who makes the LED in...

2000xlt

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Dec 16, 2004
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Who makes the LED 0.5 watt thats in the new dorcy lights, I picked up the 4 AAA light from target, its the one arranged like the sl propoly. And where can i obtain a few of said LED's. The light could be alot brighter since it has 4 batts in it , but for $7.99 I am not complaining.

Thanks.
 

Flying Turtle

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I've wondered how this light compares with the PT Attitude, which it reminds me of. Checked it out a few times, but never got one. Doesn't it have a rear clickie, or am I thinking of something else? Does it seem waterproof? I wonder if it's basically the same LED that River Rock has in the 2AAA light.

Geoff
 

LukeA

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That's a Luxeon PWT. It's half as efficient as the least efficient Rebel.

Nice magnification btw.
 

LukeA

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I have a pair of them. I soldered leads to one of them. It was a *****. Plus they're inefficient and put out purplish light.
 

Turbo DV8

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If you are talking about the 4AAA Dorcy 0.5 watt light that is yellow plastic with belt clip, I have an opinion on it. I bought one today at Target, clearanced at $5 plus chicken scratch. I think it is garbage. There is no heat sinking. After a few minutes the output drops significantly. After being on for ten minutes or more, the plastic case was not even warm to the touch, but when I took the batteries out, I IR'd the top two cells which contact the LED assembly at 120 degrees, and the base of the LED assembly was 170 degrees. As soon as I took the LED/reflector assembly out, it smelled strongly of overheated electronics. I think this is one light to stay clear away from unless you have grander plans for it other than using it as-is. I can't imagine this thing lasting very long.
 
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mmmflashlights

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If you are talking about the 4AAA Dorcy 0.5 watt light that is yellow plastic with belt clip, I have an opinion on it. I bought one today at Target, clearanced at $5 plus chicken scratch. I think it is garabage. There is no heat sinking. After a few minutes the output drops significantly. After being on for ten minutes or more, the plastic case was not even warm to the touch, but when I took the batteries out, I IR'd the top two cells which contact the LED assembly at 120 degrees, and the base of the LED assembly was 170 degrees. As soon as I took the LED/reflector assembly out, it smelled strongly of overheated electronics. I think this is one light to stay clear away from unless you have grander plans for it other than using it as-is. I can't imagine this thing lasting very long.

I saw these on clearance a few days ago for $3.xx, almost bought one but have too many lights as it is. I thought about getting it if for no other reason than using the reflector for one of my modded lights. Sounds like I shouldn't regret not buying one though.
 

Luminescent

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Jun 26, 2007
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To answer your question, you can get them from Future Electronics, but the little PWT is only rated at 26 lumens for 2000 hours and they cost $2.69 each in small quantities, which is more than a Rebel 40 which is rated at 40 lumens at the same drive with 50,000 hours life.

Luxeon PWT at Future Electornics

As several others have already noted, if you can deal with something only a tiny bit larger (and believe me, if you are trying to do this yourself you will WANT it a bit larger), and if you want something REALLY impressive, then go with the Rebel-100.

It costs a little over 6 bucks in single quantities, but it puts out 4 times as much light as the PWT at the SAME CURRENT DRIVE LEVEL ( 100 lumens minimum at 350mA. vs. 26 lumens at 350mA. ) and the Rebel is still rated at over 50,000 hours life even at this higher output, instead of the 2000 hours of the PWT.

Rebels at Future Electronics

The rebel 100 is the bottom LXML-PWC1-0100 part number in the listing.

The last number in the part number is the Lumens, so you can get cheaper Rebels in lower lumen ratings, but I found that you might as well get the better quality parts, because the PITA about Future Electronics is that they charge a big handling fee for orders below 25 bucks, so you might as well spend the 25 bucks, and the minimum shipping charge I could find was about 9 bucks (the parts did arrive in 3 or 4 days though).

The problem with all these parts is that they are very tricky to solder, even if you have micro-miniature soldering skills, because they don't like the 700F to 800F temperature of a typical soldering iron (if you have a cheap Radio Shack iron, then it's more like 800F-900F or more).

They also don't like sudden temperature changes, so the only really safe way to solder them is to set them on a cold but pre-tinned pad and 'reflow' the solder by gradually heating them up to about 200 C (just under 400F) over a time span of a minute or two (with the peak temperature only lasting a few seconds so the solder can flow), then let them cool gradually over another minute or two.

Some have gotten away with just heating the metal pad near the device with a hand soldering iron so solder flows underneath, but others have reported problems with this approach, and this makes sense, because this type of simple hand soldering puts the Rebel under several times the thermal stress it was designed for.

Once properly mounted, the Rebels are tough little hombre's though, so if you can deal with the mechanical issues, you can change out the PWT in your light and roughly quadruple it's output.

If you want to simplify mounting and are willing to pay a little more, you can get the Rebels pre-mounted.

These guys in Germany have Rebel-100's on very nice compact 1cm square boards (just a bit over 3/8 in square).

Rebel 100 at LED-TECH.DE

You can pay by paypal so your credit card info is secure and never leaves the U.S. and Paypal also takes care of all the international currency coversions. LED-TECH.DE doesn't have a minimum as far as I can tell, and their shipping by international airmail arrived in about a week and cost no more than Future Electronics.

If you would like to play around with the Rebel, but don't want to go with Future or LED-TECH because of the cost, a pre-mounted Rebel-80 from DX may be your best bet. Having the Rebel pre-mounted on a small board like this will eliminate the mounting and soldering headaches, and while not quite as bright as a Rebel 100, this Rebel 80 emitter will still have more than 3 times the output per milliamp as the PWT luxeon you asked about initially and it will only set you back $5.14 total from DX with FREE SHIPPING.

Rebel 80 at Deal Extreme

DX also takes paypal, but a DX order will take a bit longer to arrive (usually 1 to 2 weeks), but with free shipping it is by far the least expensive option for a small quantity order.
 
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fishx65

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Nov 17, 2005
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Turbo is right on about these! JUNK! One of mine fried the led in about 3 minutes so all 5 went back to the store. 3 of them were puffin smoke!!!
 
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