mgc8
Newly Enlightened
Hello,
I have an Energizer Double-Barrell 8xAA around that used to be my best light for a while -- long before I found CPF, of course
After arriving here and spending a small fortune on quality torches, the oldie appeared much too dim... so I was inspired by old4570's thread here to turn it into a better light. I know it is not much, but I am still excited as it's my first mod, and maybe other newcomers will be encuraged to go this way as well
Initially I thought about getting one of the DX pills, since they were cheap and offered a wide voltage range... However a couple of weeks ago I decided to get myself a small multi-die light that I could carry in a pocket and also use on my bike, and eventually I settled on the Dereelight CL1H w/ MC-E. They also sell separate pills, and even though about double the DX price, I figured the quality was much better and also I wouldn't have to wait a month to get them in my greedy little hands... so I also ordered an extra pill for this upgrade, a 1SM-2 w/ R2-WG. I know it's quite overkill for the old geezer, but hey, I loved that light and I wanted to make it shine once again
One week and some annoying DHL ineptitude later, I had all I needed to start the mod. The pill is extremely small, and it provides regulated output for 3~16V of input, which was excellent for my purpose -- somewhere between 4~6V as I figured.
So here it goes -- first, the light itself:
In order to fit the pill inside the head, first I had to cut away the bottom of the reflector (eh, plastic) so here it is while being "adjusted":
and here it is after cutting the bottom and a little polish with sandpaper:
Then I turned my attention to the plastic head-mechanism-thingie. It is easy to make out the +/- contacts -- basically, the middle "fin" is the negative, contacting two brass nuts that go into the aluminium body; and the couple of lateral "fins" are both positive, each going into one of the barrels. I followed the metal up the head, and found two good solder points that avoided the switch assembly since I didn't want to damage it. First a "dry" test with wires in position (negative near the top on the switch side, positive near the top opposite the switch):
I temporarily placed the assembly into the barrel and touched the wires to the pill -- and there was light! So things were working fine!
Next I had to cut the top of the plastic thingie for more space, I soldered the wires in their final position and I trimmed them to proper size. Here is how the head appeared afterwards:
Now came the most difficult part (for me): soldering the pill. I must say I'm a disaster with the solder -- I can handle larger connections, but tiny, delicate, temperature-sensitive contacts can be a little too much. I had to cut most of the spring on the bottom of the pill to reduce it's height, and then I made a hell of a mess soldering the two wires to it. So no picture, heh... In the end, still not secure enough about the resistence of those points, I wrapped the pill's botom and a little of the side in electrical tape. This also served as insulation for the aluminium foil coming next... Did another test with it in the barrel and this is how it looked like:
The final step was to figure out some form of heatsinking. I tried to find a small processor sink among the dozens of computer parts in my assorted-junk box, yet none were small enough to fit, and cutting metal to shape is really beyond my current skillset. So I settled on aluminium foil. I painstakingly wrapped layer after layer of foil around the pill, trying to make it as snug as possible... I really don't know how much more I would need to wrap in order to get proper heat dissipation, actually I'm quite concerned about that right now so I never ran the light for more than a couple of minutes; here's how it looks:
Any suggestions for (easy) improvement would be welcome...
After mounting the completed head in the barrel, I screwed the head/reflector back, and this is were things went a little wrong: it seems I miscalculated the ammount of cutting needed (probably because of the added size of the soder + alu foil) so the head wouldn't go all the way in; I forced it and slightly cracked the reflector as I said, plastic meh... Here's a look form the front with the completed work (yes, it's not perfectly centered, I'm still tweaking it a little):
So here you go, modding an old incan light to a modern high-power led in a few easy steps! I wanted to keep this simple, both from a construction p.o.v. and in order to maintain the simplicity of the original -- primary AA cells, one-mode switch, etc. As a bonus, the switch is a "forward-clicky" now, with momentary-on!
Of course, I couldn't forget the obligatory beamshots I must say I'm quite impressed with the amount of light this thing puts out, I mean it's all flood with negligible throw, but it does light up a room quite well! Also I really like the WG tint R2, I happen to have a WC-R2 in my DBS and that one has a purple tint I really don't care for at all, this one looks great and reproduces colours much better -- YMMV, evidently. Only inside shots I'm affraid, I don't have any from outside since every time I happen to go there with my lights it's already dark and for some reason I never thought about taking the camera with me
Here is an angled shot I took as I was setting up the camera, still shows the beam nicely and is the closest to reality from the ones below -- Auto WB, F2.8, 1/8s:
This is a comparison shot with my DBS v3 (3SD, WC-R2, high) on Daylight WB, F2.8, 1/8s:
And a few more with the modded Energizer from different angles and distances, all on Daylight WB, F2.8, 1/125s:
Well, that about covers it! I realy like the improved light and I'll keep it for emergencies or unexpected situations as it can run on standard AA's. The only issue I'd still like to solve in order to get some peace-of-mind would be the heatsink, otherwise I'm quite happy with this mod...
Thanks again old4570 for the idea, thank you for reading and best of luck with your own projects, no matter how daring!
Regards,
Mihnea
I have an Energizer Double-Barrell 8xAA around that used to be my best light for a while -- long before I found CPF, of course
After arriving here and spending a small fortune on quality torches, the oldie appeared much too dim... so I was inspired by old4570's thread here to turn it into a better light. I know it is not much, but I am still excited as it's my first mod, and maybe other newcomers will be encuraged to go this way as well Initially I thought about getting one of the DX pills, since they were cheap and offered a wide voltage range... However a couple of weeks ago I decided to get myself a small multi-die light that I could carry in a pocket and also use on my bike, and eventually I settled on the Dereelight CL1H w/ MC-E. They also sell separate pills, and even though about double the DX price, I figured the quality was much better and also I wouldn't have to wait a month to get them in my greedy little hands... so I also ordered an extra pill for this upgrade, a 1SM-2 w/ R2-WG. I know it's quite overkill for the old geezer, but hey, I loved that light and I wanted to make it shine once again
One week and some annoying DHL ineptitude later, I had all I needed to start the mod. The pill is extremely small, and it provides regulated output for 3~16V of input, which was excellent for my purpose -- somewhere between 4~6V as I figured.
So here it goes -- first, the light itself:
In order to fit the pill inside the head, first I had to cut away the bottom of the reflector (eh, plastic) so here it is while being "adjusted":
and here it is after cutting the bottom and a little polish with sandpaper:
Then I turned my attention to the plastic head-mechanism-thingie. It is easy to make out the +/- contacts -- basically, the middle "fin" is the negative, contacting two brass nuts that go into the aluminium body; and the couple of lateral "fins" are both positive, each going into one of the barrels. I followed the metal up the head, and found two good solder points that avoided the switch assembly since I didn't want to damage it. First a "dry" test with wires in position (negative near the top on the switch side, positive near the top opposite the switch):
I temporarily placed the assembly into the barrel and touched the wires to the pill -- and there was light!
So things were working fine!Next I had to cut the top of the plastic thingie for more space, I soldered the wires in their final position and I trimmed them to proper size. Here is how the head appeared afterwards:
Now came the most difficult part (for me): soldering the pill. I must say I'm a disaster with the solder -- I can handle larger connections, but tiny, delicate, temperature-sensitive contacts can be a little too much. I had to cut most of the spring on the bottom of the pill to reduce it's height, and then I made a hell of a mess soldering the two wires to it. So no picture, heh... In the end, still not secure enough about the resistence of those points, I wrapped the pill's botom and a little of the side in electrical tape. This also served as insulation for the aluminium foil coming next... Did another test with it in the barrel and this is how it looked like:
The final step was to figure out some form of heatsinking. I tried to find a small processor sink among the dozens of computer parts in my assorted-junk box, yet none were small enough to fit, and cutting metal to shape is really beyond my current skillset. So I settled on aluminium foil. I painstakingly wrapped layer after layer of foil around the pill, trying to make it as snug as possible... I really don't know how much more I would need to wrap in order to get proper heat dissipation, actually I'm quite concerned about that right now so I never ran the light for more than a couple of minutes; here's how it looks:
Any suggestions for (easy) improvement would be welcome...
After mounting the completed head in the barrel, I screwed the head/reflector back, and this is were things went a little wrong: it seems I miscalculated the ammount of cutting needed (probably because of the added size of the soder + alu foil) so the head wouldn't go all the way in; I forced it and slightly cracked the reflector
as I said, plastic meh... Here's a look form the front with the completed work (yes, it's not perfectly centered, I'm still tweaking it a little):
So here you go, modding an old incan light to a modern high-power led in a few easy steps! I wanted to keep this simple, both from a construction p.o.v. and in order to maintain the simplicity of the original -- primary AA cells, one-mode switch, etc. As a bonus, the switch is a "forward-clicky" now, with momentary-on!
Of course, I couldn't forget the obligatory beamshots
I must say I'm quite impressed with the amount of light this thing puts out, I mean it's all flood with negligible throw, but it does light up a room quite well! Also I really like the WG tint R2, I happen to have a WC-R2 in my DBS and that one has a purple tint I really don't care for at all, this one looks great and reproduces colours much better -- YMMV, evidently. Only inside shots I'm affraid, I don't have any from outside since every time I happen to go there with my lights it's already dark and for some reason I never thought about taking the camera with me Here is an angled shot I took as I was setting up the camera, still shows the beam nicely and is the closest to reality from the ones below -- Auto WB, F2.8, 1/8s:
This is a comparison shot with my DBS v3 (3SD, WC-R2, high) on Daylight WB, F2.8, 1/8s:
And a few more with the modded Energizer from different angles and distances, all on Daylight WB, F2.8, 1/125s:
Well, that about covers it! I realy like the improved light and I'll keep it for emergencies or unexpected situations as it can run on standard AA's. The only issue I'd still like to solve in order to get some peace-of-mind would be the heatsink, otherwise I'm quite happy with this mod...
Thanks again old4570 for the idea, thank you for reading and best of luck with your own projects, no matter how daring!
Regards,
Mihnea
