The story of my mistakes begins.
So today I decided to make my own LED flashlight, using a Sharper Image host - which I believe came as a set of two for 12 bucks, black and brass. The original flashlight appears to use what looked like an Incandescent bulb of a smaller diameter, so I had to bore out the focusing reflector with a screwdriver.
While the host originally took two AA batteries, I wanted to test out a 12V A23, which is significantly smaller than even a AAA, but it rivals a 9V both in how bright the light gets and how fast the battery gets hot. Since I'm new to LEDs, I went with a 10,000MCD, aka 10 candelas. For some reason this bulb comes with a warning label - something I'd consider largely unwarranted.
Since I didn't want to mess with solder, I went with electrical tape and wire, and realized I had to completely reconfigure the power system, since it originally depended on the host and the board which was permanently attached to the previous bulb. This turned into a fiasco of getting the wires to maintain contact with the batteries. Rebending them repeatedly led to repeated snaps and I even tried cutting circular pieces of electrical tape. That failed because the black lacquer near the spring connection didn't conduct electricity, so I took some sandpaper to it. That only worked some of the time because the electrical tape refused to stick.
That failing, I pulled out a power drill with a titanium bit and bored a small hole into the on-off switch and used a tiny screw to complete the circuit. Then I tried sliding the tiny battery connected with tape through the tube portion of the host, but the wire was considerably more resilient than the tape, and the circuit kept coming undone within an inch of closing it off.
Finally, I pulled out a piece of sheet steel and crudely fashioned a battery clip for the A23 with electrical tape as insulation, and after another half hour of fiddling with pliers and steel sheers, I was able to make solid connections that for some reason switched on and off while I was sliding everything into place. I got lucky enough to get the lens on and still have current, so I snapped some photos of my POS 10 Candella LED flashlight.
turned off
So today I decided to make my own LED flashlight, using a Sharper Image host - which I believe came as a set of two for 12 bucks, black and brass. The original flashlight appears to use what looked like an Incandescent bulb of a smaller diameter, so I had to bore out the focusing reflector with a screwdriver.
While the host originally took two AA batteries, I wanted to test out a 12V A23, which is significantly smaller than even a AAA, but it rivals a 9V both in how bright the light gets and how fast the battery gets hot. Since I'm new to LEDs, I went with a 10,000MCD, aka 10 candelas. For some reason this bulb comes with a warning label - something I'd consider largely unwarranted.
Since I didn't want to mess with solder, I went with electrical tape and wire, and realized I had to completely reconfigure the power system, since it originally depended on the host and the board which was permanently attached to the previous bulb. This turned into a fiasco of getting the wires to maintain contact with the batteries. Rebending them repeatedly led to repeated snaps and I even tried cutting circular pieces of electrical tape. That failed because the black lacquer near the spring connection didn't conduct electricity, so I took some sandpaper to it. That only worked some of the time because the electrical tape refused to stick.
That failing, I pulled out a power drill with a titanium bit and bored a small hole into the on-off switch and used a tiny screw to complete the circuit. Then I tried sliding the tiny battery connected with tape through the tube portion of the host, but the wire was considerably more resilient than the tape, and the circuit kept coming undone within an inch of closing it off.
Finally, I pulled out a piece of sheet steel and crudely fashioned a battery clip for the A23 with electrical tape as insulation, and after another half hour of fiddling with pliers and steel sheers, I was able to make solid connections that for some reason switched on and off while I was sliding everything into place. I got lucky enough to get the lens on and still have current, so I snapped some photos of my POS 10 Candella LED flashlight.
turned off
