LEDPunisher
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2014
- Messages
- 59
One night I was out and about with my CFL lantern/flashlight combo when I tripped and smacked the light against a tree. The impact snapped the CFL tube off at the base, and replacement CFLs for this outdated lamp were rather expensive.
Then I realized I had a 12V MK-R and this thing ran off of 12V (8 D-cells.)
So I popped it open to modify it! The bulb is separate from the mounting base, so I've got a useful ballast for other playthings (might try it on a CCFL later on.) Chunk bulb, keep its mounting base, put ballast in drawer, check out battery compartment. All is fine and dandy there, with the wiring I need to access under the mounting base for the CFL. Here comes the fun part that took me roughly 30 minutes. Get my MK-R mounted on a star board, solder leads to the board, mount board on an old heat sink pulled from a 15w LED spot/flood and silicone it into place, run wires through it, pull the base, snake lead wires through it and to the positive and negative terminals, glue the heat sink into the CFL mounting base, cut a bit of the bottom of the reflector away so the LED can slide in and out for focus/spread, attach clips to leads, attach leads to battery terminals. 1 Ohm 1/8w resistor in-line just for fun.
I should've taken pictures but this is a slightly old modification. I've got a video of it in action, however!
My next upgrade to it will be a rechargeable battery pack. I hate these spring terminals, too much movement and I get LED flickering due to the poor electrical contact.
Then I realized I had a 12V MK-R and this thing ran off of 12V (8 D-cells.)
So I popped it open to modify it! The bulb is separate from the mounting base, so I've got a useful ballast for other playthings (might try it on a CCFL later on.) Chunk bulb, keep its mounting base, put ballast in drawer, check out battery compartment. All is fine and dandy there, with the wiring I need to access under the mounting base for the CFL. Here comes the fun part that took me roughly 30 minutes. Get my MK-R mounted on a star board, solder leads to the board, mount board on an old heat sink pulled from a 15w LED spot/flood and silicone it into place, run wires through it, pull the base, snake lead wires through it and to the positive and negative terminals, glue the heat sink into the CFL mounting base, cut a bit of the bottom of the reflector away so the LED can slide in and out for focus/spread, attach clips to leads, attach leads to battery terminals. 1 Ohm 1/8w resistor in-line just for fun.
I should've taken pictures but this is a slightly old modification. I've got a video of it in action, however!
My next upgrade to it will be a rechargeable battery pack. I hate these spring terminals, too much movement and I get LED flickering due to the poor electrical contact.
