AAA MiniMag conversion advice, please? =)

[Chris M.]

You`ll have a bit of bother there- most modern LEDs operate from about 1.8-2 volts minimum- for GaAlAs (red, orange, yellow) and from about 3.5-3.6 volts GaN (white, blue, green, etc). Some old, and I mean old, red ones will glow on a 1.5 volt cell but even at their rated operating current/voltage they are very dim by todays standards, so useless for flashlight purposes.

I don`t know of any bright LED made today that will operate on 1.5 volts directly. I think you`re stuck with the bulb, I`m afraid.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Read the thread at:

Converting a solitare to LED

You could use 2 12-volt batteries wired in parallel, with a resistor, and easily power your 5600 Nichia.

There are a couple of other threads about that type conversion you might want to read (if I remember right)

Mark

 

[TrevorNasko]

2 days ago i had the same idea. if you have a solitare you can try this. unscrew the back cap of the minimag and set the flashlight aside . now take off the top cap of the solitare and set it aside. next take out the bulb and that black thing the bulb goes in take the batery out and you should have a tube. on the end where the bulb was put non conductive material (just the tip)make sure you still have a hole there. through that hole slide alum. foil wrapped in elect. tape . the foil should be as long as the tape is wide with 1cm spillout on each end slide it through the hole. now replace the bat. in the solitare. then screw it down on to your already loaded minimag( it won't go far!!!!)and wrap the area with electrical tape for structure. next take off the minimags head and remove the reflecter leaving just the lense. put your led into the holes and encircle its base with hot glue for suport. now screw down the head and the lense will "push" the light off

ps: eliminate the solitare part and install a 3 volt led instead of a 6 volt(make sure you use rechargables for 3volt leds!!!

)

 

[Chris M.]

You could use 2 12-volt batteries wired in parallel, with a resistor, and easily power your 5600 Nichia.



D`oh! How could I have forgotten! That was my very first ever LED conversion and the subject of my first ever posting here, if I remember rightly. Actually I think my very very first post was down in the Test forum but you get the idea.

Mine used one slightly tired 12 volt "32A" type cell, that was all- since it couldn`t give enough current to cook the LED. All I did was stretch out the contact spring to make up the shortfall left by the little tiny cell, pull out the bulb and lens and poke in an LED. Still got it round here somewhere but it was at about the time my own LED addiction really got a hold of me so I had a ton of other "proper" LED lights arrive soon after- and quickly forgot about the poor old worn-out little Solitaire.

But as a LED mod it`s a good one indeed- nice and simple.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Chris M.

Your words could have come straight out of my mouth. Did all that at about the same time, too.

I pulled out my Solitare conversion before writing the previous message. It still works, but I'd forgotten that I built a 'dummy' battery to fill up the extra space and stuck a tiny resistor inside it because I was worried about cooking the LED (LOL!).

In the beginning of this obsession ... ah, what sweet memories.

Mark

 

[Ant]

on the solitare you can also put in 3 1/3 AAA Nickle Metal Hydride batteries much better than a 12v battery , and you can recharge them ,,,,

i never thought that this topic would come back up again , but i must admit that i still use my converted solitare , it allways on my keyring

Ant

 

[vcal]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ant:
on the solitare you can also put in 3 1/3 AAA Nickle Metal Hydride batteries much better than a 12v battery , and you can recharge them ,,,,
Ant<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Before Ant found the 1/3AAA NimH cells, I did exactly the same thing he did (with mini-Nicads) and it worked great.

BTW- if you're a bit put off by the cost of the NimH cells, the Nicad version of those cells can be found @ www.goldmine-elec.com (6 batts-$3.95-item #G9420).

 

[Silviron]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by videocal:
[QBBefore Ant found the 1/3AAA NimH cells, I did exactly the same thing he did (with mini-Nicads) and it worked great.

BTW- if you're a bit put off by the cost of the NimH cells, the Nicad version of those cells can be found @ www.goldmine-elec.com (6 batts-$3.95-item #G9420).[/QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I sure can't find the 1/3 AAs on the Goldmine site or in the most recent catalog or flyers.

Am I just dense (don't answer that

) or is this OLD information on stuff that "goldmine" doesn't have any more?

And Mouser is sold out

I've been looking everywhere for 1/3 AAs for three weeks now and can't find any.

Of course what I really want is some 2/3 AAAs, but I guess they don't even make them.

 

[vcal]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Silviron:
I sure can't find the 1/3 AAs on the Goldmine site or in the most recent catalog or flyers.

Am I just dense (don't answer that

) or is this OLD information on stuff that "goldmine" doesn't have any more?

And Mouser is sold out

I've been looking everywhere for 1/3 AAs for three weeks now and can't find any.

Of course what I really want is some 2/3 AAAs, but I guess they don't even make them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Those small NcDs are definitely Not available from the Goldmine website

Those magic rings must be working because, (& thanx to Mr. Ant from the UK), let me steer you to: www.tnrtechnical.com for both the 1/3AAA AND 2/3AAA NimH cells.
BTW- that Goldmine Cat. is #238, -(I've ordered those little squirt Nicad batteries on 3 occasions bcause they work so well and they're so cheap cheap)

p.s.-could you direct me to "Mouser" (battery site)?

 

[sodakar]

Hi again.

I just found an old AAA mini-mag lying around in my room. I powered it on, and boy, its lack of illumination was just pathetic...

To fix this, I'm thinking of stuffing a LED inside... but... without a step-up circuit like the Arc-AAA or CMG Infinity, it's semi-pointless to stuff a 5600mcd white Nichia from an old Photon in it...

So... are there any LED's out there that work well at 1.5 volts without a step-up circuit?

I tried checking out other 1.5-volt flashlights such as the A1 and A2 from Home Tech Solutions, but usually found dead websites... hmm.

Any suggestions on which LED's I can/should use?

 

[Silviron]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>www.tnrtechnical.com for both the 1/3AAA AND 2/3AAA NimH cells.

p.s.-could you direct me to "Mouser" (battery site)?[/QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wow, thanks for the link. I've gone 50 pages deep on Yahoo Search and at least 10 pages deep on several other search engines and never found these guys. Just glanced at their site so far, but "looks like it may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship".

Mouser isn't just a battery store; Mouser is a huge electronics parts company. Their website is at:
www.mouser.com.
They don't have a great online catalog- You pretty much need to know what you want ahead of time to order online. They do have their catalog that you can download from the site- it is an indexed PDF thing. Works great, and a good reference to have even if you never order from them.