SUPER long running incan setups

it seems to me that when talking LONG run times, people think straight away of LED. But why cant we do this with a bulb? No reason really - so I cooked something up.

Host - needs to be roomy, give a broad beam and take screw in bulbs. Step forward Ever Ready lantern.
Bulb - 1.25V, 0.25A
Batteries - 4 Eneloops in parallel holder.

I worked out I would get a solid 40 HOURS of light! Make that 8AA in parallel and 80 Hours is achieved. Or 2 x 4AA in S/P arrangement would give 2.4V and 40 hours of brighter light using a 2.5V bulb.

I have the lantern and batteries, and bulbs and holder is on the way to try for myself. Anyone else tried similar?

I'm looking forward to this!

You could use one of the new 2D mags with bipin and replace the bulb with Minimag bulb

I don't know if the bulb would make it through an entire cycle without blackening though

Some old ideas are discussed here http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...un-time-incandescents-cold-war-era&highlight=

No incandescent bulb can equal an LED for low power draw and therefore long run times. However run times of dozens of hours are readily obtained with low current bulbs and large or multiple cells.
Over a hundred hours is possible, for example 4 paralleled alkaline D cells and a 1.5 volt 0.25 amp bulb should give about 300 hours ! though remember that the bulb is unlikely to last that long.
5 alkaline cells in series and a 6 volt 0.04 amp pilot bulb should also give a few hundred hours.

Before the LED age, navigation lights used to mark harbour entrances etc used small incandescent bulbs and disposable batteries of thousands of AH capacity. Four bulbs were often used in turn being replaced automatically when one failed.
These batteries are still made, but are not exactly affordable or portable.

Broadage- That was an excellent thread! Minimoog- I'll need to see progress pics, please. And a part number for that bulb... Can't wait to see what you wind up with.

scout24 said:

Broadage- That was an excellent thread! Minimoog- I'll need to see progress pics, please. And a part number for that bulb... Can't wait to see what you wind up with.

Click to expand...

Same here.

MiniMoog has it goin' on.

apete2 said:

You could use one of the new 2D mags with bipin and replace the bulb with Minimag bulb

I don't know if the bulb would make it through an entire cycle without blackening though

Click to expand...

IIRC the pin spacing is different, if one could overcome that problem, then yes a considerable increase in run time should result. The new minimag bulbs are about 0.3 amp I think and should therefore last about 40 hours on premium brand alkaline D cells. No great accuracy can be claimed in this. The actual run time will be rather variable depending on battery temperature, bulb and battery manufacturing tolerances, on whether the run is continuous or is the total of a number of uses, and of course by how dim you allow the light to become before deciding that new cells are called for.

A still simpler idea would be a slightly older 2D mag that uses a PR base bulb, simply replace the supplied bulb with one of much lower current. 2 cell PR bulbs of 0.3A are fairly readily available. The minimag bulb will probably be brighter though, they are by incan standards, a modern and high efficiency bulb with a reasonable life. A 0.3 amp PR base bulb is probably a low technology type unchanged in decades, indeed the actual bulb may be NOS and decades old with poor light output or life, or both.

Still longer battery life and a dimmer light could be obtained by use of a 2 cell PR base bulb of 0.15 amps or less, these are not easy to find but do turn up on UK fleabay and presumably elsewhere.

Mm bulb will work if the pins are bent but the focus point is almost with the head unscrewed.

Most laser like beam I have ever seen though. Interesting enough to maybe do a runtime test

Hey, thanks for the excellent input and encouragement. It's really good to hear your thoughts on this. Let me get the stuff together and I'll give more detailed information.