Introducing the BAMF

[ryansoh3]

Greetings LPF!

This month, I wanted to busy myself with a very interesting project.

Custom made lasers generally fell under two categories: 1. Cheap XXXFire bodies and custom made heatsinks, or 2. Custom made body as well as a custom machined heatsink.

I wanted to break that rule and use the ever so popular premium Thrunite TN30 light among flashaholics. My two goals were to get a very high quality body without paying a premium and to be able to take advantage of the magnetic control ring.

The Supbeam X40, K40, and the Thrunite TN31 were all good candidates but had issues of their own including price, driver voltage, and size, as described in this thread: http://laserpointerforums.com/f51/using-expensive-flashlights-hosts-specifically-tn30-x40-85695.html

The planning took a couple of weeks, including research, driver testing with a scope, and heatsink designing. Ordering laser diodes also took quite a lot of time.

This week, I was finally able to get some time to finish up the project and here it is!

The heatsink alone weighs just under 700 grams, or 25 oz. Gotta love copper!

The weight of the finished laser with 3x Samsung 18650’s is 1286 grams, or 45 oz.

That’s the polished heatsink and focus adapter.

The laser in action:

All six brightness levels work as well as the standby mode and the strobe mode, so I’m very happy with the results.

The stock driver has been modified to output clean 2.40A at the highest mode.

Beamshots:

This one’s going to a lucky customer of mine, and if there’s enough interest, I’m willing to do a limited 10-set run of this laser.

Thanks for reading!

 

[DTR]

Looks great. Nice work.:beer:

 

[Firefly]

Good work, what's lens, module like aizix or from DTR "Mr Jordan" driver you used?

 

[ryansoh3]

Looks great. Nice work.:beer:

Thanks! :beer:

Good work, what lens did you use?

I'm using the stock lens from the 9mm diode, also known as the G9 lens.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Impressive! That's one good looking, classy laser, ryansoh. Good job! :beer:

 

[Shakenawake]

exercise your arm when you heft that bad boy, gotta make sure to wield it alternatingly in both hands so one arm does not develop bigger muscles than the other. I think that sink is worthy of one of the new diodes, if that one ever kicks the bucket on you. kicks the can, in a diodes case I suppose

my only question is, does the "B" in it's name stand for Big or Bad?

can't rep again yet

 

[sinner]

Oh Boy, Do i love the copper filled Thrunite TN30 ,

Hands down the best laser arround, A little question don't know if I should PM you about it, I'm curious about the driver performance.

 

[jander6442]

Saweetness!!!!

 

[Zeebit]

That looks slick! :gj:

 

[ryansoh3]

Thanks guys!

A little question don't know if I should PM you about it, I'm curious about the driver performance.

The stock driver is very stable. It has soft start/off when accessing the physical switch, but not when changing modes. No overshoot at any time, which is really nice.

The driver is a true constant current driver, from a dead short to a Vf of about 9-10V. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the o-scope output. Feel free to ask more questions, I'm happy to answer them.

 

[ImA4Wheelr]

Awesome build. Very classy and tough. Love it.

You said: "...The driver is a true constant current driver, from a dead short to a Vf of about 9-10V"

I agree that the TN driver is very high quality. I don't quite understand the above statement means. I've tried to drive an MT-G2 with a TN31 driver. It wouldn't light the emitter because it limits the voltage output too. I can't remember the voltage output readings I got, but it was well below the approximately 6V needed to light an MT-G2. I think in the 4's.

 

[KapHn8d]

very nice... +1 for a nice build

/c

 

[CDBEAM777]

No THAT is beautiful !!! There are experiments to support that the ancients did use mirrors as weapons...polished Copper or Bronze. See

Archimedes and his Burning Mirrors, Reality or Fantasy?

The BAMF is an extension of that concept.....with 2014 technology !!! :drool::drool::drool:

What a great polish job !!! And what inspired concept to use an " Off-the-shelf" host with such novel features !!! Mmmm...Beautiful....and unique !!
Thank you....and I may be interested in 1/10 run !!

Lite'em Up CDBEAM=======>

 

[ryansoh3]

Awesome build. Very classy and tough. Love it.

You said: "...The driver is a true constant current driver, from a dead short to a Vf of about 9-10V"

I agree that the TN driver is very high quality. I don't quite understand the above statement means. I've tried to drive an MT-G2 with a TN31 driver. It wouldn't light the emitter because it limits the voltage output too. I can't remember the voltage output readings I got, but it was well below the approximately 6V needed to light an MT-G2. I think in the 4's.

Thanks!

In this thread, I mentioned that the reason I couldn't use K40/TN31 or other single emitter throwers was because the driver's voltage is actually limited to about 4.2-4.3V. That's why it's unable to power an MT-G2. On the other hand the X40/TN30 3x XM-L2 lights have LED's in series and thus the driver is designed to output 9-10V at 3.5A. That's where the two drivers are different.

Thanks for your support guys!

 

[grainde]

Hey Ryansoh that is one beast of a host! 1.2 kg! lol :drool: :beer:

 

[ImA4Wheelr]

Ryansoh2 wrote:

In this thread, I mentioned that the reason I couldn't use K40/TN31 or other single emitter throwers was because the driver's voltage is actually limited to about 4.2-4.3V. That's why it's unable to power an MT-G2. On the other hand the X40/TN30 3x XM-L2 lights have LED's in series and thus the driver is designed to output 9-10V at 3.5A. That's where the two drivers are different.

Aw, thank you. I missed that detail. I have no experience with that particular driver, but I bet it's every bit as good as the ones in ThruNite's other premium lights. Thank you for your testing and reporting on this driver. That laser just gets sweeter and sweeter as the removed layers are pulled back. Excellent work!