Ideas for retrofitting a unique flashlight with LEDs?

So I have a rechargeable glovebox flashlight for my car. It comes with a very dim, expensive to replace, hard to find, incandescent bulb. I was thinking of retrofitting this with an LED with the goal of a little more battery life and a lot more output. Any ideas on what sort of bulbs or setups I could do to power this light?

Here are the obstacles:
-Very limited space. I pretty much have the bulb and reflector area to work with.
-The light is a one piece design, making opening it up close to impossible.
-The power supply is a NiMH battery that outputs 2.2 volts and unknown current capacity

Info:
Power - NiMH rechargeable battery, 2.2 volts
Bulb area - bulb is about 10mm in diameter and around 20mm tall, with a screw in base.
Original incandescent bulb specs - 2.2 V, 0.25 A

Picture of the light:


Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

Pics? Brand? You may be able to squeeze a Dorcy AAA circuit in with some clever work with a soldering iron.

For some reason the hotel wireless ate the pic? Or my PC is mental!

mkodama said:

Power - NiMH rechargeable battery, 2.2 volts

Click to expand...

Surely you mean 2.4V?

oh! my uncle has a BMW with a flashlight like that in the glove compartment..

HAHAHA...... I have a BMW with the same flash light, and I had thought about retrofiting LED's in it. But I haven't gotten around to it yet..

I just found a video online actually of somebody converting one of these lights. They actually took out the old battery, and replaced it with a generic 3.6 volt cordless phone rechargeable battery. I think this may be my best option as this gives me a more ideal voltage and more capacity.

Though where I want to do something different, is the LEDs. This video used three 5mm blue LEDs. I would rather prefer a single 10mm white LED if I can find one.

Pellidon said:

Pics? Brand? You may be able to squeeze a Dorcy AAA circuit in with some clever work with a soldering iron.

For some reason the hotel wireless ate the pic? Or my PC is mental!

Click to expand...

Picture shows up fine for me. You may want to try a google image search of "BMW Flashlight" and see what comes up. The one I am dealing with is black and rectangular. There is also a white one from older model cars which is electronically the same, just a slightly different connecter that attaches to the car.

Fallingwater said:

Surely you mean 2.4V?

Click to expand...

Yep, my mistake. After more research I found it runs of two 1.2V NiMH coin cell batteries.

The plans thus far...

Getting one of these:


And one of these:


To fit into this light:



Here is the original wiring diagram(not mine):


Here is a diagram of what I'm planning to do(not my diagram either):



So my questions now I should be able to answer on my own, but if anyone feels like saving me the effort or further supporting the answers I will eventually get...
-Is the 1.5K Ohm resistor still ideal for charging the battery and avoiding damage to the LED?
-Is there any benefit to NiCd over NiMH batteries in this sort of situation? NiMH are cheaper and have greater energy density, but will they be damaged from the constant charging or possibly from being left to charge constantly?

If it's a standard scew base size, one of these Screw Base LED bulbs may work for you without any major modifications needed.

DonShock said:

If it's a standard scew base size, one of these Screw Base LED bulbs may work for you without any major modifications needed.

Click to expand...

The problem with that is the voltage of my lamp is only around 2.4 volts at full charge while that light is suggested for 3 volts, but the biggest issue is the price, at $24 + shipping for a bulb. :shakehead

But thanks for the link, I can think of other uses for those bulbs.