Polarity In Coleman 4AA for EverLED

A cyan EverLED is headed my way, and I was hoping it would come yesterday. Well here I am today, and it is still not here. So I began to explore the polarity of some of the household flashlights, with PR based bulbs, using a voltage meter. It appears that the Coleman 4AA Flashlight/Lantern has a negative tip.


This is contrary to my Mag 3D. This is a surprise to me because this flashlight was recommended by a fellow CPFer, and I though that this would blow out the EverLED.

Is there anyway to reverse the polarity or fix this?

If it's similar in build to my Energizer 2way light of similar design then yes you can, but it's a little cobbled together.

On the Energizer light there is a cap that floats on top of the batteries and has their connections as well as another tube off the top for the light. This is held down tightly on the batteries by screwing the reflector assembly on.

There are 3 grooves in the cap that keep it lined up in the "backwards" orientation. If you cut a third one carefully you will be able to put this in backwards to get the proper polarity. The battery connections wont be long enough though, I put tiny screws through the rivets to extend them a bit.

Then you have to be careful to get it to line up properly each time you change the batts. As it would be easy to put it together the correct way and fry your bulb.

I honestly have no idea if this will work on the coleman, but it did work on my energizer. I use it that way every day. Very nice.

Good Luck,

Illuminatingbikr:
I was looking at the same light for an everled. If you do try the mod, pleas let us know how much of a PITA it is, and how well it works.

Stainless,

If the EverLED does come, (it has been two very long weeks for me), and I do modify the Coleman to the correct polarity, I would be glad to post pics and information about it.