Well, I finally managed to complete my Personal Locator after sitting on the project for while. For those that remember (or look at the previous posts) I ripped apart a Maglite XL150 to replace the stock lamp in my Matsu shoulder lamp. Well, I took the left over shell and made a personal locator. It's not 100% screen accurate by any means, but I think it works fairly well.
I inverted the light to start. I painted the top section Dark Forest Green and the bottom section matte black. For the the button, I just drilled a small hole and used a large screw (you can still faintly see the phillips head outline; I filled it with bondo but there is a faint trace left). To replace the push button inside, I had originally intended to just reuse the original cap. However, somewhere along the line that got lost. So, I used a spare thimble (yes, a sewing thimble) and jammed into the top from the inside with a bit of added superglue.
Gives it an interesting look, I think.
To make the screen, I just photoshopped a label. I printed it on a standard white sticky back paper, and then used a clear shipping label cover (much like I did for the stickers for my PR and case).
I'm pretty proud of the label. I think it came out very well. You can see the simulated red screen background as and the faint outline of the 7-segment displays. It would have been better if it actually lit up, but this is a just a cheap-o build, so I didn't want to spend any actual money making it.
If anyone would like the original graphic I did for the screen, here it is:
I downsized it to 7/8" for printing and it fit perfectly on my locator.
Charlie
Was the maglite that you used to make the locator a XL50? As I can not find a "Maglite XL150".
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