PCC
Flashlight Enthusiast
Back in the late '80s or early '90s I bought a Pelican VersaBrite II flashlight on a whim. I bought it because it looked like a neat little flashlight. I used it alongside my MagLites but never really put it to any serious use because I had discovered the limitations of small incandescent AA powered flashlights: they're not very bright and the batteries didn't last long. After a few years I came home to find that my wife had broken my little VersaBrite II: the neck of the light had broken when she tried to twist the head to turn it on. It went into a box for a number of years and was recently dug up. I sent an email to Pelican's customer service department and they promptly sent me an RMA and shipping address to send my broken light. A few weeks later a box arrived in the mail from them: it was a brand new Pelican VersaBrite Deluxe kit, complete with head strap, colored lenses, magnet, and Velcro. Nice! The VersaBrite II was discontinued a number of years ago so the replacement was the currently still available VersaBrite I. The only problem is that I no longer like incandescent AA powered flashlights. What to do, what to do?
The other day, while driving to work, I thought about my options with regards to this little light. Sure, I could have sold it but what is this thing worth, $10? Not worth the trouble. What I really wanted was a battery sucking vampire of a light but the small lamp assembly of this light makes it a real challenge to find something that will fit inside of it. I thought about trying to convert something like the Nite-Ize Mini-MagLite drop-in that I have in my Mini-MagLite, but, the problem is that the Nite-Ize Mini-Mag drop-in is too large to fit the small head of the VB. What now? The simple solution would be to put a 5mm LED in there or even a 10mm one but these have a much higher low voltage cut-of so this option was ruled out, not to mention the low light output from these LEDs without a driver to drive them. How about a PR-flanged drop-in? It just might fit. The MagLED module is too fat to fit the limited space inside the VB head, but, what about the Nite-Ize 2-6 cell 1-watt PR-flange drop-in? The MagLED module would generate too much heat anyway since it is a 3-watt bulb assembly and there isn't any room for heatsinking in this thing. I should be able to get away with using the Nite-Ize module because, at one watt, it shouldn't generate a lot of heat anyway and I probably wouldn't leave it turned on long enough to generate any real heat from usage so I should be fine.
The bulb and the drop-in are roughly the same size.
The negative spring from the bulb fits the PR flange drop-in if pressed on backwards.
A functional test to see if it'll even work, and it does!
The PR-flange just meets the plastic threads of the bezel. Screw it in and it's good. No, it is not centered.
The beamshot: it's very nice and even, very floody, no hotspot. No surprises there. If all I wanted was purely flood then I would be finished, but, no...
Warning - The following modification involves the use of power tools and sharp cutting instruments. Please do so at your own risk. I take no responsibilities if you lose a finger trying to do this mod. No flashlights were injured and no LEDs were destroyed performing this mod, though one incandescent bulb assembly was ceremoniously sacrificed.
So then my mind is racing about the possibilities. Can I make a reflector? If I make one out of aluminum then it'll scratch the plastic bezel. If I make it out of Delrin then it won't be reflective enough. Wait a minute, I just orphaned a perfectly good plastic reflector in the original bulb assembly. Let's use that. I cut the reflector off at the shoulder with the blade of my trusty Swiss Army knife, removing the grounding ring first.
I then chucked the reflector into the rotary table on my mill (Sherline for those who want to know) and cut it to fit the Nite-Ize drop-in. Sorry, no pictures of the milling operation nor of the finished product as I was just excited about getting it to work and I screwed everything together and don't want to take it apart. Remember the non-centered LED module? With the reflector holding it in alignment the PR flange now needs to be screwed in with a bit more force so I carefully screwed it in with a pair of pliers before putting the negative spring in place. It's a tight fit but it will not be coming out any time soon.
Here's a picture of the business end of the light now.
This shot shows the gap between the bezel and the rest of the light with the bezel screwed all the way down (to turn on the light).
And, finally, the beamshot with the reflector.
This modification is completely reversible by just removing the PR-flange bulb and modified reflector and putting a replacement incandescent bulb assembly back into it but this one will work much better for me modified this way. With nearly dead batteries I still have usable light. The incandescent bulb with fresh batteries has a tighter, brighter hotspot, but a lot less spill than this modified light does but it'll work great as a close-in light. The beam of the modified light is floodier with a larger hotspot. Not great for throw but great for general use around the house, which was why I bought this light to begin with all those years ago. The batteries will last a lot longer, too. Oh, almost forgot: I got really lucky with this particular Nite-Ize drop-in and got one with a warm yellow emitter. It's not super bright but it's bright enough for my purposes.
The other day, while driving to work, I thought about my options with regards to this little light. Sure, I could have sold it but what is this thing worth, $10? Not worth the trouble. What I really wanted was a battery sucking vampire of a light but the small lamp assembly of this light makes it a real challenge to find something that will fit inside of it. I thought about trying to convert something like the Nite-Ize Mini-MagLite drop-in that I have in my Mini-MagLite, but, the problem is that the Nite-Ize Mini-Mag drop-in is too large to fit the small head of the VB. What now? The simple solution would be to put a 5mm LED in there or even a 10mm one but these have a much higher low voltage cut-of so this option was ruled out, not to mention the low light output from these LEDs without a driver to drive them. How about a PR-flanged drop-in? It just might fit. The MagLED module is too fat to fit the limited space inside the VB head, but, what about the Nite-Ize 2-6 cell 1-watt PR-flange drop-in? The MagLED module would generate too much heat anyway since it is a 3-watt bulb assembly and there isn't any room for heatsinking in this thing. I should be able to get away with using the Nite-Ize module because, at one watt, it shouldn't generate a lot of heat anyway and I probably wouldn't leave it turned on long enough to generate any real heat from usage so I should be fine.
The bulb and the drop-in are roughly the same size.
The negative spring from the bulb fits the PR flange drop-in if pressed on backwards.
A functional test to see if it'll even work, and it does!
The PR-flange just meets the plastic threads of the bezel. Screw it in and it's good. No, it is not centered.
The beamshot: it's very nice and even, very floody, no hotspot. No surprises there. If all I wanted was purely flood then I would be finished, but, no...
Warning - The following modification involves the use of power tools and sharp cutting instruments. Please do so at your own risk. I take no responsibilities if you lose a finger trying to do this mod. No flashlights were injured and no LEDs were destroyed performing this mod, though one incandescent bulb assembly was ceremoniously sacrificed.
So then my mind is racing about the possibilities. Can I make a reflector? If I make one out of aluminum then it'll scratch the plastic bezel. If I make it out of Delrin then it won't be reflective enough. Wait a minute, I just orphaned a perfectly good plastic reflector in the original bulb assembly. Let's use that. I cut the reflector off at the shoulder with the blade of my trusty Swiss Army knife, removing the grounding ring first.
I then chucked the reflector into the rotary table on my mill (Sherline for those who want to know) and cut it to fit the Nite-Ize drop-in. Sorry, no pictures of the milling operation nor of the finished product as I was just excited about getting it to work and I screwed everything together and don't want to take it apart. Remember the non-centered LED module? With the reflector holding it in alignment the PR flange now needs to be screwed in with a bit more force so I carefully screwed it in with a pair of pliers before putting the negative spring in place. It's a tight fit but it will not be coming out any time soon.
Here's a picture of the business end of the light now.
This shot shows the gap between the bezel and the rest of the light with the bezel screwed all the way down (to turn on the light).
And, finally, the beamshot with the reflector.
This modification is completely reversible by just removing the PR-flange bulb and modified reflector and putting a replacement incandescent bulb assembly back into it but this one will work much better for me modified this way. With nearly dead batteries I still have usable light. The incandescent bulb with fresh batteries has a tighter, brighter hotspot, but a lot less spill than this modified light does but it'll work great as a close-in light. The beam of the modified light is floodier with a larger hotspot. Not great for throw but great for general use around the house, which was why I bought this light to begin with all those years ago. The batteries will last a lot longer, too. Oh, almost forgot: I got really lucky with this particular Nite-Ize drop-in and got one with a warm yellow emitter. It's not super bright but it's bright enough for my purposes.
