Modded Penlight

[Long John]

Hello

While I'm waiting for my "great modding stuff", I took time by the forelook by modding a cheap Al-Penlight.
It's powered by 2xAAA cells and used an ugly 5mm Led with a ringy and blueish beam.

Since I have left a few "old" Luxeon's due to upgrading my lights with new ermitters (Cree/SSC), I got the idea, to swap the 5mm to a Lux I with warmer, yellowish tint.
Opening the bezel was easy because it wasn't glued.
I cutted the 5mm Led and have left the legs inside the light. Then I soldered the wires to the legs.
Now the hard part of the mod: finding a tiny heatsink......:thinking:

But I was in luck and found a piece of brass with exactly the same diameter of the light:twothumbs.

It was a piece of a solder-gas-burner.

The rest was easy, mounting the Led to the heatsink and both with thermal-paste into the light. Soldering the wires to the Led, screwing on the bezel with the optic and....voila:

The beamshot:

Compared to a LumaPower M3 on "Low":

Now the beam is nearly round without any artefacts and warm yellowish.
The current draw is 100mA, so the runtime will be acceptable with the 2xAAA cells.
The brightness isn't a "burner" but useful for close tasks.

Hopefully I'll receive my brighter future projects soon

Best regards

_____
Tom

 

[Icarus]

Nice mod my friend! :twothumbs...:wave:

 

[kenster]

Cool little light and it seems you had fun with your penlight mod as well. The tiny optic appears to focus the Luxeon into a nice beam. A Lux 1 running at 100ma would be hard to see in a beamshot pic, if it didn`t!

 

[Long John]

Thank you very much Freddy and Ken

Yes, the optic works very well. I measured 2,8V at the Led an 100mA at the tailcap, that's not much

I'll promise, my next mod will be brighter

Very best regards

_____
Tom:wave:

 

[parnass]

While I'm waiting for my "great modding stuff", I took time by the forelook by modding a cheap Al-Penlight....
The current draw is 100mA, so the runtime will be acceptable with the 2xAAA cells.
The brightness isn't a "burner" but useful for close tasks.

Good job! There is a shortage of better quality, 2AAA LED penlights. I like the form factor and just picked up a "2 watt" Victorinox 2AAA LED flashlight.

 

[Krit]

Very good tiny light. Modder always have many parts from modding and try to make those parts more useful.

 

[65535]

Thats an excellent mod, great amount of light. Perfect for penlights standard duty use.

 

[Bimmerboy]

Not your average pocket clip penlight! Very nice mod, Long John. Great improvised heatsink!

Ya' know... I wonder what it'd look like with E2 lithiums. It might not seem worth the expense initially, but not only would it be a little brighter, the discharge curve is a lot flatter than alkies... plus the lithiums have a much longer shelf life. Even if current doubled, it wouldn't make that much heat.

Wadda ya' say? :devil:

 

[Long John]

Thank you very much guys :thanks:

Bimmerboy, I guess this light has a kind of boost-circuit, so perhaps it would fry with Lithiums. I'm not sure, but probably.
Furthermore I like the dim output in this case, because it's perfect for reading, navigating at darkness.....
It works well with nimh's too, so I feel no need for the expensive Lithium cells.
I use rechargeables in all my lights

Very best regards

____
Tom:wave:

 

[Ganp]

:twothumbs Excellent mod Tom. The host is a nice style too.


But how did you bring yourself to do such a TINY mod after your SUPER MEGA THROWER MONSTER THINGY?


Colin.

 

[Long John]

Hello Collin

Thank you very much my friend.
These days I'll post a very bright mod, so please be a little patient after this "weaker" mod

Very best regards

_____
Tom:wave:

 

[Long John]

Collin, here is my last mod:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=167210

Very best regards

______
Tom:wave:

 

[Ganp]

:eeksign: