5mm LEDs - Any love left?

[TinderBox (UK)]

The amazing this about the E0 is it`s regulated for around 9 hours, The ARC AAA is not regulated and cost so much more.

http://67-20-93-49.unifiedlayer.com/flashlightreviews/reviews/fenix_e0.htm

John.

I tried an discharge Eneloop AAA discharged to 0.9v in my Fenix E0 and it did not light-up at all, then i tried it in an Fenix LOP which lights up bright and my ARC-P that also light up bright, So it looks like an Fenix E0 is not the keychain light to have in an emergency.

John.

 

[lampeDépêche]

Oh--cancel that. I mixed up the E0 with the E01, sorry.

 

[iamlucky13]

I've been keeping an eye out for other 5mm lights to possibly swap LED's, with the E01 still being the benchmark to compare against.

I haven't found much that actually outperforms coin cell lights.

Rayovac has a 3 lumen, 1xAAA penlight sold at Walmart for $3 that is reportedly fairly well regulated, but not very efficient. I don't go to Walmart much, but next time I do I will try to confirm whether it has a 5mm LED:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VK6ZGM/?tag=cpf0b6-20

More interesting to me is the Sunwayman R01A. It didn't hold up nearly as well as the E01 in the abuse thread, but it has an unpotted driver, verified here:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/9156

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I've been keeping an eye out for other 5mm lights to possibly swap LED's, with the E01 still being the benchmark to compare against.

I haven't found much that actually outperforms coin cell lights.

Rayovac has a 3 lumen, 1xAAA penlight sold at Walmart for $3 that is reportedly fairly well regulated, but not very efficient. I don't go to Walmart much, but next time I do I will try to confirm whether it has a 5mm LED:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VK6ZGM/?tag=cpf0b6-20

More interesting to me is the Sunwayman R01A. It didn't hold up nearly as well as the E01 in the abuse thread, but it has an unpotted driver, verified here:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/9156

I have one of them I picked up on clearance for $1 and it is unimpressive it has an optic type output (ball of light) that isn't very bright at all the "guts" of the light is a 3 inch cartridge that unscrews out of the front that is 3 pieces of plastic glued together I think. To be honest I don't think it is worth modding the rear clicky switch feel really cheap and sometimes it gets slightly jammed you have to double click it to get it to work. I'm glad I didn't pay $3 or so for it.

 

[NutSAK]

Last night I modified my Icon Irix II with the 3200K Yujis supplied by lampeDépêche. It was a fairly easy mod to partially cut off the legs of the original LEDs and solder the Yujis directly to them. Don't bother trying to desolder the original LEDs as I did for 3 of them. The tiny holes in the PCB make solder removal very difficult using wick.

I love floody headlamps and will use this one primarily for reading, after being in my "unused" pile for a few years. I highly recommend the mod, and it breathed new life into my Irix. There's so much tint win after being used to very orange High CRI tints in the 3000K range prior to this.

Thanks lampeDépêche!

 

[gunga]

Neat. I have a few irix. I should get some of those LEDS.

 

[NutSAK]

The Irix II really couldn't be much easier to mod, but I don't have experience with the Irix I. It's certainly well worth the effort for the II, IMO. It made a lamp that I very rarely used into something I will likely use frequently for reading and grilling tasks. I'm shocked by the tint and CRI of these, and I'm usually not pleased with tints below 4000K.

 

[gunga]

I have 4 irix 2's. I should search out these leds.

 

[K2-bk-bl-rd]

I don't know if anyone is interested, but I have a few of the 5600k Yuji LED's left. Not overly cool tint, just pure white, and make a flawless beam!

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Those 5600K Yuji LED's work really well at night because the output is not blinding powerful, seems to me. The even spread of light and natural color rendition (including white) do not distract from the task at hand or bring harshness to the scene.

Before joining candlepowerforums, I thought flashlights should mimic the tint of a high moon, so as to complement the illumination from the moon, being night and all. No more.

It is understandable that many prefer the warmth of firelight and incandescent light sources.

Now that we go outside during darkness so much to walk the dogs and avoid getting too much high mountain sun and other people with their out-of-control dogs, it is a treat to be able to look around and enjoy the colors and 'look' of daylight. This, I think applies to these higher color temperature Yuji emitters as well, given their reduced reach.

 

[lampeDépêche]

Thanks lampeDépêche!

Hey, you are very welcome, NutSAK!

You know, my initial investment for 100 of those things was not that much--like I think about $15.00 USD for the LEDs, plus another $19.00 USD for the shipping. Given the kind of money that a lot of people around here drop on lights all the time, that's cheap!

You know what is weirdly expensive, though? The Irix Icon II. I guess it is many years out of date now, and Amazon wants to sell their last few units for $89.00!!! I don't think so....

 

[NutSAK]

Yes, I saw that some remaining stock was available on Amazon. Paying that kind of price would no doubt be beyond the spirit of these inexpensive Yuji upgrades. They're nothing special, IMO. I paid $12 new for mine in 2012.

 

[Hondo]

I have one of them I picked up on clearance for $1 and it is unimpressive it has an optic type output (ball of light) that isn't very bright at all the "guts" of the light is a 3 inch cartridge that unscrews out of the front that is 3 pieces of plastic glued together I think. To be honest I don't think it is worth modding the rear clicky switch feel really cheap and sometimes it gets slightly jammed you have to double click it to get it to work. I'm glad I didn't pay $3 or so for it.

I have to agree with the stock $3 Walmart Rayovac 1xAAA clicky light evaluation. But I actually dig it now that I modded one, a while back, with a Nichia DS. I gutted the front and tossed the lens. Then I used the full length of the LED legs to put the tip of the LED right up front, and sleeved it with some un-shrunk shrink tubing for centering. The switch on mine has been perfect, a little firm and deliberate (loud, too), but no accidental activations. It drives very conservatively, and is a good candidate for a Yuji, IMHO. One of the least compact designs running on one AAA battery, but as a short penlight with clip, can be handy to carry in your shirt pocket.

I am also thinking the little "Dorcy-like" Rayovac twist-head AAA at Walmart might be good too, but I have not modded one yet. Mild drive current, but uses a combination reflector and partial diameter focusing lens - some flat lens at the side. I like to call it a "refloptic". It has a smooth "moon beam" at the center, and a decent spill around that. I think it's quite useful.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I have to agree with the stock $3 Walmart Rayovac 1xAAA clicky light evaluation. But I actually dig it now that I modded one, a while back, with a Nichia DS. I gutted the front and tossed the lens. Then I used the full length of the LED legs to put the tip of the LED right up front, and sleeved it with some un-shrunk shrink tubing for centering. The switch on mine has been perfect, a little firm and deliberate (loud, too), but no accidental activations. It drives very conservatively, and is a good candidate for a Yuji, IMHO. One of the least compact designs running on one AAA battery, but as a short penlight with clip, can be handy to carry in your shirt pocket.

I am also thinking the little "Dorcy-like" Rayovac twist-head AAA at Walmart might be good too, but I have not modded one yet. Mild drive current, but uses a combination reflector and partial diameter focusing lens - some flat lens at the side. I like to call it a "refloptic". It has a smooth "moon beam" at the center, and a decent spill around that. I think it's quite useful.

I agree the switch doesn't accidentally activate the switch is stiff enough but you have to almost overclick it to activate it and it is a long click at that. For a trip to the bathroom not waking others up light it is almost ideal as it has almost no spill and dim enough to not light up the room but bright enough not to totally destroy night vision. As I already have an LD01SS on my keychain this light just sits in a tray by my computer keyboard.
I had another LED light that was a "ball of light" that I rarely used but it was because it was very bright so much that when it hit something you could only see what was in the ball nothing else around it even fairly close could be seen as the contrast between the light and darkness was rather extreme. I have a cheap chinese 1AA light that I wish they could incorporate the optic in it in a 1AAA light for $3 and I paid $1.50 for it. If the Rayovac had this type of optic I would probably use it at times, put it in tool boxes so I would have a light in them just in case.

 

[iamlucky13]

Thanks for the input on the Rayovac penlight, Lynx-Arc and Hondo. I figured the optic could be removed, and there's numerous ways to make a simple replacement sleeve to help hold the LED in place.

But while I really like the fact that there is a light with consistent output for only $3, an output of only 3 lumens for 6 hours is surprisingly low. I think I might give the Sunwayman a try.

 

[LeanBurn]

I have had the Yuji modded Dorcy for a couple of months now, I use it quite often and it just sips the power from the cells. The LED is going just as strong as day 1 with no hint of discoloration or dimming.

I am very confident one could run these is a mini mag 2AAA with no issues...has anyone tried a Yuji in a mini-mag 2AAA or 2AA ?

I don't know how the 5mm 45 degree beam pattern will behave in an incandescent reflector that has been slight bored out to accommodate the 5mm base. Does anyone have any feedback or insight?

 

[iamlucky13]

Is your thought direct drive, resistor in series, or transplanting parts from the Dorcy? I think direct drive could be a risk with fresh alkalines because of the relatively low forward voltage of the Yujis.

I'm also rather curious how the beam would look in a reflector. I'm guessing a slightly larger than normal maglite hotspot. Brightness should in theory be close to that of the 2xAAA mini-Maglite.

 

[LeanBurn]

Direct drive, just like the Dorcy. I know the minimag 2AAA would be the exact same as the Dorcy and there is no risk there as I have been running this setup for months now with no issues. If the Yuji can handle 2 AAA....couldn't it handle 2AA just the same? (Also, these would be run with Amaloops... either AAA or AA.)

If I have to choose between the minimag 2AAA or minimag 2AA, I just want to use the best reflector type for the Yuji setup.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Reflectors on 5mm LEDs do a little usually gathering a small amount of spill but not enough to bother going all out to put a reflector in. As far as direct driving LEDs I've done it with 5mm and off nimh you can get runtimes in weeks down to so dim you have to look into the LED itself. what is fun to do is get a pair of L91/L92 batteries and direct drive the LEDs..... runtime and output is good.

 

[LeanBurn]

Bonus.

I just found a mini mag 2AAA clone lying around...it was out of a tire tester/flashlight promo case from Mr. Lube, it had Defiant batteries with a rear clicky, cheesy o-rings, no where near the build quality, but it looks similar to the minimag 2AAA.

So I bored out the reflector base to accept the 5mm LED and you are right Lynx Arc. There is no flood/throw changes when I twist the reflector. It did have some flood/throw adjustment previously when it had the incan bulb in there so the ability is pretty much lost when using a 5mm.

When I showed the before and after on the Yuji modded minimag clone to my son (who also loves flashlights), he questioned right away that he thought I put an LED in there. When I said that I did but it is a special Yuji LED, he said that it looks the same color as the incandescent bulb that was in there. Even to the untrained eye, Yugi's tint and CRI is super close to incandescent. :thumbsup:

Not sure if I will buy a minimag incan just to mod...