First post, question on battery conversion.

Long term flashlight enthusiast with a problem according to my family.

I do not think I have ever thrown one out

I have done a few searches and not found my answer.

Question is, has anyone converted a (3) AAA light to a (1) AA light?

I own an old (4) color Coast TAC Torch. It has the (3) AAA carrier in it and still works fine.

My BoB is setup around AA and I have a collection of Enelopes going to support it.

I would like to use this light as well however feeding it AAA or taking that into account has put me off of using it.

The thought of creating a carrier and wiring it up came to mind. Not sure if this old light is direct drive. It appears to be so unless they put something in the pill 5 years ago that I can't see.

I planned on testing my theory with solder and prayers however asking here first seemed prudent.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Just about all 3xAAA lights are direct drive, so you would need to add a driver to use 1xAA.

A more common solution for 3xAAA lights is to use 1x18500 instead, but that doesn't solve your AA request.

However, you might just be better off to give it away to someone else and move onto better lights.

You might be able to fit a Li-ion C cell.

I share Marduke's opinion that you're better off trading it in for a better light. :shrug:

I suppose the light just holds some sentimental value for me.

Recently I bought a D10 as my first newer gen light.

I am sure that there are better lights out there, making this one work would be fun though.

For the 18500 how long would that last with these 5mm LEDs?

If the run time is worth it and I can do the rechargeables then it might be ok.

The colored LEDs is all I am really interested in mainly.

theoretical values with no scientific data whatsoever ....


that light (4 color Coast) has 6 led.
lets - to ease it up - say each of the led runs with the voltage of the Li-Ion 18500 cell,
lets also say, each led gets just 20 mA (the usual value for 5mm)

all led together: 120 mA
18500 cell = 1500 mA
makes roughly 12 hours runtime when all the led are powered up

or, maybe better:
Your AAAs, when rechargeables, might hold something like 700 mA, so double the runtime as is now, with the Li-Ion
(with the bonus, that the Li-Ion has pretty no self discharge)