Silverstar car headlight in your hand.

[strebalicious]

So I was thinking I could maybe take one of them Silverstar headlight things and put it in a flashlight. So I picked up the simplest looking bulb, which turned out to be an H7 standard.

Looking at the bottom it listed the bulb as an Osram 64210, 12V 55W. Luckily, the tabs on the bottom fit a quick disconnect female crimp just nicely.

Then, I ran over to the flashlights and picked up one of them lantern things like this one.

So my luck, the bulb fits pretty nicely in there. There is still maybe about 1/4 or so covered by the reflector (i.e., not sticking out of the hole). I figure later if I want to do more work on it, I can grind out the whole a little to get a better fit.

So I threw it together. An 8 AA battery holder fit in there perfectly, as the length and width of the holder matched the 6v mamajama battery. So I was able to hook up three holders in series for a total of 24 batteries (8 in series x 3). I had a butt ton of alkalines that I got for like .10 a piece so I just threw them in there.

And so here is the result (tested on the front door from about 8 feet away):

Before...

and After...

Overall, not a bad job for a quick experiement. A few problems to address should I rework/redo it.

1. The lens does not screw on so good. I think the wires are too long and are warping the plastic a bit. I think I could get a better fit using copper bars or something along the lines.

2. As I said before, maybe 1/4 of the bulb is still stuck in the whole. I could fix this with my dremel, should I bother.

3. Maybe use a different switch. I left it on for a few minutes and it didn't asplode right away, but I'm still skeptical about the sturdiness of the switch in there.

 

[Y-Wrench]

I think heat is gonna be the killer on your project. I modded a couple of H4's into a set of turn signals on my car (roughly 2" x 5") and could not leave them on for too long, even when driving, or they would melt the lenses.

 

[strebalicious]

You got a point. I did notice the bulb get super hot, which makes me a little worried for the reflector. Next time I'll probably look for a more hefty lantern than the $3 Wal-Mart special.

 

[65535]

Makes me want to buy a cheapy metal reflector ligh tand a coupla good headlights.

 

[cratz2]

Looks like it would make a VERY bright floodlight, but it looks as if there is probably even less throw than on the original bulb. Probably because of the long filament. Or maybe it just looks like that because of the CRAZY bright spillbeam.

 

[strebalicious]

So shining it at the building across the street, the original still has a pretty solid spot on it. The modified one has much, much spill, but it's almost unnoticable.

Oh, and yeah, heat is a bit more of a problem than I thought. After running it for a few, the heat softened the plastic enough that I could poke a hole in it with my finger. And the reflector started crackling right around the bulb. Definately have to use a hefty metal reflector and maybe even no lens or nice, thick, glass.

 

[strebalicious]

 

[scott.cr]

Thanks for posting w/ pics... interesting read even though I tend to be elitest about modding lights hahaha...

If you get a lamp with a filament that doesn't run in the direction of the lamp's axis you'll get a better beam pattern. The H7 is for lights that cast their beam in a specific direction, in this case, "downward" for cars. I think all car headlamps have axially oriented filaments but I'm not positive.

What's the diameter of that flashlight reflector?