Rayovac Sportsman 7D

[Sgt. LED]

OK I just got this light in today and I'm wondering what to do with it.
First thing I did was to toss a Mag xenon 6 cell bulb in it. It's got decent throw but the spill was way way wide, nice! I like the light but it can be more.
It is in good shape except for the reflector and I have all the body sections.
I picked up on only 2 mentions of it on CPF but I didn't search too long.

#1. I would like to keep it incan. I have a lot of LED's!
#2. It needs a new reflector.
#3. It's goofy but I think I would like to stick to 7D alkies. :shrug:
#4. Whatever I do to it it must be reversable. I will not potentionally ruin a light this old.

Juggernaut mentioned getting another body section so it holds 10 D cells and putting in a Par 36. I like the Par 36 idea because it solves the reflector problem. Would I have to mod the connections on the Par bulb so it would work? Which Par is the right one?

Maybe there are other solutions or options besides the Par route?
I am all ears incan guys! Also the magic word is "cheap". The light cost me $5.

 

[lctorana]

PAR36 lights come in 4.8V, 6V, 12V, 12.8V or 13V.

And higher, but that's irrelevant.

There ain't no such animal as an 8.4V PAR36 lamp. Hence Juggernaut's 10-cell design. You might be able to overdrive the 6V lamp (H7550, btw) with 6 cells, but certainly not 7.

Here's an alternative idea - keep the bad reflector, use a Pelican 3853L as the bulb, and replace the glass with some sort of interesting lens from Surplus Shed.

 

[willrx]

I have two of these lights. Interested to see where this goes.

 

[Juggernaut]

The Dorcy industrial 6 volt flashlight comes with a reflector and lens that "should" work since it was the replacement for the older version of the light with a sealed beam bulb, however both the reflector and lens are made of plastic. Also I don't know how you could hook it up internally. Nest the original lens as I'm sure you found out is made of plastic, so that limits higher powered bulbs with the stock reflector. As for as the Par 36 rout you could so as I have done however you must be understand that the lowest wattage 12 volt bulb is 12 watts witch would work great "I'm guessing" off of 10 Ds but it's all flood, while the next up bulb is very under driven "30 watts with way to much voltage sag" also these would need the use an extra extender. If my knowledge serves me right "I know Incans not really LEDs" but MCEs and P7s pull around 14 watts at their max which should be attainable pulling 1.5 amps out of D cells so you could go that rout for 800 lumens "if you over drive the LED" and a probably 5-6 hours of run time "though I could be wrong".

By the way did you acquire this on Ebay? One went for a similar price recently and I was hesitating over buying to get more extenders.

 

[american lockpicker]

Thats a sweet light!

 

[Sgt. LED]

I know! It's so retro cool. I have always liked the old 70's Rayovac Sportsman line. Wish they still made them.

I bought this one from the flashlight museum for 5 bucks.

Crazy deal.

So it looks like I need an extender........
The 6 Xenon works OK for now so at least it's not out of commission. Not a fan of the plastic lens.

 

[american lockpicker]

Surefire (the store in Parkersburg not the company) has a 7D Maglite krypton bulb for around $4 if you need a proper bulb for it.

 

[mdocod]

wonder if it'll fit AA cells 4 abreast.. I know you want to keep it on D alks but hey... 32AA cells could be a fun little adventure as well

 

[Sgt. LED]

32AA! OK I'll check when I get home and see if it can do 4.

You'd have to be the one to make the holder for me.

There ain't no such animal as an 8.4V PAR36 lamp. Hence Juggernaut's 10-cell design. You might be able to overdrive the 6V lamp (H7550, btw) with 6 cells, but certainly not 7.

This light does have a 1 cell extension on it so if the Par you have mentioned runs on 6 without flashing then maybe that's what I should try. So the question is wheather or not the 6V PAR36 can survive on 6D. If so what's the lamp life reduced to, what would the output be, and what is the runtime.
:thinking:

 

[Juggernaut]

32AA! OK I'll check when I get home and see if it can do 4.

You'd have to be the one to make the holder for me.

This light does have a 1 cell extension on it so if the Par you have mentioned runs on 6 without flashing then maybe that's what I should try. So the question is wheather or not the 6V PAR36 can survive on 6D. If so what's the lamp life reduced to, what would the output be, and what is the runtime.
:thinking:

The H7550 is a good bulb and is meant to be used with 6 volt SLA batteries, I do not own any 6 volt SLAs "only lots of 12 volts" and I am currently running it off of an 8F Energizer alkaline 6 volt battery "off topic but I'm sad to say Energizer just discontinued their production of this battery:mecry:" anyways it's decently bright in this setup, if slightly under driven. It pulls 1.3 amps at 6 volts and I would honestly not try pushing it pass 5 D cells "7.5 volts" it's not that the bulb couldn't probably handle more. It's that unlike $1-4 Bi-pin bulbs, these bulbs cost like $25 and if you blow one of these it would suck a lot. Overdriven off of 5Ds should result in a pretty bright light around 10+ watts at maybe 27 lumens per watt would give you 270-300 lumens, if you upped the ante 9 volts by 1.85 "estimated new amp draw" around 16.65 watts at 30? Lumens a watt, putts you around 500 Lumens of very white out put and an incredible piercing beam that could probably rival most if not all astrosphereic LED lights. At around 1.65 amps 5D batteries would probably last about 5 hours and at 1.85 amps for 6D batteries about 3.5 hours, though after the first 30 minuets or less you would see a noticeable drop of power "such as the standard Maglite pulling .75 amps losses like 50% output after the first hour and then runs for another 10 hours, with the greater draw on the batteries you can probably see an even more noticeable drop off in output in a shorter amount of time. My 10D 30 watt RayOvac makes about 650 Lumens with fresh batteries but after the first 5-10 minuets it has a massive drop in performance to what I would think is about 350-450 under driven lumens, even if the light should theoretically run for another 2 and one half hours.

Lastly I don't think I mentioned before hand if you use Par36 bulbs you will have to wire the bulb up to work, the simplest thing to do "Which I did" was to simply attach a wire from the switch to one of the bulb's terminals, then cover it in electrical tape, take some good conductible metal and screw it directly to the opposite bulb terminal so it covers both that terminal and over the electrical taped terminal so that the D cells directly touch it. This isn't probably the best / strongest / reliable way to do it but it's worked fine so far, just be careful not to allow the cells to slam into the head because they might break the bulb:sigh:.

 

[Sgt. LED]

Thank you for the info! I will be moving into Par 36 sometime next week I think.

However last night I solved the reflector problem. :twothumbs
I dug around and found something that I already had that gives crazy throw.

Yes I robbed the Dorcy!!!!!!!! I now have great throw in an old light using the Mag 6 cell Xenon. It throws better than it did in the Dorcy because the Mag Xenon bulb focuses even better than the bulb the Dorcy came with. It's the best thrower in my house now. No contest at all.

IF there is anyone out there looking for a super easy replacement for their factory lens and reflector this is it! The Dorcy's lens and reflector fit perfectly. There is even a ridge in the lens where the head assembly retaining wire rests perfectly. This set-up does make it harder to screw the tailcap on because the reflector is twice as deep as factory and that moves the batteries that much deeper into the light. I managed to get it on but cutting a bit off the tail spring would make life easier. When putting this new Dorcy head assembly in just take the small negative tab and bend it up toward the lens. Align this tab with the switch on the light and you're golden. The only other change is flipping the big head spring around. The closed or connected end of the big spring should now sit toward the switch, that's it. No soldering, no permanent mods to the Dorcy or to the Rayovac Sportsman. If you want brighter then sure you need to move into PAR territory and do a touch of soldering like Juggernaut said. The Dorcy lens and reflector are plastic so a true hot wire or a potted bi-pin would melt things. I'm pretty sure the Mag Xenon won't do any melting since it's safe in a stock Mag. So far I'm right!

This Rayovac is a laser.

 

[Juggernaut]

I'm glad this worked out for you, just to air on the side of caution, when I used the Magnum star Xenon in my RayOvac when it used to be an 7D "not 10" I burnt out the bulb in under three days:mecry:, so just a warning though it could be a random event "I tend to destroy components a lot faster then most:sigh:" your plastic reflector should be fine though my cardboard 6D krypton bulb hotwire light has melted it's reflector before but it is much smaller and if I remember correctly The Dorcy's reflector off sets the bulb a little bit so it should be fine:thumbsup:. I wish there was a way to just buy the reflector and lens for the this light, and not the whole light itself "$40 for a reflector and lens isn't worth it:sigh:".

 

[Sgt. LED]

Yeah I wouldn't drop $40 for it but I already had it and wasn't using it much. If you are lucky you might be able to find a place that still carries these for $20. I think $20 would be worth it if your old lens is scratched up or your reflector is ruined. Especially if you really wanted to get impressive throw from a nice classic. Didn't the older cheaper blue case version of this light have the same lens and reflector?

I didn't find much data on running a 6 Xenon on 7 cells. I have heard that these bulbs don't like being overdriven so I was hoping that the resistance from the switch and tail spring on a 70's light would be enough to save it.
I need a tester!
So far it's working but I think you are right, it's only a short while till she burns up. When it goes I think I will knock it down to 6 cells. I do have a spare 6 cell Xenon bulb. Not as bright on 6 but more dependable.

 

[Sgt. LED]

Now what would an ROP low bulb do.......................... Melt it?

 

[Juggernaut]

Now what would an ROP low bulb do.......................... Melt it?

Yes….but not immediately:devil:. Theirs no problem running a ROP Low bulb in even the smallest plastic reflectors as long as it's not for long, I heard it would take 7 minuets to start damaging a stock Maglite reflector, but for testing purposes 30 seconds or so shouldn't do any damage at all:thumbsup:.

The ROP Low flashes at 9.6 volts so 7 Ds are not going to work "with out a soft starter because, though.... there is no way that Alkaline batteries are going to keep up their voltage at 2.3 amp loads! In fact it may just, work but I wouldn't try it myself. You'd get 1,500 Lumens though!!" Anyways on 6 Ds with some sag your still looking at 750+ Lumens which isn't to shabby at all "more then my 10D, 30 watt version on fresh batteries:thumbsup:.

Didn't the older cheaper blue case version of this light have the same lens and reflector?

The older blue version used the Par36 sealed beam bulb H7550.

 

[Sgt. LED]

I may eventually get an ROW low bulb just for kicks.

I am looking into getting a potted Carley 808 bulb.
It can take the voltage with no problem but I am not sure about the heat. I have no clue how hot it gets around 10 volts.

I have also discovered that there is such a thing as a 7 Cell Xenon star bulb! If I can land one of those it should be perfectly safe.
BIG if!!! If it does happen I better buy more than one. :laughing:

 

[Juggernaut]

Wait a second! A 7 cell Xenon Magnum star!? How can that be possible? Xenon Magnum stars are pretty new and how long ago did Maglite discontinue the 7 D and C lights, it was years and years ago, I thought before Xenon Magnum stars came out, Because they definitely wouldn't introduce an upgraded bulb for a light that wasn't in production. I also heard that the 7 and 5 cell lights had the same output so most people bought the 6 cell back in the day, though I could be wrong:thinking:.

 

[Sgt. LED]

It's not a Mag-num Star......................

Carley makes it.

mdocod...... It can fit 4 cells side by side! Ignoring the expense of that many batteries and chargers, what were you thinking of fitting in the light bulb wise?

 

[Juggernaut]

mdocod...... It can fit 4 cells side by side!

Also 3 cr123 cells side by side.

 

[Sgt. LED]