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Thread: And now for something completely different...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Noo Yawk
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    81

    Default And now for something completely different...

    ... A bunch of my incoherent projects, done over the last couple months. Basically just having fun, but everything's actually pretty useful, and is giving me practice toward more serious builds. I've put up an extra lengthy post about them on CPF, with way too many pics. BTW, my handle there is Bimmerboy, as will be obvious by having a peek at Mods that make you go hmmm....

    There may be copyright issues (I think) with simply copying the full CPF post and pasting it here. So, in order to save myself from doing another full write-up, and also to save those here on dial-up who may be not want to deal with a post from the depths of bandwidth hell... here's a much more brief look at things, using excerpts from the original.

    "The Choco-lite".

    Take one Ferrero Rocher pyramid container, double-sided poster tape, 2 AA battery holders, an original MJLED, Minimag switch/bulb pedestal, and a little power switch. Add solder and beer, work for two hours, and voila!








    I never liked the very strange, blue/green/puke tint of the MJLED's since day one. It's almost an indescribable color, and just sucks, even though the thing is very bright. I have another one of these pyramids for the "Choco-lite II", and it's gonna' run a much nicer tinted SMJLED, and a 14500 Li-ion... hahaha.


    "The Arawak Love Candle", aka. "Evening Wood". I'll leave the double entendre up to you to figure out.

    Many years ago, a friend went to the Caribbean for vacation with his GF. They brought back for me a knick-knack container made of some kind of nice looking hardwood, and inside was a bag of "Arawak Love Potion". Smelled mostly of oregano... lol. It was a fairly handsome, touristy kind of souvenir thing, and it was to be my next victim.

    I've wanted to make a light out of this thing for almost two years. What finally made it possible was a 3AAA, 9 LED, $1 Chinese flashlight bought at a local dollar store, and given to me as a gift recently. I looked at the wood container again, looked at the flashlight, and thought "HMM HHMMMM!!!". We were now in business.

    This thing works great! Thanks to improved connections and bigger batteries (using a 3AA to 1D adaptor), the assembly is noticeably brighter than in it's original host, has whiter tint (no angry blue at all), and will also give longer runtime.





    The head assembly. I was NOT going to pull it apart for the pics. Pos and neg run through individual holes drilled through the cap, and there is a quick disconnect for cap removal. The pos. contact is from a Mag Solitaire tailcap spring.


    Here's the 3AA to 1D adaptor.


    The coppery looking thing down there is a 1968 penny (more Cu than post 1973, and much more than post 1982) ground and drilled by Dremel, hand smoothed afterward, and soldered to the negative lead. Since this pic was taken, I've re-done the the connection going into the switch housing (the one on the right), and is now much improved.


    The negative connection on the right, which comes up from underneath the LED assembly. I used the Dremel's engraving bit to dig channels and pits in the wood under there to match the wires and solder blobs so it would sit nicely.


    Size comparison to a standard click lighter.


    O-tay. That was part one from two months ago. It only gets worse from there. Part two on the way.
    Last edited by PNjunction; 04-02-2007 at 07:47.
    Alas, poor diode. I fried him well.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Noo Yawk
    Posts
    81

    Default

    Bumpin' so this sits above part two.
    Alas, poor diode. I fried him well.

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