Stanley MaxLife 369 Tripod

[exodus125]

i bought one of these at Lowe's during black Friday too but mine doesn't have any ho low settings, just on an off.

 

[defloyd77]

I saw a Stanley tripod light at my local Walmart for 10 and assumed it was the 6 led version, I'll have to check for the 20 lumen version. Any beamshots?

 

[hopkins]

Just a center spot with medium amount of spill. So it throws mostly .
I consider it an improvement on the multi led models. Definately a spot light now.
On a campout it'd work nice for the cooking area with low level photons, or during a blackout at home.
Its not going to blind you it you look into it. Squint factor 5 (?)
Also there is room inside to mod in a bigger led w/heatsink.

 

[Fallingwater]

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff319/12eric/Stanleytripod1led002.jpg

This LED reminds me of the one inside the Gerber Firecracker. Maybe it's the same?

 

[hopkins]

The firecracker led looks more square but its of the same brand (whatever that is). This way of making surface mount led's seems very efficient. No need for
a clear lens material at all. Just a white plastic bowl, led chip in the bottom,
and some secret recipe phosphor goop to glow and seal it air tight.

Probably some Mfg spec sheet on the web....have to look...

 

[Paladin]

Home depot has them for $5, so the wife thought they'd make decent gifts. She's had to do "flashlight duty" while I worked under the car or sink, so the Stanley light might be handy for such projects. I filled three of them with 9 Energizer AA's each, and kept one filled with Duracells for T&E in my shop. Even with their cheapish construction, I'm pretty sure they are more durable than a typical incandescent drop light.

Paladin

 

[Turbo DV8]

I actually preferred the multi-LED version better, but that's not saying much. (See post #50) One turn off for me, as someone who uses only NiMH, is the series/parallel nature of the battery configuration. Three cells in series, in parallel with two other three cells in series. You'd pretty much have to be anal retentive at keeping the batteries charged up so you don't run the risk of reverse-polarity charge when one or more cells dies. With this configuration, there isn't going to be any visible reduction of brightness when a cell dies until all six cells in any two legs are dead, at which point the other dead cells have already taken a severe beating of reverse charge.

 

[hopkins]

good observation Turbo. I took the new 1 led version apart and looked at the
circuit. The circuit looks like this. You only get longer run time if you load more than 1 on the legs with batteries, does not get brighter as you know.

If running NimH it'd be smarter to just use one leg loaded with 3 cells and recharge after 25 hours of runtime. (2000mAh cells , 80mA operating drain)

As a emergency light you could load all 3 legs with lithium AA's and be assured many many hours of light and store it with the other bugout gear with no leakage worries as Alkalines AA's would have.

As others have mentioned store alkaline batteries outside flashlights that are
sitting (and waiting) for the big blackout. Like the one happening today for a million customers on the right coast.

 

[hopkins]

stanley tripod -1 led version - beam shot
http://i34.tinypic.com/985xma.jpg

 

[defloyd77]

That's a nice beam, thanks for the shot.

 

[Turbo DV8]

stanley tripod -1 led version - beam shot
http://i34.tinypic.com/985xma.jpg

That beam shot does not show the virtual rainbow of colors I saw in the 1 LED version. Is it not visible in the beam shot, or does your specimen indeed not exhibit the multi-color bleed from spot to spill that mine did? That shot does demonstrate that, although it appears to be a nice beam for a hand held flashlight, it isn't necessarily a nice beam for a work light intended to be set up on a tripod and used as an area light. I think the multi LED version handled the flood better.

 

[hopkins]

I've had some trouble capturing the multi color beam pattern. Finaly reduced
the exposure way down. In real life if you had on sunglasses that how bright it'd look.
http://i37.tinypic.com/29p5dg2.jpg

 

[curlyfry562]

I got one of the 6 LED versions as a gift in a Secret Santa at work. I have to agree with what all of you have already said, Amazing design poor execution. I am planning on contacting Milkysplit, and see what he can do to it, although I have no intention of investing too much into it, because I know it will break eventually.

Imagine cranking a nice floody 160 Lumens out of this thing :devil:

 

[Holepuncher]

I have the 6 led version and hardly ever use it. Its just not very usefull. I always wondered why every time I go to use it the batteries are dead. Well I found out why. When the unit is completely off it still draws 0.75 ma from the batterys. Even with it off the electronics is running and monitoring the power button. I would guess it would kill a set of AA's in a few months just sitting around. I started a thread on a somewhat similar light yesterday but I accidentally put it in the LED Forum.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/217275

 

[hopkins]

I removed the pcb with the 20 lumen led in my Stanley tripod 1 led model and mounted a Cree XR-E on an aluminum strip (as a heatsink). An inch or so of the aluminum
protrudes outside the tripods head and I sort of curled it down. Also added a hi/low
switch with appropriate resistors and a momentary push button for a boost function to drive the Cree with no resistors to limit current.
I kept the original push button on/off switch as the master control.

As the epoxy was setting to hold the aluminum heatsink strip I adjusted it
for a good tight spot beam.....and man its an ugly hack job but what the heck.
Low, HI and Boost. Now its a torch!

 

[Turbo DV8]

FrankenPod!

 

[supasizefries]

I removed the pcb with the 20 lumen led in my Stanley tripod 1 led model and mounted a Cree XR-E on an aluminum strip (as a heatsink). An inch or so of the aluminum
protrudes outside the tripods head and I sort of curled it down. Also added a hi/low
switch with appropriate resistors and a momentary push button for a boost function to drive the Cree with no resistors to limit current.
I kept the original push button on/off switch as the master control.

As the epoxy was setting to hold the aluminum heatsink strip I adjusted it
for a good tight spot beam.....and man its an ugly hack job but what the heck.
Low, HI and Boost. Now its a torch!

Sorry to bump an old thread but do you have any pics of this mod? I have one of these lights lying around and in it's stock form it's pretty useless. I was hoping to mod this light eventually.

 

[Wolfsbane2k]

Talk about reviving the dead i've just found my one of these and looking to upgrade a 6led version.
What are peoples current thoughts?6 off Xp-g2 and new driver board?