I'm a noob and have a few different questions. First off, like many people on this site, I just have this thing for collecting (and now modifying) LED flashlights. I started doing basic mods a few years ago, nothing big or complex. Just taking cheap 3AAA flashlights and replacing the LED with better (brighter) ones, things like that. I wanted to make something that would give me a pretty powerful light; more than what any of the 3AAA (4.5v) or 2x CR123A (6v) LED lights could give. So I noticed that Luxeon started selling tri-star emitters. Some of these gave off anywhere from 300lm (100lm per emitter) to 540lm (180lm per emitter)! Each LED emitter took 3.15fv for a total of 9.45fv to run the entire tri-star (approximately). That's a good bit of power, so my options were somewhat limited as to what I could but this LED in. Any light that uses lantern type 6v or something was out because that was too big a size for me. Using small lithium batteries like the CR123A's were out as well since this light would burn through them within a few hours and I wanted something that would have a burn time longer than that.
So finally I got the idea to take a standard military issue Fulton angle head 2D cell flashlight (bought from my local PX) and put the LED into that. It's cheap ($8) and can be taken apart (and modified) pretty easily. But 2D cells only give 3v, so the solution was to get some 3AA to 1D cell adapters. These are pretty hard to find, but I found a site or 2 that had them. (In China, so they took awhile to get, but cheap.) 2 of these holding 3AA cells a piece gave 9v (actually 10v according to my voltmeter), but that's what the light needs to run @ its brightest. From www.luxeonstar.com is where I bought my supplies. I made 2 different versions. One was with an older neutral white tri-star rebel emitter (forget model#) that was 300lm and a compatible 25 deg. frosted focusing lens. This was basically a trial run. (Worked great, very bright, sent it to a friend) The second one I made (that I have/use now) is the same thing, but with a different LED model/lens. For this one I used the cool white Luxeon Rebel Tri-Star LXML-PWC1-0100 (540lm) and a Carclo 18 deg. tri-lens. I only had 2 of those battery adapters at the time but needed to be able to power my previous version that I was going to send to my friend. So I got into Macgyver mode and just cut both adapters in-half, drilled small holes in each of the sides, cut equal lengths of clothes hanger wire and glued them in. Presto! Now I had two 6AA to 2D cell adapters! For this one, I wanted to go a bit fancier and tried putting in a multi-mode circuit (burnt out even though it was supposedly rated for such voltage/current) and then a voltage regulator (dimmed the light too much), so I decided to just make it as simple as the first one and just mod the reflector to fit the LED light with the lens on top and a heatsink base for the LED. Then just wired it to the battery connections that fit to the old bulb and just use everything else that's already there. (switch, etc.) Again, it works just fine, doesn't seem to overheat and is pretty freakin' bright!
OK, finally to my questions. After reading what I've done here, does this angle head setup sound OK? I mean, is having nothing like a driver or regulator between the power and the LED a mistake? (Because it seems to work fine) Also, for this angle head, I'm using Lithium AA's like what you use for digital cameras. LED lights are high-drain devices, so I figured these would give me much longer life than what alkalines would give me...plus lithiums are lighter weight. So is this true? Do lithium batteries give longer life to LED flashlights VS alkaline batteries? I've never actually bothered to do a life test and see which lasted longer. (Especially since AA lithiums are kinda expensive, even when bought online.) Any useful comments/info are appreciated!
So finally I got the idea to take a standard military issue Fulton angle head 2D cell flashlight (bought from my local PX) and put the LED into that. It's cheap ($8) and can be taken apart (and modified) pretty easily. But 2D cells only give 3v, so the solution was to get some 3AA to 1D cell adapters. These are pretty hard to find, but I found a site or 2 that had them. (In China, so they took awhile to get, but cheap.) 2 of these holding 3AA cells a piece gave 9v (actually 10v according to my voltmeter), but that's what the light needs to run @ its brightest. From www.luxeonstar.com is where I bought my supplies. I made 2 different versions. One was with an older neutral white tri-star rebel emitter (forget model#) that was 300lm and a compatible 25 deg. frosted focusing lens. This was basically a trial run. (Worked great, very bright, sent it to a friend) The second one I made (that I have/use now) is the same thing, but with a different LED model/lens. For this one I used the cool white Luxeon Rebel Tri-Star LXML-PWC1-0100 (540lm) and a Carclo 18 deg. tri-lens. I only had 2 of those battery adapters at the time but needed to be able to power my previous version that I was going to send to my friend. So I got into Macgyver mode and just cut both adapters in-half, drilled small holes in each of the sides, cut equal lengths of clothes hanger wire and glued them in. Presto! Now I had two 6AA to 2D cell adapters! For this one, I wanted to go a bit fancier and tried putting in a multi-mode circuit (burnt out even though it was supposedly rated for such voltage/current) and then a voltage regulator (dimmed the light too much), so I decided to just make it as simple as the first one and just mod the reflector to fit the LED light with the lens on top and a heatsink base for the LED. Then just wired it to the battery connections that fit to the old bulb and just use everything else that's already there. (switch, etc.) Again, it works just fine, doesn't seem to overheat and is pretty freakin' bright!
OK, finally to my questions. After reading what I've done here, does this angle head setup sound OK? I mean, is having nothing like a driver or regulator between the power and the LED a mistake? (Because it seems to work fine) Also, for this angle head, I'm using Lithium AA's like what you use for digital cameras. LED lights are high-drain devices, so I figured these would give me much longer life than what alkalines would give me...plus lithiums are lighter weight. So is this true? Do lithium batteries give longer life to LED flashlights VS alkaline batteries? I've never actually bothered to do a life test and see which lasted longer. (Especially since AA lithiums are kinda expensive, even when bought online.) Any useful comments/info are appreciated!
