Business Opportunity

I hope Don Foreman is around. He's been building a similar, better one.

Karl

I converted several of mine, but they use regular AA batteries... that now last forever. I completely love it, as do the folks that got them for xmas. Pocketlights.com has alternatives. They have to be the "newer style" of mini-maglights.

Karl

Don showed me how to build a LED conversion of a "Home Depot, $6.00 Yellow Lantern" thats even brighter that the original incandescent. His design uses 3 AA batteries and one LED in place of the 6 volt lantern battery and the incandescent bulb. I actually cut off the battery compartment of a Home Depot type lantern and installed the AA batteries close behind the reflector. The LED lantern is named "Stubby". (pictures are available via E-mail) Don knows *alot* about LED flashlights.

Jerry

There are much better things on the market. Very high output Luxeon Star LED drop-in conversion kits have been available for Mini Mags for few years. Much brighter light than the original Mag bulb. And they're cheap for the class of flashlight you get after the conversion. Lets you use the original AAs in either alkaline or rechargable.

You can also get the Streamlight Jr. LED (better than a converted Mini Mag) for around $30.

GTO(John)

That sounds like the same clever guy(s) who inspired me how to build a magnetic levitation demo a while back. Much fun..

Jerry and I used Luxeon in our adventures. Luxeon stars are limiting because the star heatsink sometimes prevents use of a good parabolic reflector e.g. the Everready lantern for less than $5.

A Luxeon III emitter, suitably mounted on a machined aluminum stud projecting into the very inexpensive but quite good parabolic reflector on the Everready lantern, blows the sox off of anything the MagLite folks offer by quite a bit. It'll shine a raccoon at 100 meters with no problem.

I have seen conversions for the mini mag here in UK. One question, does the variable focussing still work?

John

Incandescent bulbs produce (pretty much) isotropic radiation - the same light in every direction. Maglite reflectors are designed for this radiation pattern. Forward-emitting LEDs, which project their beam in a fairly narrow angle anyway, mostly miss the reflector (how much varies with the reflector and LED beam angle), so focussing doesn't really work. I've seen mods with two back-to-back side-emitting LEDs, which would presumably retain some focussing ability, albeit with a slightly different pattern.

I'll stick with my Surefire E1e I think, but I'm going to get the LED head when the next bulb goes. If you think maglite bulbs are expensive then check out the Surefire ones! It's a silly flashlight really - if I lived in outside the city I'd have something more sensible, but it's so pretty and so bright I love it.

Flashlight freaks hang out here:

Tim

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 17:22:40 GMT, "Jerry Martes" wrote: || I have built several conversions of old flashlights to accept LEDs. They ||all work. But, the light I carry in my pocket is a Coast LEDLenser V^2.

Which one? Coast lights are jewels. Nice just to look at. Texas Parts Guy

No Coast lights for me, thanks - I want something that takes AA, AAA or another commonly available anywhere and for cheap battery.

All the Coast flashlights I've seen take proprietary (odd) batteries. Fry's Electronics sells Coast lights, but not the special batteries they require - I take that as a bad omen.

For work, I have a Black Diamond 4-white-LED headband light that takes three AAA's. And a three AA hand LED flashlight from REI, not sure who made it - CMG, I think. The Pelican four AA at Costco looks good, I'll probably grab one for the toolbag because it's a plastic case.

-->--

Underwater Kinetics makes some nice stuff. You can peruse their selection at brightguy.com, my favorites are the white led lights they sell, one kind uses two AAA which is keychain sized.

The other uses a 1 watt luxeon led and four AA batteries.

Jim

Yea...I agree that can be a real problem. I have never had a good feeling about things that use propriatary parts (which is one reason I *really* dislike Compaq/HP systems) and am a tad nervous about buying tools from HF.

Last year or two, "Maglite" clone flashlights, with 4 white leds started showing up at the hamfests. They started out at $20 each, then, of course, dropped a bit. I picked up a couple when they hit $10 each, and, have seen them a bit cheaper. They use a couple or three AA cells, and have pretty good life, especially with LiNh batteries in them. And...for the quality...are surprisingly cheap. I agree though, with other posters who have discussed the problem of the diffuse beam. That is less of a problem for me, actually, as most of the time I am using them in fairly enclosed areas (computer cases, etc) but, when wandering in the woods in the wee hours of the morning, it can be a slight problem. The pool of light just does not reach that far out. Plenty bright inside the pool, but, not much good for bushbeaters. I REALLY like the little, 1 LED lights that use several AAAA batteries. Light, easy to poke around, and VERY bright. Also, they do have surprisingly long lives, and, since I have a Batteries Plus store or two here in Knoxpatch, easy to find batteries for. Still has the "diffuse beam" problem, but, are so bright it hardly matters. Regards Dave Mundt

At

Several LED flashlights use CR123 lithium batteries, which retail at KMart for $5-$6 each, but are available on ebay for about $1 each. The seller (theshorelinemarket) tells me "The cells are not date coded however they were just specially manufactured for us 3 months ago so you can expect a shelf life of 9+ years". I'll probably try some in LED-light I'm making.

-jiw