MacTech
Enlightened
Looks like a normal Mini MagLite, right?, well....read on....
Tonight i went back to the Discovery store, to get a replacement for my Inova X0, as it had something in the collomator lens that *looked* like a crack/scratch, didn't affect the throw or light pattern, it was just unnerving having *something* in an expensive flashlight.....
turns out *all* the X0's had that "line", now it looks like either a hair, or it could simply be an image of the wires in the LED, the lens appears to be very well optically designed, it appears to be "normal", and since it doesn't seem to affect the light performance, i'll live with it, and not let it bother me
...
anyway, to get to the point of my post...
while i was there, i saw in the kids section, a little "kit" consisting of an "invisible ink" pen and a little UV LED "squeeze-light"
the squeeze-light was simply a pair of 3V lithium button cell batteries with the LED leads straddling them and a clicker switch to push one of the LED leads onto the battery, it looked like i could simply pull the light apart and pop the LED in the head of one of my Mini Mag Lites....
long story short, i grabbed one of my spare MML's, unscrewed the head and shoved the LED into the holes, aside from the length of the LED leads, it was a perfect fit, i popped in the batteries.....nothing...., so i simply reversed the polarity of the LED, and it illuminated!
i then bored out the reflector to fit the LED through and reassembled the light, it was a little dim, but it lit, this was expected as i was only supplying it with 3V, not the 6V it was expecting, but the fact remains that it *was* working, i'll figure out a way to get 6V into the light somehow, maybe put in a pair of 3.6V batteries....
.....like the kind i have in my collection of old Macs out in the attic....hold on!
YES!!!!
my *temporary* rig of 1 3.6V lithium clock battery, 1 1.5v Alkaline AA and a piece of balled up aluminum foil has increased the light output from the LED dramatically, i know it's a bad idea to mix battery types and voltages, that's why it's a temporary rig only, when i get into work tomorrow, i'll try 2 3.6V lithiums and some foil spacers, and i may even risk it and go to 3 or even 4 3.6 V batteries, heck, if worse comes to worse and i burn out the LED, i'm only out a $7 UV LED....
i'm going to hit the Discovery store tomorrow and pick up a few more of the UV squeezelight kits, just to have the LED's as backups
here's some pics of my first succesful flashlight hack...
pics of the light running on 3V (2 AA Alkalines)
pics of the light running on 5.1V (3.6V lithium clock battery, AA Alkaline, foil spacer)
any hints on getting a good stable 6V (or more if the LED will handle it...) into a Mini Mag?, *how* dangerous is it to run the light with it's battery mix of voltages/types....
Tonight i went back to the Discovery store, to get a replacement for my Inova X0, as it had something in the collomator lens that *looked* like a crack/scratch, didn't affect the throw or light pattern, it was just unnerving having *something* in an expensive flashlight.....
turns out *all* the X0's had that "line", now it looks like either a hair, or it could simply be an image of the wires in the LED, the lens appears to be very well optically designed, it appears to be "normal", and since it doesn't seem to affect the light performance, i'll live with it, and not let it bother me
...
anyway, to get to the point of my post...
while i was there, i saw in the kids section, a little "kit" consisting of an "invisible ink" pen and a little UV LED "squeeze-light"
the squeeze-light was simply a pair of 3V lithium button cell batteries with the LED leads straddling them and a clicker switch to push one of the LED leads onto the battery, it looked like i could simply pull the light apart and pop the LED in the head of one of my Mini Mag Lites....
long story short, i grabbed one of my spare MML's, unscrewed the head and shoved the LED into the holes, aside from the length of the LED leads, it was a perfect fit, i popped in the batteries.....nothing...., so i simply reversed the polarity of the LED, and it illuminated!
i then bored out the reflector to fit the LED through and reassembled the light, it was a little dim, but it lit, this was expected as i was only supplying it with 3V, not the 6V it was expecting, but the fact remains that it *was* working, i'll figure out a way to get 6V into the light somehow, maybe put in a pair of 3.6V batteries....
.....like the kind i have in my collection of old Macs out in the attic....hold on!
YES!!!!
my *temporary* rig of 1 3.6V lithium clock battery, 1 1.5v Alkaline AA and a piece of balled up aluminum foil has increased the light output from the LED dramatically, i know it's a bad idea to mix battery types and voltages, that's why it's a temporary rig only, when i get into work tomorrow, i'll try 2 3.6V lithiums and some foil spacers, and i may even risk it and go to 3 or even 4 3.6 V batteries, heck, if worse comes to worse and i burn out the LED, i'm only out a $7 UV LED....
i'm going to hit the Discovery store tomorrow and pick up a few more of the UV squeezelight kits, just to have the LED's as backups
here's some pics of my first succesful flashlight hack...
pics of the light running on 3V (2 AA Alkalines)
pics of the light running on 5.1V (3.6V lithium clock battery, AA Alkaline, foil spacer)
any hints on getting a good stable 6V (or more if the LED will handle it...) into a Mini Mag?, *how* dangerous is it to run the light with it's battery mix of voltages/types....
