Tektite 2 LED Replacement Bulb with PR Base

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but has anyone else picked up one of these? I found it today at Fry's for $15. It is 2 LED's on a PR base and needs 3 batteries (4.5V) to work. The package states in bold print that it will not work with 2 cells. I think theledlight.com has the same thing here. I put it in my 3D Mag and it gave a beam pattern with a lot of artifacts. When I compared it to my Arc AAA and Infinity Ultra-G, the color of the Mag beam was a yellowish green and just slightly brighter. But I figure I can use it as a spare long run-time bulb as a companion to my xenon bulb I have in there now. It can serve as a poor man's EverLED until I order one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I do have 2 questions though:

1) The model number of the bulb I have was TT-9253. Fry's had a model TT-9254 for sale at $20, $5 more than I paid. Does anyone know if there is a difference?

2) The back of the package warns not to use lithium or Duracell Ultra batteries because of the higher voltage. Has anyone used these with 4 NiMH AA's and tried to overdrive it? Did it blow out the bulb?

While I've not seen it, I have the single LED version Brightguy.com sells. It's set up for 80 mA at 4.8 Volts as I recall ('6 Volt', four cell use), and is quite happy with 4 NiMH cells (even if overdriven, it's at the intended current).

The artifacts are no doubt a result of the two sources, hard to focus.....

I suspect the other Fry's unit is just set up for a higher voltage (four cells?).

It's an easy enough matter to measure the actual current involved and add enough extra series resistance to bring it back in range with the battery you want. Such a resistor (I'm guessing a dozen ohms or so?) could easily be a .25 Watt unit in the stack, between cells. Iv'e done several, with the resistor body off to one side (next to the nipple), leads soldered to copper foil strips insulated from each other with a sheet of mylar (tough plastic). It adds something like .012 inchs to the stack, easily within the range of most springs.

Your LED runs easier, and your battery life goes up. Nice trade off.....

Cheers.

Doug Owen

AlanL - Care to post your impressions of the bulb in the Reviews forum? It would be appreciated!

I would be happy to. Being sort of a flashlight newbie, I didn't know if this bulb has been out a while and talked to death already even though I didn't find anything doing a search. If I can figure out how to do the picture posting thing, I might be able to put up some pictures with beam shots.

ledcorp.com has many combinations of this type of bulb replacement. I personally have the 1,2, and 3 LED PR bulb replacements, all for 4.5V. They are all nice, but I only use the 1 and 3 very much. 2 gives a weird beam (oval).

You have to have the image hosted somewhere on the web.

Post pictures like so: <font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>[image]http://websitelocationofpicture/picturename.jpg[/image]</pre><hr />