My first and second LED light...

I've been reading this board for less than a month and after seeing all of Brad's (and others) conversion, I decided what the heck and this evening I pounded out the AA Maglight conversion (copying the how-to's off this board).

This second one (I can see myself opening myself up to a world of hurt.... ) was made of all spare parts lying around the garage(except one resistor I bought today at Radio Shack and the LEDs, which I recently purchased).



Hey, no one said I was practical...

<< picture removed and added as a separate post >>

I`m sorry but the picture won`t come in on my screen.

I can't see the picture yet. If you are having trouble with Geocities you can go to www.photopoint.com and link pictures from there for free. It's works pretty well.
The AA Maglight conversion is a good solid flashlight. I find myself using it a lot.

OK, posted at some free site in the UK. Signing up for Photopoint right now. Thanks for the tip!!

Cool. It looks like you sanded your reflector. You can spray it with white enamel paint it you want. It seems to help make it brighter. I can't see what battery you have in there. Is it the little 6 volt?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brad:
Cool. It looks like you sanded your reflector. You can spray it with white enamel paint it you want. It seems to help make it brighter. I can't see what battery you have in there. Is it the little 6 volt?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's a Kodak 6 Volt; I wrapped electrical tape around it so it goes in and out smoothly. No resistor, even though I guess I could put one in the spring. I used a green scotch brite pad to take the silvery stuff off the reflector. It's amazing how light the mag is now. I was going to use some model airplane paint on the reflector; but I think I like the look of it the way it is.

I just cut a piece of coax cable and pull the guts out. Put your resistor in there and wrap the wire around a nail head or screw. If you don't have coax you could cut a piece of a bic pen barrel and screw into the ends with a wood screw after leaving the wire stick out and bent over the barrel. You would probably have to wrap tape around it to make it thicker. I had to use a resistor on this little light with a small 12 volt battery.


I run the little orange flashlight with a 6 volt battery like you are using with no resistor. I just used a spring to make contact.

No blowout yet.
You could try the three N cells too. Not quite as bright but way longer battery life.

what resistor are u using with the 12V and what current is the led pulling? i think i am going to run 33 Ohm for the 6V one I have.

The box i have above pulls 20/85/105 ma per LED; but can't tell a difference between 85 and 105 ma; I'll wait till the batteries run down.

Small point, but....
'ya know what I have found works
great on those reflectors?
-white FLAT paint (even primer)
If u can't find that stuff, you
can even use "Liquid Paper"-I did & experiments with my little
G.E.meter show more, as well as
more EVEN output.

lightjunkie

-have additional thought on the
reflectors....
If you would like an interesting
effect,-get $6. worth of that
extremeglow stuff I referred to
on my "Best Bright Glow' thread.
Cutting the material to fit the
"cone"shape of th reflector is
difficult at first, but with a
little practice you will do a neat job.
Two things will happen:
1. the semi-gloss texture of the
material will reflect very well.
2. when u shut off the flashlite
it will glow like HELL for a few
hours.
-I did this on my Infinity and
liked it so well that I have not
removed it.

I was actually thinking about what I could use the glow powder for. I really would like to see how intense the glow is.

axolotis,
the stuff I use is "peel'n stick
-no powders to mess with..
(it's easy, except 4 the cutting
to the proper shape)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
I think it was 220 ohm with the 12 volt. I ran it without a resistor to. Way brighter. It didn't blow. I don't remember what it was pulling now.[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I put a 33 for the 6 Volt setup. For the newest one I put 7.33 since it's running 4 LEDS.