advice for extreme newbie on basic led flashlight

[ghostman]

Basically, the lights went out in my house last week. I looked everywhere in the pitch blackness around the house for a flashlight, but all the batteries were dead or the bulbs were dead. So, now, I'm on a rampage to get some flashlights around the house. Rather than buying regular flashlights, I was rather impressed with the strength and longevity of a blue led pen light I had. So, I want to build one, but don't have a clue what to do.

I found www.whitelightled.com and their 9000+ mcd white leds, so I figure I'll start there (unless someone knows better?). I'm looking to use AA or AAA batteries. Now, can someone enlighten me about a few things, or point me somewhere that might before I undertake something I'm unable to do.

1. What are the specs on those LEDs? Are they any good?
2. How many will I need to provide adequate flashlight use? (say, about as much as a AA minimag)
3. The simple thing to do seems to be to use a resistor, but everyone seems to rave about regulators. So, what do I use? Which regulator? And how much do they cost?

I guess I'll dig up an old high school physics book to figure out the circuitry, but is there anything else I'm missing? I would hate to give in and buy an led flashlight...to me, $30 for the opalec seems pretty high. Sorry this comes off so newbie-ish (and cheap).

 

[MicroE]

You can build your own, but I would recommend that you go here:

http://home.attbi.com/~theledguy/cpf_store/cpf_store.htm

This is a site run by one of our members. You can buy a Badboy or Madmax module (I love the BB500) and drop it into a 2AA minimag or a 2AA Brinkman Legend. This will give you one of the most powerful LED flashlights "made" for about $30. After you get a working light in hand I would sit down and try to figure out a Vf from an Icc, IMHO, of course.

There is a massive thread entitled "Everything you always wanted to know.." it is way to long to read in one sitting.---Marc

 

[BentHeadTX]

You could get one of those white Luxeon Star modules from Inretech and put lithiums in it. The lithium cells store a lot better and would work well with the unregulated Inretech modules. They run around $20 plus the cost of a 2 AA MiniMag light.

The BB500 is an insanely bright light! I have one and it makes this hobby a lot of fun (and addicting) You could use the Inretech Minimag with lithiums for an emergency light and the BB500 Minimag (or Brinkman) 2 AA light for your daily driver. The Opalec newbeam 3 5mm LED module is regulated but not as bright as the Luxeon Star monsters. It will last a looooong time on a set of batteries though.