Surprising 2032 keychain mod!

Oh this is surprising.
I've loved my photon microlights for a long time, but have never been 100% happy with their battery life. 2016 batts are what they are, 80-90 mah for the good ones. 2032 batts on the other hand are awesome at 225 mah, but of course are twice as thick.

So here we go:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3419

Are designed and shipped with the slightly oddball 2025 batt (150-175mah). And I approve of the 10mm LED. In my lot only 2 or 3 of the 5 lit up because the batts are dead, they switched themselves on too easily but you can fix that by "tweak" bending the LED leads.

But here's the thing- that case will fit 2x 2032 batts! Not really well, but well enough! It's got 4 case screws to it tightens up again. The LED lead requires some more involved tweaking. Actually there's a ring on the top half of the case that gives room for the LED lead to back away and milling that down just a tad would give the batt the right room, but further tweaking might fix that. Might have to shorten the LED lead.

Bigger than a microlight, actually it sucks in a way that they made the diameter much larger than it needs to be, they spaced the 4 scews around the batt sides so it got wider when putting them near the ends like Photon did would have found enough space without widening it. Even still they made more width than the screws needed. But, still small enough to fit in my coin pocket and makes a crapload of light and the 2032 should make for a long long life.

Hi Oznog,
I just did the 2032 keychain mod. After screw back the 4 case screws, you can't see any gap in between. Great mod.
Thank you for the head up.

I really wish someone would make a "premium" model of the fauxton with a brighter LED, and 2xCR2032 for power. That slightly larger package would be quite a little powerhouse.

They could even double the cost to a whole $1 and still sell them by the bucket load.

The fauxton led is already pretty bright and they keep putting in brighter ones. The main dimming is from the batteries wearing down, which happens quickly. These things are just convenience lights--if you want something more serious on your keys, get an AAA light or even a Draco.

Ty4752 said:

Hi Oznog,
I just did the 2032 keychain mod. After screw back the 4 case screws, you can't see any gap in between. Great mod.
Thank you for the head up.

Click to expand...

How well does yours stay "off", and how well does the switch work? I trimmed the lead back a bit and bent it real careful so it now stays off, the button will turn it on but the switch is pretty much immobile. Might need to review the tweaking situation.

I noticed the bottom actually showed the bottom lead pushing through the case, it's real thin on bottom. I used a Dremel to actually thin out the lead to about half its original thickness. Thinned out the top one too.

I would SO dig a Microlight being made to fit 2x 2032. They use them in all the single-cell colors (red etc). I don't see why they don't make them, the extra thickness is easy to handle when you consider the benefits. Batts technically have close to 3x the capacity but I can also tell the larger batt's not going to dim as much when it's below 50% charge or whatever like 2016's do. And 2032 cells cost almost exactly the same as 2016 cells! $0.35 vs $0.30 on Digikey...

Oznog said:

How well does yours stay "off", and how well does the switch work? I trimmed the lead back a bit and bent it real careful so it now stays off, the button will turn it on but the switch is pretty much immobile. Might need to review the tweaking situation.

I noticed the bottom actually showed the bottom lead pushing through the case, it's real thin on bottom. I used a Dremel to actually thin out the lead to about half its original thickness. Thinned out the top one too.

I would SO dig a Microlight being made to fit 2x 2032. They use them in all the single-cell colors (red etc). I don't see why they don't make them, the extra thickness is easy to handle when you consider the benefits. Batts technically have close to 3x the capacity but I can also tell the larger batt's not going to dim as much when it's below 50% charge or whatever like 2016's do. And 2032 cells cost almost exactly the same as 2016 cells! $0.35 vs $0.30 on Digikey...

Click to expand...

My light stay off really well and I have to slice the switch with a little more force than normal, but I like that better because it won't turn on accidentally in my pocket. I did not have to trim the lead but I did have to bend them a little to fit around the battery.

Yeah, I noticed lead showed/pushing through the case (the other opposite side of the switch), but only because you mentioned or I would not noticed at all. May be you can tweak[FONT=&quot] the leads a little more. Wow, that some work with dremel, I do not have the skill or the patient do that. [/FONT]

I real like putting 2x 2032 in the microlight because of longer running time and it make me feel like did some mod. even if just a little mod. :twothumbs

Just got some of these lights and did the mod posted here. Easy to do -- all I did was bend the shorter lead to fit above/around the battery and then put the case back together again.

Tight fit, but the plastic used for the case is relatively soft.

Dealextreme told me that I should be able to get about 5hrs runtime out of the stock 2025s.

Can anyone tell me what kind of runtime I can expect out of the 2032's?

if the capacity is related to size I would say the 2032s would give you 64/50 more runtime or about 28% longer at 5 hours that would be almost an extra hour and a half perhaps for my guestimate.

I recommended months ago --


that L.R.I. should make a 2 x CR2032 Photon Freedom Magnum.


Catchy name eh ?


Go for it, L.R.I. ! Free, no charge !


:thumbsup:
_

+1 for a Photon Freedom Magnum