Sipik SK68 2 AA Mod

[DenBarrettSAR]

- Out of all the lights i have in my collection, i still carry a Silver Sipik SK68 single AA as my EDC.
For the price its still seems to be the best "bang for buck" light i have.
I have bee playing with various battery setups, ( extension tubes with 1, 2 & 3 AA eneloops, single 14500s, etc. I noticed however that with one AA Alkaline the amp draw at the tail cap was around 1.8 amps, and when extended with 2 AAs, it dropped to only 0.48 amps, ( while the brightness increased slightly) but when i added another extension tube to 3 AAs, the draw went back up to around 1.5 amps, though the brightness increased noticably more to close that of a 14500 3.7 volt lithium did. i decided to do a permanent mod to one of the many SK68's i have kicking around for use on camping trips for longer run times with the two AA set up.
I cut the barrel off the body, then machined threads in the head to match that of a 2-AA body from a Ebay "Pailide, GL-037-77B " 3-dollar torch with a side switch.
The result is a longer 2-AA powered SK68 with a 3 hour run time, instead of the usual 45 minute run time of the single AA powered lights.

 

[KARADENIZ]

I noticed however that with one AA Alkaline the amp draw at the tail cap was around 1.8 amps, and when extended with 2 AAs, it dropped to only 0.48 amps, ( while the brightness increased slightly) but when i added another extension tube to 3 AAs, the draw went back up to around 1.5 amps, though the brightness increased noticably more to close that of a 14500 3.7 volt lithium did.

Hi Den
I also have a Sipik SK69, bought from Ebay for 5$. It has stratched lens and runtume is only ~ 30 Minutes
Which Multimeter are you using to measure the amp draw? 1,8A is for a AA Flashlight very high, if I did know that before, I won't buy this light.
Is there anyway to reduce the Ampdraw to ~ 100mA ?

 

[DenBarrettSAR]

Hi Den
I also have a Sipik SK69, bought from Ebay for 5$. It has stratched lens and runtume is only ~ 30 Minutes
Which Multimeter are you using to measure the amp draw? 1,8A is for a AA Flashlight very high, if I did know that before, I won't buy this light.
Is there anyway to reduce the Ampdraw to ~ 100mA ?

Reducing the amp draw is possible in many ways, but the light output will be lower. The SK68 is known to be one of the most powerfull single-AA lights out there, but as expected the amp draw is going to be high to get that output. the Emitter requires a higher voltage than a single AA produces, so it has to use a boost driver circuit. You can mod it with a multi mode driver as i did with several of these, onedriver i found that has 5 modes, ( Turbo, high,Medium,Low,Moonlight) works great and the lower modes reduce the amp draw for a longer run-time. The meter i used for tail-cap amp reading is a Fluke E73DMMA pro model.