New Tricks/Usefulness for UK 4aa lights!!

[4x4Dragon]

sure hope they offer the assembly seperately so i can use it with my E-Led! sure would be great to have that clip and adjustable head for nighttime hiking/backpacking. before i had clipped my 2D Anglelux to my sternum straps on my backpack, got a little heavy at times.

http://www.brightguy.com/detail.html?cart=1091220958263434&sku=UND14164

 

[David_Campen]

I wish they would make a 5 watt LED module for the UK 4AA.

 

[gloworm]

David
I'm guesing the 5 watt setup would get too hot when out of water.
A potential solution to this overheating in plastic bodies and maybe
even metal ones would be to fill the flashlight with some form of
electrically non conductive liquid. Something like a very runny non setting liquid silicon if it exists. The downside to this idea is that the heat would also transfer back to the batteries to some extent.
Still worth looking at if you can get sufficient thermal mass in the
battery compartment and the heat load isn't too great.

 

[BentHeadTX]

Glow,
There is an electrically non-conductive liquid called Ferrofluid (or something along those lines) I think it costs around $800 US per litre... give it a try and let us know. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

 

[BentHeadTX]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

Wait! Ferrofluid is the stuff they put in the gap were speaker voice cools are found. It helps cool the wire preventing early burnout. Anyway, the stuff I am talking about is not Ferrofluid, forgot the name of the nonconductive liquid but it is out there.

 

[David_Campen]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm guesing the 5 watt setup would get too hot when out of water.

[/ QUOTE ]
UK sells a 4 watt incandescent for the UK 4AA. I would settle for a 4 watt LED. A 4 watt LED is not going to generate any more heat than a 4 watt incandescent is it?

 

[gloworm]

Should be OK, worth trying as long as the Led doesnt get too hot. Seems like the housing will handle the heat

 

[asdalton]

An incandescent lamp radiates most of its waste heat through the beam itself, making the thermal conductivity of the flashlight body relatively unimportant. An LED relies on conduction, which makes plastic-bodied flashlights problematic when used with high power LEDs.

The LED version of the UK 4AA is relatively dim because its Luxeon is underdriven, and it's underdriven because the engineers at Underwater Kinetics knew that the plastic body would not be able to dissipate the heat if the 1-watt Luxeon were driven at spec. A 5-watt Luxeon would melt down the UK 4AA in a hurry.

 

[KevinL]

[ QUOTE ]
BentHeadTX said:
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif

Wait! Ferrofluid is the stuff they put in the gap were speaker voice cools are found. It helps cool the wire preventing early burnout. Anyway, the stuff I am talking about is not Ferrofluid, forgot the name of the nonconductive liquid but it is out there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Flourinert? They use it for immersion cooling of electronics. Some crazy nuts have flooded entire computers with that stuff in order to push the limits of their performance. I'm just wondering whether it comes in clear (I think it does).

 

[buba]

I would think a 3-watt Luxeon with a good heat sinking setup would work in a UK eLed. I would love to get 55-60 lumens out of an eLed. I will let you know about the unilite. I ordered one last week along with some other goodies from Brightguy.

 

[buba]

The Unilite was on my porch today. I spent about 30 minutes with it and here are my 1st impressions.

The angle is fixed at 90 degrees but the head will rotate over 360 degrees and maintain flicker free lighting due to the spring loaded circle contact plate. It uses a standard 4aa body so the Unilite head could be sold as an option for any of the 4aa units. I agree the side clip should also be a option for all UK 4aa's. I also ordered the 4watt bulb for the rechargable and it works great on the Unilite as does the eLed head. The Unilite will not fit the standard UK 4aa holster or Ripoffs CL/BL-69 holster as it is about 3/4 of an inch taller than other UK 4aa lights.

The UK 4aa is a sweet setup with lots of configuration options.

 

[42]

A good cheap nonconductive fluid is distilled water.

Mark

 

[FroggyTaco]

Wow....do you realize this thread is nearly 6 years old?

 

[Flying Turtle]

Since this old thread popped up I'll add that I still use my UK 4AA eLED after all this time. It generally stays in my tool bag. Only light I have or that I know of that used those side firing LEDs.

Geoff

 

[vtunderground]

Since this old thread popped up I'll add that I still use my UK 4AA eLED after all this time. It generally stays in my tool bag. Only light I have or that I know of that used those side firing LEDs.

I still use mine too, as a handheld light for caving. The last time I loaned it to someone on a caving trip, I had a hard time getting it back!

At the time, there were a few other lights that used the side-emitting Luxeon I, but AFAIK this was the only one that had a reflector specifically designed for the side-emitter. I love the beam profile of the eLED, I just wish it was a little brighter.