Energizer Aluminum Alloy Waterproof Host Question

[dieselmarine]

Okay i have a question about this host? I have this flashlight its great but i am thinking about making a laser out of it. It has a cool feature i wanted to ask some who is good with electronics so heres the question : The flashlight is capable of increasing or decreasing the current to the led with a digital
potentiometer just by holding down the tail switch so my question is would this feature still work if i built a laser out of it using a flex drive ? Will the laser increase and decrease its power ?

 

[Prototype]

That's a good question, if it works, it'd be pretty awesome. You seem to have a lot of flashlights, one in particular I had a question about, the LED Lenser from Home Depot. (silver, 3 AAA) I was wondering how you got yours open. I asked in the thread where you asked about it being a good host, but I'm not sure if you're still looking at that thread, so I'm just covering the bases.

 

[nikokapo]

Okay i have a question about this host? I have this flashlight its great but i am thinking about making a laser out of it. It has a cool feature i wanted to ask some who is good with electronics so heres the question : The flashlight is capable of increasing or decreasing the current to the led with a digital
potentiometer just by holding down the tail switch so my question is would this feature still work if i built a laser out of it using a flex drive ? Will the laser increase and decrease its power ?

Ideally it shouldn't work, since the driver must have constant current (remember... you use the drives for that ) for the LD. Now, if the pot lowers the battery voltage then it could work, though I wouldn't recommend it since you'd be using the driver with much less voltage than the required one. That feature should be built-in to work perfectly

 

[dieselmarine]

That's a good question, if it works, it'd be pretty awesome. You seem to have a lot of flashlights, one in particular I had a question about, the LED Lenser from Home Depot. (silver, 3 AAA) I was wondering how you got yours open. I asked in the thread where you asked about it being a good host, but I'm not sure if you're still looking at that thread, so I'm just covering the bases.

Well it was easy the head screws off and the lens has a retainer ring that has to be unscrewed from the in side of the head as for the body of the flashlight there isnt much to do there are two hex screws that keeps the led in place, i hope that helped you should be more specific on what you are having trouble with!

 

[Prototype]

You're right, I just can't get the head to unscrew, but I think I'll tackle that a little later on.

 

[mkdive]

You have any more pictures of that light?

 

[Xtrm2Rick]

i dont think it would work, since flex drive always tries to give a steady output even if the input get higher or lower right? correct me if im wrong im no pro

 

[bobhaha]

i dont think it would work, since flex drive always tries to give a steady output even if the input get higher or lower right? correct me if im wrong im no pro

That's what niko just said...

Ideally it shouldn't work, since the driver must have constant current (remember... you use the drives for that ) for the LD. Now, if the pot lowers the battery voltage then it could work, though I wouldn't recommend it since you'd be using the driver with much less voltage than the required one. That feature should be built-in to work perfectly

BTW do you mean that while you hold down the tail switch, it increases/decreases power? or if you click it, level 1, click again level 2 ect (of intensity). I guess you could theoretically use an adjustable resistor in between the LD and driver to increase/decrease intensity, up to the set current of the driver... if you know what I mean!

 

[topend]

Just for the hell of it I left a strobe board connected between the battery and the driver board of one of my builds of a 250 red lcc set at 350 mA into an ultrafire WF-501b, works a treat and strobes bright, also the two dimmer settings also work, how long will the diode last in strobe setting? who knows but I did have fun doing it.

 

[nikokapo]

driver to increase/decrease intensity

Intensity "I" = Current [Amperes]
Difference of potential (potential? Don't know if that's the word in english) = Voltage [Volts]

Drivers must maintain constant current levels.

 

[bobhaha]

Intensity "I" = Current [Amperes]
Difference of potential (potential? Don't know if that's the word in english) = Voltage [Volts]

Drivers must maintain constant current levels.

Exactly.... let a constant current (driver max) be x and let a variable resistor be y

x (constant) - y (variable resistor) = variable output??? is that correct?

if y = 0

x - 0 = x (max output... constant from driver)... get it?

if y = x

x - x = 0 (no output) ???

btw im not sure if this is even good for the diode.. just in theory it will work... i think :thinking:

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I always wondered if you could dim a laser. Could you use a wired pot? If you could, what saftey method could you use to keep it from frying the diode?

 

[bobhaha]

Not too sure....would think it goes in series with driver and LD... I guess to be safe u could add a cap in parallel with the pot (thats the word i was looking for...). I think i might try it... :thinking:

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Wouldn't you remove the pot from the board then wire it?

 

[bobhaha]

well if you do then you have no set or "default" current that it would fall back on. (if you know what i mean) the only way (that i know of) is to do it with a driver and a pot... there might be other ways, but I'm a bit of a noob with electronics.

 

[styropyro]

Yeah it's possible to dim a laser, in something like an LM317 circuit you could set the max current with a resistor and then put a pot in series with it.