- Joined
- Jan 27, 2014
- Messages
- 47
- Points
- 8
So, after a super long time, I finally got around to posting this. There are many things to say about this build. I first purchased the copper/bronze host from Electric Plasma probably back in the beginning of August. I ordered the AW 18650s with protection from Survival Laser USA, and found out that with protection, the batteries were too large to fit properly into the host. In addition, with my first attempt in trying to pinch the ground wire from the diode-driver assembly, I ruined the contact board beyond belief and tore the positive lead from the driver. Luckily for me, Electric Plasma was so kind as to machine an extension piece to fit the batteries, print a new contact board, and resolder the wire to the X-Drive!
Upon receiving the good-as-new host, I was ready to give it one more shot. I then put together the host with the extension piece, and found that with just the batteries alone, there would be extra room, so I took some magnetic spacers and that fixed that problem. Then I actually assembled the heatsink part of the host. I started by pressing the module into the heatsink, and once it was in, I had to face the part that had worried me the most: getting the right length of wire and then getting it in with the contact board. The positive wire was easy, as I followed EP's instructions and just hooked it in with the nut and bolt, layering it lightly with epoxy to both insulate and secure it. Following that, I had to cut off the right amount of black wire, which, frankly enough, terrified me. However scary it was, I was able to cut the right length of black wire, and subsequently wrap it into the newly designed contact board. From there, I glued it into the heatsink, which looked something like this:
Finally, I was ready to put the host together, so I did. And then I found that the laser would not turn on. Internally panicking, I sent EP a message, and he suggested making a thread for help. From this, I received help from some users, particularly Paul1598419. After a confusing series of troubleshooting, I found that the initial diagnosis given by Paul was incorrect, only because I wasn't testing the connection between the switch and the rest of the host properly. As such, the problem was just that the solder joint from the switch made by EP wasn't making contact. Not his fault, of course, Sometimes these things happen. What I ended up doing was taking a piece of wire that I severed from the driver, and stripped it completely and formed it into a half-circle, soldering that to the tail cap of the host, which fixed my problem. I'm going to try and clean it up by redoing a solder joint instead of using the wire solution when I have time, but this will have to do for now.
I have to give mad props to Paul, EP, and BobMc, all for helping me so much. Bob gave me good advice on the pinch method and how to get the wire securely in there, EP was nice enough to machine a new part and even resolder the connection that I tore, and Paul was super helpful in determining the actual problem I was having after I received the re-designed host. I am very inexperienced in this, and without their patience and kindness, I would have a 400 dollar paperweight. Thanks again you guys! Sorry for posting this so late! This is also my first build post so I am not quite sure if I'm doing this right, but if anything is wrong, I'll change it.
This is the heatsink in front of the host body.
Here's the extension piece:
Here's a picture of the contact board:
These are the batteries I used:
And here are some beam shots, sorry for low-quality.
And here is a beamshot comparison with an M140.
Upon receiving the good-as-new host, I was ready to give it one more shot. I then put together the host with the extension piece, and found that with just the batteries alone, there would be extra room, so I took some magnetic spacers and that fixed that problem. Then I actually assembled the heatsink part of the host. I started by pressing the module into the heatsink, and once it was in, I had to face the part that had worried me the most: getting the right length of wire and then getting it in with the contact board. The positive wire was easy, as I followed EP's instructions and just hooked it in with the nut and bolt, layering it lightly with epoxy to both insulate and secure it. Following that, I had to cut off the right amount of black wire, which, frankly enough, terrified me. However scary it was, I was able to cut the right length of black wire, and subsequently wrap it into the newly designed contact board. From there, I glued it into the heatsink, which looked something like this:
Finally, I was ready to put the host together, so I did. And then I found that the laser would not turn on. Internally panicking, I sent EP a message, and he suggested making a thread for help. From this, I received help from some users, particularly Paul1598419. After a confusing series of troubleshooting, I found that the initial diagnosis given by Paul was incorrect, only because I wasn't testing the connection between the switch and the rest of the host properly. As such, the problem was just that the solder joint from the switch made by EP wasn't making contact. Not his fault, of course, Sometimes these things happen. What I ended up doing was taking a piece of wire that I severed from the driver, and stripped it completely and formed it into a half-circle, soldering that to the tail cap of the host, which fixed my problem. I'm going to try and clean it up by redoing a solder joint instead of using the wire solution when I have time, but this will have to do for now.
I have to give mad props to Paul, EP, and BobMc, all for helping me so much. Bob gave me good advice on the pinch method and how to get the wire securely in there, EP was nice enough to machine a new part and even resolder the connection that I tore, and Paul was super helpful in determining the actual problem I was having after I received the re-designed host. I am very inexperienced in this, and without their patience and kindness, I would have a 400 dollar paperweight. Thanks again you guys! Sorry for posting this so late! This is also my first build post so I am not quite sure if I'm doing this right, but if anything is wrong, I'll change it.
This is the heatsink in front of the host body.
Here's the extension piece:
Here's a picture of the contact board:
These are the batteries I used:
And here are some beam shots, sorry for low-quality.
And here is a beamshot comparison with an M140.
