Bought a Reactor (Dorcy) Luxeon Headlamp

I've been considering getting a new headlamp for a while now and this one caught my eye at Home Hardware. It was only C$19.97 and you get quite a bit for the few bucks it cost.

Features:
- a reflector around the Luxeon(?) LED
- uses 3 AAA cells in a small carrier shaped roughly like a C or D cell
- 1 red LED above the Luxeon(?)
- a four-position top-mounted switch: Off, Red LED, low output white, high output white. Low is about half the brightness of high.
- the LEDs and reflector are mounted in a small head that can be pointed downwards. There's a plasticky detent system that keeps the head pointed at the desired angle. It sounds kind of loud and scratchy when you move it up and down.
- the housing is similar in size and shape to this light: http://www.dorcy.com/41-2097.htm

The red is actually quite bright, but somewhat blotchy, which I think is typical of red LEDs

The white beam is similar to that of a Fenix L1P, but about half as bright, slightly yellow, a bit blotchy and slightly assymetrical. The LED is slightly off-center but this doesn't appear to affect the beam too much. At close distances, say under 2 - 3 ft., there's a distinct donut hole caused by the reflector.

I'm not sure why Dorcy uses the Reactor name in Canada rather than Dorcy. This seems to have started about a year ago. I'd be concerned that Gerber might come after them; see Gerber's Reactor light here: http://www.gerbertools.com/9016.htm

It's far from being perfect, but for a hair less than $20, I'm happy with it.

Thanks to http://imageshack.us for the image hosting.

Do you have any idea if it's regulated or just direct-drive?

Well, I unscrewed the bezel on the head, carefully prized out the plastic reflector and revealed a Luxeon(?) star mounted on a very thin metal disk/heat sink which is in turn mounted on a thin brown circuit board. I'm sure it's underdriven, especially running on 3 AAA cells so I don't think heat's an issue. A couple of wires are soldered to the star.

I stopped further exploration when I discovered that the light has been constructed never to be dissembled. There are four narrow slots, two on each side of the circuit board. Black plastic body material juts through the slots. The black plastic has been neatly melted to secure the circuit board to the internal plastic frame of the light. If I were really determined and steady of hand and willing to risk the future of my new light, I might grind off the plastic tabs and peek under it. Super glue or epoxy *might* be able to re-secure the circuit board.

But, I'm not going to do that. I'm thinking that at the price I paid, it's got to be direct drive with an additional resistor on one of the switch positions to provide a low output.