Very simple and cheap low low level mod

Hi all,

I don't know if anyone has done this before.

There is much call on CPF for ultra low levels. Most multilevel flashlights (except the more expensive programmable ones) will have a low of, say, 7.5-15 Lumen, which is considered not low enough to preserve night vision, or e.g. read your menu in a cosy candle lit restaurant.

I myself used to have a Fenix E0 as my dimmest light. It is around 5 Lumen, and this is still amazingly bright if your eyes are dark adapted, especially when you're pointing it at a sheet of white paper close to your eyes!

So here's what I did:
I took a Photon clone (50 cents) and swapped the two 2016 coin cells for one 2032. I then sanded the led lightly for a more even light distribution, and voilá: approx. 0.5-1 Lumen low low level light at hardly any cost and reasonable runtime :thumbsup:.

Kees

DoubleDutch said:

I don't know if anyone has done this before.
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Yep.

I've never done that mod exactly, but it's a good one. I love having a real low.

I did the 2032 swap, and frosting the LED, but I also changed to a 55 k jled, so not so low low...

:devil:

For around the house at night, I have a 2AAA MiniMag with a frosted 3000 mcd red LED. When I want slightly more brightness and/or better color rendition, there is a fauxton attached to the tail cap of the MiniMag, with a single CR3032 in it. It was a pleasant discovery, as it arrived dead in the package (turned on during 2 week transit), and I replaced the dead no-name CR2016's with a spare 2032 I had laying around. It's probably my most used setup, as the dim red doesn't bother my wife when she's sleeping, and isn't painful if I need to get up in the middle of the night for some reason.

BTW, Photon Light specifically recommend using a CR2032 in place of 2xCR2016 to reduce brightness but get better runtime in some situations.

Because the red, yellow, & orange Photons use a single CR2032 battery rather than the pair of smaller CR2016 cells used in the other colors, they will provide a significantly longer battery life at the expense of some brightness. This makes these colors excellent for use in emergency kits or other situations where battery life is a primary concern over absolute brightness.

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60 ohm pcb in my L4 2 stage McE2s. Very low "low"