Marwi halogen to SSC P7 conversion info
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A new driver board I needed to come up with an easier to build driver board. The dual 1400ma Hi-Lo board mod I have used in the past was just too difficult for most people to assemble. The previous driver board was way too labor intensive for me to be able to assemble lights and offer them for sale. And so I came up with a simple resistor based current limiter board that will be much easier to assemble. The resistor based current limiter board, shown on this page, is very easy to assemble compared to other driver boards I have made. The full power high mode does not have a driver because the circuit itself has enough resistance to keep the current in check on high mode. The low power mode runs through the two resistors in parallel and will give about 1.3 amps of current limiting until the battery voltage drops down a bit. The low mode is useful for situations where you do not need full power, like climbing, city traffic, etc. The high power mode is for downhills or whenever you need maximum light. Soldering Tips: Soldering is a skill, and it takes a while to get good at it. Always tin wires and surfaces with solder before soldering them together. Make sure metal surfaces like copper are clean before soldering. Use steel wool or very fine sandpaper to clean up the copper first. Use lead based .062 diameter rosin core solder for best results. Radio shack has good lead based solder in stock. Solder will follow the heat and the rosin core flux makes the solder flow properly. Do not keep your soldering iron tip in one spot too long. Get in and get out quickly. I use 25 watt pencil tipped soldering irons for most stuff. Make sure the tip is pointy and clean. (No black crust) Grind/sand the tip of your soldering iron to a fine point for small detail work and then tin the tip with solder immediately after shaping/cleaning it. I use a 40 watt iron to solder the wires to the LED because the heat sink will suck the heat right out of a small 25 watt soldering iron tip. Don't use 100 watt soldering guns for this kind of tiny work. Battery Board Tip: Take an exacto knife and clean out the center hole where the switch plunger goes. Make sure the switch plunger does not hang up on board when clicking the switch. Rubber tail cap tip: Some switches have longer plungers than others. You can turn the tail cap inside out and snip off jut a bit of the center part that contacts the switch plunger. This will keep the switch from pressing on the switch all the time. Super Glue Tip: Use a toothpick or small pointy device to apply very tiny amounts of Superglue to surfaces General tip: Examine all parts carefully for bits of metal that may be left behind from the machining process. Also see the clicky switch mod info on the main bike lights page. The Two terminals added, clicky switch mod is used on the version 2 resistor driver board shown on this page. Here's a list of parts I used to assemble the project on this page |
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The parts pile including Anderson PowerPole connectors |
Here's a diagram showing how the driver board and switch work. Top: The battery negative is disconnected = LED off Middle: Click #1 - The battery negative is connected = LED Full power Bottom: Click #2 - The battery negative must go through a resistance = LED Low power |
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| These are the parts needed to assemble version 2 of the resistor based driver board. |
Here's a shot of the modded switch with 2 contacts added. You can find this mod on the main bike lights page. |
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This photo shows how the switch board jumpers together the two new switch terminals. The red line shows the copper board jumper. The white line is a wire you add to the board. |
Glue the spacer onto the heat sink. The spacer ring insulates the heat sink body from any solder joints on the switch board. You will notice that the ring has material removed. It will sit down inside the heat sink rim |
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Solder the switch to the switch board. Look at the red circles in this picture, the switch will only line up one way. Make sure you do not cover any other holes up with solder. |
Solder on the current limiting resistors. I designed the board to use two 1 watt resistors, which gives you a 2 watt rating. The resistance is in parallel, so 2 x 1.3 ohms gives you .65 ohms with a total of 2 watts. |
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| Solder the white 22 gauge jumper wire |
Solder on the 18 gauge battery board wires from the switch board to the battery board. Also see the pictures below |
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These two shots show how the 18 gauge battery board wires are soldered. The notches on both boards will be aligned. Make sure you use the correct holes on the switch board You can use a tiny bit of super glue and glue the battery board to the front of the switch. This may make this soldering operation a bit easier. Make sure you do not get any glue on the switch plunger or your switch may not work. |
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| Solder on the 20 gauge Teflon LED + and - wires. |
Push the LED heat sink down onto the wires. Bend over the wires and trim them to the proper length. The wires should be just long enough to reach the end of the LED solder pads. Trim the wires to the proper length. |
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Pull the heat sink off and strip the ends of the LED + and - wires. Tin the ends of the wires with solder so they are easier to solder to the LED |
Add a thin layer of thermal grease to the heat sink and the LED. Don't glob it on, thermal paste works better in thin layers. |
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Put the heat sink back on, making sure you get the Red LED+ wire and the Black LED- wire correct. Screw down the LED and then solder the + and - terminals. It helps if you add a small amount of solder to the solder pads first. Use a small screw driver to force the wires down as flat as possible. If your solder joints or the wires stick up too far, they may short out on the back of the reflector. |
Here's a side view of the completed assembly |
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Solder the Battery wire to the battery board. Red is + and Black is - Shove the battery wire through the grommet on the Marwi tail piece. I install new grommets because the original Marwi grommets are glued on and not re-useable |
Push the tail cap button into the Marwi tail piece. Insert the Led assembly into the tail piece. This is done by pulling and then pushing on the wire until the whole assemble is in place. |
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Install the 34.8mm glass into the bezel. Install the 35mm reflector into the bezel |
Screw the bezel onto the body |
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| Slide the body onto the rear tail section and secure the two sections with the screw |
Add a Marwi straight mount to the body. I am using the Nylon Marwi mount kit in this picture. |
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Connectors I am not showing the battery end of the Red/Black 18 gauge zip wire power cord here. I install 15 amp rated Anderson PowerPole connectors on all my lights and batteries. I have a page of instructions showing how to assemble Anderson PowerPole connectors Anderson PowerPole instructions You may want to use some other type of connector. Just make sure you solder the Battery + and - wires correctly on the Battery board. Note on connectors and wire. A SSC P7 is a low voltage/High current device and needs to have very good connections at all points in the whole circuit. Wimpy little connectors, dirty connectors, undersized power cord wires, bad solder connections and wires that are too small/long can all reduce current flow. It only takes a very small amount of resistance to reduce current flow and total light output. Use connectors that are meant to handle power like Deans, Trail tech's or Anderson PowerPoles. Connectors that are meant for audio purposes or other tiny pinned connectors like Tamiya's or Molex will give less that desirable results. Wire that is too small in diameter is basically a resistor and will produce a voltage drop under load. You can get away with using small diameter wire and audio connectors on high voltage/low current applications. Always use good wire and connectors for low voltage/high current applications like a SSC P7 LED |
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Battery pack info I don't show how to assemble battery packs on this page. I use 3.6 volt 18650 Lithium Ion protected cell batteries that are soldered together in parallel. All the positives are soldered together as one All the negatives are soldered together as one. This gives you a 3.6 volt battery pack with increased run time. Every battery you add to the pack, increases run time. Soldering batteries together can be tricky. If you are not careful, you can damage a battery from using too much heat as you solder. A 18650 battery holder may be better if you are not comfortable soldering Lithium Ion batteries. Battery run time explanation If you had a battery that was a 2400 mah battery and you ran the LED at 2400 milliamps, in theory you could get one hour of run time from that battery. If you soldered two batteries together = 2 hours run time If you soldered four batteries together = 4 hours run time. In practice, I like to discount one of the batteries and so I only count on getting a solid 3 hours run time from a four battery pack. As batteries age, you will get less and less run time. The way you treat your batteries can extend their life. I always keep my battery packs charged up. After every ride, I charge my batteries as soon as I get home. You can kill a battery pack in a couple years if treated badly. You can get several years from a battery pack that has been treated good. I had a couple old Ni-Mh battery packs that I actually used for 8 years. They should have been recycled at about 6 years, but they still worked. The run time just kept getting shorter and shorter after about 6 years. |
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Battery charger info I don't show any battery charger info on this page. You will need a battery charger that can charge 3.6 volt Lithium Ion battery packs. I have info on this page and this page on battery chargers you can use with parallel battery packs. I use digital display chargers for all my packs, but I also use one of the el-cheapo DX chargers shown on the page above and they work fine. |
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