Mini LED recommendations

[dystopia]

Well, I am going to staff a con here soon, and most of the shifts are going to be during the night (they suggested to have a decent light). I'd been meaning to pick up a mini led flashlight for awhile, but now have a decent reason to.

Basically I've been trying to find one on a few things, first being size. I love the form factor of the Maglite mini 2AA flashlight, something close to that would be awesome. Second I'd like to be able to easily swap the LED, wether it be a burnout or color change(i'm not a flashlight guru by any means...so if this isn't possible please tell me). Third, it would be handy if it's available in larger stores (home deopt, walmart, ace etc.) I've been searching online with minimal luck of finding them in stores with the options I need. I'll order online if necessary, I just don't feel like paying twice as much as the flashlight to get it here on time.

Thx in advance.

 

[chmsam]

If you already have an AA minimag, you can get a Terralux luxeon led for about $25 and just replace the bulb and the reflector (comes as a kit and takes about a minute). Check them out at Brightguys -- fast delivery.

If you just want to find a light at a local brick and mortar store, check out the led lights at Galyans, Gander Mtn., Bass Pro Shops, or even Wally World and Target.

-(a different) Craig

 

[gadget_lover]

You can go two ways, depending on your needs;

If you want to light up a whole room or area, you'll want a luxeon based light.
If you just want to see things 1 to 10 feet away, you can look at the 5mm led based lights. Either way, LED burn-out is almost never a problem.

Target carrys a 4 LED (5mm) 2AA light that is similar in size to the minimag.

You can get a kit from the sandwich shop to convert your minimag to use an LED. That's considered a "sandwich" and is simple to swap from one minimag to another. Some of the sandwiches are equiped with very bright luxeons.

The Streamlight Jr is quite similar in size to the minimag, but is manufactured strictly as a luxeon light. www.brightguy.com carrys those for about $30. They also have the 4AAEled for only $20. The e-led is dimmer but has a fantastic battey life


Hope that helps.

 

[dystopia]

Now, I had run across the minimag conversions, however I couldn't tell if you could replace the led itself, or had to buy multiple conversion kits if you wanted to swap for another color.

I will look into both of your suggestions, thanks again.

 

[GarageBoy]

You could swap to another color, by unsoldering the original and resoldering the desired colored one

 

[Niteowl]

I second the UK4eLed suggested by gadget lover. It's quite different in style from the MM, but an outstanding close-quarter light. The flat shape of the body lends itself quite well to back pocket carry. Long running, very durable, water resistant, and the led module is easy to change, but it's highly unlikely you'll ever need to. I believe it's some-what under driven so it should last "forever". I suspect you could put a colored disk behind the lens if desired easily enough.

Never tried the MM drop-in. If you're really stuck on the style, it'd be the way to go, it seems.

Mark

 

[Stanley]

How about a Streamlight Twintask Light? There is the 3AA, which has both a Xenon bulb and 3 white Leds, so you have the best of both worlds. Else if you want something purely Led, then the Tasklight 3AA would be a good choice too. Sizewise, just picture a 3AA sized Minimag...

 

[paulr]

Dystopia, normally (with a few exceptions), flashlight led's aren't interchangeable. They don't burn out so they don't need replacement, and you'd get separate flashlights for different colors.

If you just want a good practical light similar in size to the minimag, try the Gerber Trio which is $20 from batterystation.com (CPF sponsor). The UKE 4AA eLED is also very good but is larger.

Trio review: http://ledmuseum.jpoproductions.com/second/trio.htm

 

[KevinL]

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
They don't burn out so they don't need replacement, and you'd get separate flashlights for different colors.


[/ QUOTE ]

Shelf full of MiniMags in different colors. Matching LED colors come to mind.. now that's a scary amount of sandwiches in different LED colors to match the outside colors.

But really, if I wanted a red or blue LED, and if I had a choice of what color the housing should be, I'd choose matching colors. Silver can mean white LEDs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Lurker]

If you want a Luxeon light, you are better off ordering them because there are not many in B&M stores, but if you have a Brookstone store near you, they have some you can try and buy.

 

[zapper]

Funny you should mention, this is what I try to do with most of my lights. A red body has a red led (luxeon or 5mm), blue has blue and silver has white! Once you have a few lights laying around it can get confusing and this really helps figure out which one to pick up for the task at hand. I also reccomend the TwinTask/Tasklight/Sandwich shoppe choices.

 

[flashlite]

Re:

Another option might be to get an incan. flashlight that uses a PR type bulb. Then you just need to get widely available PR type LED replacement bulbs for it. The EverLED comes to mind since it's available in different colors but they're about $40/ea.

As for a host flashlight, I'm not sure if there's something with the MM form factor that uses PR type bulbs but you might like the Tec 40 by Princeton Tec. It's a little bigger than the MM (4aa 2x2) but a very nice light.