I'm afraid to ask this at CPF...

HIMNL9, there's a chinese light that does that for about $600.

There's even one for sale at the aforementioned flashlight aficionado forums. Google "Flydragon CSM-360"

Not that I'd get it, but just that it's been done.

LOL, one cannot have a funny idea, that someone already had made it

I had never heard about flydragon, but looking at that 4-chips emitter, there's no doubts it's that one (a bit too much high price for my possibilities, anyway )

Mouser.com have the CSM360 emitter for 900Kr ($170-180), with the 3 different optics and rather fancy temperature regulating driver it is no wonder the flydragon flashlight gets pricy.

Yes, a buck driver turns excess voltage into current. It is among other things seen in PC power supplys.

Right now the Stanley HID above looks like the most afordable monster light, I just hope the high end LED emitters will drop in price.

HIMNL9 said:

I'm wondering if we may even see a torch using the CSM360 emitter, then ..... 6000 lumen at 6.3A must not be so bad, in a handheld case (the only problem may be find a battery powered 16.8V 6.3A driver )

Click to expand...

A 3x 18650 host (common enough) could accommodate 5x 17340s (plus a small spacer). As long as they were LifePo4 (also common enough(, that would give you both the ~16.8V needed, and the 6.3A current. I don't know about lifespan, but I never care about that for my needs

I think SST-90s are still great budget emitters though

This might be a horrible idea, but I think two of these guys in series:
LiFePO4 18500 Rechargeable Cell: 3.2V 800mAh, 8A Rate, 2.56Wh, UL/UN approved

With an LM338 or an LT1083, would really kick ass at powering an SST-90

Scratch that - here's an even worse idea!
Two of these in parallel: AW IMR16340 550 mAh IMR CR123 size LiMN Rechargeable Lithium Battery

With a (550 mAh x 8C) discharge rate of 4.4A each, two in parallel would produce 8.8A of current, at 3.7V nominal - just PERFECT for the full capabilities of an SST-90! Plus, given their size, I can build this all in a single-18650 host.

It's going to have a life span of 7.5 minutes, but that's fine, because it will vaporize itself (or my hand) before it gets even half-way there

I'm going to build it!

I think you're underestimating lumens here, especially with dark adapted eyes. I've got an SST-50 (Thru-Nite Catapult V1) here and at night the thing is damned bright, almost too bright for some stuff. Unless you're looking for a serious searchlight, I'd avoid the SST-90. They produce a lot more heat than you think, my Catapult has a bit of a beefy head and it's warm after a few minutes, the SST-90 is just...ridiculous. It was most likely someone at Luminous going "Hmm, let's see just how big we can make this thing." Now if you're still intent on an SST-90, there's a $170 light on DX that uses it, that is pretty nice, or you have the option of getting the reflector from the light in the DIY parts section. Before I started my flashaholic collection I was all about lumens, and I thought that the more lumens the better and the smaller the host the better, and in some cases this is true, but in others it's entirely wrong. You'll destroy your dark-adapted vision, and with that low runtime and high heat buildup, you're looking at stupid short duty cycles. And you don't really need a driver for these, it's nice if you want the max out of your batteries, I.E. consistent output for the charge cycle, but you can direct drive and as long as it doesn't make that angry blue color, it's going to be alright, usually. Don't underestimate the XM-L either, they've been driven at over 5A, and should be perfect for whatever you need the SST-90 light for, at 1000 emitter lumens at about 3A. Another thing to keep in mind, and I can't stress this enough, is OTF lumens vs. emitter lumens. Just because an LED is rated to give 1000 lumens at X amps doesn't mean you're going to see those after optics, you'll be lucky (unless you drop a few bills for really high quality lights/parts) to see 600 or so lumens out the front. Don't let this discourage you, as I said, the number of lumens you need can be deceiving unless you've seen them in person. Hope this helped/made sense.

Prototype said:

Hope this helped/made sense.

Click to expand...

Made total sense

I think I should have given a bit of context first. I have also walked the flashaholic road - perhaps not quite as far as you yet though I started with a bunch of Q5s, then R2s, R5s, was blown away by P7s, and have an XM-L that I like a lot now.

Except for the annual camping trip every summer, I have absolutely no actual need for a high powered flashlight, let alone multiple, let alone (really) even a Q5

The lumen-hunt is purely for the joy of impressing myself. Maybe also for impressing a family member or two on said annual camping trip I guess I'm sort of like the annoying goofs that come on here insisting they need a 1.8W 445nm, and for some "very important reason", a 1.4W is absolutely unacceptable

(although at least I know it!)

I'd love an absurdly powerful, yet shockingly small SST-90, that I can turn on for 20 seconds every couple weeks and say to myself "wow", before putting it away, and deluding myself into thinking that I'm better equipped for the coming apocalypse

Well put.

rhd said:

Made total sense

I think I should have given a bit of context first. I have also walked the flashaholic road - perhaps not quite as far as you yet though I started with a bunch of Q5s, then R2s, R5s, was blown away by P7s, and have an XM-L that I like a lot now.

Except for the annual camping trip every summer, I have absolutely no actual need for a high powered flashlight, let alone multiple, let alone (really) even a Q5

The lumen-hunt is purely for the joy of impressing myself. Maybe also for impressing a family member or two on said annual camping trip I guess I'm sort of like the annoying goofs that come on here insisting they need a 1.8W 445nm, and for some "very important reason", a 1.4W is absolutely unacceptable

(although at least I know it!)

I'd love an absurdly powerful, yet shockingly small SST-90, that I can turn on for 20 seconds every couple weeks and say to myself "wow", before putting it away, and deluding myself into thinking that I'm better equipped for the coming apocalypse

Click to expand...

I'm the exact same way. I have jayrob's XM-L maglight and it is super bright. I dont even have a need for it really, but now I want a SST-90 for the same reason as you. Turn it on for a few seconds... impress a few people... then put it back away

I feel like I've just attended my first FAA (Flash-Aholics Anonymous) meeting. We're all making deep person admissions. Lets be honest, it's pretty easy to spend as much on flashlights and lasers as a lot of people with *real* addictions spend on booze and drugs...

I'd like to get some input from the forum. Assuming I want to get the most "umph" out of an SST-90 in a single 18650 host, Which of the following 4 approaches would seem the most effective / wise? Again, considerations like "whether I'm going to be running the emitter hotter than necessary for basic illumination" really don't apply, since I have no real-world use-case that involves running this creation for any measurable duration of time, or for any defensibly meaningful purpose

Keep in mind that this emitter is rated to hit 9A, with a Vf of 3.87 at 9A

One (1) of these LifePo4s direct driving an SST-90 at 8A
LiFePO4 18500 Rechargeable Cell: 3.2V 800mAh, 8A Rate, 2.56Wh, UL/UN approved
(8A stated discharge rate)

Two (2) of these High-Discharge 16340s in PARALLEL, direct driving an SST-90 at 8.8A
AW IMR16340 550 mAh IMR CR123 size LiMN Rechargeable Lithium Battery
(4.4A discharge rate each, calculated using 8C discharge figure, 550mAh stated capacity)

Two (2) of these ^ same gues in SERIES, driving an SST-90 at 4.4A
- Via an LM338 or LD1084 regulator, wired in typical DDL laser driver fashion

One (1) of these High-Discharge 18650s, driving an SST-90 at 7.5A
- Via the untested, but promising looking 0.4V dropout regulator:
Digi-Key - 296-12369-5-ND (Manufacturer - TPS75901KC)

I have tried the 18650 LiFePo4 option, it does not work any better than regular lithium.
The lower internal resistance is offset by the working voltage of 3.3V.

Remember that the stated discharge rate of a battery is simply the safe level where it is unlikely to overheat and explode. There are no regulation (apart from the 2.75V cutoff) to ensure any specific current.

A AAA alcaline have ½Ohm internal resistance and will loose ½V at 1A discharge rate.
The numbers are better for lithium ones, but you are still not likely to have 3.85V left at 9A, or 7.5A.

I intent to try with a high end 18650, and hope for 5-6A.
The best alternative I can think off* would be two 17340 LiFePo in series, perhaps with that regulator from digikey.

*Apart from buying a specific sst-90 9A driver. <link.

Have you actually been able to find LifePo 17340s that have high discharge rates? For some reason, the ones I always come across are lower than li-ions.

van isle makes a drop-in that does about 1700 lumens in an FM 18650 host (or a surefire 6p bored to take 18650).

He also makes a "turbo head" with 2 more emitters.

If anything make you drool, it will be those.

Admittedly, I'm neither familiar with "van isle", nor with "FM"
(at least, I don't think I am?)

I kinda forgot where I was for a second. VanIsle is a light enthusiast, I first saw him over at HIDPlanet before it became Retrofit Source. I moved to CPF and he was there too, recently started making custom LED builds. I tried to find a cheaper way to get my hands on one of these, but I just couldn't find the money nor did I want to insult VanIsle by asking for it cheaper.

Perhaps I might go with the standard LEDs on MCPCB on heatsink config. I'm getting my 6P bored for an 18650 cell so I can get rid of all my ____fire cells, it would be THE host for that 5-LED drop-in if I ever get one.