Help me mod this donor

After building a couple lights Im ready to overhaul my trusty tool bag light. This light was purchased at Eddie Bower by my wife as a Christmas present several years ago. I would like to upgrade this light. I was thinking about using the AAA holder and replacing the PC board with some kind of led. What type to use or configuration is beyond me. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Now for the pics.

Perhaps I posted this in the wrong thread. Perhaps Modified or home built thread?

I would get rid of the plastic "lens" as it just reduces the output. Then I would pot the non-functional reflector with some glow powder in epoxy and upgrade the LEDs with some Nichia GS's or CS's. Maybe throw some glow o-rings on it, too.

But only because I have all that stuff on hand. It seems like one of those flashlight you mod just because you have it in the house. I did the same thing to all my old flashlights.

+1 on the removal of the window

if the bezel is plastic theres very few modding options for it because LEDs at higher wattages tend to melt anything thats not metal.

A "mule" option may be possible: direct driving a star of some sort with a single rechargeable cell....say around 17670 or small cell in place of the 3AAA holder. remove the existing drivers and stick the star in place of the 3 LEDs.

short runs may be possible, but I wouldn't risk it for long uses

great ideas! I was thinking about a star but wasnt sure the 3 AAA would drive one. Any suggestions.

I posted on this last night, but my post has vanished

What are you looking to get from the mod? Throw? Flood? Extreme brightness? long runtime? What battery types are you going to use? How involved are you willing to get?


The easiest mod would be to replace the nichia LED's with GS models. Direct drive with the LED's in parallel and the appropriate resistor could give you 30 lumens with no heat issues, and long runtimes (though with diminishing output due to the resistor). Alternatively you could use a more powerful LED and a 1x7135 driver board such as this, though you'd need to find a source for less than 20. Running at 350ma should give minimal heat problems, be gentle on the batteries and also give about 100 lumens. You'd need a custom optic and some sort of heatsinking solution, so it's more involved than replacing the emitters for GS versions, but brighter and you can choose whether you want more flood or more throw with your optic.

3AAA should direct drive a CREE or SSC just fine. If in doubt you can just use a couple of pieces of wire to connect your battery holder to a CREE/SSC star (short test only without a heat sink). My only issue is not much depth for an optic or reflector.

i dont think there would be enough room to fit in a proper reflector for a cree or ssc...or else it'll be a pure flood light...i think using nichias and maybe a better driver as mentioned above would be the best/easiest option...i've got a similar 3xAAA light with about 10leds i bought a few years ago before i got into luxeons etc. but it runs direct drive with all the leads from the leds bunched together...I havent tried modding it as i dont think its worth it...3xAAA lights dont last long enough

My advice is to not bother. Keep it as a memento of an evolutionary step in LED lights, and get something brighter / nicer. :naughty:

Stereodude said:

My advice is to not bother. Keep it as a memento of an evolutionary step in LED lights, and get something brighter / nicer. :naughty:

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I hear ya. I already have 3 surefires, 2 modded mags and a nighthunter II waiting for mods and some other no name assorted lights. This one is my beater tool bag light that I use every once and awhile.

Thanks for all the great ideas!. I might try swapping the leds out for now.