Small, Bright, and Cheap

Ok, I'm sure that this is nothing new, and that almost everyone on here has made one at least once in the past. I like this design because, it's small, bright, and cheap. Aside from a soldering iron, some solder and an LED, the rest of the material (two items) is relatively free. This is a 9V design.

Materials needed:

-LED of your choice
-Resistor (based on 3.7 V, 20 mA specs):
200 - 250 ohms if you want very long runtime.
100 - 130 ohms (over driven) if you want more brightness with a bit less runtime.
50 - 80 ohms (over driven) if you want even more brightness with less runtime. The resistor may feel hot!
(About 56 ohms is what I used. Measured amps with a some what fresh battery is about 73 mA. The resistor feels hot.)
(Please correct me about the runtime if they are not correct, they seem logical to me.)
-9 volt connector. I took mine out of a dead 9 volt battery. Make sure it says Mercury and Cadium free. And practice safety.

Equipment Needed:

-Soldering iron, 15 watts recommended, or be quick with a 30 watts.
-Solder, thin low melting recommended.
-Something to open a 9 volt battery. Skip this if you rather buy a connector, or if you don't have any dead 9 volts. I find that the connectors from a battery is less flimsy than "actual" connectors.

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Only thing to worry about when making is short circuiting by the leads of the LED. Also, the plastic panel of the connector can melt by the heat of the soldering iron.

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Compared to Arc-P AAA.

As bright as it is, my cheap light does not have a hard finish, it's not water resistant, the light itself is very pocketable but not the 9 volts, and it's not the most eye pleasing thing.

But, it is pretty good at free standing, and it's roll resistant.

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Nice. Cheap, functional mods are always interesting. Expensive takes craftsmanship, cheap takes creativity...

If you made one of those with two 5mm LED's and a tiny switch on the side, you'd have a Pak-Lite (http://www.9voltlight.com ).

How cute. He even gave us beam shots. Cheers!

Now I've got something to do with all those buck and a quarter low domes I bought off TekTite.

vortechs said:

If you made one of those with two 5mm LED's and a tiny switch on the side, you'd have a Pak-Lite (http://www.9voltlight.com ).

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm aware of Paklites. But for the price of one Paklite, I can make 30 - 40 of my cheap 9V lights (excluding buying a soldering iron and solder), and they would probably accomplish the same thing.

But, honestly, I just do these posts for fun. And if they do spark the creativity of some people on here, then all the better.

I do use the lights I make but I'd choose my Arc-P AAA over any cheap lights I make or modify, any day.

The one good thing about homemade or modified lights though, is that they are or become fully user serviceable. (hmm, I guess that makes sense)

And I guess no matter how horribly looking a device may be, as long as it works, one may probably feel some accomplishment... or maybe it just makes them feel like Macgyver. Anyone still remember that show?

I love Macgyver!!!! Every light I own has been modified by myself. Heck, pretty much everything I own I have build myself or at least taken apart/modified I just can't stay away.......