Sears Craftsman 1 watt "Variable Power" LED upgrade

I went into Sears tonight to pick up a couple of their 3AAA Luxeon "Endurable" lights so i could harvest the PR base Luxeon bulb, but Sears (actually Dorcy, i think) has saved me the time....

they're now selling the LED bulbs as a stock item on their own, part # 34-93044, $14.95

here's what they claim;

"Variable Power, produces from 37 to 50 Lumens depending on your flashlight"

the bulb can handle 1.5 to 8V, they have a basic grid on the back with the bulb stats, i'll post their lumen claims here...

Voltage Estimated lumens
1.5V 24
3.0V 37
4.5V 45
6.0V 47
8.0V 50

I'm thinking that it's probably got a basic buck-boost circuit inside, maybe just a buck....

they also *claim* that the bulb can be used in a 6V lantern, I highly doubt this, as most lanterns are polarity reversed from normal flashlights, some flashlights also are polarity reversed, the incan Eveready Hard Case and the Ray-O-Vac swivel head, i have a R-O-V swivelhead (old style with faceted reflector), and if i want to use my MJLED PR in it, i have to put the batteries in backwards to get it to light, when i put the Sears bulb in the R-O-V Swivel with the positive tip of the batteries facing the head of the flashlight, no light, if i put the batteries in with the positive tip facing the tailcap, the Sears bulb lights up

so i'd hazard a guess that lanterns *DO NOT* work with this bulb, rather stupid of them to put that claim right on the front of the package

I figured it was worth a try so i picked up a pair, put one in my ROV swivel, put the batteries in backwards, and lit it up.....

indoors it throws a nice clean white spot, the ROV Swivel reflector seems optomized more for throw than for a smooth beam, there are a couple of faint corona rings around the hotspot, but that's more a function of the reflector than the bulb

outdoors on a moonlit night, it's easily overcome by ambient moonlight, it barely illuminates the haybarn, i'd imagine it'd perform better under a cloudy evening sky or moonless night

I also tried it in a cheapo Eveready 2AA Industrial, a little more floody, but strangely enough, it wasn't much brighter than the MJLED PR

I then grabbed the mediocre Snakelight, and dropped the bulb in.....

This one actually works well in the Snakelight, a nice, even flood, floor to ceiling, not too bright, but not dim either....

Then i had a brainstorm.....

i took my spare 2C to 3-123a spacer tube, a dummy 123a slug and 2 123a batteries and dropped them in

Ahh, MUCH better, a nice *bright* flood, and seems to run reasonably cool as well

not a bad little upgrade bulb, and no more need to purchase Endurable 3AAA's just to harvest the bulbs

Thanks for the report, MacTech. Your post may represent the first live sighting of these long-anticpated modules.

They look very promising.

Guess they'd have a boost-buck circuit to work in one cell to five cell lights.

They probably sacrifice some efficiency for their voltage source adaptability. But, it'd be invaluable to have one module that'll work in so many different lights.

Price isn't bad either, when compared to 40 bucks for an EverLED PR module.


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they also *claim* that the bulb can be used in a 6V lantern, I highly doubt this, as most lanterns are polarity reversed from normal flashlights, some flashlights also are polarity reversed, the incan Eveready Hard Case and the Ray-O-Vac swivel head, i have a R-O-V swivelhead (old style with faceted reflector), and if i want to use my MJLED PR in it, i have to put the batteries in backwards to get it to light, when i put the Sears bulb in the R-O-V Swivel with the positive tip of the batteries facing the head of the flashlight, no light, if i put the batteries in with the positive tip facing the tailcap, the Sears bulb lights up

Click to expand...

If they had diodes in a bridge configuration inside the bulb, it would be able to handle any polarity. Although, depending on the quality of components, it could hurt efficiency a little bit by adding some resistance.

2xTrinity said:

If they had diodes in a bridge configuration inside the bulb, it would be able to handle any polarity. Although, depending on the quality of components, it could hurt efficiency a little bit by adding some resistance.

Click to expand...

Good point 2xTrinity.

But, I hope they didn't do that.

If they did, the module will constantly waste:

(2 diode drops) x (battery current) worth of power,

merely to gain dual-polarity capability.



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Thanks for the info. It is not available on Dorcy's website.

MacTech said:

the bulb can handle 1.5 to 8V, they have a basic grid on the back with the bulb stats, i'll post their lumen claims here...

Voltage Estimated lumens
1.5V 24
3.0V 37
4.5V 45
6.0V 47
8.0V 50

Click to expand...

I think they mean Dorcy's lanterns:
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411012
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=411015
These have the right polarity. I used to stick Turtlelight/Dorcy cool blue led bulbs in them for area lighting.

MacTech said:

they also *claim* that the bulb can be used in a 6V lantern, I highly doubt this, as most lanterns are polarity reversed from normal flashlights, some flashlights also are polarity reversed, the incan Eveready Hard Case and the Ray-O-Vac swivel head, i have a R-O-V swivelhead (old style with faceted reflector), and if i want to use my MJLED PR in it, i have to put the batteries in backwards to get it to light, when i put the Sears bulb in the R-O-V Swivel with the positive tip of the batteries facing the head of the flashlight, no light, if i put the batteries in with the positive tip facing the tailcap, the Sears bulb lights up

so i'd hazard a guess that lanterns *DO NOT* work with this bulb, rather stupid of them to put that claim right on the front of the package

Click to expand...

I was going to get one pf these when they show up (the original was rather dim). Hope Sears sells the bulb in Canada. They didn't sell the Enduro 3AAA. Don't really want another yellow body.
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=412498

MacTech said:

not a bad little upgrade bulb, and no more need to purchase Endurable 3AAA's just to harvest the bulbs

Click to expand...

The claim that this bulb can be used in a standard 6V lantern is in fact......

A LIE!!

I picked up a cheapo Eveready 6V lantern, and a pair of 3 cell Krypton bulbs, just in case the LED didn't work, i could at least overdrive an incan bulb in the lantern for mega throw....

popped the bulb in, pushed the switch, the LED emitted a *tiny* flicker of light, just barely enough to light up the die, then nothing

put that same module back into the Snakelight, and output had dropped by 90%, it's clearly fried

the packaging for the module shows the stylized outline of two conventional "Eveready" style plastic bodied lights (2D, 3D), and a *conventional lantern* (6V) as well , it's clear that they are claiming that this bulb works in a polarity-reversed lantern, when it *DOESN'T*

oh well, time to trudge back to Sears and exchange the bulb for another one

THE SEARS PR BASE 1 WATT LUXEON LED BULB *DOES NOT* WORK IN A CONVENTIONAL LANTERN

just *slightly* pissed off here at having to make an uneccecary trip back to Sears.....

Just some polarity side-notes.

The Ray-O-Vac swivel head has a 50/50 chance on polarity. It depends on which way the head was facing when they snapped it into the swivels. Mine has normal polarity.
I have one snakelight with two lamps in two different style reflectors, it's reverse polarity. My regular snakelight with one lamp has normal polarity.
All three lights are running PR-based LED's that I bought from the board here.

LEDninja said:

I was going to get one pf these when they show up (the original was rather dim). Hope Sears sells the bulb in Canada. They didn't sell the Enduro 3AAA. Don't really want another yellow body.
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=412498

Click to expand...

I see you are refering to the Turtle/Cool Blue. Sears had these in today and I've got to say the .5w "module" looks rather poorly designed. A pic would explain better but it's butt-ugly with big 'ol wires on the face of it, above the level of the emitter. I'm not even sure it's still PR based. I was looking forward to these as I have several of the originals, but probably will pass on getting one.

I rushed over to Sears this afternoon and purchased one of these. I put it in a stock Mag 2D, replacing the Nite Ize drop-in I had in it. It's a huge improvement over the Nite Ize and the standard bulb. Decent white light, good-sized hotspot, some sidespill, throws pretty well at tightest focus. It does have some artifacts, but all-in-all I'm happy.

MacTech said:

The claim that this bulb can be used in a standard 6V lantern is in fact......

...snip...

the packaging for the module shows the stylized outline of two conventional "Eveready" style plastic bodied lights (2D, 3D), and a *conventional lantern* (6V) as well , it's clear that they are claiming that this bulb works in a polarity-reversed lantern, when it *DOESN'T*

.....

Click to expand...

Back when the EverLED ( http://www.brightguy.com/products/EverLED_Hight_Dome(Lambertian).php ) came out, I bought one and tried it in all my lanterns. None of them worked, but the EverLED was still okay. I had to wait 14+ monthes for the reverse polarity to be available again.

-wjb3

Thanks, MacTech! I went to Sears yesterday and picked one of these up, and it's pretty nice! It has the voltage versatility of a Nite-Ize PR with the output of a MagLED, which is cool. I did a little something with it and a NI PR earlier this afternoon, and it might come in handy one day. I'll post pics when I get home tonight.

Well, here are those pictures. Sorry I didn't post them last night, but I hit the hay right after I snapped a bunch of pics of various things.

Here is the full setup:


Here is the connection to the (lantern) battery:


Here is the connection between the light and its extension cord:


Here is the main assembly:


Rear view of the main assembly:


"Low" mode:


"High" mode:


So, here's how it works: I snipped the male end of an extension cord, and soldered one of the wire ends to both LED positives and the other wire end to the switch's battery input. The snipped side with the female at the other end received female blade terminals to connect to a lantern battery or a 6V SLA. The LEDs' negative sleeves each connect to a separate terminal on the switch. The male end of the extension cord plugs into its former female end, which goes to the battery. When the switch is pulled to the first position, the NI LED lights up. When it's pulled further, the NI LED turns off and the Endurable LED lights up.

Runtime is estimated at 250h on Low and 50h on High.

These have been on order at my two closest Sears stores since 2/28/2007. I finally got tired of waiting any longer and called the hardware specific Sears which is a bit of a drive, but they had something like 17 of them in stock.

Pretty nice. WAY less output than the Mag 2 cell LED module, but I'd expect the cells to last MUCH longer and I'd expect the module to develop MUCH less heat. I don't have time to do a formal review with beamshots and whatnot, but I will eventually. Suffice it to say that on 2 cells, it's not radically brighter than the SMJLED PR, but the slightly green tint on mine is better for actual outdoor use than the slightly bluish tint on both of my SMJLEDs.

I've only tried it in a heavily sputtered reflector so I don't know how bad the artifacts are, but I'm sure it's just standard 'Lux in a Mag reflector' type beam with the splotchy but intense hotspot and the one single prominent ring. Should throw pretty well considering it's only a Lux 1, of course.

Other than the lantern on the front, the packaging is VERY informative. To expand on MacTech's information above, this is the chart on the back:

Number of cells
Voltate
Current from source
Power consumpotion
Current through LED
Luminous Flux (Lumens)

1 Cell.... 1.5V... 490mA... 0.735W.. 164mA... 24
2 Cells... 3.0V... 410mA... 1.23W... 285mA... 37
3 Cells... 4.5V... 340mA... 1.53W... 350mA... 45
4 Cells... 6.0V... 280mA... 1.68W... 380mA... 47
5 Cells... 8.0V... 230mA... 1.84W... 400mA... 50

I honestly can't recall EVER seeing a more informative chart on a mass produced, bulk sale flashlight-related item.

You can look for these at KMart as well. I saw them there a couple days ago. There was no pricetag so I can't report on the KMart price.

I wonder how hard it would be to swap the Lux emitter with a Seoul.......

I picked up two at my local Sears and they are NICE! Way better in my book than smjled. In the two flashlights that I used them they had much better performance than the smjled's that they replaced.

MacTech said:

I wonder how hard it would be to swap the Lux emitter with a Seoul.......

Click to expand...

Looks like it would be VERY easy. Even has exposed leads to the LEDs. Looks about as simple as an emitter LED swap can get.

Modern_Major_General said:

FYI, don't know if anyone has found this out yet, but this module is NOT regulated. I've been using it for a little while in an anglehead flashlight, and it rapidly gets much dimmer when running on 2 D-cells.

Click to expand...

My bad! This bulb actually does appear to be regulated. I must have been using some old D batteries at first or something. I've been running it on 2 fresh D batteries for 5 hours now, monitoring the brightness with a digital camera, and it hasn't gotten any dimmer. I'll make note of how long it actually takes it to start dimming once it does.

I missed this post some how.
I picked 1 up today,put it in a 3dmag with 4 c's and a 2in deep
MODAMAG reflector I think.Verry nice tight beam 8in spot at 25 feet
verry brite for a single led.I how ever did not check the voltage of
the c's i found will see when the big hotwire in the sky go's out tonight.:naughty: