Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

[fyrstormer]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Lightly sanding the emitter before installation might help, as it will behave more like an unfocused light source than it would with an un-modified plastic dome. Gotta remember, 5mm LEDs have their own built-in optics.

A wide-angle LED or a side-emitting LED might also work well.

Radio Shack sells a nice little butane-powered soldering iron and solder with silver in it. I use both for my modding jobs.

 

[nbp]

You know, for a $2 mod, this thing is really growing on me. Sufficient couple lumens of floody light, just perfect for puttering around the house after lights out without turning them back on. Tons of run-time even on an old cell. And the comfy and familiar G2 platform, easy to hold and use, WITH momentary! I have it now by my bedside with my T1A for evening duty. This was a great idea AoW, thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[angelofwar]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

You know, for a $2 mod, this thing is really growing on me. Sufficient couple lumens of floody light, just perfect for puttering around the house after lights out without turning them back on. Tons of run-time even on an old cell. And the comfy and familiar G2 platform, easy to hold and use, WITH momentary! I have it now by my bedside with my T1A for evening duty. This was a great idea AoW, thanks. :thumbsup:

Thanks nbp! I can tell by all ya'lls post counts, that you have gone through the "brighter isn't always better" stage! Glad ya like! I need to build another...I still have my UV one, but all my white one's have been gifted...LOL!

 

[nbp]

Interestingly, most of the lights I have aren't any brighter than the ones I bought when I joined here over 4 yrs ago. I still only have about 3 lights over 200 lms and I rarely use them. All my EDC lights are between 100-200 lm on high. So a nice little low level dropin in a great host is definitely something I can appreciate.

 

[nein166]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Just recently found this thread and had the parts on hand (or so I thought) to make one of these.
I used a 5mm low dome wide angle LED with GlowInc powder on the back side that is rated at 3.2vf
The P60 was already taken apart but I found out it was a different spring set maybe X80.
To get around that I bent the last bit of the ground spring over the outside of itself widening the base of the spring
I used hot glue to set the LED in the Reflector and to adhere some extra glow powder under the LED
Also the hot glue holds the spring base to the reflector

Now the light host will be a SF G2 and I don't have a spare dummy cell so I used a long spring and a HiLiter Cap
I poked a hole in the HiLiter cap off center. Clipped the spring to length and threaded it into the cap hole.
The entire spring is in the cap so it can't get loose and short to the outer spring. The long spring is threaded into the center spring

I put it in the G2 which has a UCL from an old XR-E mod and fed it a rather live CR123, couldn't find any zombies that my L1 hasn't killed again.
Guess I should put it in a normal light till its dead and then let the vampire have a taste.
This is a beamshot of the Preon2 on low and P60 vampire its very throwy with an okay flood

Preon2 <--- ---> P60 Battery Vampire

 

[angelofwar]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Very nice, nein!!! Like the mcgyverness you used to get it working! Now there's no reason to ever throw away another half-spent CR123 again! The $2 a pop price tag per cell doesn't seem so bad once you have one of these!

 

[nein166]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Very nice, nein!!! Like the mcgyverness you used to get it working! Now there's no reason to ever throw away another half-spent CR123 again! The $2 a pop price tag per cell doesn't seem so bad once you have one of these!

Thanks AOW
$2 a pop! I don't feed my lights those fancy Gourmet batteries. Mine get the USDA quality TitaniumInnovations for $1 each

 

[nbp]

This light is almost too miserly! It's gonna take FOREVER to wear a cell down to an unusable level. I need to go camping for a couple days or something where I can leave it on for hours a night because a few minutes a night of burn on this setup means I am Never going to get through all my partly used cells. What else can I shine this thing on? Haha.

 

[angelofwar]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

This light is almost too miserly! It's gonna take FOREVER to wear a cell down to an unusable level. I need to go camping for a couple days or something where I can leave it on for hours a night because a few minutes a night of burn on this setup means I am Never going to get through all my partly used cells. What else can I shine this thing on? Haha.

Just keep yer spent cells in a plastic case forget about them until you need them (hurricane/long term power outage, etc.). That's how I justify keeping my spent cells. BTW, the ten year shelf life SF gives there batteries is "misleading"...I tested an 11 year old cell, and it read 3.22. I'm guessing there useable shelf life is closer to 15-20 like the other lithium cells, but they underrate them like they do the outputs.

 

[M@elstrom]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Just keep yer spent cells in a plastic case forget about them until you need them (hurricane/long term power outage, etc.). That's how I justify keeping my spent cells.

Yeah I do the same, keep them in an old Mentos container

 

[Kestrel]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Yeah I do the same, keep them in an old Mentos container

The taste is a bit lacking however ...

 

[cland72]

I found my personal perfect use for this setup. 3am my son needs to be fed and the output on this is perfect for getting around the house with dark adapted eyes. I am running it in a brinkman maxfire with one of AW's 123 dummy cells and it works like magic.

Posted using Tapatalk on my HTC Evo

 

[greatscoot]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

I think I am going to try my first mod. A.O.W. is it possible to repost the pics from first post in the thread?

 

[angelofwar]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

I think I am going to try my first mod. A.O.W. is it possible to repost the pics from first post in the thread?

I will try to repost them for ya soon, scoot.

 

[greatscoot]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

So I went to "the shack" picked up the LED's, and ordered the reflector assembly from Illumination Supply. I was really set to make this only to find out when I opened the lamp assembly that they are designed for an LED pill (bummer).

Time to hunt down some old P60's somewhere

 

[nbp]

Put a WTB in the MP for burned out incan P60s. Probably you can get some from other members for the cost of shipping, which isn't much.

 

[angelofwar]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Glad to see this idea still alive and kicking...ok...reposting the pics (4 years later realizing they are not the best "do this" pictures, but , for what it is worth:

(Shown with yellow and red led builds)

 

[M@elstrom]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

Glad to see this idea still alive and kicking...

+1 :thumbsup:


Still a big fan of the red LED's low VF (consumption economy), expended CR123a cells last ages

 

[greatscoot]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

I was able to pick up a couple of P60's cheap on ebay and I have created my first "Vampire". The beam looks like the one in post #218, so I need to do some tweaking of LED position, but it was cool making this. Time to pick up some colored LED's now.
Thanks for the original post A.O.W.

 

[greatscoot]

Re: *Beamshots-Post #36*Build yer own "Battery Vampire" with a P60

I have been running a 123 tested at 2.85v for 20 hours now with no noticeable drop in output.