easy light mods

carbonsparky

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 1, 2002
Messages
206
Location
WI
Here is a photo of a nice and easy mod.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291003333&p=4243681008&idx=2

All it takes is a 5mm white LED and Radio Shack 61-454 bullet shaped keychain light.
Just unscrew the body and push the LED and guts out. Watch out not to loose the little chrome button. Unsolder the red Led and the 36 ohm chip resistor.
trim your white Led leads to match the original. Solder in place taking care to place the flat side of the Led opposite of the solder pad marked positive and to center the Led. Replace the resistor with a small 30 AWG wire. Reassemable you key chain and you should have light.
 

EMPOWERTORCH

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Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
743
Location
Coalville, Leicestershire, England
The quickest and easiest I've come across torch mod was a 2AA torch in a pack of 3 torches. The 2AA was fitted with a wire ended bulb which was 5mm in diameter.
Unscrew the torch head, pull out the brass centre contact and the rubber retainer along with the bulb.
Using any Hi Bright 5mm 50mA red orange or yellow LED, push the anode (longer leadwire) through the rubber retainer followimng the path of the bulb wire. Place the contact back into the hole to retain the lead wire and trim off excess wire.
Bend the cathode lead so that it rests inside the switch contact cup. Replace assembly in torch head. Screw torch head carefully onto torch and hey presto, one mod completed... time... about 2 or 3 minutes. To improve reliability of the mod I've also included a blob of solder on the anode contact and soldered the cathode lead to the contact cup. As this is a direct-drive mod, the contact-cup offers a reasonably large metal object to provide some heatsinking. So far, like all my direct drive mods, the torch seems to work ok and for a 1-LED torch is quite bright.
 

carbonsparky

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 1, 2002
Messages
206
Location
WI
Yea it does sound like easy mod. I my self a gadget nut and when I saw that little machined aluminum keychain light with 3 LR41 batteries, I knew I had to get it and stick a white LED in it.
 

EMPOWERTORCH

Enlightened
Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
743
Location
Coalville, Leicestershire, England
Some torches are just ripe for modding...i's just trawling the shops and the internet to find them!
MultiLED torches are getting easier with practice and I've modded some for Christmas. The designers are putting a lot of effort into designing a sleek compact torch but we are faced with the unreliable and yucky yellow beam, A few minutes work and a couple of quid later, the torch becomes a really effective and novel power blaster with a very long bulb and battery life!
Also changing a very plain looking torch into a hi tech gadget is really fun as well! It means that you don't have problems getting your torch on aeroplanes and your torch will not be attractive to thieves. Only the user knows its true value!
 
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