Dorcy 1AAA gen4 Mods

These are the current/latest "gen4" Dorcy 1AAA - lensed/spot with brighter LEDs (packs with batteries 2013 or later).

I call these gen4 - even though the board is essentially the same as the gen3 (lensed/spot) these newer ones have noticably brighter LEDs - so "gen4".

Please see A Classic Revisited - Dorcy 1AAA for background and discussion leading up to these mods.

The mods have been done by Doug S - and for any better names - I've called them -

stage 1 - an increase in brightness without decrease in runtime
stage 2 - more of stage 1 with a hi/low tail-switch
Cree Mod - this is a special Doug S has done for himself - has a Cree XR-E with a hi/low tail-switch.

Physical views -

One is simply not going to see much from the physical views that these all have been mod'ed - except perhaps slightly for the Cree mod - Doug S has moved the lens out more to get better focus(?) - so it actually protrudes a bit from the front bezel - so it only just manages to stand on the head.....
If one looks very carefully in the size shot the Cree mod seems slightly shifted lower in the pic that's because I used a ruler to push/line-up that lights and since the lens protrudes on the Cree mod the whole light is shifted dow a bit.... (now, who's retentive? )

On two of these mods the tail-switch has been mod'ed to allow for Hi/Low settings - I show the insides of the tail-cap FWIW

hard to see any difference - I am not going to disassemble any for now as Doug has warned me that it may be difficult to reassemble - so I'll not chance it yet......
Looking carefully one can just see a different colored center below the spring for the mod'ed versions.... (still retaining..... )

Board Views - (or was that Bored Views?)



How do the mods perform?

Stage 2 and Cree mods set on High

Looks like improvements in brightness levels for the stagew1 over the stock and stage 2 is better than stage 1

Low for Stage 2 and Cree mods only -

Shows the low is still useful for stage 2 and pretty low for the Cree.

Overall I am very impressed with these mods - and am very grateful to Doug S for the opportunity to test these.

Note: this is not all - Doug suggested I take further beamshots after some time passes - I am planning to take shots after 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours total.

So the beamshots are at Zero hour or just a few minutes into use of a matching set of 4 fresh AAA batteries -

Current draw readings -

AAA alkaline 1.586V open circuit

Stock = 0.15A
Stage 1 = 0.13A
Stage 2 = 0.13A
Cree Mod = 0.31A

So it does looks like the stage 1 & 2 are lower in current draw with noticable improvement in brightness - can't be bad huh?

Separate full comparison review of Doug S's Stage 2 mod -

Dorcy 1AAA gen4 - Doug S Stage 2 Mod

I can explain one observation already. The protrusion of the lens of the Cree modded one is inadvertent. The ring of the emitter presses against the back of the optic module. I may have been over zealous about tightening the head which will tend to jack the optic module out of the head. Vincent, remove the cell, loosen the head and then push the front of the light hard against a non-marring surface, it should move the optic back where it belongs. That will not change the focus.

Doug S wrote: "The protrusion of the lens of the Cree modded one is inadvertent. The ring of the emitter presses against the back of the optic module. I may have been over zealous about tightening the head which will tend to jack the optic module out of the head. Vincent, remove the cell, loosen the head and then push the front of the light hard against a non-marring surface, it should move the optic back where it belongs. That will not change the focus."

Will do that momentarily.

In the meantime the lights have been running on high and it's been an hour since my zero hour beamshots -

So here are the 1 hour beamshots (come on, keep up guys... )

High -

Not much change......

Low for stage 2 and Cree -


Please sir can I take a bathroom break?

WOW, very nice...I would love to have my Dorcy modded with a cree! Any chance you will mod these for anyone else? If so how much for a Dorcy with cree? Thanks for posting!

2 Hours elapsed time -

High -

The Cree appears to be fading.....

Low for stage 2 and Cree Mods -

The Cree has faded so that it doesn't even show on Low in the -2 Stops underexposed shot.

Good work. Any chance of a throw shot for the cree?

Ok, I'm going to buy some of those dorcys. I have enough inovax1s in the house, but I know some people who could use the dorcy. How do you know if the package is 4g?

Where are these sold?

greenlight wrote: "How do you know if the package is 4g?
Where are these sold?"

The most current ones sold at WalMarts are most likely gen4 - look for batteries dated 2013 (or later), or to be sure buy only the new purple, pink and champagne gold colors.

Please see A Classic Revisited - Dorcy 1AAA for more discussion.

3 Hours (continuous running)

High -

The Cree is fading even more......

Low for stage 2 & Cree Mods

I had to stop the running as I had to go out - so I turned these off shortly after taking the beamshots at the 3 hours mark.

After returning home I "resumed" the test turning on the lights - and found the Cree's battery had recovered from approx 7 hours rest.....
so I immediately took some beamshots -

7 hours Rest after 3 hours continuous running -

High -

that's remarkable - the battery after 7 hours' rest had recovered enough to give an output on the Cree mod that's about the as bright as it was at the start of this test.....

Low for stage 2 & Cree Mods -


I've now had the lights running about 45 mins in this part two of this test - and the Cree still looks about as bright as this last set of beamshots......
seems like allowing the batteries to rest has allowed them to recover a lot!

Reporting on 4, 5, 6 hours.

Remember the test was interrupted/discontinued at the 3 hour mark, to be resumed with the same batteries 7 hours later.

I am only doing the High settings now -

4 Hours


5 Hours


6 Hours

ah! OK, the gen4 stock has faded - so its runtime is over 5 hours but under 6
(but remember the test was stopped at 3 hours and the battery had rested for 7 hours before the test was resumed).

Quiet on this thread...
is everyone asleep?

.... now you'll understand why the series of beamshots go from 6 hours as the last ones to 10.6 hours - I had to get some sleep - I left the lights running and was hoping to wake up to do a 10 hour shot - but could not wake up in time - hence 10.6 hours

10.6 hours -

I was surprised to see the Cree Mod still visible - that's because everything else has faded - except the Stage 2 mod which seems to be doing well.

OK it shold be pretty obvious that both visible lights are dim - but it doesn't show that well in my beamshots - it stands to reason as I am doing comparison beamshots - the full exposure is "optimised" for all the lights in the frame and the -2 stops is underexposed from that......

Getting my brain in gear - I replaced the battery in the stock with a good one and took another comparison beamshot at 11 hours.

11 hours with Stock on good battery as reference -

now one can see how dim the remaining visible lights are at 11 hours - pretty dim - but still usable light in a moon mode......

:sleepy:

6 hours is impressive.

I remember doing a half assed runtime test on a DorcyAAA 3 yeats ago. Turned the light on as a movie started. Dimmed noticeably just before the movie ended. 1-3/4 hours.

Roy got 3-1/2 hours on his runtime test.

Roy, Chevronfreak & Quickbeam must have automated equipment to do all those runtime tests.

LEDninja wrote: "

Roy, Chevronfreak & Quickbeam must have automated equipment to do all those runtime tests."

Yep, don't I know it - that's why I don't/can't do runtime tests.

However DougS wanted to see how the lights compared as time passed - so I just turned the lights on and took beamshots every hour or so - until I went to bed......

15 hours -


Control reference with Stock on good battery -


At this time of writing it's a total of nearly 17.5 hours elasped time and both the stage 2 and Cree mod on high show about the same as my beamshots at 15 hours........

This is very interesting to read and I am itching to know the details of each mod..

Is there anyway you may be able to compare these new gen4 modded circuits using a reflector from an older style Dorcy AAA. I like the spot of the optic however curious as to how these modded new style do with that reflector set up....maybe a direct comparison with a stock gen1 circuit with both using reflectors.

I do know the Cree would not be included as the reflector would not fit but that would be cool if it did.

18 hours -

Nope it has NOT gotten brighter -
I realized I made a mistake on my last two sets of beamshots at 15 and 10.6 hours - I allowed my camera to set the "optimum" exposure - but there is a limit to the longest shutter speed on the program setting I was using @ 1 sec - so those two beamshots were underexposed by about 1 stop - ie: given about 1/2 the optimum exposure - I've correct that in this and any subsequent beamshots........

Control comparison with Stock on good battery


To get the Stock on a good battery I change the running test battery out for a good/fresh battery just for the beamshots (only minutes).

However when I replace the running test battery - for under about 1 minute the stock shines quite bright then fades (so even a short few minutes is enough for the battery to recover temporarily to give some substantial light - this is of very short duration whereas with the Cree mod - after admittedly a 7 hour rest - the brightness was quite high and lasted maybe about 50 minutes....)

I took some beamshots of the temporary recovery when reinserting the running test battery for the Stock......

Notice in the full exposure the Stock with the rested battery seems brighter than the Stage 2 on High (battery running for 18 hours) - but by the time I took the -2 Stops Underexposed shot literally a few tens of seconds later it was already dimmer than the stage 2.....

20 Hours -


Control comparison with stock using good battery -


still going - albeit the same very dim levels -
this is impressive for 20 hours elapsed time on a single AAA alkaline.

24 Hours



Control comparison with Stock on good battery


36 Hours


Control comparison with Stock on good battery


This is pretty remarkable that both the Stage 2 and Cree mods are still managing to show some light - albeit dimly at 36 hours at a level that's not that different from when they first dropped into the moon mode - perhaps the Cree has lost a bit more - but it was also the very first in all these lights to drop out of the high mode.

I am very, very impressed with the Stage 2 mod.

I intend to stop this running test at 40 hours - that's in about 3 hours time, and take readings for current draw and battery open-circuit voltage with each respective light to see how the batteries were drained.

Since there is a gap between 6 hours and 10.6 hours when both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 mods dropped out of their high modes - I am considering re-running both Stage 1 and Stage 2 again to get beamshots between 6-11 hours - using a Stock on good battery as the same control reference at each beamshot... (if there is any interest).

A big thanks to Vincent for running and documenting these tests.
I am working on the schematics now. I will follow Vincent's lead on naming the circuits ''Stage 1'', ''Stage 2'', but in the case of the Cree modded one I will call it ''Stage 3'' since the circuit doesn't care what it is driving. I just signed up with photobucket so I will have a place to upload the schematics and post.
For those who are relative newcomers to the 1AAA Dorcy, here is a link from years ago in which I provided test data on the circuits in the Gen I and Gen II Dorcies:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/33478&page=1&pp=30
The circuits in the GEN I and II Dorcies were able to produce light at input power as low as a few mW. The Gen 3/4 Dorcies have a high ''overhead'' power consumption and typically don't produce any light below around 15mW. Once alkaline cells are depleted to where they can deliver only small amounts of power, they still contain quite a bit of energy. The long runtimes of the ''stage 2'' and ''stage 3'' (Cree) mods are largely due to the fact that these modifications have reduced the minimium required input power to produce any light down to a couple of mW as compared to the stock of 15mW. These two mods also extract the remaining cell energy a bit more efficiently for reasons I'll explain in a later post which discusses the details of the modifications.
As Vincent's input current measurements indicate, the stage 3 mod initially draws over double the input current as compared to the stage 1 and 2 mods. Alkaline cells are simply not up to the task of sustaining this high of a current for any length of time. The link below is to the lastest version of the Eveready alkaline AAA datasheet:
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/E92.pdf
Take a close look at the bar graph on the right side of page one. It shows the mA-Hr capacity that can be withdrawn from the cell down to a final voltage of 0.8V. At a drain of 400mA it appears that you can get around 450mA-Hr but at a drain of 25mA you can get around 1250mA-Hr, or about three times as much. So what happens to the rest to the capacity [ampacity] if you pull 450mA-Hr out at a rate of 400mA? Is it lost forever? No. It is still there but is just not accessible at a high continuous rate. You can get a bit of it at a high rate if you allow the cell to rest as Vincent has shown or you can get all of it if you are willing to accept it at an decreasing maximum rate of withdrawal. With alkaline cells the performance of the drive circuit with nearly depleted cells has a big impact on the ''moon mode'' performance. With NiMh cells it is of much less importance since NiMh can deliver almost their entire capacity at relatively high rates. One conclusion should be evident about the maximum ''reasonable'' current drain from an alkaline cell in a light like this: it depends upon whether the intended use is intermittant or continuous. The last graph on page two of the above linked datasheet shows that even at a relatively high 600mA rate, about 750mA-Hr can be withdrawn if the usage is an intermittant 10 sec/min 1 hour/day. Interestingly, the alkaline cell runtimes done by CPF member Silverfox use a minimum discharge rate of 0.5A. At this rate, the discharge test terminates with less that half of the total potential energy taken from the cell.
Change of subject: Robocop asked about the reflector versions. With the stock LED, the result would be that it looks as you would expect a Dorcy reflector version to look. The only difference being the difference in circuit and LED efficiency. BTW, I was very impressed by the apparent efficiencies of the LEDs that come in the currently available Dorcies. Regarding the Cree, I believe that a reflector head would fit on it fine. I meant to try this but I don't remember doing it. I think I was in a hurry to get these in the mail to Vincent and forgot to do it. I would expect it to be a broad flood with annoying reflector rings superimposed on the flood beam. Perhaps Vincent will include this in any further beamshots he may choose to do.

Doug S wrote: "BTW, I was very impressed by the apparent efficiencies of the LEDs that come in the currently available Dorcies.
Regarding the Cree, I believe that a reflector head would fit on it fine.
I would expect it to be a broad flood with annoying reflector rings superimposed on the flood beam. Perhaps Vincent will include this in any further beamshots he my choose to do."

Well, that's kind of "justification" for calling these gen4's since the LED itself is a worthwhile improvement.

Yes, a gen2 reflector head will easily fit on - and the beams is reasonably even - don't forget the reflector is not top quality to begin with.

I'll take some beamshots of the reflector head on the Cree/stage3 mod - compared with a stock gen2 and the Stage2 mod a bit later.

In the meantime the final bit of the long test -

40 Hours -


Control Comparison with Stock on good battery -


Well how dim are these?

Compared with a couple of lights I have that can go very dim -

vs. eternaLight Ergo 3 Red/White on Lowest 1x white LED

the eternaLight Ergo 3 Red/White on lowest 1x white LED is still enough to navigate around a room - and the stage 2 is in a similar ballpark - maybe just a bit brighter - so the light is still pretty useful even after 40 hours of continuous running.

vs. Rigel SkyLite Mini Red/White on Lowest White

The Rigel SkyLite Mini can be set to VERY dim - the stage 2 is considerable brighter than that even at 40 hours.

Current draw readings after 40 hours running -
(don't forget alkaline batteries tend to "recover" somewhat when not used - these reading were taken within minutes of stopping the test - but as shown in the beamshot at 18 hours in post #15 above - just a few minutes' rest - the battery had "recovered" enough to light up the Stock Dorcy 1AAA gen4 well)

Stock - 1.122V o-c = 0.07-0.06A
Stage 1 - 1.198V = 0.06A
Stage 2 - 1.167V = 0.06A
Cree Mod - 1.136V = 0.11-0.07A

Great work vincent!! Do you think you could get some real world shots, like a tree at 20 feet maybe? I am curious as to why the cree has a noticable hot spot through the optic, its viewing angle is greater than that of the 5mm leds.

Off topic but has anyone noticed that without the optic, the stock dorcy led is quite blue? the optic make a significant difference in the color.