$5 8LED from CheaperThanDirt

[RossB]

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ctd/product.asp?sku=KEY%2D265&thru=fr&mscssid=FFGL4JDEHPW89G1UCNSC7FB55R7V3HHD

What the heck, I bought a couple of them. No manufacturer on the packge except "SE" and "Made in China". The ones I received have hex heads and tails instead of the knurling shown at the URL. The bodies are some cheap polished pot metal of some sort. And, the tailcap clickie switch is amusingly labeled "ON" and "OFF" to either side of the button. There are no instructions whatsoever. But, the threads have O rings, so it ought to survive a bit of rain. Removing either head or tail frees the battery holder for insertion of the 3 AAA's. I looked up under the head, and the LED's appear to be simply hardwired to the battery contact...you were expecting regulation for five bucks?

About as bright overall as an ST ProPoly 7/4AA. Strong circular hotspot. One's got greenish led's, the other bluish.

I have had one of them running about an hour now without dimming, at least so far as the MK I Human Eyeball can detect. Will update.

Sheesh! 8 led's for $5. Buy three, tape 'em together in a cluster, and have a 24 led bicycle headlight for $15. Still, they ARE CHEAP, you'll never mistake them for a Surefire product. If I had to suspect a weakness, I'd choose the switch.

Ross

 

[wholeflaffer]

Thanks. Nice "eyewitness" report!

 

[rdshores]

I bought three of those. Got the hex ones too...instead of the one in the pic. I emailed them and they checked and all the ones they had were hex shaped...(over 2000 in stock). The threaded aluminum ring in the head was loose on two of them...causing them to flicker. After I tightened it, everything worked fine. Nice white light too. Measured 405ma (direct drive) with NiMh batteries.

 

[nerdgineer]

I actually got 6 of them. 5 were OK if I took a little time to clean them up. The 6th was unfixable and I have asked for a refund.

I did the following things, after taking them apart (used tips of little scissors to remove the retaining ring in the front, plier to remove the switch in the back):

Cleaned the lens with alcohol to remove fingerprints, etc. The LED module is smaller than the head by maybe 2 mm, so I cut a strip of plastic and wedged it all the way around to hold the head centered. I stoned off the front of the retaining ring to remove burrs and get a smooth contact surface.

The negative electrodes are in a ring around the edge of the LED board, and I made a little flat donut of aluminum foil (roll a tube of foil, flatten tube, fold lengthwise again, crinkle into a donut shape) and placed it between the LED module and the retaining ring. Tightening the ring down gave a crush fit and (I thought) better contact between the board and the ring.

I then took a Dremel with wire brush and cleaned the anodizing off the threads (do it without the switch in the light to keep the switch clean) as it sure looks like they anodized the threads. Putting it back together gave me a fairly reliable light which I like for the money. My labor is free as this is of course fun to do.

The 6th light actually has mismatched threads on the tail. They engaged for about 1/16 of a turn and, after dremeling, not at all, so that is basically a source of a spare battery pack. After checking, the body is machined wrong, not the tail. One of the switches also broke on about the first use, but I swapped that switch out so I have 5 working lights and (I hope) a $5 refund coming.

That's so so for quality control (actually pretty bad), but for $5... In previous encounters with CTD, I found their customer service to be pretty good and I think they will make good on the bad light.

I made a battery run time test using an old GE213 incident light meter. 3 freshly charged 800 mAH nimhs gave an initial brightness about 70 foot candles at 1 foot. Dropped from 70 to about 55 in 20 minutes and stayed there until about 90 minutes. Reached the half power point about 105 minutes and crashed pretty quickly after that. If you let it rest, the brightness would come up again so I think you might get 2 hours of good brightness out of it with intermittent use. The light is pretty white, maybe with a little blue. Nice wide beam and reasonably bright for walking the dog at night.

Sorry for the long post - not sure if anyone else cares, but as far as I know, no one's bought more of these lights than me so I thought I'd report.

 

[paulr]

Group buy anyone?

Hmm, there were 2000 in stock when rdshores emailed them and there's only 436 available now?

I just tried to order some and the shopping cart didn't work; I may phone them tomorrow.

Also, can someone measure the current with fresh alkaline cells?

Thanks.

 

[webley445]

I was wondering, I regularly get the CTD catalogue sent to me. I have not ordered from them as I feel they kill you on the S&H charges, but I have been wondering about the lights they have advertised. (hmm, group buy sounds good)

Thanks for taking the time to inform us all of your findings guys!

 

[rdshores]

I just measured 550ma with new out of the pack Duracell alkalines.
The threads do need the anodizing cleaned out as nerdgineer said.
It IS fun to detail these lights.
I'm going to replace the leds in one with UV leds.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

I just ordered one...we'll see how it goes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Ehhh doodlebugs!!! It takes AAA cells, and I'm out of those. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[extas]

yeah, same light as the one from goldmine. but the gold mine one is the one in the CTD picture.

i have lights from both vendors. the parts are interchangable. the goldmine light has a better LED retaining ring, the CTD light has a better body, as it has fewer threads on the head side allowing for a larger module in the head.

i am going to do a light mod like mr. bulk with a 3 watt, i might do a 5mm 10000 mcd x 8 mod too, just desolder and resolder the existing module.

the switch is pretty cheesy, the contacts are really thin. i have replaced the contacts in 2 of mine with 1/4 inch brass strip, from ace hardware, the thinnest gauge they carry. its about twice the thickness of the original. it works pretty well.

the biggest weakness in my CTD lights is the retaining ring, which often wobbles loose, which allows for a gap between the module and the ring when the battery pack is installed. breaking the circuit.

<edit>

i have 3 goldmine lights and 5 CTD /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[nerdgineer]

That's why I put in the aluminum foil donut between the ring and the PC board. It allows you to "crush" the ring down on the board as it will conform to both the nobs on the board and to the ring it self. I tightened the sucker down good and it has stayed put since then - I've used it more or less nightly for a week and dropped it a few times on office floor to test it. A plastic strip around the LED module also holds it in place so it won't tend to shift (I think) when dropped, also improving its reliability. So far, mine have not flickered after "detailing". Before they flickered a lot.

 

[nerdgineer]

Regarding number of lights bought...you da man! I think the CTD lights might come from a different factory, as their quality control is pretty bad. I hope the goldmine lights (and other versions I've seen around) have better QC.

 

[marklein]

I have one of the Goldmine lights and the fit/finish on mine is pretty good (for $10 that is). Gonna DD a 3W with it as soon as I can source a shallow enough reflector. Cutting off some of the threads on the body helps gain more room, but you're still limited by the battery length.

 

[extas]

really they are very close in build, but the goldmine knurling probably hides a lot of QC on the bodies, the CTDs are so smooth everything shows. i really like the look of the smooth body of a CTD with the knjurled head and tail of the goldmine.

of note the battery packs are identical.. oh and the 1 5mm LED x 3 AAA (dorcy? or Garrity?) over at walmart might be nearly the same as well except for the head pill. but thats conjecture, as all i saw was a post here about it. from the pic it looked really really close. just black. and with stickers on the battery pack too show you how to put in the batteries.

i tried cutting down a mag AA reflector, but too much of the silver rubbed off. but when i cut it down it ended up about as thick as the original LED pill. used a rasp and some 320 grit.

the best you can do with the head is probably 5/8 to 3/4" of an in depth. probably more toward 5/8.

what are you thinking of using as a sink? i'm probably gonna use an old 1971 penny smoothed out with 2000 grit + a second layer of aluminum plate cut and shaped by hand. both combined only end up 3/32" thick. i'll use the circuit works heat/ele conductive epoxy (lol its so expensive) to make the sink with the goldmine ring. i'm hoping its enough.

but i still need to actully buy the emitter.. haha

 

[liteitup]

pot metal, who called it made out of pot metal? Its titanium says so in the ad two times! For 5 bucks woohoo

/sarcasm

Thats just blatent false/bad advertising. Obviously they are talking about the color, but no where do they actually say that.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

In reference to the package I just received: {sung like the Foreigner song "Feels Like the First Time"}
Feels like a flaaaaaash-liiiight...feels like a FLAAAA-aaaash-liiiight!!!
Feels like a flaaaaaash-liiiight...feels like a FLAAAA-aaaash-liiiight!!!

I just received the flashlight, but since I'm out of AAA cells and this flashlight does not come with them, I won't have very much information about it until I get my hands on some. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Interesting that they shipped it via Federal Express.

(Edit 3:03pm PDT)
I think I can borrow the batteries from my Ceemore, and at least get a web page started.

 

[extas]

if the CTD light flickers or fails, its most likely the retaining ring in the head coming loose. it really does that a lot. if you look at the design the battery pack pushes against the head pill, which pushes the pill away from the ring which allows the ring to loosen. and once loose enought the ring looses contact with the pill and bzzt no more light. heh. a modded one the way mr. bulk did it won't do that as the ring and the LED are one piece.

 

[nerdgineer]

Various peoples measurements (including my own) suggest that this light is driving its' 8 LEDs at 50+ mA each and getting about 8000 mcd's per LED (I think that's what my measurement of 70 foot-candles at 1 foot means...please correct me if not true). That means these are probably about 4000 mcd (at 20 mA) LEDs.

The 8 led board in these - unlike lights with more LEDs - is very simple and it should be possible to desolder the LEDs and replace them with 13000 mcd LEDs. Theoretically, this should get about 20,000 mcDs at 50 mA, and increase brightness to about twice stock (160 foot candles @ 1 foot?). If this works, it should result in a very usable and still cheap light.

I'm going to try it if I ever get some time...

 

[The_LED_Museum]

My web page about it is now up right here if anybody is interested.
It is NOT done - but it is complete enough to publish.