Dorcy mod question...

I have recently performed the solitaire mod and changed it to a 12 volt shorter battery and an led bulb.This leads to my question on my dorcy 1-AAAA led that I just bought.I love this little 6 dollar light and it is fairly bright.When I got this light home I removed the AAAA battery and put in my 12 volt battery and extension spring.I thought this would be very bright but it was much dimmer than the original AAAA battery.Can someone explain why this is?I guessed that the light has some kind of circuitry that prevents over driving or something along those lines.I know nothing of lights and just thought that if this led was bright with the AAAA battery that it would be more bright with 12 volts.I know this may be a crazy or simple to answer question but I had to ask.Thanks for any help...

Careful, you might fry the poor little boost circuit in the Dorcy... that or the LED or both.

Well that is what I am trying to figure out.I do not know what boost circuits are and was wondering why the actual bulb was not brighter when hit with more power?Also I put AAAA battery in my above post but it is actually the 1-AAA light.See what I am trying to figure out is that the solitaire had a simple pin bulb that plugged in and worked well with a 12 volt.Why do some lights have this circuit board thing and other internals.I always thought it was a simple voltage to bulb connection with nothing in between.Sorry so long but I really am curious with this addicting hobby.Basically I need to know what kept the dorcy bulb from being brighter with more volts hitting it?

I can answer part of your question. The Dorcy 1AAA LED light needs some circuitry between the led and the battery because the 1.5 volts coming from a single AAA isnt enough to light up the LED, which typically need 3.6v to work. So the circuit inside the Dorcy is taking in 1.5v from the battery and putting out 3.6v to the LED. This type of circuit is known as a "Step-Up" converter around here.
As to why its dimmer with a 12v battery, you would have to ask one of the electronics wizards we have on this forum. My guess is that 12v is just too much for one of the components in the step-up circuit, thus causing it not to work.
Another thing to consider is the current capacity (mAh) of the battery. Those little 12v batteries cant put out as much sustained current as an AAA batt.

Kakster thanks for the information and I now know how the step up works.This is what makes this so interesting to me.It is very facinating to toy with this stuff I just wish I had the knowledge to now what I am doing.I am now doing a search to figure out this regulation concept.I like the idea of having a light as bright at the end of the batteries as the beginning.I have learned much on here and I appreciate the help.

Have a look at this thread : http://tinyurl.com/v3wz
Explains most of the different types of LED driver circuits around. As you will see, there are many different ways to power a LED, the Dorcy i suspect has a simple voltage booster. To get a constant light level while the battery is run down, you need a 'constant current' regulator.
Anyways, have a good read of that thread, lots of useful information from folk far more knowlegdable than i.

And welcome to CPF /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif