Chris M.
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hi everyone.
OK this newfound "Flashaholism" just got the better of me, and coupled with a big load of unexpected spare time, I just set to work on an old flashlight of mine, and converted it to LED......
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Last year as part of a university project I built a load of low voltage mini garden spotlights that used LEDs- the Toshiba TLxH180P range to be exact (red, orange, yellow). Those LEDs are 5mm (T1 3/4) size and have a narrow 8 degree beam, their quoted light output is about 7000mcd (probably because of the narrow beam) and indeed they are very bright little things especially when arranged in the clusters of 12.
Well anyway I had one of these garden lights that wasn`t finished and so used some parts from it to convert that flashlight you see at the top of this post.
The LEDs are the orange TLOH180P types and are mounted through holes drilled in a 40mm diameter circular plastic disc. Luckily this disc is the right size to fit inside the head of the flashlight, and hold the LEDs in place. The disc just rests on the sides of the reflector, recessed back so the existing plastic protective lens can be left in place (actually the LEDs press against it ever so lightly and there is no need to glue the plastic disc to the reflector) , though I did think of drilling this to fit the LEDs through, since this type of flashlight is covered in thick chunky rubber armour and the lens is recessed quite deeply. Anyway though this way it appears more waterproof and better protected. To improve the look I painted the plastic disc and visible bits of the silver reflector black.
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The LEDs are connected together in paralell and then short wires are soldered directly to the contacts on the bulb holder. You`ll notice that in this light the switch and bulb holder is a seperate assembly and comes out completely. Since the LEDS only require about 2- 2.2 volts each, they will easilly run on 2x 1.5 volt D-cells and initial tests with them connected directly to a couple of slightly run down cells are very impressive. Each LED is happy up to about 50mA according to the data sheets and in this setup they were getting approximately 40mA each with the battery voltage at around 2.3v although as I said they are quite well used. The LEDs did get a little warm but didn`t seem to mind otherwise. I don`t have any new Alkaline D-cells to try but I think they might drive the LEDs a bit too hard, so I may need to add a resistor to limit the current. I think this setup as it is would be good for rechargeable NiCd or NiMH cells though, because of their lower voltage but I don`t have any of them to hand either I`m afraid. If I manage to get hold of some I`ll post the results.
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Since I don`t have a proper fancy test-target (I`m working on one though!) or much open wall-space within reach of the camera (it`s tethered to the PC on a cable that is ever so slightly too short!) this`ll have to do, the lights are about 15 inches from the surface. The beam from the Energiser LED light is on the left, and a white Photon-II on the right (sorry but it`s the only other LED light I have that most of you will recognise). The reddish orange beam is actually very even in colour but is so bright it overloads my video camera and flares out like this. If I turned the exposure down more so it was the right colour, you couldn`t have seen the PII though the camera does have quite poor contrast.
Well I`m really quite impressed with this light. OK so it`s orange, but this is good for preserving night vision if necessary. The narrow beam will project further than a wider one and so it may make a good light for camping, walking, etc. There is a small but useful side spill of light too though I have yet to test it at night to see if it`s any good. The D-Cells will last ages too, it pulled about half an amp initially but quickly fell to around 380mA and probably would have kept on going (well they were old batteries), though a test on a variable PSU showed the light output remained quite good right down to about 10mA per LED or 100mA total, and would still be useable much lower. Since I don`t have any new batteries I can`t do a life-test but I reckon it`s going to last a really long time, certainly longer than the original bulb it had.
The orange light is quite good but those LEDs are also avaliable in red and yellow, and the yellow LED garden light I have seems the brightest. I`d like to try yellow LEDs sometime, and of course will post the results if I do.
Well there you are, if you`d like to try it yourself then in the UK the Toshiba LEDs are avaliable from Maplin Electronics and the flashlights are avaliable from Argos among other places, but I`m afraid I don`t know where in the US to find them, sorry.
-chris
OK this newfound "Flashaholism" just got the better of me, and coupled with a big load of unexpected spare time, I just set to work on an old flashlight of mine, and converted it to LED......
<center>
Well anyway I had one of these garden lights that wasn`t finished and so used some parts from it to convert that flashlight you see at the top of this post.
The LEDs are the orange TLOH180P types and are mounted through holes drilled in a 40mm diameter circular plastic disc. Luckily this disc is the right size to fit inside the head of the flashlight, and hold the LEDs in place. The disc just rests on the sides of the reflector, recessed back so the existing plastic protective lens can be left in place (actually the LEDs press against it ever so lightly and there is no need to glue the plastic disc to the reflector) , though I did think of drilling this to fit the LEDs through, since this type of flashlight is covered in thick chunky rubber armour and the lens is recessed quite deeply. Anyway though this way it appears more waterproof and better protected. To improve the look I painted the plastic disc and visible bits of the silver reflector black.
<center>
The LEDs are connected together in paralell and then short wires are soldered directly to the contacts on the bulb holder. You`ll notice that in this light the switch and bulb holder is a seperate assembly and comes out completely. Since the LEDS only require about 2- 2.2 volts each, they will easilly run on 2x 1.5 volt D-cells and initial tests with them connected directly to a couple of slightly run down cells are very impressive. Each LED is happy up to about 50mA according to the data sheets and in this setup they were getting approximately 40mA each with the battery voltage at around 2.3v although as I said they are quite well used. The LEDs did get a little warm but didn`t seem to mind otherwise. I don`t have any new Alkaline D-cells to try but I think they might drive the LEDs a bit too hard, so I may need to add a resistor to limit the current. I think this setup as it is would be good for rechargeable NiCd or NiMH cells though, because of their lower voltage but I don`t have any of them to hand either I`m afraid. If I manage to get hold of some I`ll post the results.
<center>
Since I don`t have a proper fancy test-target (I`m working on one though!) or much open wall-space within reach of the camera (it`s tethered to the PC on a cable that is ever so slightly too short!) this`ll have to do, the lights are about 15 inches from the surface. The beam from the Energiser LED light is on the left, and a white Photon-II on the right (sorry but it`s the only other LED light I have that most of you will recognise). The reddish orange beam is actually very even in colour but is so bright it overloads my video camera and flares out like this. If I turned the exposure down more so it was the right colour, you couldn`t have seen the PII though the camera does have quite poor contrast.
Well I`m really quite impressed with this light. OK so it`s orange, but this is good for preserving night vision if necessary. The narrow beam will project further than a wider one and so it may make a good light for camping, walking, etc. There is a small but useful side spill of light too though I have yet to test it at night to see if it`s any good. The D-Cells will last ages too, it pulled about half an amp initially but quickly fell to around 380mA and probably would have kept on going (well they were old batteries), though a test on a variable PSU showed the light output remained quite good right down to about 10mA per LED or 100mA total, and would still be useable much lower. Since I don`t have any new batteries I can`t do a life-test but I reckon it`s going to last a really long time, certainly longer than the original bulb it had.
The orange light is quite good but those LEDs are also avaliable in red and yellow, and the yellow LED garden light I have seems the brightest. I`d like to try yellow LEDs sometime, and of course will post the results if I do.
Well there you are, if you`d like to try it yourself then in the UK the Toshiba LEDs are avaliable from Maplin Electronics and the flashlights are avaliable from Argos among other places, but I`m afraid I don`t know where in the US to find them, sorry.
-chris
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