Oracle Aluminum 3D Flashlight? Luxeon Star Mod

[ElektroLumens]

I found an aluminum flashlight, 3 'D' cell, made by Oracle, which I modified, and put in a Luxeon Star. I used only 1 ohm resistance, and this sucker is bright! I have it up on eBay for auction.

Luxeon Star / 3 'D' Cell Flashlight on eBay

Wayne www.elektrolumens.com

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

About darn good time somebody made a Luxeon and is selling it on Ebay!!!, looks pretty good to me Wayne! who makes the parent case? It almost looks like a maglight, is it? Keep it going because I am backing out for awhile to make some real wages during the summer and then if all goes to schedule I may have my shop set up in Florida, its too expensive to buy tools and materials here in Alaska plus I really want a working vacation home where its warmer for at least 4 months a year during the winter.

 

[ElektroLumens]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
About darn good time somebody made a Luxeon and is selling it on Ebay!!!, looks pretty good to me Wayne! who makes the parent case? It almost looks like a maglight, is it? Keep it going because I am backing out for awhile to make some real wages during the summer and then if all goes to schedule I may have my shop set up in Florida, its too expensive to buy tools and materials here in Alaska plus I really want a working vacation home where its warmer for at least 4 months a year during the winter.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Hey Daniel,

This is an Oracle flashlight. An aluminum flashlight, similar to a Mag Lite. It is very different in the insides, and pretty easy to modify. I want to do one and change the switch to a on-off-on rocker switch, so I can have a low setting and a high setting.
So Far I've had it on for 11 hours, and it seems just as bright as when I first turned it on. I didn't even start with fresh batteries. I am using only 1 ohm resistance, so I want to be sure it burns brightly for at least 24 hours, which I am sure it will. With 2 ohms resistance, I get 48 hours of near full brightness. Quite amazing to me that they can burn so long, at such high current. I will be experimenting with various types of aluminum flashlights (Nordic, Brinkmann, Oracle, etc.), in the next month or two.

Wayne
www.elektrolumens.com

 

[papasan]

looks like good work, as always, wayne...

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

Well to honestly tell the truth here its good to see another Luxeon flashlight other than the ARC LS, I get daily requests to build more of my Brinkmann Legend 2AA Luxeons but I stopped making those a month ago, all I have is my solo one which I keep in my tool box and the 3 D Maglite conversion with TWO Luxeons mounted for at home. And now the AAA Legend LED mod is winding down and will be on hiatus for awhile. But getting back to Waynes flashlight, there is absolutely NO requirement to have voltage regulation to run a Luxeon for a flashlight, that is a minor detail of electronic current feeding much the same as comparing a carburerated engine to a fuel injected engine, both can develope the same amount of horsepower, its just a matter of fuel management in a more precise manner and flashlights do not neccessarily need that.

 

[ElektroLumens]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
Well to honestly tell the truth here its good to see another Luxeon flashlight other than the ARC LS, I get daily requests to build more of my Brinkmann Legend 2AA Luxeons but I stopped making those a month ago, all I have is my solo one which I keep in my tool box and the 3 D Maglite conversion with TWO Luxeons mounted for at home. And now the AAA Legend LED mod is winding down and will be on hiatus for awhile. But getting back to Waynes flashlight, there is absolutely NO requirement to have voltage regulation to run a Luxeon for a flashlight, that is a minor detail of electronic current feeding much the same as comparing a carburerated engine to a fuel injected engine, both can develope the same amount of horsepower, its just a matter of fuel management in a more precise manner and flashlights do not neccessarily need that.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Hi Daniel,

Regarding voltage regulation, I think it has it's place with a smaller size flashlight. Like with a 2 AA, or 2 C flashlight design. Also, with a voltage regulator, I get super bright light from my 2 'C' cell design, but for a shorter duration. If having full brightness is more important than having batteries last for 48 hours, than the regulator is a good way to go. But I think this applies to the smaller flashlight. Using 3 'D' cells, it doesn't seem to make sense to use a voltage regulator. I've had this 3 'D' cell flashlight with the Luxeon Star on for 24 hours now, and it is still super bright!

I used only 1 ohm resistance, and I thought the batteries wouldn't last too long. I was very wrong!

Wayne www.elektrolumens.com

 

[remuen]

Hi Wayne

I'm totally disappointed

. I was prepared to write some very critical comments on one of your mods - and now I have to wait again another couple of days ...

.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Daniel Ramsey:
... there is absolutely NO requirement to have voltage regulation to run a Luxeon for a flashlight ... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Daniel
You know I do like these circuits just because they give me the possibility to do what I couldn't do without them.

In this mod as in much others cases too you are absolutly right: There is really no need for a DC-DC converter of any kind - except you would call this resistor also a DC-DC converter. And a resistor is also a kind of voltage regulation and current limiter

.

I think with the one ohm resistor Wayne has got an efficiency of 90% or even more. So it would be useless to waste money for a more sophisticated DC-DC converter than a resistor.

But in other cases a DC-DC converter will certainly help. Take a 4D flashlight. A step down converter will have a much better efficiency than a resistor. OK, I know: I could replace one of the batteries with a dummy. But then I would loose a 1/4 of the energy I could take with me.

Or take the 2AA Minimag or any other 2 AA flashlight. Of course you can use three N cells to get the necessary voltage to drive a LS. But N cells are much more expensive than using NiMH's - and they are not everywhere available. Only a booster circuit like the ZLT+ will give you the possibility to drive the LS with two AA NiMH's.

So using a DC-DC converter is just as good or as bad as using none - it really depends on the certain case and how you look at it. Regarding this Wayne is a happy guy as he can decide in which cases he is going to use a regulation circuit and in which other cases he will go without it.


Btw: Daniel, did you notice that nobody has to scratch with the chicken any longer?

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

I was in a rush to get to work this morning and I should have mentioned where Dc/DC comes into play, that would be where a single battery is used, that is until a specific battery is made for the general LED voltage of perhaps 3.6-4.0 volts. most certainly in the future there will be such a "task specific" LED type of battery for the thousands of new flashlights that no longer use bulbs...in the near future. But still it plays to mind that carburated engines have been around longer than fuel injection unless you think of a diesel so the same applies in respect of using a resistor much the same, it will do the job unless its a type of light that demands a critical output at a flat discharge such as caving lights or the compact single battery designs. i still look at coming down from a higher voltage to whats needed and thats mostly because of MY electrical background, case to point out a 15 HP 3 phase motor draws 38 amps at 230 volts, but at 460 its only 19 amps, I can also use a smaller magnetic switch (#1)and wiring instead of a larger mag. switch (#2). The same with heavy equipment, a 24volt starter can be more efficient because it take less amperage. A single battery say its a AA or a AAA can only dish out so much current, less when its cold or old and this is trying to increase the voltage by the DC/DC converter which increases the current demand, but by starting with a higher voltage and restricting the voltage the battery can still maintain its normal current rate and usually in most temperatures depending on its type such as lithiums, I have thought of designing 12 to 36 volt type of flashlights and running the LEDs in series!

 

[ElektroLumens]

I took some beamshots of the Luxeon Star modified Oracle 3 'D' cell flashlight. One shot with completely fresh batteries. Another shot after the flashlight had been on for 36 hous straight. For comparison and all fairness, I took a beam shot of my Rayovac Industrial flashlight, which has 12 Nichia 5600mcd white LED's, and very fresh batteries.

All batteries are Energizer Alkalines, 1.5 volts.

Beamshots

Wayne www.elektrolumens.com