shorter layout for AAA light

[paulr]

Some people complain that lights like the Arc AAA are too long (around 67mm including the lanyard lug) for a keychain, which is reasonable. The Peak LED "pocket" design eliminates the lanyard lug to make the light shorter--but then there's no way to put it on a keychain or lanyard. Here's a proposed flat rectangular alternative setup, which I think could be as short as 48mm or so (an AAA cell is 44mm long and 10mm wide) and maybe 18mm wide and 13mm thick. The diagram is very crude but obviously on the right side either the lower right corner could be cut off (with the lanyard hole moved further up) or else the LED and circuit board could be moved downward with the led aiming out over the battery. I imagine this being made of plastic and snapped together or held together with a small screw or two. Obviously there would be wiring between the battery and the circuit board, not drawn here. Thoughts?

 

[Coop]

nice... let's see if I can do something with this idea

 

[greg_in_canada]

I like it. A cross-section like the Spy 007, but thinner.

The hard part is that it has to be made on a CNC machine rather than a lathe (if metal). Or molded in plastic like you mentioned.

Greg

 

[Coop]

bugger.... just made a nice 3D design and then my computer went bonkers...

anyway, I think that the increase in width of the body doesn't make up for the reduction in length.

 

[amanichen]

bugger.... just made a nice 3D design and then my computer went bonkers...

anyway, I think that the increase in width of the body doesn't make up for the reduction in length.

Compared to an inline configuration it seems like a waste of volume. If length is all one cares about though, then it'll work.

 

[paulr]

Yes, the idea is to reduce length as much as possible. As long as the width is no larger than the "handle" part of a typical house key, I think it may be more keychain-friendly than the longer cylindrical 1AAA design.

 

[Blindasabat]

Turn the board so it is flat beside the battery (edge view in the view above, and move the LED over closer to the battery. The board could actually touch the battery with no problem, bringing the width down to ~15-16mm. My Solitaire is already 12.5mm diameter (80mm long), so not too big. One LED lead could be the positive battery contact (simplicity is key) and the board would control the negative path. The board should be as narrow as possible - longer would be OK. If I had a board like that and an LED, I'd just shrink wrap it all together with a pressure switch to make a small pocket light.

Of course, if you just robbed a Photon, you'd have all you need but the casing. But then I might rather just have a Photon Freedom with a CR2032 instead of the 2xCR2016's.
...which I still think is better (cheaper, smaller, more levels) than any of the current 5mm AAA's anyway.

Compared to an inline configuration it seems like a waste of volume. If length is all one cares about though, then it'll work.

 

[carbine15]

If I may suggest:

 

[vizlor]

I like that change, carbine. Nice to have a rounder edge.

 

[cutlerylover]

I like the idea...but how would it be turned on? small button? What about using button cell batteries like in a watch, that would make it even smaller, like half the size of a arcAAA...Or is keeping with the AAA batteries easy because of avaliability?

 

[carbine15]

I think the basic idea of this light is to make the shortest AAA light for use on a keychain. We know it's going to be larger than a coin cell light but it should be brighter and run longer than a coin cell light and take standard batteries. If you make the circuit board the right dimensions the button switch could sit right on top of it and be recessed within the body with a rubber boot over it for watertightness. If it won't survive through the wash, I'm not interested.

 

[paulr]

Heh, I like Carbine15's drawing both for its design and for its clever re-use of the original drawing.

Yes the idea is to use an AAA and not coin or button cells. A Photon/Fauxton is much better if we're going to use coin cells. AAA's have 1) more total juice; 2) much easier replacement. I'm thinking there could be a screw hole just above the lanyard hole, with a molded standoff inside so the screw (with a coin slot) holds the two halves together. The switch could be a small slider or pushbutton on the edge, or a booted pushbutton on the PC board per Carbine15's suggestion, or heck maybe even a twist bezel protruding very slightly from the front.

It wouldn't be possible to just re-use Photon guts since you also need a DC/DC converter to step up the AAA voltage to run the LED's. And for reliability I think it may be preferable to have a normal spring contact inside, rather than using one of the LED leads. I'm not sure about putting the board on edge--that might save a little bit of width, however the components (inductor etc) are not infinitely thin--the board with components does necessarily have at least a few mm of thickness.

With Carbine15's reflector/lens design it might be possible to re-use the cut-down head of a Fenix L0D-CE so you'd have that powerful boost converter and Cree LED with reflector and lens. I'd originally thought of this in terms of a normal 5mm led or SMJ led though. Part of the goal of AAA vs coin cell is friendliness for non-flashaholics, which means maximal battery economy and ease of replacement. A non-flashaholic AAA light should run for 5+ hours on generic batteries and not require (or at not least benefit a lot from) high current batteries like the L0D does.

 

[Don_Redondo]

That's similar to an idea that I had a while back for a 2 AAA light.

I was working on how to recess the light source to get a larger reflector than most AAA lights without increasing the size in all directions. I was actually wondering about an asymmetrical reflector that would cover the entire front (even if that moved the emitter a little further forward) but really didn't know what the resulting beam pattern would be. I think most people would find a wide pattern very useful – like car headlights. Just a thought.

For any of these designs, you should be able to mount the circuit perpendicular to the view to further optimize space.

 

[thunderlight]

Actually, I like the idea of a plastic body. I would like to see a good plastic 1AAA LED design. Also, it would be nice to have a 1AAA safety light LED. I would like a decent alternative to the Pelican L1.

On a related issue, it would be nice if UK would improve the LED on their 2AAA, perhaps reflectorize it at least.

 

[fishx65]

The Princeton tec Blast (2AAA) with the LED module comes to mind.

 

[thunderlight]

Hi Fishx65,

Tell me more about the LED module for the Blast. I knew there was an LED module for the old TEC 20 product, but I didn't know about this for the Blast. I didn't see any reference on the Princeton Tec website.

Thanks

 

[fishx65]

The Led module that came with my Attitude will also fit the Blast but it's not very bright. It has 3 leds in it. I've had it for about ten years so they may not offer it anymore. The Blast is a cool little plastic light that would be awesome with a Lux or a Cree mod.

 

[paulr]

I sort of remember something about a 5mm led module for the Blast but decided that it made more sense to just buy a UK 2AAA eLED to get something like that.

The Blast is a nice little light but it's around 70mm long. I'm imagining something like a Blast with the whole head and reflector cut off, and the keychain lug cut off with a hole in the body instead. It would be nice to retain that pocket clip on the back, though.

 

[VidPro]

I imagine this being made of plastic and snapped together or held together with a small screw or two. Obviously there would be wiring between the battery and the circuit board, not drawn here. Thoughts?

cool just enough room for a charge connection still
after all having Screws to remove in a light drives me up the wall at battery change time, so stuff battery change, put a charge setup in the extra space.

 

[kevinm]

Why not start of cheap? Get a Dorcy AAA and pull out the board. It's the same width as the diameter of the AAA. Unsolder the LED and attach leads and mount the board flat against the battery (as per Blind's suggestion). It looks like (from taking mine apart just now) that the whole thing would be about as narrow as 2 AAA's side by side. Mount the LED inside the plastic body, and you are down to the length of the AAA. If you want it narrower, remove the inductor and moount it behond the board. I think you could get away with (length of the battery) + (casing thickness)x2 in legth and 1.5 AAA's wide. Now put a slider switch or button behind the board and you are golden. Just tried it by turning the battery backwards and connecting the the pos of the battery to the pos lead of the board with a wire. The LED's not bad with no reflector.

Actually, if you're going to go past proof of concept, look up Doug S's improvements to this circuit. He got twice the light with more than twice the runtime with the same LED. Nice.

You could do a cylinder with one of the Nichia flat LED's (like one from an E1) for just over the thickness of the battery plus board if you were clever with electronics placement. A small lense could columnate the beam, but you'd have to find that optic.

Kevin