9 led (3xAAA) D26 mod

My girlfriend bought me a little 3xAAA 9 led light as a souvenir from a trip she took recently. I really like the size of the light but the output from the 9 5mm leds leaves something to be desired. After some looking, it turns out that DX sells a light that is almost identical (SKU#46) for $2.95. Looking at the one she gave me, I noticed that a D26 module would almost fit in place of the 9 led module, so I ordered one of the lights and a 3 mode R2 drop-in (SKU#17593) to play with. After shortening the reflector enough to completely remove the belled area, the drop-in fit great length wise. In order to hold the module centered in the head, I used an o-ring in the groove around the outside of the reflector. The rest of the gap from the o-ring back is packed with foil to aid in heat transfer and electrical contact and everything is held in place by the original retaining ring.

It turned out to be a cheap, fun, and easily accomplished mod with good results and since it's built around a D26 module, there are plenty of options.
I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

Tony

EDIT: Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyz2897/

EDIT#2: I did some testing and it looks like this drop-in might not be the best one for this project if you're looking for a really bright high. I tried 3xAAA alkaline, 3xAAA lithium, and 1x18650 and I never saw current at the tail go above 400ma. The pill from the single mode will pull 800ma from a new set of lithium AAAs, 900ma from a new set of alkalines (I expect this would fall off quickly) and about 500ma from a partially depleted set of alkalines. The single mode pill on the lithiums or the fresh alkalines is a good 35%+ brighter than the 0-100% ramping pill. Looks like a driver swap might be in order.

EDIT#3: Ordered a new driver (DX SKU#15880). This one should provide more current for a brighter "high" when compared to the 0-100% ramping driver that came with the module. It should also allow the light to be used with a single 1.2v/1.5v cell at reduced output adding some flexibility in battery selection (single AA/AAA with a sleeve, smaller subC cells, etc). I'll update when the driver ships and I get it installed.

damn! you were faster than me...I got one with a yellow plastic body that reminescences of the G2 (baught from a Greek store)

I will install a P60 xenon module moded with a blinking 5mm LED...but it requires more work thn yours...

Hey, that's awesome Tony. How did you shorten the reflector?

I modified a Lyckeby (as they used to be called) by putting in a Cree 8° optic and XR-E with an AMC7135 driver. The optic holder just needed a little bit of cardboard around the edge to hold it centred.

kosPap said:

damn! you were faster than me...I got one with a yellow plastic body that reminescences of the G2 (baught from a Greek store)

I will install a P60 xenon module moded with a blinking 5mm LED...but it requires more work thn yours...

Click to expand...

I'm interested to see the results! Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, did you ever find the sku# to the TIR optic from the Solarforce thread? Sometime in the future I'd like to build another one of these and try using that optic instead of the reflector.

TorchBoy said:

Hey, that's awesome Tony. How did you shorten the reflector?

I modified a Lyckeby (as they used to be called) by putting in a Cree 8° optic and XR-E with an AMC7135 driver. The optic holder just needed a little bit of cardboard around the edge to hold it centred.

Click to expand...

To shorten the reflector, I used a triangle file to cut around it where the belled area meets the straight section. The resulting cut was a little jagged so I worked it across a flat file laying on the bench to true the edge and remove burrs. I probably should have stepped down from the file to some fine grit sand paper to put a nice finish on the edge but I got impatient.

I like the idea of using an optic and will probably give that a try on the next one. The optic that Kostas mentions in the Solarforce thread looks like it might be perfect for this.

Here are the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyz2897/
Sorry about the quality. My good camera is lost in the house somewhere so I took these with a webcam.

Tony

I am normally not cool on 3AAA led lights nor the 5mm LEDs they typically come with but I saw one at sears that caught my eye. a right angle version plastic neon colors with 9 5mm LEDs. Would be cool to have one that was a cree or K2 or something instead so I could use nimh without frying the LEDs

Lynx_Arc said:

I am normally not cool on 3AAA led lights nor the 5mm LEDs they typically come with but I saw one at sears that caught my eye. a right angle version plastic neon colors with 9 5mm LEDs. Would be cool to have one that was a cree or K2 or something instead so I could use nimh without frying the LEDs

Click to expand...

Got a link? It probably wouldn't be hard to make it happen. Heatsinking would be my only concern with a plastic body but probably not an issue if power is kept reasonable.

I wasn't big on the idea of a 3xAAA light either but I really like the size of these. It's also nice to finally have a LED light that takes batteries I can replace at any gas station/convenience store and not have to worry about remembering spare cells and a charger.

Tony Hanna said:

It's also nice to finally have a LED light that takes batteries I can replace at any gas station/convenience store and not have to worry about remembering spare cells and a charger.

Click to expand...

You don't have a single LED light that runs on 1xAA or 1xAAA?

Get yourself one of these 1xAA wonder-lights (Quark, LF5XT, JetBeam, D10, whatever) as a backup light and you'll never worry about not finding batteries at a gas station/convenience store again.

If 4sevens would sell a 1xD tube for the Quarks, I'd buy it in a heartbeat (and a battery upsizer for C cells) just to make my backup light that much more flexible to power. I don't care how ugly it might be.

--flatline

Tony Hanna said:

Got a link? It probably wouldn't be hard to make it happen. Heatsinking would be my only concern with a plastic body but probably not an issue if power is kept reasonable.

I wasn't big on the idea of a 3xAAA light either but I really like the size of these. It's also nice to finally have a LED light that takes batteries I can replace at any gas station/convenience store and not have to worry about remembering spare cells and a charger.

Click to expand...

I have several of these cheap 3AA luxeon lights that are plastic with an aluminum disc heatsink for the LED star in them that are fine. I have a few 3AAA luxeons but none are right angle ones you can stand on end and point at something. The main reason I don't like 3AAA based lights is the stupid annoying cartridge design of most of them. I have one light that doesn't use a cartridge that I like the design but the quality of the light is very dismal.

I've done one of the 9 LED mod a while back, required a bit more work as I put a heatsink & Q5 in it, mated with a short TIR optics.

It's the one in the middle, it became an adopted member into the lime Mag family.

I bought one of these 9-LED 3xAAA in the hopes that it would fit a C cell and a boost driver...but it didn't (slightly too narrow :sigh. I do like the form factor, though. It's a comfortable size and weight to hold in your hand.

I wish someone would make a 1xC or 1xD light.

--flatline

flatline said:

I bought one of these 9-LED 3xAAA in the hopes that it would fit a C cell and a boost driver...but it didn't (slightly too narrow :sigh. I do like the form factor, though. It's a comfortable size and weight to hold in your hand.

I wish someone would make a 1xC or 1xD light.

--flatline

Click to expand...

I have seen cutdown 1D mag lights that people usually put battery holders in for 3 or 4AAs but you could put 1D in them. I don't see an advantage of a 1D led light other than the energizer lanterns that drive 1 5mm light for 100 hours I would rather have 3AAs in the same size light. I have a 4AA light that is like a 1D size that is nice I got to convert to LED but never figured out how I want to do it.

Lynx_Arc said:

I don't see an advantage of a 1D led light

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The advantage of a 1D light is that with the proper battery upsizers, you can power it with D, C, AA, and, current demand permitting, AAA cells. When talking about lights stashed away for emergencies, this is a huge advantage. Not so much for EDC.

But after seeing what can be done with a buck driver and a single alkaline cell (like my Quark AA, LF5XT, LF2XT, or ITP AAA), and looking at the pile of half spent C and D cells in my battery drawer (which still have more capacity than a fresh AA or AAA cell), I know that there's no technical reason why I couldn't have a 1D light with the capabilities of one of the AA or AAA wonder-lights. It's just that a 1D light isn't sexy the way a AA or AAA light is.

At least, that's how it looks to me. :sigh:

--flatline

flatline said:

The advantage of a 1D light is that with the proper battery upsizers, you can power it with D, C, AA, and, current demand permitting, AAA cells. When talking about lights stashed away for emergencies, this is a huge advantage. Not so much for EDC.

But after seeing what can be done with a buck driver and a single alkaline cell (like my Quark AA, LF5XT, LF2XT, or ITP AAA), and looking at the pile of half spent C and D cells in my battery drawer (which still have more capacity than a fresh AA or AAA cell), I know that there's no technical reason why I couldn't have a 1D light with the capabilities of one of the AA or AAA wonder-lights. It's just that a 1D light isn't sexy the way a AA or AAA light is.

At least, that's how it looks to me. :sigh:

--flatline

Click to expand...

I took a maglight 2-6 cell dropin and clipped it on a D cell and used it as a long running light. I have a half dozen energizer 1D lanterns and they are too dim and run too long for the short outages here. when we had a 4 day outage I found myself using a CCFL lantern instead and recharging AAs in a car and that was for 4 days.

flatline said:

I bought one of these 9-LED 3xAAA in the hopes that it would fit a C cell and a boost driver...but it didn't (slightly too narrow :sigh. I do like the form factor, though. It's a comfortable size and weight to hold in your hand.

I wish someone would make a 1xC or 1xD light.

--flatline

Click to expand...

See post 35 onwards here so there may be a 1C and 1D on it's way.

I really would like a 1C with a P60 dropin.

Excellent news. Thanks, Essexman!

A 1xD body with a .8-4.2v dropin would be just fine

Hey, this is a great idea!

I have a friend (a budding flashaholic) who has two of these (one having a flaky 5mm LED), I've never really modded a light before, but I think this will be my initial foray. Thanks for posting!


Edit: I've got one of those 3.6-7.4v el-cheapo 'R2' modules that I'm going to use on this, I know that it doesn't operate at all below ~3.0v. How well does your 'R2' run with those little 3xAAA holders on 3xAlkaline vs 3xNiMH?

Thx,
K

Kestrel said:

Hey, this is a great idea!

I have a friend (a budding flashaholic) who has two of these (one having a flaky 5mm LED), I've never really modded a light before, but I think this will be my initial foray. Thanks for posting!


Edit: I've got one of those 3.6-7.4v el-cheapo 'R2' modules that I'm going to use on this, I know that it doesn't operate at all below ~3.0v. How well does your 'R2' run with those little 3xAAA holders on 3xAlkaline vs 3xNiMH?

Thx,
K

Click to expand...

I haven't tried anything but alkalines yet. With 3 Enercell brand alkalines it looks to me to be about 65-70% as bright in a ceiling bounce test as a single mode "Superbright" R2 running on a single 18650. I can't speak to battery life other than to say that I've used it quite a bit and it's still running on the same set that I put in initially.

I would think that by the time it gets down to 3.0 volts and refuses to start, it would be down to around 1.0v/cell which is pretty well dead for an alkaline anyway right?

I'm really curious to see how it does with a set of lithium primary AAAs. I'm hoping the higher voltage/better current handling will make a noticeable difference on high. If it does, I'll probably keep a set in it but it's nice to know it will do ok on alkalines too.

flatline said:

I bought one of these 9-LED 3xAAA in the hopes that it would fit a C cell and a boost driver...but it didn't (slightly too narrow :sigh. I do like the form factor, though. It's a comfortable size and weight to hold in your hand.

I wish someone would make a 1xC or 1xD light.

--flatline

Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, have you tried a subC nimh or nicd in yours? I'm looking into driver swaps now and I've run across a couple buck/boost drivers that would allow some real flexibility in battery choice. Just looking at it, I think you could get 1xAA/AAA with a sleeve, 1xCR/RCR123 with a sleeve+spacer, 1xSubC, 2x1/2SubC (length permitting), and probably some others in addition to the original 3xAAA.:thumbsup:

Tony Hanna said:

Out of curiosity, have you tried a subC nimh or nicd in yours? I'm looking into driver swaps now and I've run across a couple buck/boost drivers that would allow some real flexibility in battery choice. Just looking at it, I think you could get 1xAA/AAA with a sleeve, 1xCR/RCR123 with a sleeve+spacer, 1xSubC, 2x1/2SubC (length permitting), and probably some others in addition to the original 3xAAA.:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

SubC cells are the same diameter as C cells and usually rechargables are slightly larger in diameter than primaries.

Lynx_Arc said:

SubC cells are the same diameter as C cells and usually rechargables are slightly larger in diameter than primaries.

Click to expand...

The SubC's I'm looking at are listed as being 23mm in diameter. Aren't alkaline C cells closer to 26mm?