My Frankenstein light

jzmtl

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Dec 4, 2006
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Montreal, Canada
So I had this 97 cents light that I bought for the heck of it, really have no use for it with all the led lights I have lying around.



I smashed the bulb and dug out all the innards, took out a led from a fauxton, cut off the top and polished top smooth, soldered two leads on the metal can from bulb and secured it with hot glue.



Ended up with this



And the beautiful beamshot



The led is directly driven by two newish super heavy duty D cells, drive current is just a tad over 20 ma, should run for a loooooooooong time. Eyballing it it's 2 or 3 lumens.

Not bad for $2.5 total I guess, this is going to be the loaner/giveaway light in the house.
 

LukeA

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Jun 3, 2007
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near Pittsburgh
Nice. Three whole lumens.

I might suggest shimming the module so the emitter sits back further in the reflector.
 

jzmtl

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Dec 4, 2006
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Nice. Three whole lumens.

I might suggest shimming the module so the emitter sits back further in the reflector.
The way it's made the bulb and reflector is one assembly, haven't figured out a way to move its position yet.
 

David Gretzmier

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Apr 22, 2008
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Springdale, Arkansas
to go REALLY crazy, you could use one of the new nichia gs fauxtons, mod that in there at 30Ma, and get 6-10 LUMENS...OOOH

run time at 30Ma, let's see a couple of standard alkaline d's run around around 17000 mah, so 17000 / 30 = 566 hours of run time. I'd have to say 566 hours beats my p7 on low for sure.
 

jzmtl

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Dec 4, 2006
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Heh, the idea was to use useless stuff around the house to make something semi useful. The whole thing including battery cost two dollar fifty, adding a nichia GS kinda defeat the purpose.

It's definately dimmer than a fauxton, since it pumps over 70 ma through the led. Also beam is not as focused since I cut the top almost flat. Although donut is pretty bad here since I didn't place the led forward enough.
 

Lunal_Tic

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Jul 29, 2004
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The Wilds of Tokyo
I did something similar with a red LED but I didn't grind off the top. It runs great on 3V and actually gives off a fair amount of light. I wonder if it would be better if there was a cone drilled into the end like the Magma LED and ArcMania solitaire conversions.

-LT
 

jzmtl

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
3,123
Location
Montreal, Canada
Ended up doing this. Cost is now $3 but still decent. Donut is a lot less visible now due to the uncut led fill in the center.



Maybe one day I'll make a read light like you guys do, lol. :p
 
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