Help me build a light

[ambientmind]

I'd like to build a really long running, small and dim flood light for a tent. It only needs to be 5-10lm at most, but I'd like it to run for 30+ hours if possible in small package. By small I mean single cell, or two cell if it is something like 2AA. I was thinking of seriously underdriving a cree, but I can't find any drivers that would only put out ~10mA. Flood is important so that it lights up the floor and walls of the tent, even though it may be dim. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[ifor powell]

Well I would be trying a single 14500 Li-ion cell with a suitable resistor for direct drive say a 68R should give you somthing that would fit the bill fairly well. For all flood you realy just want a bare emiter you would just need to try and oganise a housing and cover for the bare emiter to stap it being damaged. I don't realy know how well the cree will work at these drive levels but it should be easy to give it a go.

Ifor

 

[lumafist]

I would get a blk Mule head and have somebody (Darkzero) make an LE for it............

Cause that would fit the Maxlite body very nice..........
Then you could just change the head when you need to.....

 

[kramer5150]

A resistor, Nichia-GS and direct drive 18650, 17670, 18500, 14500 cell would be your best bet (IMHO). There are very few (if any) low current drivers that will drive a Cree at 10L. Most people would see a 10L mode as a detriment, and complain it was not bright enough. So I speculate thats why no one makes a low-low mode driver.

A surefire E1B on low is 5 Lumens and is Surefire spec'd to run for around 35 hours IIRC, although its not a AA light. The Gerber infinity Ultra might also be worth a look.

This guy here gets 30++ hours out of his modded Inova X1...
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=203925

IMHO Fenix should release the E01 in 1AA, and put a glass lens in front of it. I think a lot of people would really dig the added run time.

 

[Doh!Nut]

There are a few low current drivers
link


I did a more powerful waterproof(ish) camping light that did pretty well.
One set of AAs lasted a couple of weeks being used a few hours each night.
Camping Light

For cheap and Lo-Tech using a couple of old AAs and any LED would get you a little bit of light for a long time.

N

 

[Builder]

If you are in anything more than a pup tent, you will need a MINIMUM of 50 ~ 100mA for a usable flood.

I've been designing high efficiency lights for third world countries and I have a collection of my circuits here: http://quantsuff.com the sections on the camping lights should interest you.

 

[ambientmind]

Thanks for all the quick replies! It looks like unless I want to build the driver (which I dont) the easiest solution would be a resistor. I was thinking maybe an 18650 and a resistor, or maybe 3AA NiMhs and a resistor with a cree Q5 or R2 at 30-40mA. I also have one of those Nite-Ize led drop ins for the C and D size maglites (not the 1W) thats pretty dim and seems like its easy on batteries. Maybe I'll rig something up with that and see how long it runs for. Anyone have any experience with those? It says its compatible with 2-6 cells, so it has a nice wide voltage range.

On a side note, I was thinking of maybe using a red or amber led so as not to attract bugs to the tent even more. Hmmm...

 

[Gunner12]

The Nite-ize drop-in is around 6-7 lumen according to Flashlight reviews. After a full day with just 2Ds, the output never dropped below 92% of full output so it should have a really long runtime.