Looking at the new Streamlight BatonLite due out shortly, I got to thinking. I am sorry if someone else has preceeded me and I am either sticking both feet in or boring…
3 N cells would fit in a 2AA mini maglite with only a little finagling. This would give us 4.5VDC in a known extremely sturdy package. N cells are 12mm across by 29.5mm long. 3 N would be 88.5mm long. AA batteries are 14.5mm across by 50mm long. 2 AA would be 100mm long. We would need a conductive spacer between 9mm and 11.5mm or so long (preferably placed in the rear end where the spacer would be at the same voltage as the case of the flashlight and would not short out anything.) and we might find that the N cells would need to be wrapped up to 1.2mm thick.
Up to 7 standard 5mm LEDs could be built into a head replacing the reflector and the bulb. (yes there is room. Close, but room enough) I would have to leave out probably the center LED to make room for the limiting resistors. At full power this could generate between 12 and 90 or so candle power (12,000 to 90,000 millicandellas) depending on the LEDs chosen, but without any beam adjustability. ( I would probably include 1 or 2 wide angle LEDs to limit beam blindness…) 6 times the nominal LED draw of 20mA gives a total draw of 120mA. Panasonic N cells are rated at 400mAh so that would supply semi-full brightness to the 7 LEDs from the 3 N cells for about 2 hours. Dimming over several additional hours. The total run time would be about 6 to 8 hours as compared to the Streamlight BatonLite's advertised time of 12 hours with 42,000 millicandellas.
There would not be room for much of a step-up type regulator with 7 LEDs, but with 7 LEDs even the 3 volts from 2 AA alk batteries would still be enough for me to read by or not trip over something. It would have somewhere from ½ to 5 candle power (500 to 5,000 millicandellas.) (This would be approximately doubled for 2 of the AA lithium cells!) I have a longevity test still running from Feb. 8, 2000 with a single white LED on a pair of AA alkalines. It is DIM but still enough to read regular print and to walk semi-carefully in pitch darkness. At the very least it means that I should never have to light a match in total darkness. The 6 or 7 LEDs would give a more useable light for around a month or 2 continuously on a single pair of AAs. Would it be a "waste of LEDs"? I am going to leave that up to the individual reader.
My show stopper is the fact of the mini Maglite twist-on head. The LED assembly would have to twist in the head. Or replace the pegged piece that says DO NOT REMOVE. This is the only part keeping me from doing it. (I know, all this way to a dead end.) Has anyone else overcome this problem?
I additionally wish Maglite or somebody made a 3 AA or AAA version, or that they sold an extender for the tail to add another cell. This would give about 5 to 6 times the battery life of the N cells cutting battery costs by a factor of 9 to 20, and only add 2 inches in length. I thought I saw something like that for the D lights years ago but cannot find it now.
