Rayovac Sportsman 3-In-1 Headlamp Mod

Tennessee · Jan 17, 2003

I've created a web page to show my first mod: a Rayovac Sportsman 3-In-1 headlamp, modified by replacing the original LEDs (two red, one white) with three Nichia LEDs that all burn at the same time, rather then just one or two).

Bonus: this mod includes a small, cheap and simple (only 4 components) constant current circuit that keeps about 20mA through the LEDs.

I hope someone finds it useful.

Rayovac Nichia Mod

Slick · Jan 18, 2003

Very nice write up & mod

Lux Luthor · Jan 19, 2003

Nice mod!

You mention on the webpage that you need more throw. Overdriving the Nichias isn't the way to do it, though. You would probably want to mod the incandescent to LS. Here's a thread I posted on this headlamp a while back.

electronics4life · Sep 8, 2003

Any particular reason why you choose to only run 20ma through the LEDs? I was planning on running 50ma through my mod.

Tennessee · Nov 25, 2003

Two reasons:

1) In my (admittedly limited) testing, increasing the current didn't improve the throw, which was what I was wanting to improve. I don't recall it improving the brightness very much, either, but then I wasn't paying a lot of attention to brightness.

2) I don't know the maximum current to push through them without shortening their life too much. Why did you pick 50m? How long will the LED's last with that much current? I can probably modify the circuit to push 50mA...

Doug Owen · Nov 25, 2003

When I did this some time back, only changed the white LED for a Nichia. I used a LM334 based constant current regulator, set to 30 mA. This is two transistor packages, 3 resistors and a small cap. I used 1/8 watt resistors and made the regulator 'dead bug style', leaving the red LED and lamp circuits the same.

If you want to PM me your email address, I can send you a couple of photos.....

Doug Owen

Doug Owen · Nov 25, 2003

Ooops, I forgot to mention the advantage of the LM334 based regulator, it drops out of regulation with less than .1 Volt of headroom. This means constant current regulation down to something like 3.4 Volts, with outstanding efficiencies on NiMH cells (90% plus).

Doug Owen

Illuminated · Nov 25, 2003

Tennessee,

Nice work...

Doug, is the LM334 still available? Haven't searched for it yet...

John

Doug Owen · Nov 26, 2003

[ QUOTE ]
Illuminated said:
Tennessee,

Nice work...

Doug, is the LM334 still available? Haven't searched for it yet...

John

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, half a buck or so. Looks like a small (TO92) transistor, 3 leads.

PM me if you can't find it.

Doug Owen

Rayovac Sportsman 3-In-1 Headlamp Mod

Tennessee

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Slick

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Lux Luthor

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electronics4life

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Tennessee

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Doug Owen

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Doug Owen

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Illuminated

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Doug Owen

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