Review: Brinkmann 3AAA CREE XR-E 7090 adjustable output

Brinkmann 3AAA 3W LED "Scroll Light"
This gem was $18 at Target.

It has a CREE X-Lamp XR-E 7090 star mounted on a dollar coin sized aluminum heat sink with two rivets, which is then held in place by the plastic chassis. The star is black and LED has four bond wires on my particular unit.

In my opinion, the cost-performance is hard to beat. It draws two whole watts from fresh NiMH batteries at the highest setting and it has an output visually comparable to my eyes as the frequently discussed 2C CREE light sold under the TaskForce brand at Lowe's stores.

The X-Lamp is driven through solid state circuits with an adjustable output. The adjustment control is made by a potentiometer with a built in switch. The same type used on many old low end audio equipment and TVs that turns off by turning all the way to the left.

Reflector is textured and the lens is simply there to prevent things from getting inside the light and it feels like the plastic from a CD jewel case.

The power source is 3AAA form factor alkaline batteries in a caddy, however it works fine with NiMH. I used NiMH for testing and found that input power ranged from 0.4W at minimum and 2.0W at maximum using fresh off the charger 900mAh Kodak AAA cells.
Measured power input ranges from 0.4W to 2W
min = 4.1v x 0.1A
max =3.9v x 0.5A

The reason voltage is lower at maximum output is that battery voltage drops under heavier load.

Since heat sinking is poor, I would not use it at maximum output for a long time. On minimum output, I'm guessing you can get 7-8 hours using 900mAh NiMh batteries based on measured current.

The dimming control is not very smooth and it flickers. The potentiometer feels cheaply built and I would compare the quality of the body to McDonald's value meal toys. It's almost like you're buying the guts and the enclosure is a free give away.

Poor quality potentiometer could be gutted and replaced with a fixed resistor, switched resistors (to give multiple level outputs) or a higher quality potentiometer. Even if you don't like the light, at $18, I think it's a great donor of the XR-E 7090 LED and a circuit board that allows output current adjustment by potentiometer that is well suited for single cell li-ion operation.

In my opinion, the performance is wow, but quality is C-.

Electronics


Chassis




Reflector. Since someone asked me on my different review, the specs are:
Texturized metallized plastic parabolic
1.0" height
1.1" I.D. at top
0.27" I.D. at bottom at the LED port. It fits right onto the CREE emitter.


Beam shot


I think the driver board has potential if it was built into a nice body for use with single Li-ion cell and fitted with a switched resistor control.

I bought this light yesterday, as you mentioned the potentiometer feels cheaply built, and it seems as if once the potentiometer reaches a certain point in its travel, its stops adjusting the light level, even thouh its has not reached its furthest point of travel yet, with that said, its still great for its price.

I picked one up awhile ago just for fun. I let the kids use it. There isn't much adjustment with the scroll wheel. If you could go from a very low low all the way up to full power with a lot of levels inbetween it would be much more interesting. Maybe it won't be long before we see some cheap lights on store shelves that offer this.

Must... disassemble.

Got mine clearance at target, $6.48.

Worst part is the rubber backing on the tail of the battery carrier falls off because the spring rotates across it, and it's split into two pieces. I placed a circle of .005" Kapton tape over the rubber, now it's betta.

I'm surprised to see how much stuff in inside. I thought it was just a variable resistor attached to the wheel and no other circuitry...

Its big brother (the 3W Cree Digital Dimming) 2D is also on clearance for $7.98 at Target. Although both are rated at 3W, the 2D is much brighter (probably 2x) with much longer runtime (20+ vs 9.5 hours at high).