Dorcy 45 Lumen 1 Watt 2AA at Sears

[Ty_Bower]

Has anyone seen the new Dorcy 2AA at Sears? It's on the hook for $21.99, and claims 45 lumens output. It has a focusable hemisperical optic which I imagine gives a typical "moonbeam" pattern. Underneath it looks like some square packaged emitter which is clearly not a Cree.

The packaging looks somewhat like this:
http://dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=414255

Although I'm certain the light was longer and skinner than it appears on the Dorcy web page. Perhaps they put up an incorrect photo. In real life, the one I saw at Sears was just a hair longer than the Fenix L2D, and just a hair wider too.

 

[Illum]

well...personally i doubt its 45 lumens...but at least they finally got off the 3AAA track...wonder if this has a booster circuit in it...

good find :goodjob:

 

[2xTrinity]

I think someone needs to come up with a Cree LED for sale in stores. Imagine an LED with a Cree driven at 3W with one of those "test me" buttons and a mirror that aims the beam squarely at the customer's face

 

[Bomo]

I think someone needs to come up with a Cree LED for sale in stores. Imagine an LED with a Cree driven at 3W with one of those "test me" buttons and a mirror that aims the beam squarely at the customer's face

They'd probably be sued for having a laser on the shelf.

 

[Illum]

I think someone needs to come up with a Cree LED for sale in stores. Imagine an LED with a Cree driven at 3W with one of those "test me" buttons and a mirror that aims the beam squarely at the customer's face

I was enlightened [or should I say blinded] when i picked up my first light in becoming a flashaholic [inova XO2] and pushed "try me" while looking "into" the bezel

I've got the bug since then, and that light is now in a tribute box...polished and lubed.

 

[vinsanity286]

I just picked this light up for $19.99 at my local sears. I just couldnt resist. I am at school now so no pictures but i will put them up once i get home.
First off the finish is matte black probably ha II. No visible machining marks. Very nice imo. The threads are super smooth and have plenty of engagement. And it can tailstand!! The reverse clicky is recessed a bit in the tail cap and makes it a bit akward to depress but it is not that bad. It is the same clicky as the dorcy super 1 watt cr123. It is 6 inches long and 7/8 of an inch at it's widest point. The body is nice and thick and feels very solid in hand.
The head contains a plastic lens like the one in the dorcy aaa, just bigger in diameter. Beam angle in flood mode is a bit more than 40 degrees and in spot mode is a little under 20 degrees. It takes 2 turns of the head to go from flood to spot.
I am not sure how hard the led is driven, I will check when I get home.
Now for the bad part. I have no idea what kind of led is in there. It is very small and surface mounted. The base of the led is 2mmx2mm and the dome around 1.8mm in diamater and is very soft. The circuit board it is mounted to says rev. 2 and led-5049b. Any idea of what led this is?
The other bad part is that the led emits light like a luxeon. This is bad because when the head is screwed all the way down(flood) the lens if over half an inch from the led so alot of the light does not ever go into the lens. It is even worse when focused out to spot mode.
It seems fairly bright, I will experiment more when i get home and use it outside.
I did discover that the lens works excellent with a cree so I will see if I can get one in there. It will be the poor mans l2d:thumbsup:
I have no means of measuring light output over time but perhaps I will post up current draw v. time if no one beats me to it.
Now, is it worth $20? I would have to say yes. It is built very nice and would make a great host for a mod. I like it!

 

[D@rk Messenger]

I just picked this light up for $19.99 at my local sears. I just couldnt resist. I am at school now so no pictures but i will put them up once i get home.
First off the finish is matte black probably ha II. No visible machining marks. Very nice imo. The threads are super smooth and have plenty of engagement. And it can tailstand!! The reverse clicky is recessed a bit in the tail cap and makes it a bit akward to depress but it is not that bad. It is the same clicky as the dorcy super 1 watt cr123. It is 6 inches long and 7/8 of an inch at it's widest point. The body is nice and thick and feels very solid in hand.
The head contains a plastic lens like the one in the dorcy aaa, just bigger in diameter. Beam angle in flood mode is a bit more than 40 degrees and in spot mode is a little under 20 degrees. It takes 2 turns of the head to go from flood to spot.
I am not sure how hard the led is driven, I will check when I get home.
Now for the bad part. I have no idea what kind of led is in there. It is very small and surface mounted. The base of the led is 2mmx2mm and the dome around 1.8mm in diamater and is very soft. The circuit board it is mounted to says rev. 2 and led-5049b. Any idea of what led this is?
The other bad part is that the led emits light like a luxeon. This is bad because when the head is screwed all the way down(flood) the lens if over half an inch from the led so alot of the light does not ever go into the lens. It is even worse when focused out to spot mode.
It seems fairly bright, I will experiment more when i get home and use it outside.
I did discover that the lens works excellent with a cree so I will see if I can get one in there. It will be the poor mans l2d:thumbsup:
I have no means of measuring light output over time but perhaps I will post up current draw v. time if no one beats me to it.
Now, is it worth $20? I would have to say yes. It is built very nice and would make a great host for a mod. I like it!

Looks like a good beater light IMO, could get one for the basement or car or something. Btw, there's no such thing as HA II, only type 2 anodize and type 3 hard anodize.

 

[vinsanity286]

Btw, there's no such thing as HA II, only type 2 anodize and type 3 hard anodize.

Thanks for the correction. I knew there was no HAII but i forgot the term type 2.

I got home messed around with this light abit. It draws .455 amps from fresh alkalines and .45 amps from fresh nimh's.
Upon closer inspection I realized that while the body has plenty of threads, the head only has 3-4 threads cut into it which results in the head being able to wobble once it is backed away from the body. This is not a problem because the wobble is not that bad and the large o-ring makes it a non-issue, for me at least.
I had said in my last post that light loss occurs between flood and spot. Well doing a ceiling bounce test I found that not much if any light is lost. However once you remove the head and do the same ceiling bounce test it is quite a bit brighter, enough to bother me. Without the head, it is probably 50% as bright as my 3aaa cree modded light running at 400ma behind a dorcy aaa optic(which probably causes light loss itself).
I am impressed with its brightness for only drawing .45 amps. It has a bit of a blue tint which is magnafied when in spot mode. I would like to measue current going to the led to get an idea of efficiency of the circuit but I have a feeling that I will toast the led it I try to remove it as like I said before, it is surface mounted.

Well I just measured voltage at the led with the light on. It was 3.03 volts. Maybe this is not a good host for a cree mod after all with the low voltage. It would only be drawing around 150ma according to the chart in the white led testing thread.

 

[Russell52]

Must be a K2 in that light,thats what they used in that goofy 2 123 cell light they just came out with,and the k2's have a soft dome.. Guess Ill be at sears again tomorrow :/

Russ

 

[vinsanity286]

Took some beam shots. Dorcy has fresh duracel nimh 2650's

Dorcy on left focused for flood, Cree on right at 400ma through dorcy aaa lens

Dorcy on left focused for spot, Same cree mod on right
The dorcy spot is no where near that nice or as bright in person, it is really a smaller bright blue center with a less intense brown/green corona. Cameras do strange things I guess.

Dorcy on left, CREEMINATOR on right!!
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=155983

 

[vinsanity286]

Forgot the poser shots..

Definately not a k2..

 

[Newuser01]

Sure is interesting light. But alas without any heatsinking:thumbsdow
For a good mod candidate, it would be better to have a good heatsinking build in. This will bring more cost/time into it which may not be worth it. IMO (please don't shoot me for saying it.)

Hehe..
Regards.

 

[ace0001a]

That looks like a Nichia Jupiter LED. I wonder if you could remove that entire circuit board and replace it with a star-based Cree or SSC LED? Still might be worth experimenting with...

 

[vinsanity286]

Well i put a cree p4 in it in about 30 minutes before school. The same batteries that draw a bit under .4 amps with the stock led draw .46 amps with the cree. It is definately brighter and the lense is more efficient due to the cree's narrower viewing angle. I will post up pics when I get home and update beamshots when it gets dark.
You will see that it is easy to add a heatsink with a bit of machine work or even by hand. The circuit board configuration is the same as the dorcy aaa(not the same circuit, just the way it is laid out).
It would be great is Dougs could chime in here. He did great things with the dorcy aaa board and this one has plenty of room to work with.

 

[ace0001a]

Yeah, maybe a star would be to big to fit... Please post pics of your mod when you get a chance vinsanity286.

 

[vinsanity286]

With the cree installed, the light pulls 480ma from fresh nimh's and the led itself gets 250 ma. Better than I had thought it would get.

Dorcy with cree on left, Creeminator on right. A bit overexposed but same settings as previous shots.

A bit underexposed...

This next shot is such a mess I am embarassed to post it. The cree has seen better days. It is direct soldered to a fairly thin piece of copper that I cut out by hand and does not look very nice and that is soldered to the other piece of copper which about 1/4 inch thick. I cut out the big piece with a hacksaw and then chucked it up in a dremel tool and used a file to get it perfectly round. It is then press fit into the body.
The circuit board it soldered direct to this piece just and is in the same configuration as the dorcy aaa, vertical with a positive battery contact right at the bottom.

Aside from the sloppyness, I really like this light. Output and tint are greatly improved over stock. The flood angle is much bigger than stock(see beamshots) and the light it produces it plenty for everyday tasks. I would however love for the led to be driven at around 700ma or so but the stock circuit should give great runtime.
There is a compromise to be made with the beam pattern. With the cree mounted as low as mine, you get a wide flood but it will not focus to full spot without running out of thread. If you pull the cree out enough for it to focus to a tight spot, the flood angle is reduced. I prefer the wide flood myself.

 

[lightinsky]

I saw one today at sears it's not to bad looking and priced right. However I'm wondering if I pick one up if I'll be happy with the beam pattern since others have noted it as being somewhat of a moon beam. Anyone else buy one and like it or not?

 

[PJD]

I picked one of these up at Sears about a week ago. First of all, I believe it is a Nichia Jupiter. Second of all, the output is NOWHERE NEAR 45 lumens. Dorcy may have used some manufacturer's specs to say what a highly driven Jupiter is "capable" of putting out, but this particular light is not even putting out HALF of what the package claims. I don't have an integrating sphere, or even a lux-meter for that matter. But I've been a CPFer for 5 years, and in that time my "Mark I Eyeball" has gotten pretty good at judging "ballpark" figures of luminous output. Another thing: when I focus the spot of the Dorcy down to the same size as the spot of my old-style Inova X1 at a distance of 10 feet, the Inova X1 is brighter...NOTICEABLY brighter. I don't own a digicam, so I can't post pics, but I'm tellin' ya, the specs on the packaging of this light are WWAAAYYYY overrated. I'd be suprised if the emitter of this light is putting out even 10-15 lumens. Another comparison I did was a side-by-side comparison with my River Rock 2C cell Nichia Jupiter light, rated at, I believe 1W and about 20 to 25 lumens. In a nutshell, the River Rock BLOWS the Dorcy AWAY! I'll be the first to admit that Dorcy DOES put out some pretty good "bang for the buck" lights...but my advice on this one is flat out STAY AWAY! IMHO, it's NOT wort the $19.99 price tag. I should've bought the new model of the old Dorcy Cool Blue that they're selling at Sears as well. It's the same appearance as the old Dorcy Cool Blue, but the new one is using what appears to be a Nichia Rigel LED, and it's packaging says says .5W, but doesn't give a lumens rating. FYI...

PJD

 

[TORCH_BOY]

For the same price I prefer the MiniM@G 2AA Led

 

[boet]

Hi all,

Does anyone have more info and insight on this light?

My local shop has just got these in (yup, we are on the cutting edge) - looks very nice in the package. Worth purchasing?
The thread comments indicate the light is not bright, but that is OK for my intended use as a car light and / or raiding the fridge at night.
What is important is the beam tint - or is that a lottery? Pics don't always give a real life rendition - the above photos look like the beam has a lot of green around the outside

.
Anyone with knowledge of runtime?

Apologies for not discussing the latest and greatest:tinfoil:.

Thanks.
Cheers,
Boet