This was a combo modification - I used parts from 2 very different units.
I wanted to use 3.6V rechargeables, and wanted it to be thin like an AA type. The rechargeable 16400's are supposed to be AA size. So I ordered some of them and a Romisen RC-P3 flashlight from DX that seemed to be right for the job.
but in actuality the 16400's were too wide for that. So I looked around the house and found a nice stainless-steel back-end: one of the 3 legs from a Stanley tripod light (which in itself is a useful thing, and is around $18 at Costco). The legs are AA battery holders (3 batteries each) with decent end caps.
The tripod leg needed a switch, so that came out of the Romisen. I drilled and expanded a hole for it, and then trimmed the switch body just right; after about 4 hours work :
it all fit and worked well (would take about 15 mins. now, knowing how). There wasn't enough room inside the tube for the switch boot so I put a heat-shrink sleeve around the tube to hold it - the black heat-shrink goes well with the black plastic end-cap 
The front end is a $4 red module from DX. I like that one because of the easy focusing knob. The module is mounted in the body and insulated from it by 2 rubber o-rings, and then sealed with heavy-duty adhesive-backed heatshrink from Electronic Goldmine. This front-end isn't quite as slick looking as I wanted, but it's not bad and is very solid. It'll look better once I trim the heatshrink to be neat and parallel.
The driver is just a 2-transistor current regulator using surface-mount parts to get the board size down to .25 x .5 inch. It's set at 65mA - that sounds high but the BluRays that I received most recently seem to be more hardy than the first ones (??). The diode runs cool with just the module case for a heat-sink.
The nice thing about using the tripod light as a base is that there are potentially 3 identical units there... I think I'll make one each red, blu, and green...
The photo shows the 14500 batteries and an AA for comparison - the width difference is slight but significant, even though it doesn't show in the photo. (oops... no, that's not how the batteries are oriented when in the unit)
I wanted to use 3.6V rechargeables, and wanted it to be thin like an AA type. The rechargeable 16400's are supposed to be AA size. So I ordered some of them and a Romisen RC-P3 flashlight from DX that seemed to be right for the job.
but in actuality the 16400's were too wide for that. So I looked around the house and found a nice stainless-steel back-end: one of the 3 legs from a Stanley tripod light (which in itself is a useful thing, and is around $18 at Costco). The legs are AA battery holders (3 batteries each) with decent end caps.
The tripod leg needed a switch, so that came out of the Romisen. I drilled and expanded a hole for it, and then trimmed the switch body just right; after about 4 hours work :
it all fit and worked well (would take about 15 mins. now, knowing how). There wasn't enough room inside the tube for the switch boot so I put a heat-shrink sleeve around the tube to hold it - the black heat-shrink goes well with the black plastic end-cap The front end is a $4 red module from DX. I like that one because of the easy focusing knob. The module is mounted in the body and insulated from it by 2 rubber o-rings, and then sealed with heavy-duty adhesive-backed heatshrink from Electronic Goldmine. This front-end isn't quite as slick looking as I wanted, but it's not bad and is very solid. It'll look better once I trim the heatshrink to be neat and parallel.
The driver is just a 2-transistor current regulator using surface-mount parts to get the board size down to .25 x .5 inch. It's set at 65mA - that sounds high but the BluRays that I received most recently seem to be more hardy than the first ones (??). The diode runs cool with just the module case for a heat-sink.
The nice thing about using the tripod light as a base is that there are potentially 3 identical units there... I think I'll make one each red, blu, and green...
The photo shows the 14500 batteries and an AA for comparison - the width difference is slight but significant, even though it doesn't show in the photo. (oops... no, that's not how the batteries are oriented when in the unit)
