I still like 5MM LED lights...

[Phaserburn]

Gotta admit, I still like 5mm leds too. My Energizer folding lanterns, especially the 8 led - 4D version I just picked up are faves. On 3D cells, it will drive the leds near spec for an incredibly long time with no heat issues. 5mm are also great for playing with colored leds.

[Windscale]

It is not fair to compare 5mms to Crees, Lux or Rebels as they are different LEDs for very different purposes. The 5mms will never be extinct. I carry many Proton type lights attached to zippers of bags etc. It is always nice to know that there is still usable light when all the Crees, Lux and Rebels have run out of batts. Long runtime is the magic word. One of my EDCs is still the Inova 24/7 full of 5mms. My experience in the wilderness is that I never needed a lot of light. Although it is nice to have something bright as a luxury. But in an emergency, one of the major worries is when the lights will run out. This is when the 5mms reign supreme.Incidentally, there is a thread in existence in The Cafe for UK members to get together. If you live in the UK, do take a look.

[Ron Schroeder]

I think the highest Lm/W is still in 5mm LEDs.

What I would really like to see would be a single AA light using 2 or 3 CS 5mm LEDs in series, similar in size to the Inova X1 but shorter. More than one LED in series puts the total Vf at above the voltage of a fully charged L-Ion cell allowing a boost only converter to drive them. That would allow for a higher efficiency than a Buck/Boost converter that would be needed to properly drive a single LED and would allow for 1.5V, 3.0V or 3.6V cells.

[eyeeatingfish]

Retail Price: $9.95
BrightGuy Price: $11.50

What gives?

Lol, probably a typo.

[Sub_Umbra]

The 5mm lights I bought for specific tasks still do the job I bought them for. It's hard to improve on that. Prudent marketing dictates that any products with new high output LEDs must emphasize the power -- so they won't be at all applicable for many of my uses. On the other hand, I just had a P4 light built with a highly reduced output -- but there is nothing like that marketed masses that I am aware of.

[afterglow]

I do too, my first generation Arc AAA P have served me so well during the last years, and it's still working. Now I'm sold to the A2 aviator, which I think also contains 5mm LED.

[REparsed]

I also still like (and use) my 5MM LED lights. I have a 12 year old Photon with a new 40k mcd LED. I also have several gratis Fauxtons from Lighthound and a Mini Mag with a Niteize drop in.

Today I modded a 2 AA Mini Mag with the LED from one of the Fauxtons. I plan to load it with a pair of Energizer AA lithiums and keep it in my emergency box as a safer and more reliable alternative to candles.

[Luminescent]

I also still like (and use) my 5MM LED lights. I have a 12 year old Photon with a new 40k mcd LED. I also have several gratis Fauxtons from Lighthound and a Mini Mag with a Niteize drop in.

Today I modded a 2 AA Mini Mag with the LED from one of the Fauxtons. I plan to load it with a pair of Energizer AA lithiums and keep it in my emergency box as a safer and more reliable alternative to candles.

Did your keychain light use 1 or 2 coin cells?

Most use 2, and a pair of Enigizer Lithiums will probably not work, because they are only 1.5 volts each (coin cells are 3 volts each), and most 5mm white LEDs will probably need 3.2 volts or more to kick over.

I remember that when I looked at the ulta-simple design of one of my keychain lights, I was astonished by the fact that the LED was directly driven by the battery.

Gee! in wondered, where do these guys get those nice LED's with the built in constant current driver I asked myself? Then I spent hours looking for similar LED's on the web, only to find that there was no such thing.

This may have changed since that time, and perhaps your light DOES have a current limited LED, but in the case of my keychain light, the jerks where just directly driving a standard cheap 5mm LED and relying on the 'coin-cell' battery to limit the current.

So if you try to replace the 1.5 lithium, with 3 volt AA lithium batteries, it will probably just FRY the LED.

[REparsed]

Did your keychain light use 1 or 2 coin cells?

Most use 2, and a pair of Enigizer Lithiums will probably not work, because they are only 1.5 volts each (coin cells are 3 volts each), and most 5mm white LEDs will probably need 3.2 volts or more to kick over.

The LEDs are from 2 cell lights. The 3v from 2 lithium batteries light it up about as bright as a candle (which is what I'm after). It's been on for about 20 hours now and still going. I'd like to get 2 days of light from it, but we'll see.

I remember that when I looked at the ulta-simple design of one of my keychain lights, I was astonished by the fact that the LED was directly driven by the battery.

Gee! in wondered, where do these guys get those nice LED's with the built in constant current driver I asked myself? Then I spent hours looking for similar LED's on the web, only to find that there was no such thing.

This may have changed since that time, and perhaps your light DOES have a current limited LED, but in the case of my keychain light, the jerks where just directly driving a standard cheap 5mm LED and relying on the 'coin-cell' battery to limit the current.

The newer Photon keychain lights have a limiting circuit (PWM maybe), adjustable brightness and several flashing modes but they are about $20 (the generic lights are $1).

[Luminescent]

The LEDs are from 2 cell lights. The 3v from 2 lithium batteries light it up about as bright as a candle (which is what I'm after). It's been on for about 20 hours now and still going. I'd like to get 2 days of light from it, but we'll see.


The newer Photon keychain lights have a limiting circuit (PWM maybe), adjustable brightness and several flashing modes but they are about $20 (the generic lights are $1).

Uh Huh, either 1$ or free as thank you gifts with mail orders

Thanks for the info about the Photon, but for 20 dollars Eimlions will sell me another Jetbeam C-LE

A multi-mode photon would be cute, but not THAT cute, so I guess I'll have to wait for someone to offer a generic version multi-mode fauxton for a dollar or two.

As far as your light goes, I'm glad it worked out (you must have an LED with fairly low Vf). It should run just about forever, but the light will get dimmer and dimmer as the Lithiums get down closer to the Vf limit where the LED just won't turn on at all. Also when the light does get too dim to be useful, you can probably still use the Lithiums in another light, because I doubt you will be able use more than about half their capacity in that setup.

I thought about doing something like that, but I wanted a little more light, so I was going to try 3 x N-Cells (4.5 volts) with a tube insert to make them fit nicely, and a dummy spacer with a resistor.

Here is a link with a picture from someone that did a simalar mod:

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower...lashlites.html

If you want super long run times and super reliability use a resistor that is between 50 ohms and 100 ohms.

For more brightness you can go with 15 to 30 ohms.

For high reliability I would NOT go with 10 ohms or less as he did in the above link.

Some have even got a add-on tail switch for their mini-maglight and wired a bypass resistor of about 100 ohms across it internally. Use this with a spacer with a 15 ohm resistor and when the switch is on you will have high power, and when the switch is off you will have a nice long runtime low (and of course you can still turn off the light with the head-switch).

[Sub_Umbra]

...The newer Photon keychain lights have a limiting circuit (PWM maybe), adjustable brightness and several flashing modes but they are about $20 (the generic lights are $1).

Batteryjunction.com has the Photon Freedom HERE for $9.95 complete with the full retail accessory pack.