Single LED flashlight. Twice as bright as my Photon II

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**DONOTDELETE**

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This new light is twice as bright as my Photon II white and costs only around $8.00 to build. Just so no one thinks I'm exaggerating I am providing complete instructions so you can all build your own if you wish.
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Have fun!

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I found a small single AA cell flashlight today at Walmart (price $3.00) It's made by Garrity. Bright orange with a black rubberized head and black switch. They come in several colors. I picked the orange so it'll be easier to find in the drawer when I go looking for it. I took of the keychain off because I don't intend to use it on my keyring but you may want use it that way.
Unscrew the head of the unit and then unscrew the bulb holder. This one uses a bi-pin bulb. Pull out the bulb with small pliers. It was in kind of tight. Trim down the leads of a 5600mcd white LED ($1.75 at http://whiteleds.net/ )short enough to fit in the holder. It should stop when the little square pegs on the LED leads hit the black plastic. Drill out the reflector hole big enough to accept the LED. File around the edges of the hole to remove any plastic fragments. Rinse out the reflector with water and blow it out good with canned air to get all the plastic shavings out. Cut a spring (40 cents at ACE hardware store) down to about an inch and a fourth and wrap the middle with black electrical tape so it won't rattle and to keep it centered. Bend the end of the spring and make a little pig tail so it will make good contact with the battery. Drop in the spring (pigtail up). Insert an Energizer A544 (6 volt) battery ($3.00 at Walmart). Wrap the battery with some black tape first to keep it tight in the body of the light. Put the bulb back in the head of the flashlight, screw in in and fire it up. This thing is bright! It lit up my whole basement. I tested it in complete darkness against the white Photon. It's easily twice as bright. I could see a target all the way across the room that I couldn't even make out with the Photon. The little reflector in the head probably helps for that. I didn't use any resistor but it hasn't gotten hot or burned out yet. I'll use it for a while and see what happens. When it first starts up with a new battery it spikes to 100 mA but then settles down to a steady 80 mA in about three seconds. I did also see a 6 volt lithium battery about the same size for around $7.00. If the LED burns out with the Alkaline battery I'll put in a fresh one and try the lithium. It might be safer to run because of the better internal resistance. By using the tape on the spring and battery to keep the guts tight, this thing really has a solid feel to it. The ruberized head is nice and the body isn't cheap brittle plastic at all. My 5 year old daughter accidently dropped it down the stairs when I showed it to her. No damage at all. If the LED doesn't blow out, this might be my new favorite mini LED flashlight.
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