Double Barrel 18, er... 24 ;)

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Well, I finally did it. I got tired of drooling over these on Ebay, so I made my own.

18 just didn't seem enough for me, so I loaded it up with 24.

Pretty decent amount of light. Makes the whole basement light up.

No idea yet on run time. I'll measure the current draw and see what to expect.

Follow link for the big picture(s).

Gadget's Pics

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gadget:
18 just didn't seem enough for me, so I loaded it up with 24.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now it's official.
I no longer have the biggest flashlight on the block. You do.

Guess I'll have to wait until I get hold of a Trek 6000EX before I can have the biggest LED light in the Northwest again.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Hehe, thanks Craig.

Unfortunately, it may not be finished.

Using NiMh's, I measured the current at 850 ma then it slowly crept up to 1.0 amp after it warmed up!

I may have to go in and add a resistor.

With fresh alkalines, I get 1.4 amps and the LED leads get pretty hot.

That's 60ma per LED. More than they like I'm afraid.

Definitely need a resistor.

Back to the workbench...

How many mA can a Nichia take with no form of cooling and still not "run away"?

 

[X-CalBR8]

Hey Gadget. All I can do is gasp in awe!!!

You combined one of my most favorite flashlights (any of the DoubleBarrel flashlights) with a killer payload of LEDs. Maybe some thermal grease and a block of aluminum would be in order to get rid of that pesky heat problem. I only wish I could see that baby, in action, in person. I'm sure pictures can't do it justice.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Thanks Xcal.

I'd post a comparison pic, but against what? Hehe!

Now if I can just get the right resistor in there to keep it from melting down...

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

There we go.

I borrowed the 0.33 ohm wirewound from my Hybrid Blaster 20 LED light.

Now I get 1.05 A initially and it stays there. LED leads get pretty warm, but they don't draw any extra current. Should be OK. That's 44ma/LED. Reduced life expectancy... I can live with that.

I'm not looking for something I can run for hours at a time anyway. I wanted a light saber!

 

[KenBar]

Sweet light...
Don't change it to much.
Did you ever think of it as in "Turbo Mode" now?
Add a sub-min button that that gives you this and put a resistor etc for normal use.
There should be enough room to mount it.

Clip the plastic post off on the button so only .5mm sticks out...still enough to actuate it and not snag etc.
IMHO
Nice light!

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KenBar:
...Did you ever think of it as in "Turbo Mode" now?
Add a sub-min button that that gives you this and put a resistor etc for normal use.
There should be enough room to mount it.

Clip the plastic post off on the button so only .5mm sticks out...still enough to actuate it and not snag etc.
IMHO
Nice light!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks Ken.

I thought about a dual-mode light, but I'd really like to keep it waterproof (which it is). I even went so far as to make it better than the original DB by sealing up the leak where the battery tubes meet the head. Now it is truly submersible.

Maybe a magnetic reed switch inside and a magnet on a lanyard (your design) to activate "Turbo" mode?

 

[X-CalBR8]

"I wanted a light saber!"

You want it and you got it from the looks of things. Hehe. Very well done. I've just got a quick question concerning the reflector assembly. How did you get it out and did you break it when you took it out? I'm asking because I wanted to remove mine on my DoubleBarrel in order to drill out a bigger hole and I couldn't get it out for anything (must be glued in). Did you just say screw it and break it out? From the pics it looks like you also got rid of the lens itself. Is that the case or are the pics deceiving?

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by X-CalBR8:
"I wanted a light saber!"

You want it and you got it from the looks of things. Hehe. Very well done. I've just got a quick question concerning the reflector assembly. How did you get it out and did you break it when you took it out? I'm asking because I wanted to remove mine on my DoubleBarrel in order to drill out a bigger hole and I couldn't get it out for anything (must be glued in). Did you just say screw it and break it out? From the pics it looks like you also got rid of the lens itself. Is that the case or are the pics deceiving?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I had to break out the reflector, but it came out in one piece. Luckily, the glue holding it in wasn't as strong s the plastic reflector.
I worked it back and forth a bit, listening for the creaks and pops the glue made. Eventually, it just popped out.

There's a small sliver of it left in the head. Not enough to be in the way, but still annoying.

The pics are deceiving. The lens is still there, so the whole thing is very waterproof.

 

[Spidey82]

wow!!!

and e-bay sells it for 100++?????
how a abt an instruction guide to let us know how that is done??

 

[Robl]

You got me interested so last night I purchased the 4AA barrel light from Wal-Mart and installed a 10 LED matrix. I wired them in parallel with no resistors and then turned it on only to find is is not as bright as the 7 LED light that I have.

What am I doing wrong? It looks to be drawing .07 amps. My 7 LED light is a converted 3C Streamlight also wired in parallel with no resistors. Very bright and I am still on the original batts after 6 months of regular use.

Thanks,

Rob Lefebvre

 

[Chris M.]

Rob- I see your troubles right away. Your light isn`t giving enough battery voltage to power the LEDs. The double barrell lights have a series-paralell battery arrangement. Think of the 4-cell one as essentially a 2-cell one, since the 4 batteries are connected in two paralell tubes of 2 cells, adding up to 3 volts. This unfortunately isn`t enough to light the LEDs. You either need a step-up inverter (of which there have been many discussions on this board, ultimately getting not very far- but Peter Gransee of Arc Flashlight might be helping out soon with seperate inverter modules from the Arc lights), or easier would be to get the 6 cell db and swap out the LED board from the 4 cell one.

A 4 cell db would run red, orange and yellow LEDS which require less voltage, so you could change the whites for one of those colours. I would reccomend Toshiba`s 8 degree yellow TLYH180P which I believe some place like Hosfelt stocks? Sodium yellow light, but very bright and good enough for a lot of tasks.

 

[X-CalBR8]

Hosfelt also carries a TLYH190P yellow LED that is rated for the same voltage (1.9-2.5v) that is a 10mm, but is rated at an, IMO unbelievable, 23,000mcd compared to the TLYH180P which is rated at 8,000mcd. I've got the TLYH190P ordered and I will let you guys know what it's like just as soon as I get it in. I'm hoping that it will be a nice companion LED to a 2.5volt super cap, but should also work very well in any 3volt flashlight. In case anyone is curious, the TLYH180P is priced at a very economical $.75 and the TLYH190P is priced at $3.49 in the latest Hosfelt catalog. The Hosfelt part numbers for those LEDs are TLYH180P = 25-335 and TLYH190P = 25-342. I hope this info helps and good luck with the mods.

 

[X-CalBR8]

Hey, I just thought of something. If those TLYH190P 8,000mcd yellow LEDs turn out to be any good, then you could buy 24 of them for only $18.00. That could make for a very bright 3.0volt DoubleBarrel flashlight for only like $35-40 worth of parts. Talk about a sweet deal! At 8,000mcd, that is brighter than a 5,600mcd white Nichia. It might not be white light, but it would be pretty bright. I might just have to give that mod a try myself.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Spidey82:
wow!!!

and e-bay sells it for 100++?????
how a abt an instruction guide to let us know how that is done??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll post some more detailed pics for you.

The Ebay prices aren't too far off really.

18 LEDs - $27 (Best price I could find from www.whiteleds.net)
6AA DB body - $20 (If you can even find one)
Miscellaneous parts - $3 (PCB, resistor, solder...)
A couple hours of assembly - $20 (At a measly $10/hour)

So, that's about $70 just in parts.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Rob, Chris has nailed it on the head.
The 6AA version puts out 4.5v, which is nearly perfect for white LEDs. They're getting pretty hard to find. Only Old Stock now, new ones don't come in a 6AA version anymore.

Xcal, those yellows sound like a sweet deal if their light quality is any good.

Let us know.

 

[Robl]

Thanks for the info, I never even considered checking the voltage. I just assumed 4AA = 6V!

I know I know, never assume. Well, now I will have to find a way to rewire the battery configuration since I am very fond of the white LED's and this looks like a nice quality light.

BTW, Wal-Mart in our area has them on sale for $10.00!

Robl

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Rob, I think there is a way to rewire it internally for 6v operation. This might be the way to go.

My DB has a removable switch assembly. There are 3 contacts going into it, (+), (+), and (-). If you can rewire the tiny PCB in the switch body, you could reconfigure the voltage it sees to 6v.

 

[Chris M.]

X-cal- those 10mm Toshiba LEDs aren`t very good. Plain and simple. They`re bright, but the beam is a very narrow square shape with a hole in the centre, not a lot of good as a flashlight, hold on let`s see if I have a beam profile shot of one....sorry I can`t find one, I`ll take one tonight.


As for rewiring a DB, well if you can access the two positive and one negative wires, then here`s what you do. Disconnect the negative wire. Tape it off, you won`t need it anymore. Take the batteries out of one barell, reverse the polarity (maybe the carrier will just go in the other way? otherwise you may need to slightly alter the contacts to make sure they touch) and reinsert, negative end inwards. Leave the other one as it is. Now, use the positive wire from the tube with the reversed batteries as the negative, and the positive from the normal tube as the positive. The aluminim body that once carried the negative to the light, now connects the 2 battery tubes together and no connection to it is required.

I`m pretty sure this will work, now you should get 6 volts. But it will no longer work on just one tube like they do normally, you`ll need all 4 cells in place. Fit a dummy cell in one tube if it is driving the LEDs too much, or use a resistor to limit the current. It would be a good idea to mark the tube which has the batteries reversed just so you don`t get mixed up in the future.