With the encouragement and enthusiasm of a couple of fellow Hawaii CPF'ers who kindly visited my humble abode tonight (Hi Darryl, and Welcome Bob!), I was finally able to stitch together the little NoviGear light and emplaced a premium 1-watt Luxeon in its tiny confines using a new high-tech heatsink kindly provided by a major flashlight manufacturer (Thanks Paul!). In this first shot you can see the little triple AAA battery holder:
Of course as usual, I now had to put it up against something known. But using three AAAs with their attenuate higher internal resistance which would allow significantly less current, I did not expect the Mini LGI to achieve genuine LGI brightness. But even so, if it performed decently it might just be a winner due to its diminutive dimensions:
Incidentally, the standard length LGI on the left is (was?) MR Bulk's personal keeper. The absolute brightest AA-driven 1-watt Luxeon flashlight I had ever made (or heard of, for that matter) until the LGI-LEs that were just created this week when I lucked into a very tiny number of simply incredible batwings.
Anyway back to the Mini LGI. There was no bulb socket nor positive/negative leads to take power from since the battery carrier already provided that function, delivering the juice out of an anodic spring right at the tip. So there was some engineering to be figured out (and it quickly dawned on me during this figuring out process why them engineers have to go to school so long and get paid all the big bucks), which was accomplished not without some scratchy notes on a spiral pad just to keep track of exactly what it was I decided I had already figured out:
It was pretty touch-and-go for a while trying to wedge that high-tech heatsink into the head and getting it pounded down to the exact bottom so it would lie truly flat, all the while asking myself why Arctic Silver had to cure so fast and be so messy:
But in the end I realized that true happiness is a perfectly centered Luxeon:
Here are the beamshots in the same order as how the lights were shown above, this one from three feet:
and this one from about 25 feet down and angled back from my sloped ceiling:
So by all indications the sleek and smooth little Mini LGI was holding its own, even against my personal LGI keeper. But the acid test was against the LM-631 LightMan taken from one meter away:
.
.
.
.
.
688 lux...
I must make more of these. They will be a huge hit due to their perfect pocket/purse EDC size. But only if I can find the donors at a better price...
Of course as usual, I now had to put it up against something known. But using three AAAs with their attenuate higher internal resistance which would allow significantly less current, I did not expect the Mini LGI to achieve genuine LGI brightness. But even so, if it performed decently it might just be a winner due to its diminutive dimensions:
Incidentally, the standard length LGI on the left is (was?) MR Bulk's personal keeper. The absolute brightest AA-driven 1-watt Luxeon flashlight I had ever made (or heard of, for that matter) until the LGI-LEs that were just created this week when I lucked into a very tiny number of simply incredible batwings.
Anyway back to the Mini LGI. There was no bulb socket nor positive/negative leads to take power from since the battery carrier already provided that function, delivering the juice out of an anodic spring right at the tip. So there was some engineering to be figured out (and it quickly dawned on me during this figuring out process why them engineers have to go to school so long and get paid all the big bucks), which was accomplished not without some scratchy notes on a spiral pad just to keep track of exactly what it was I decided I had already figured out:
It was pretty touch-and-go for a while trying to wedge that high-tech heatsink into the head and getting it pounded down to the exact bottom so it would lie truly flat, all the while asking myself why Arctic Silver had to cure so fast and be so messy:
But in the end I realized that true happiness is a perfectly centered Luxeon:
Here are the beamshots in the same order as how the lights were shown above, this one from three feet:
and this one from about 25 feet down and angled back from my sloped ceiling:
So by all indications the sleek and smooth little Mini LGI was holding its own, even against my personal LGI keeper. But the acid test was against the LM-631 LightMan taken from one meter away:
.
.
.
.
.
688 lux...
I must make more of these. They will be a huge hit due to their perfect pocket/purse EDC size. But only if I can find the donors at a better price...
