your heatsink in place and screw the head on.
Here is a six minute run this time with all components in the host.
Aurora Cree 18650 Host
So I decied to add my Aurora Cree 18650 host to the party here. I picked one up on DX. And got a Copper Heatsink from Jayrob. For this one I will be using a Nickel for the driver heatsink.
I worked on setting up my 18650 host today. A nickel will fit nicely.
Here is the pill as it is unaltered.
I take the pill and grind the lip off it. Then I flip it upside down, put the little board for the contact points in and secure it with krazy glue. You can see the pill is sitting perfectly flush with the walls of the host. I will hit the host edges down with the grinder a little bit to expose the bare metal.
Then I tested to make sure that my contact points are good.
This is how the nickel will be bonded with the host. It has enough room you could mount the Flexdrive on the inside or outside of the pill.
Here is the host with the head screwed on.
With the copper heatsink that I got Jayrob it leaves about twice the height of the flexdrive in the cavity under the heatsink.
Ground the nickel down on both sides.
Drilled a hole for the wires.
Then I ran the wires through the hole.
Then I attached the coin to the pill with thermal adhesive and pressed it tight for 15 minutes.
When it has hardened here is what you have.
Got my Flexdrive and mixed up some thermal adhesive.
After mixing I spread some on the face of the coin with a thin coat. The less the better.
Then I pressed the driver down on the adhesive and held it tightly for 15 minuets.
When it has hardened I soldered the wires in place to the battery and this is what I have.
I screwed the head on.
Then I slid the copper heatsink from Jayrob in and it fits great.
It is hard to tell but there is plenty of room still above the driver.
Popped in a diode.
Now I must have done something wrong because the flexdrive was set to the correct range. I had it in my ehgemus host set to max and it was putting out 1.5W. But for some reason I can only get 1342mW. I have blown up two pyroloads by shoving way too much current into them and for way too long. So I am waiting on an industrial strength one that can handle 3A and I have no immediate way of testing the current on a boost based drivers. I did put a lot of pressure on it when I was bonding it to the coin? I have also taken this diode out and put it in my bench supply and it is giving 1589mW set to 1.5A. If I had to guess the driver is only outputting 1.2-1.3A. I wonder if the pressure I used when bonding it to the coin could have damaged the range select solder points I did on the driver?
Anyway I still ran the test to see how long it would run with the coin mod.
Here is a 5 minute run with the smaller mass of the Cree 18650 heatsink compared to the MXDL or the Hotlights. You can see the power drops quickly in this host.
Ok so I put a new flexdrive in this unit and it is now running at full power. On the downside I think removing the old driver from the heatsink broke it. I was going to put it in a small build and now I get nothing out of it.:cryyy:
So there it is. You could use something other than a gold coin but I thought it was a neat idea. Hope you enjoyed.:thanks:
Also for builds that are two small for the gold dollar most quarter's, nickel's, and penny's are mostly copper in certain year ranges as well. One of those may fit your build. You can check Google for the year of the coin and it will give you a break down of the composition. The size should not matter as much as making a solid connection with the host so the heat can dissipate into the whole body.
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Maybe I will try it with some foreign currency next time. I have a bunch of low value coins from Spain and Italy from my trips there. That just might fit.:beer:
