Brinkman 3W LED Target Light

I purchased this LED light a while back at Target for $24.95. It is made by Brinkmann and has a nice clean, bright white beam. It is a 3 watt led and will assume it is a Luxeon, but am not sure. I have yet to see it on their webpage. Here is my question. It uses one of those battery holders and 3 AAA batteries. I made a makeshift tube out of paper, and put 2 CR2 lithium batteries in it, and the light works great!! Is the extra 1.5v going into the light going to damage the LED? Is using lithium batteries going to damage the light? What kind of runtime to you think I will get with it as opposed to 3 AAA batteries...longer or shorter?? I am guessing if I want to do this, using a piece of rubber or hosing is going to be a better tube for the batteries. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, or comments are welcome!! Thank you all for this great forum!!! Sorry, but I can not for some reason post photos of the light!:thinking:

Mike

mikekoz said:

Is the extra 1.5v going into the light going to damage the LED?
Is using lithium batteries going to damage the light?
What kind of runtime to you think I will get with it as opposed to 3 AAA batteries...longer or shorter??
Mike

Click to expand...

OK Complete newbie here throwing out his opinion to see if anyone agees.

Is the higher voltage going to damage the LED?
If it already hasn't, it probably won't. If it is a Luxeon Star or similar LED with a driver circuit, the driver circuit will accept a fairly wide voltage input.

Lithiums damage the light?
For the same reason as above, I doubt it.

Longer or shorter run time?
My guess is it will be about 50% longer with the lithiums.

The light might use a buck regulator to lower the voltage to 3.7v of the LED, and there is no 3w Luxeon, only a Luxeon III which most companies call the 3 watt. In actuality, it can be run at any wattage.

The extra 1.5v might kill the LED or the regulator(if it has one) if you left it on for a while.

Posting pictures require you to first host the pictures somewhere(like imageshack) then use the button and paste the link.

That's the one that's a bit fatter in the barrel than the Brinkmann Maxfire LX, right?

If it's that one, I got my dad the 1Watt version of that light. It's actually really, really bright and has an impressive throw. I think that reflector on that one does a pretty decent job. I've always wondered how their runtime is tho.

Pistolero said:

That's the one that's a bit fatter in the barrel than the Brinkmann Maxfire LX, right?

If it's that one, I got my dad the 1Watt version of that light. It's actually really, really bright and has an impressive throw. I think that reflector on that one does a pretty decent job. I've always wondered how their runtime is tho.

Click to expand...

This light has an aluminum body unlike the Maxfire which is plastic or rubber I believe. It is fairly heavy with a smooth black body, a stainless steel grip at the base of the head, and an on / off switch at the base of the tail. I still see them at Target and have never seen them mentioned here. It also has a silver clip on it which loosens when the cap is unscrewed to remove the batteries. I do not know why it is not on their web page.

The light does get a bit warm with my makeshift battery pack in it, but is considerably brighter!

Mike

mikekoz said:

This light has an aluminum body unlike the Maxfire which is plastic or rubber I believe.

Mike

Click to expand...

There is also a grey/black plastic version of this light. The grey plastic version is available in either 1W or 3W and prices are usually $19.99 and $24.99 (respectively) at Target. Lately I've been seeing the black/silver aluminum version also. I have the plastic version, and it is actually one of my favorite lights due to its size/performance and the way it fits in my hand. It also has a "real" (forward) tail clickie. I bought my dad one of these as well, and he uses it all the time here on the farm. I think you have the better version for running more power to the LED, due to the aluminum being better at getting rid of the extra heat. Of course there has to be good contact between the emitter and body though, and I don't have the aluminum version to verify that.

In the plastic 3W version, there is no regulator (or any electronics for that matter), its direct drive. The aluminum version may be regulated but I'm not sure. If the LED didn't instaflash when you gave it 6V, it will probably be OK, as long as you don't overheat the LED by running it for long periods. Heat is one thing that will kill the LED prematurely. In the plastic bodied light the star is in a plastic holder, with no good way to get rid of the heat.

Roger

On edit: Forgot to add that Bass Pro carries the 3W plastic body version with the "Bass Pro Shops" name on it, but it is identical to the Brinkmann light.

Until now, most lights in this market did not use drivers - that's why they were 3XAAA, 3xAA, etc. They dropped the 4.5 V to Vf with a simple resistor. Now that the Chinese manufacturers have cheap regulators (see Kaidomain and DX), it's possible they'll migrate into mass market lights. Someone else has found that the new CREE Rayovacs still use resistors.

To get back on topic, if it didn't fail right away, at worst case you're going to lose lifetime from the LED (if it is a resistor) or driver.