Possible New Mini Flashlight Host.

Hi everybody!

so i was in south dakota last month and while i was there i found this little flashlight in a store there, and for only $8.50 i figured i would get it to see if i could build a laser out of it, and it seems promising for a low power build. it holds one 14500/AA battery.

here it is compared to a 501B:



it is around 115mm long, 22mm wide at the head, and 17mm wide at the tail.

here is a picture of the head taken off and the "pill":




the black plastic ring with threads is sort of like a pill. it held the LED and reflector in place, along with the LED driver/contact board. on one side it has a 15mm opening, for the 15mm PCB board the LED was on. on the bottom it has a 16.8/17mm opening for a driver/contact board. there is not a lot of space, but there is enough to make a good laser.

you can see that it has a "thing" for contact between the clicky button and the contact board, meaning that no extra work is required to make contact between the side clicky and the driver/contact board assembly, in fact the only thing required for the build is taking apart the head! it is also possible to remove the clicky button if you have to replace it, but it seems to work very well so i wouldn't worry.

id say the best way to make it work is to make direct press fit heatsink for the diode, then get a 16.8mm driver to put in the plastic pill and hook it up to the diode. im not sure how you would be able to make contact between the host and the contact board, but i'm sure someone can figure it out.

any other questions about the host i could probably answer, so if you have any just ask.

micheal rosen said:

i cant seem to get the picture to work, anyone want to help me figure out how to get a pic from google drive onto here?

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The pics from goggle drive wont show up here. Try uploading them to picture hosting website like photobucket and imageshack

marcuspeh said:

The pics from goggle drive wont show up here. Try uploading them to picture hosting website like photobucket and imageshack

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ill try that. do you think the host is interesting?

micheal rosen said:

ill try that. do you think the host is interesting?

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The host look very solid and compact. With the side clicky, it is actually awesome. But the fact that it run on only 1 14500 and the small space for heatsink, only a low power laser can be built with it

marcuspeh said:

The host look very solid and compact. With the side clicky, it is actually awesome. But the fact that it run on only 1 14500 and the small space for heatsink, only a low power laser can be built with it

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yeah, there are some restraints due to size. it is very solid, doesn't budge an inch, it seems like an easy build too. i think it would make for a nice 520 or low power 405.

micheal rosen said:

yeah, there are some restraints due to size. it is very solid, doesn't budge an inch, it seems like an easy build too. i think it would make for a nice 520 or low power 405.

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After you got the heatsink machined, be sureto update here :beer:

marcuspeh said:

After you got the heatsink machined, be sure to update here :beer:

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well, i may or may not actually build something yet, since i'm busy with another build (the 405nm in my sig), but once i get enough funds wrangled up ill build a 520, but it might be a while till then.

i may contact Eudaimonium for the heatsink now and get the other parts later, but i'm not sure.

send it over to Flaminpyro to get a heatsink made for it.... That's a pretty cool little flashlight!
EDIT: pyro is on vaca. There are plenty of others here that would happily do it for you

noobphaser215 said:

send it over to Flaminpyro to get a heatsink made for it.... That's a pretty cool little flashlight!
EDIT: pyro is on vaca. There are plenty of others here that would happily do it for you

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yeah, Eudaimonium can do it for like 12$ so ill ask him.

micheal rosen said:

yeah, Eudaimonium can do it for like 12$ so ill ask him.

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If you want a copper heatsink, sent to Flaminpyro. However, if you want just aluminium, sent to Eudaimonium

it turns out the pill from a WF501B fits in it, just needs some modification to the threads so it can screw all the way in, then it should work perfectly as it provides contact between the pill and the host, something that the plastic pill cannot do. i discovered this after i killed my purple laser (R.I.P, it was so young , literally built it yesterday), and was looking at the pill, and it seems to be compatible after thread modification (which would require a lathe).