Can you hotwire a Battle Lantern?

[donn_]

I've had this for months, and just stuck a pair of 6V lantern batteries in, and it works...sorta.

The bulb is a Philips 4509, 13V 100W PAR36 Aircraft Landing Spot Light. It has an axial filament, approximately 1/4" long, sitting almost all the way out to the clear lens, in a 4.5" diameter smooth reflector.

It projects a vertical image of the filament, in a dull yellow. It's pretty obviously being under-driven. From the way the cells go in, and the arrangement of their contacts, it seems to be in powered in series, but I'm not positive about that.

Is it possible to get more poop out of this thing by substituting a lower voltage, higher wattage bulb?

Or, should I look at having it completely re-wired inside to make more modern use of the battery space and light engine?

Ideas? I'm thinking incan here. I know I could send it to LedZep and have the window filled with LEDs with a pot knob replacing the toggle switch, but I have another lantern which may have that fate.

I'm looking for more flood, and more light overall. I'll consider bulb replacements and alternative power sources, like a couple of big LiFePO4 packs to replace the 6V lantern alkies.

 

[Ken_McE]

lovecpf

 

[DonShock]

Here's a ready made LED conversion kit:

http://www.navylanterns.com/LED%20assemblies.htm

 

[RyanA]

There seems to be enough room for just about anything. The 6v are about the size of 8D batteries?

 

[Burgess]

to DonShock --


Thank you for that Very Interesting link !


Everybody oughta' read the right-hand side.


:goodjob:

_

 

[Benson]

Well, found a 12V 100W bulb with an 8 degree beam, should be a bit brighter and whiter; there's just loads of PAR36 in 12V 36 or 50W (although they mainly have textured lenses -- that may be good, or may give you even more flood than you want), but not much high-power.

Keeping it at 13V, that 100W lamp seems as good as it gets, so I'd guess you'll have to upgrade to a higher voltage battery pack -- 4-5 LiFePO4 cells sounds reasonable, or 4 LiCo/LiMn cells. Obviously, this might be better done as 4s2p or 5s2p, since F-size and larger get harder to find. But I see batteryspace has some 42120 LiFePO4, so maybe 5 of those could be squeezed in.

OTOH, there's also some dandy 28V bulbs (again, they mostly have textured lenses, for better or worse), in 100W and 150W. If you're redoing the battery pack anyway, you could shoot for 30V with the 150W bulb. 8 LiCo D/F (32600/32900) in series sounds right; you could even gut two lantern batteries and replace the cells inside with Li-ions for a totally drop-in solution.

But really, it looks like it's asking for an HID conversion -- use half the space for a battery, and half for a ballast. :devil:

RyanA: I'm pretty sure 6V batteries have 4 F cells inside -- each F cell is basically 1.5D. (Another option for reconstructing them, besides the 4x D/F Li-ion I mentioned above, would be 12x 1/2D NiMH; although that would be slightly taller, it should still fit in the light.)

 

[RyanA]

There'd be a lot of capacity, even at 10amp loads!

 

[DonShock]

to DonShock --Thank you for that Very Interesting link !.......

You're welcome. I ran across it a couple months ago when I was looking to buy a battle lantern for nostalgia's sake. I never did find one at a good price. They were always pretty dim even though they were tested regularly. The LEDs weren't available when I was still inthe Navy, but I imagine they've done wonders for both the runtime and the reliability.

 

[LuxLuthor]

You're welcome. I ran across it a couple months ago when I was looking to buy a battle lantern for nostalgia's sake. I never did find one at a good price. They were always pretty dim even though they were tested regularly. The LEDs weren't available when I was still inthe Navy, but I imagine they've done wonders for both the runtime and the reliability.

That was very interesting to read. Thanks again. Here were some relevant points. For some reason I thought these were all WW-II vintage era lights. Click on the Attack on the USS Cole link also. I have two of these lights that I've been wondering about doing something with also.

The Office of Naval Research, Technology Solutions Program, initiated the development of the LED Battle Lantern in response to the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 that resulted in the loss of 17 sailors' lives.​

The #1 finding of the investigation into the deaths and injuries aboard the USS Cole was that survivability during and following the attack was compromised due to lack of light;

​

There were NO rechargeable Battle Lanterns;

​

The critique showed that the standard Navy NON-rechargeable Battle Lanterns were NOT reliable due to the diminished capacity of disposable batteries, and;

​

The lamp filaments either broke or malfunctioned during battle.

​

They even have a civilian "Gorilla Light" model that is shown here.

 

[lctorana]

Answers here, in posts #16, #18 and #19.

 

[Oznog]

If it's really old that may be a pre-halogen bulb, which are less efficient than the halogens. Also... wow, 100W from 2x 6v lantern batts? That's like 8A out of alkalines. It sounds kinda questionable if they will be able to hold up the full output voltage at that current once they get below full charge.

There's also HID. HID is more lumens/W than LED. It doesn't turn on right away on demand, it has to cycle on, and probably shouldn't be turned on and off a lot either. Also the tube itself is way blinding and would probably need something to shield that from direct view.

 

[donn_]

Fascinating replies!

If anyone is interested in a new copy of this light, here's a link:

http://www.calcarcover.com/product.aspx?id=1047&cid=108

The same company sells it on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-U.S.-Navy-S...ern-Light_W0QQitemZ380089563648QQcmdZViewItem

It appears the light is wired with the cells in parallel, because it also functions on a single 6V cell. I guess that explains why it appears so under-driven.

According to the Ebay description, this is the stocked lamp:

Sealed incandescent, Par-36, screw terminal. Industry Number 4546. 4.8 Volts, 6,300 beam candlepower, hours of life 100 hours

My first goal will be to find replacements for the missing bulkhead mounting system. I want to mount the light on the cockpit bulkhead of my boat (30' wooden sedan cruiser).

Ideally, the lantern batteries will be replaced with a rechargeable option, which will be kept charged by the boat's house system.

The appropriate beam profile will be a bright flood, so maybe I'll look into the textured lens PAR36 bulbs out there.

Thanks!

 

[donn_]

:thumbsup: I just wired the lamp to a 13.6V stick (4x 26650 A123s) and it woke up! Bright white spot with lots of heat.

 

[mdocod]

:thumbsup: I just wired the lamp to a 13.6V stick (4x 26650 A123s) and it woke up! Bright white spot with lots of heat.

THERE YOU GO!

I don't think 100W would come out of a pair of alkaline lantern 6V batteries regardless of what you wired em up to....

------

I am going make some assumptions here:

The bulb you found in there doesn't belong in there. It's probably supposed to come with a bulb such as this or maybe this.

I did some reading around, and it sounds like the batteries in those units are wired in parallel. According to one place online they advertise it as being able to run on 1 or 2 lantern batteries, which pretty much means it's wired parallel...

------

As you found, more powerful batteries are going to be required if you want to use the landing light, careful you don't melt the thing though. A pair of 6V SLA batteries in there re-wired up for series, or a pair of 12V SLAs would also work with the stock wiring configuration. That would be the cheapest power option. Do double check that wiring though before taking my word on it if you decide to try that...

You could go even brighter with a 4596, but have to come up with ~28V somehow.

Eric

 

[Cigarman]

Found a unique solution to different lamp types:

http://www.duckworksav.com/Upgrades.html

looks like HID wouldnt be so bad, just the cost. OR the replaceable H3 mount type lens/reflector assembly. Neat eh?

As to the A123 option mentioned, where would one procure these cells?

 

[donn_]

28V would be a piece of cake. I just stacked up 10x 26650s in one side of this thing.

I think, however, for this application, I'd only want a lot of battery for runtime. The housing is tough, but it's plastic, and I'm afraid a high-output lamp would yield a Dali Light.

Cigarman...I got some of mine from other CPFers and some which I harvested from cordless tool battery packs.

You can also buy them here:

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=1273

They aren't the A123 Systems brand, but are essentially the same chemistry.

 

[donn_]

OR the replaceable H3 mount type lens/reflector assembly. Neat eh?

Very neat! That looks like it could be made to work with a KIU socket and an appropriate bi-pin bulb.

Hmmm...

 

[petrev]

Hi donn_

You could run a 250W Par36 sealed beam using 10xA123 and they don't get very hot

250W GE4596 28V Sealed Beam unit (ala Vol'K'ano Sleeper by JetskiMark)
Mounted in a Ray-O-Vac vintage lantern head + 287-Switch.



but for more runtime you should look at those replacement mirror-lens kits in cigarmans link and a cheapo e-bay auto ballast 35 or 55W 4300K

COOL

Cheers
Pete

 

[donn_]

Hi Pete...

The batteries don't get hot, or the lamp doesn't? This 100W got hot in short order at just under the spec 13V.

Are you talking about 25 or 55W HID? Is it practical in a flood application, and a marine environment?

 

[donn_]

Not incan, but this might do the trick. 6V par36 41xLED drop-in:

http://www.ledtronics.com/products/ProductsDetails.aspx?WP=C393K349