Stanley maxlife tripod flashie, mod ideas?

[ensile]

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone had one of these and whether they had modded it yet, or thought about it doing it but never went ahead with it ?

It has 6x5mm white LED's the brightness for the LEDS and the brand I am unsure of. the newer model has a singe 1w luxeon or equivalent, I want to either replace my 5mm's with something brighter and more efficient, or going all out and getting some crazy mod going. any ideas would be cool. Any help in terms of the latest 5mm leds would be nice, I don't know much about these ones and new ones, I have a feeling this was made or at least designed around the 2004 mark.

My idea was to keep maybe all of them the same except the single LED mode and upgrade to the newest nichia etc..

once again, any help is appreciated. cheers

p.s. stock power figures include.

stock
single led = 32ma
three = 67ma
six (all illuminated) = 92ma
approx.

 

[Aepoc]

Its really funny... I was talking with my girlfriend's grandfather about lights yesterday, and he busted out this 3 AAA tripod light. Looks like there is plenty of room for a mod in the large one... I think that you may have problems with the reflector... its an odd shape. He gave me one of his mini's... he had three. I would like to throw a SSC P4 in here but I think the mini is run off of a watch battery. There is also only one led in this one. I would have to do some electrical analysis on the mini before I found what would fit nicely in here (if anything). It looks like the outpit is really small. I am currently running my seouls around 850 to 1000 ma. The power figures you mentioned earlier suggest that one would have to replace the circuit before replacing the emitters. Good luck to you... We need to keep each other posted on any progress.

 

[Illum]

irregular reflector
minimal water seals
variable battery requirement [might be hard for a regulator unless you plan to use specific battery quantities]
plastic housing makes it unsuitable for high flux leds...or else having the head like a triangle a trilux maybe:naughty:

haha...

 

[ensile]

i had a feeling the proprietary circuit with it's multiple battery same load circuit would be a mofo, it's either bypass that all together, or replace with more efficient OEM 5mm's.. that's why i asked in here to see if anyone knew about them. I know it's kind of lol, but i would rather have the unit running at it's best, i love tweaking stuff. It's a tripod, i use it all the time, i dunno how i ever went so long without it, it had come to the point where it was either a headlamp or one of these were going to be bought, found them on special, bought two, one for my dad and one for myself, with the intention to mod.. (if it didnt impress me), and while it isnt baaaad, i mean it's usable in dim conditions, it just needs more cowbell lumens, not even a massive boost, but a lil poke would be almost righteous.

cheers fellas. Will keep u posted on any progress, i think i might just try and match the ma ratings on some new nichias, and get the most bright/efficient combo, might get a brighter lamp with more battery life, if My led choice goes ok, i know since '04 there has been a massive peformance increase in the 5mm range, they dont compete to the new lux/k2/cree's etc, but they have their niche.

 

[WNG]

I picked one up during the Target clearance for 6.24 each.
With 9AA's, the stock setup should make a decent running emergency lantern, but not very bright though. As a worklight, I felt it needed more output.
I was planning to mod it with 3-4 Lux-1 emitters. This would provide sufficient output as a projected worklight while 9AA NiMHs can run full brightness for several hours.

But life got too busy and it got buried with the rest of my lights.

Upon opening it, from what I can tell, each battery leg of 3AA's is diode isolated and wired in parallel. The switch appears to operate a mux with low level outputs to switch on a transistor circuit for each level of LED output.
To handle the heat from the Lux-1 emitters, I had planned to mount them on a copper or aluminum plate about 3/16" thick. It would get trimmed to match the outer perimeter of the head and get sandwiched between the front portion and the swivel body. I wanted to use collimators on 3 for focusing some throw, while a centered bare emitter for long running flood.
I might pick up the project later on. With the arrival of the Soul and CREE emitters, it can be a bright little bugger!

Keep us updated on your progress!

 

[vetkaw63]

I put JELED 55,000 mcd led's in mine. It is easily twice as bright.
Mike

 

[ensile]

vetkaw63, Where did u purchase those ? did the run times change much on 3 AA's ? thanks for the reply...

 

[Blinding]

I moded mine and it was easy. It comes apart very easily and the LEDs even have polarity markings on the board. The 5mm LEDs I put in are the 27K and are easily twice as bright making it a much more usable light. My only warning is to remove ALL the batteries before working on it. The switch is electronic and doesn't offer much protection. I blew a transistor and had to scrounge a replacement.

 

[protein_man]

I modded mine with 10mm 12 degree bullet white leds from besthongkong. It's a fair bit brighter now and those leds throw quiet far, the beam quality is pretty bad though.

The downside to using the 10mm leds is that I had to remove the protective plastic lens from the light so theres nothing really protecting the leds. Its a tough light though, I used it in various industrial environments and it never missed a beat. I've thrown it, dropped it in oil etc and it still works. The switch is starting to go on it though.

The beam has a lovely pee-green tint along with the projection of wires in the led. To be honest I modded this light before I discovered this place. At the time this light was my all time favourite, the best, now I'm spoilt! Ah well it lives in my "crappy torch" draw now out of site, forgotten and eclipsed by more impressive lights.

 

[vetkaw63]

vetkaw63, Where did u purchase those ? did the run times change much on 3 AA's ? thanks for the reply...

JELEDHK on Ebay. Way cheaper than Nichia's. Way better tint. They have a yellow brown tint compared to dark blue of Nichia. They only look yellow brown on a white wall.
Mike

 

[ensile]

hey protein man, that's pretty kool, i will keep the lense because i want it too have some water resistance, i like the idea of going big.. with room for 9 batteries, and quite a bit of room upstairs u could go crazy, but now they've revamped this model with a single 1watt lux, and some kind of convex. Cheers, i'm going to hunt the jeleds. cheers vet !

 

[TorchBoy]

p.s. stock power figures include.

stock
single led = 32ma
three = 67ma
six (all illuminated) = 92ma
approx.

I've just got (been given!) one of these lights and I made these measurements:

1 LED = 32mA
3 LEDs = 67mA (@ 22.3mA each)
6 LEDs = 122mA (@ 20.3mA each)

Why is my top figure higher than yours when the other two are the same? I used three Eneloops, each 1.343V unloaded.