1.5W Stainless Steel 14500 Ultrafire F22

[DTR]

1.5W Stainless Steel 14500 Ultrafire F22

Here is a sweet little host that I have been wanting to review here for a while. I have had this host for almost 3 months but have not had the time to put it together. It is a fairly compact 14500 stainless steel host with a very aggressive tactical retaining ring. It even sports a stainless steel clicky button.:drool:


I sent the host to Flaminpyro and he made a great fitting heatsink for it. Thanks Jeff.:beer:

It does have a Transformers logo on it that I am kind of up in the air about. But it does not stand out that much anyway and if you like the logo it is all good.


The unit is powered by a single sinked Flexdrive set to 1350mA and coupled with a G-1 lens that produces 1.5W of optical power.:eg:

Host​

Here are some pictures of the host.

Assembly​

Here is how this host breaks down. Host body, host head, pill, heatsink and one mean looking retaining ring.

First I start out by setting up the pill with the driver.

It comes with a battery contact board pressed into it which we will modify slightly.

Using a small eyeglass sized flat head screwdriver I pry it out.

Once out I set up a flexdrive with a small aluminum sink on the bottom for easy attaching inside the pill. It also gives a little extra heatsinking as the pill is kind of thin.

Next I spread a little thermal adhesive inside the pill as the flexdrive will be mounted upside down on the inside as apposed to some of my previous tutorials as this host needs all the room on tom of the pill for the heatsink.

Next I ran the output wires through the holes and set the flexdrive in the pill and let it set for 5 minutes.

Now that it is set you can see I have two very nice clean looking wires coming out of the pill to connect to the diode.

Next I am going to work on the driver inputs and modding the battery contact board. So I drilled a hole in the very center of the board for the positive lead.

Once I have a hole I run the wire though and fold it over a tad. Then I put a dab of solder on there and let it heat it up so it spreads nicely and has a good solid connection with the lead.

Next I strip the negative lead as it will be sandwiched between the contact board and the pill.

Then I press the driver board in and put a little thermal adhesive to seal the compartment.

Now we have a nice little driver pocket.

And it is on to connecting the diode to it. I have pressed a diode in a module and I can prepare the leads.

I shortened the leads to keep them from bunching up in when the unit is assembled and pretinned them.

I put a little shrink tubing on the leads and soldered them to the diode.

And here it is with all the soldering done.

Next I put the module in the heatsink and added a little thermal adhesive to keep the pill and the heatsink as one unit keeping them from being able to turn independently as I screw it into the host. Make sure you center the heatsink on the pill as best you can or it will be difficult to get it in.

Next I screwed it all the way into the head of the host using that small sunglasses flat head screwdriver.

Then I screw on the retaining ring, add a lens and throw in a battery and I am ready to go.:san:

LPM Test​

I busted out my new Ophir head 5W meeter and did a test of this sweet little guy with a G-1 lens. Peak just over 1.5W.:evil:

Beamshots​

Conclusion​

This is a great pocket host. The only things that I did not like about the host is it can be difficult to adjust the focus with the tactical retaining ring but it does come with a standard one as well which I lost:yabbem: and the clicky can get stuck if you press it at an odd angle. It has only happened a few times and other than the first time it happened which took me by surprise I was trying to make it do it with little success to test it. Not a big deal to me.

This is a really sweet little pocket laser that to me iis really an aggressive and great looking host and I really am a big fan of the stainless steel finish. Plus it packs a good punch for such a small host.:eg:

Thanks for reading my review/tutorial. Hope you like it.:beer:​

 

[qumefox]

Only thing is SS, especially the cheap grade these are made with, doesn't have the greatest thermal conductivity. Though I do like the stainless button on the 22's better than the green ones the 23's come with. Taking a 14500 is a plus too. the 10440's can't source enough current for high power builds. I bet you've noticed the host doesn't get warm very quickly like I have with the f23's. That's a bad sign since it means all the heat is staying internal. The diodes are pretty robust but what kind of duty cycle do you get with these before the flexdrive starts pulsing?

Other than that. I agree. These little f22/23's are some of my favorite laser hosts due to the size. The 1x MXDL's are even smaller, but have pretty much zero heatsinking.


Awesome build though.

 

[ARG]

That looks amazing! Good job! :beer:

 

[DTR]

Only thing is SS, especially the cheap grade these are made with, doesn't have the greatest thermal conductivity. Though I do like the stainless button on the 22's better than the green ones the 23's come with. Taking a 14500 is a plus too. the 10440's can't source enough current for high power builds. I bet you've noticed the host doesn't get warm very quickly like I have with the f23's. That's a bad sign since it means all the heat is staying internal. The diodes are pretty robust but what kind of duty cycle do you get with these before the flexdrive starts pulsing?

Other than that. I agree. These little f22/23's are some of my favorite laser hosts due to the size. The 1x MXDL's are even smaller, but have pretty much zero heatsinking.


Awesome build though.

The flex is sinked and I expect it will run for a good amount of time. As a pocket host I would give it a shorter duty cycle than most hosts and you are right it does insulate the heatsink more than a full aluminum body host. I did run it for about 2 minutes straight when getting some of the beamshots and the flex did not over heat in that time period. I did forget to mention that I am using an AW IMR14500 to handle the current draw.:beer:

 

[madog]

You are a valuable asset to our community. I'm sure that many have learned much from your tutorials.

 

[qumefox]

though on a bit of a tangent, I just got my 20W ophir head usable this weekend heh. Though mine being passive.. It required more than just a voltmeter like yours. heh. It's actually a lot more sensitive than I would have figured. I can make it give a reading just by sticking my hand in front of the sensor about a foot away.

 

[Flaminpyro]

Wow Great tutorial and them pictures so clear and so many :topic: the best !
lots of thought and hard work went into this I can tell and what a beautiful piece :beer:

 

[DTR]

You are a valuable asset to our community. I'm sure that many have learned much from your tutorials.

Thank you sir. I aim to please.

though on a bit of a tangent, I just got my 20W ophir head usable this weekend heh. Though mine being passive.. It required more than just a voltmeter like yours. heh. It's actually a lot more sensitive than I would have figured. I can make it give a reading just by sticking my hand in front of the sensor about a foot away.

I have not needed to go past the 5W capability of my new one or even for that matter the 3.2W capability of my Laserbee II but that looks really sweet. At about 1 foot mine reads 1mW with my hand in the direction of the sensor and goes to about 3mW as I get within an inch.

Wow Great tutorial and them pictures so clear and so many :topic: the best !
lots of thought and hard work went into this I can tell and what a beautiful piece :beer:

Thanks brother. Appreciate the well machined heatsink.:beer:

 

[qumefox]

I have not needed to go past the 5W capability of my new one or even for that matter the 3.2W capability of my Laserbee II but that looks really sweet. At about 1 foot mine reads 1mW with my hand in the direction of the sensor and goes to about 3mW as I get within an inch.

That's pretty much identical to the behavior I see. And I got a 20W sensor because that's what was cheap.. Actually. I convinced Aryntha to buy it originally, then I bought it off him for what he paid for it after he decided he wasn't going to use it.. I believe after he bought a kenometer.

At the minimum.. I shouldn't outgrow it for a while anyway. Now I just need to etch a PCB and put it in a box. Might be a good time to try out dorkbot.

 

[DTR]

That's pretty much identical to the behavior I see. And I got a 20W sensor because that's what was cheap.. Actually. I convinced Aryntha to buy it originally, then I bought it off him for what he paid for it after he decided he wasn't going to use it.. I believe after he bought a kenometer.

At the minimum.. I shouldn't outgrow it for a while anyway. Now I just need to etch a PCB and put it in a box.

I just love the instant reading instead of waiting for it to ramp up. When I get some free time I need to plan out my enclosure, wiring and power source's. I have just been way to busy lately.:undecided:

 

[Tonga]

Beautiful build as ever man:wave::wave:!!

 

[qumefox]

Hmm. I still have a ramp up with higher powers. But it's no worse than with my laserbee. I haven't really had much time to try and optimize the circuit beyond building it and calibrating it to the laserbee. I might can improve the response time somewhat by adjusting the input impedance. And I already know I can get rid of the offset zeroing wiring on the input of the second op-amp as well. It doesn't really accomplish much anyway.

Though I'll likely never be able to get rid of the ramp up since that's just the nature of the beast. Plus due to it being a 20W head, It needs a higher damage threshold than your 5W head.. Which translates to more sensor mass.

 

[Kmor2004]

Very nice as usual DTR,

 

[jayrob]

Awesome job once again...

I love Stainless Steel hosts!

 

[scopeguy20]

WOW! Great pics!! looking around seats of car and couch for $! :yabbem:



GH

 

[DTR]

Thanks guys.