Double Barrel 18, er... 24 ;)

[The_LED_Museum]

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

I have one...

This is the 10mm Toshiba... almost all 10mm styles will put out beams with this basic configuration.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Doug, all the DB's are series/parallel battery configuration (I think). That's what makes them "special".

The 8AA would be a good convert if you find a way to drop the voltage without too much loss.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Spidey,

Here are a couple pics of the LED array.
Hope this helps.

Full size
I use a Radio Shack perf-board (276-148A). The pattern is square-ish, so your array will always turn out similar to this one. There's a little trick to placing the LEDs so they touch like mine. I'll post that pic, too, if anyone's interested. The 2 big holes are there so I have some way to pull the assembly back out.

Full size
This one shows what the back of the array looks like. It's hard to see, but there are 2 little pins sticking up in the middle. These plug into the DB's lamp holder. You have to get the polarity right. The magic marker "+" and "-" are there to indicate which pin is which.

Any other questions?

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Rob,

I don't know if the new ones are made the same. Here's what my switch assembly looks like.

Full size
The 2 positive contacts are electrically isolated when the switch is off.

Full size
The 3 contact on the back of the switch correspond to these points on the PCB. If you flip around one of the battery carriers, you can tap 6v between the 2 positive contacts. The holder you reverse will have to have a slight mod so the negative end of the battery touches the contact up inside the tube. You can put a small nut in there or cut the end of the holder off.
You'll have to remove the middle, negative contact and rewire part of the PCB. It's not impossible, but you'll have to cut away part of the switch housing to get at the circuit traces.
If you cut the trace where the lower positive comes in, and jump a wire from it to the negative trace, you should get 6v at the lampholder.

Assuming this is what your switch looks like.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mike:
I've always wondered what the TLYH180P (8,000mcd) beam looks like. Does anyone have a comparison of that versus a standard nichia white LED?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, let's whip out the ol' handy-dandy evidence gathering kit and see what happens.
First step: locate the perps...
found 1 Nichia NSPW500BS, 20°, 5,600mcd
found 1 Toshiba TLYH-180P, unknown parameters.

Connecting...*snap!*

This sample tested between 8,200mcd and 8,300mcd, which is right on target for this piece.

Hope this helps...

 

[vcal]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gadget:
Doug, all the DB's are series/parallel battery configuration (I think). That's what makes them "special".

The 8AA would be a good convert if you find a way to drop the voltage without too much loss.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks.
Btw-very nice piece of craftmanship on that DB conversion of yours.

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the pictures Telephony. Not bad!

 

[Spidey82]

thanks Gadget.
i try to find the board.
btw singapore has a lot of DB.
i could get them in alot of places.
just a question,
will i beable to switch back to the orginal lamp if i need to??

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Spidey82:
thanks Gadget.
i try to find the board.
btw singapore has a lot of DB.
i could get them in alot of places.
just a question,
will i beable to switch back to the orginal lamp if i need to??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Be aware, the DB you want is the 6AA (or I guess 6AAA). The new ones are 4 or 8 cell. Since they are series/parallel, that means 3 or 6 volts. Not great for conversions.

As long as you put the dropping resistor on the LED array, you can just pop the original bulb back in. I put my resistor on the switch assembly, so if I put in the old bulb, it won't be as bright.

 

[Robl]

OK, that was the problem; with the double-barrel 4AA = only 3v. I dumped in a dummy and reversed it and a AA in one tube with the help of a small washer and screw.

Then I cut off all three contacts from the switch and just soldered wires from the (+) and (-) to the metal contacts in the barrels. I put it all together and have a very bright 10 LED light! This is my new favorite... for now!

Since I do not own a digital camera, and the one from work is a piece of junk, I cannot post any decent pictures.

Thanks for all the help!

Robl

 

[X-CalBR8]

I've got a 4AAA DoubleBarrel that I converted to 6volts (4.5v with a dummy battery) a while back, but I dislike using a dummy battery because I would like all the runtime that I could get from all 4 cells. I guess the best thing for us 4AAA & AA DoubleBarrel users is to go the Pulse With Modulation route. I need to learn more about the specifics of this method before I try to tackle it though. How do these PWM chips work exactly? I know that they send intermittent pulses to achieve their effect, but what controls the frequency of these pulses, and can you set the voltage that you are shooting for by changing the frequency of pulses?

 

[Mike]

I've always wondered what the TLYH180P (8,000mcd) beam looks like. Does anyone have a comparison of that versus a standard nichia white LED?

Thanks in advance!

 

[vcal]

Chris, why does my unmodified 8AA DB operate on just 4 of it's batteries,-i.e. why did Eveready make it that way?
Is half of the power supply in parallel to make the power pack last longer

 

[The_LED_Museum]

If you don't want to (or can't) build your own, there's still one on ebay.
It's now a $135.00 flashlight (!) for reasons unknown - and the following text was found in the listing:

"Only a very limited number will be made available ( only one more and the fat lady sings). Suffice it to say; when these are gone, that's it. "

If correct, there will only be 1 more after this one's gone... I guess these things really are limited edition; and to people like us, that would lift their status to that of COLLECTIBLES!!!

Just think of what it will be worth in a few years.

 

[Badbeams3]

Got to hand it to you Gadget and all you do-it-yourself guy`s...makes me wish I had more skills so I could join in instead of drooling all over myself. Well done!

 

[X-CalBR8]

You know one trick I would like to try on one of my DoubleBarrel conversions is to try to cut the reflector in such a manner that there is still some of the reflector left so that it could help to shape the beam. I noticed on Gadget's conversion that he completely removed the reflector to make room for more LEDs, but I wonder if a greater effect (or one just about as good) could be achieved if you used fewer LEDs and left part of the reflector intact. The only problem is how do you get the reflector out so that you could cut it to the desired shape without breaking the fragile plastic on the reflector. It seems to be made of brittle plastic and I can't seem to think up a good way to break it loose from where it's glued in without breaking it. Any ideas? Or would this even be a good idea?

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

Xcal, I think that the Ebay light had some reflector remaining.

Mine came out pretty easy just by working it patiently back and forth until it popped loose.

About the only way to cut it without removing it first would be to use a lathe. Shouldn't be too hard to do. Without a lathe, maybe a hot-knife or a dremel tool with a spiral cutting bit?

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by telephony:
If you don't want to (or can't) build your own, there's still one on ebay.
It's now a $135.00 flashlight (!) for reasons unknown - and the following text was found in the listing:

"Only a very limited number will be made available ( only one more and the fat lady sings). Suffice it to say; when these are gone, that's it. "

If correct, there will only be 1 more after this one's gone... I guess these things really are limited edition; and to people like us, that would lift their status to that of COLLECTIBLES!!!

Just think of what it will be worth in a few years.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, you'll notice he still has no bids.

And who's to say I won't put some up on Ebay once I fine-tune my design? I still have 4 unmodified DB to play with.

 

[X-CalBR8]

Gadget: Thanks for posting the pics. Now I just have to wonder, how did they cut that reflector so perfectly without cracking or breaking it? It looks like it was laser cut or something.

 

[Go Go Gadget Flashlight]

I would imagine he used a lathe. With the head spinning, it is easy to take very light cuts in plastic without breaking it.

He's probably in school and has access to machine shop equipment without having to buy his own.