9 led (3xAAA) D26 mod

[Tony Hanna]

Originally Posted by outersquare

i did this with a 3AAA "1 watt" brinkman

the original lamp unscrews out, and I just seated a DX P60 module on some washers and rubber bands and it fits

it seems to be brighter on nimhs than any alkalines, probably no surprise, the module i think is cree P4 and sucks .7A off CR123s, the alkalines probably have a hard time feeding it

occasionally, maybe once every ten times, it will not light up, but i just toggle it again and it comes back on. I think it's related to the limited current i mentioned above..

I've been running mine on lithium primary AAAs. With alkalines it seems to drop out of regulation pretty quickly and then dim gradually over the life of the cells. The lithiums appear to be able to keep their voltage up and allow it to run in regulation longer. Haven't tried nimh AAAs yet. I need to buy some.

Originally Posted by TorchBoy

To get that range of measurements I would have thought sic22 was using a bench supply and dialling up a various voltages to test it on. Because of Ohm's Law, the voltage on an alkaline would just drop if it couldn't dish out the required current. There's one way to find out.

The chart read like he was using cells (one of the entries was 3xAAA+1xAA) but you're right about the graphs. Oh well, I guess the question to ask now is: Does a driver exist that will do what I'm looking for (fit a P60 pill, have at least 3 brightness modes, and run the LED at full output from a single 1.2v cell)? If not then I guess I'll go with this one. It looks like I'll be getting "medium" level output on "high" with a single cell which is less than ideal but still better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Thanks,

Tony

[TorchBoy]

Originally Posted by Tony Hanna

... and run the LED at full output from a single 1.2v cell)?

If by "full output" you mean 1 amp, then I don't think so. It would require about 4.5 amps or more from a roughly 1.1 volt or less cell (voltage under load). Unlikely to happen, don't you think?

[TorchBoy]

Originally Posted by Tony Hanna

The chart read like he was using cells (one of the entries was 3xAAA+1xAA)

The chart wasn't by sic22 and is completely unrelated to his graphs.

[Tony Hanna]

Originally Posted by TorchBoy

If by "full output" you mean 1 amp, then I don't think so. It would require about 4.5 amps or more from a roughly 1.1 volt or less cell (voltage under load). Unlikely to happen, don't you think?

Considering that some hobby grade subC cells are capable of 40A+ discharge and I just ran across some AAs that claim to do 18A I don't think it's too much of a stretch. Though for alkalines yeah, probably not going to happen.

Originally Posted by TorchBoy

The chart wasn't by sic22 and is completely unrelated to his graphs.

Right, I didn't mean to imply that it was. I should have worded that better.

[TorchBoy]

Yes, you're quite right. I meant finding a driver that can do that because it's a lot of power (and thus heat) to cope with. (I should have worded that better!) I'm pretty sure all the boost drivers in my list that can do 1 amp with a couple of NiMH cells can't do it with just one.

After a quick check, there's one that can do 700 mA, not very efficiently, but using a couple of them in parallel (if that works) would be up to 1.4 A to the LED and under 5 A drain on the battery. Or using three paralleled lower output drivers would do the job. Hm...

[Tony Hanna]

Originally Posted by TorchBoy

Yes, you're quite right. I meant finding a driver that can do that because it's a lot of power (and thus heat) to cope with. (I should have worded that better!) I'm pretty sure all the boost drivers in my list that can do 1 amp with a couple of NiMH cells can't do it with just one.

That's a really good point about the heat! Especially considering the size of the host I'm working with here (not a lot of surface area to shed it).

After a quick check, there's one that can do 700 mA, not very efficiently, but using a couple of them in parallel (if that works) would be up to 1.4 A to the LED and under 5 A drain on the battery. Or using three paralleled lower output drivers would do the job. Hm...

The only problem I can see is that depth is pretty limited in this case. The cutdown P60 module is already considerably longer than the original 9LED module to the point where any additional length from stacked boards would leave me unable to use the original 3xAAA battery carrier. I think I've about got myself talked into living with the reduced output from a single cell with the DX driver in favor of the ability to use practically any battery combination that will fit in the tube.

Thanks for the help.

Tony

[tc2468]

heres mine, but my 2dollar 9led doesnt have a head that screws off, just a tailcap clicky and a 3aaa holder in it.

I basically used the tube and clicky and added a custom head/reflector, glass lense from a cheap folding loupe,
multi mode 1000ma 7135, an unprotected 18650, XRE-Q5. beam shot at about 3ft

[Tony Hanna]

Nice!

[kosPap]

not only nice...crazy..a dollar store light modded with how many bucks????

ONLY in CPF!