Energizer Waterproof LS & Versapak gold MOD *pics added*

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**DONOTDELETE**

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I don't have pictures right now, but I modded an Energizer WP220 flashlight to fit a white LS without optics. This is a 2AA flashlight, but has a bunch of airspace for flotation purposes. I Dug out the plastic that held the 2AA's to make room for a Versapak Gold NiMH. These put out 3.6V, perfect for the LS. If you take the black butt off the end of the Battery, it's easier to fit. I just put a resistor in series and grinded down the reflector base that held the old bulb. I also ghetto rigged it so I could still turn on the light by twisting it (the positive is on the inside of the battery and the negative on the outside.) There's plenty of room for a switch, but I wanted to keep it water tight.

The lens on this flashlight is not good for using an LS (at least mine because it has no optics). There's a translucent wart in the center of the lens that projects a dark spot in the beam. I'm thinking of taking out the LS and putting in some Nichias around the wart to avoid dark spots.

The Versapak batteries are awesome, and should fit in just about any 2C flashlight. My next project will be to find a better flashlight to use the versapak/LS mod with.
 
Pictures please; seems very interesting. Also show the versapak, 3.6V is like perfect.
 
There's a pic of the battery on their website:
http://www.blackanddecker.com/productguide/AttachmentDetail.asp?ATTACH_ID=2454&CRUMBS/ITEM[*]/@ID=2454&CRUMBS/ITEM/NAME=3.6%20Volt%20VersaPak%AE%20Gold%20Battery&CRUMBS/ITEM/LINK=. ./ProductGuide/accessoryselection.asp?CATALOGID=839

My dad got the toolkit that comes with a drill, screwdriver, 3 1/2" circular saw, jigsaw, flashlight (I don't remember the rest.) The batteries are interchangeable in each, and they're pretty handy for stuff around the house. You can get 'em just about anywhere that sells hardware. (lowes, home depot, wallmart)
-Jake-
 
Finally!. . . here's some pics!

lights%20n%20bat.jpg

the golden tube on the top is the versapack battery. The orange handle is the 2AA I modded, and below it is the green 2D that I'm probably going to take back.

lens%20wart.jpg

there's that lens wart I was complaining about. It ruins the output light. I ended up sanding mine down with 300, 600, and finally 1200 grit sandpaper. The results: still a diffused dark spot in the beam, even worse this time around. I got the idea to melt the section I sanded with my butane lighter, but couldn't find it, so I used matches. Light heat contact, then away. Repeated this until the wart was gone! For some reason my hand with the match did not want to quit oscillating. The match went t'words the lens again, and deformed it a bit and blew a few bubbles in it. Another testimony of using the right tool for the right job. more pics on the lens later.

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bulb%20bottom.jpg


these are pics of the base that the bulb screws into(the original bulb). I mounted my LS on a piece of aluminum to dissapate some heat. The red wire running under the plate is soldered to the spring on the reverse side(I screwed the spring to a wooden dowel to insulate it from the rest of the metal. I used a 2.2 ohm resistor to limit my current.

wouldn't you know, if you drop this thing, it ALWAYS lands LS down. (I'm 3/3) It actually cracked the LS epoxy casing when I dropped it the first time on hardwood floor. The LS quit working and I was very upset. If my LS was going to go out, it should be overdriven to a charcoal briquet, not a loss like this. The next day I was able to breath life back into my little LS by pushing on the epoxy case. Weird, not scientific, but it worked. I have no complaints.

peekaboo.jpg

this is the versapak inside the flashlight handle. It fits snug because of the black plastick thing on the back of the versapak. It would be much easier to fit in if you took it off/sanded it down.

I took some measurements too. the active circuit put out 3.89v. 3.27 of that was dropped on my LS, the rest on the resistor and my sorry soldering job. Current was only 152mA. That's why my cyan LS is so much brighter (it's running around 300mA).
WOW, I was suprised. I had already used this for closeup work (hooking up a system in a friend's trunk), walking around the house at night, and the woods. It seemed like the perfect amount of light for the closeup work (much better than the 2AA minimag my friend was using), was great around the house and in tunnels, and decent outdoors, but wasn't as blinding as others have described. I figured it was because I dropped it a few times and cracked it. My next goal is to figure out resistor values for different current (250mA, 350mA) and ad a dip switch pack on the bulb base.
 
Great mod, Jakester!

But why did you pick a rather flimsy flashlight to begin with? I wanted to buy one, but quicky opted for the slightly costlier Energizer Skipper II AA instead because the build quality was so much better. But it *still* has that wart. Wolfman and others have had some success polishing scratched plastic(like led lenses and LS collimators) back to factory smoothness using toothpaste. Maybe you'll have similar luck.

Do you have any pix of the mod's beam?
 
Have more info on the skipper II? I couldn't find it at energizerflashlights.com.
I picked this one up because it was watterproof, had a shatterproof lens, came with a couple of batteries, looked like my versapak would fit in there, and best of all it was ony 4 or 5 bucks. I was impressed by the light output (before I modded it.) It would illuminate the stopsign on the other side of my block brightly.

The idea came to me around halloween when I built this:
ls.jpg

(YES, I'm bringing this with me when episode II hits the theater)

and needed to power my cyan LS. As lambda says "3.6V is like perfect."

beam pics coming.
 
Jakester,

Here is the Skipper II (that's what its sold as in my neck of the woods):
http://www.energizer.com/products/flashlights/flashlight.asp?cat=4&id=6

I also have the Energizer Two Way Light, but
the darn thing has its polarity reversed so I had to turn the batteries on their heads and wad it with some foil before it would work with my PR2. Its a 4AA, but only 3V!! So, its actually a 2x2AA parallel. Makes a nice lantern with the PR2
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BTW, OOOOoooohh.... BEAYOOOOTIFUL lightsabre there! The force is strong with this one...
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Good job. I like the DIP switch idea.

I've had good luck polishing plastic with toothpaste. Not perfect, but not bad. I wonder what it's doing to my teeth.
 
Jakester,

Exactly, what is that light saber made from? Is that a coil spring showing thru a cut away shock............
 
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