mdocod
Flashaholic
Hello fellow CPFers!
As many of you know while I keep up on some of the trends in LED lights, I spend a lot of time in the world of incans so don't have time to keep up on every new light or all the offerings out there in the LED world. I have a special application that is pretty strange, I might end up having to build or modify something so any and all suggestions are welcome to achieve this goal:
For Halloween I purchased 70+ Rayovac 2AA "value-bright" incan flashlights to pass out for people to use during a treasure hunt / scavenger hunt style activity. Each light came with 2 zinc chloride AA cells (worthless for that application as they only last about 20 minutes of useful light at that drain rate). I purchased a box of 144 duracell alks to load them up with so they would last long enough to be worthwhile.
As it would turn out, the hunt didn't take as long as expected, and less people shows up than expected, so only a fraction of the flashlights were even used, and those that were were probably drained less than 50% on average. So now I have almost 300 primary cells, half zinc chloride (new) and half alks (some partially used). For next years party, I'll probably want to buy a fresh box of alkaline cells for all of those lights, so I'm going to be sitting on a lot of primary cells that I'd like to find a useful way to use up.
This many perfectly functional cells comes across to me as a good emergency stash so I'd like to have a light source that can take advantage of these cells:
Sorry about the long winded introduction there.. On to the requirements:
-------
If Dorcy made a 1AA version of their popular little 1AAA keychain LED light that would be almost perfect. One of the options on the table is to just take and "gut" the LED and electronics from one of my old dorcy keychain lights, and slap it in a cheapo 1AA host (alternatively, I think I have a busted LM301 laying around that I could use as the host). So that kind of gives an idea of what I'm thinking along the lines of...
Suggestions/Thoughts?
Thank You,
-Eric
As many of you know while I keep up on some of the trends in LED lights, I spend a lot of time in the world of incans so don't have time to keep up on every new light or all the offerings out there in the LED world. I have a special application that is pretty strange, I might end up having to build or modify something so any and all suggestions are welcome to achieve this goal:
For Halloween I purchased 70+ Rayovac 2AA "value-bright" incan flashlights to pass out for people to use during a treasure hunt / scavenger hunt style activity. Each light came with 2 zinc chloride AA cells (worthless for that application as they only last about 20 minutes of useful light at that drain rate). I purchased a box of 144 duracell alks to load them up with so they would last long enough to be worthwhile.
As it would turn out, the hunt didn't take as long as expected, and less people shows up than expected, so only a fraction of the flashlights were even used, and those that were were probably drained less than 50% on average. So now I have almost 300 primary cells, half zinc chloride (new) and half alks (some partially used). For next years party, I'll probably want to buy a fresh box of alkaline cells for all of those lights, so I'm going to be sitting on a lot of primary cells that I'd like to find a useful way to use up.
This many perfectly functional cells comes across to me as a good emergency stash so I'd like to have a light source that can take advantage of these cells:
Sorry about the long winded introduction there.. On to the requirements:
-------
- AA powered, would prefer 1-2 cell format if possible.
- hand-held or headlamp or lantern or Christmas light string.. whatever
- Good efficiency LED (cree/soul/rebel/nichia (S?) whatever), 5mm or high "power" type.
- Maximum output in step with a maximum reasonable drain rate for the zinc chloride cells. Ideally not to exceed ~100mA drain rate on the cells. So maximum output should be limited to ~10 lumens per cell in use. However, provided it's efficient, I'm not actually after any substantial lumens here, a 1 lumen light would be perfectly acceptable if it makes good use of the cells in an emergency.
- decent regulation regardless of the lousy discharge characteristics of alk/zinc cells.
- Single or Multi-Mode is fine, I'd prefer the light not to have access to any high modes that would exceed ~100mA drain rate on the cell/cells.
- Material: aluminum, plastic, reconstituted institutional-use-only food substitute, stainless steel, marble, brass, cheese wiz, take your pick.
- Price: up to $40, *maybe* more, any more would be a hard sell for a light that I intend to use with junk cells that could leak. Ideally far less than that.
If Dorcy made a 1AA version of their popular little 1AAA keychain LED light that would be almost perfect. One of the options on the table is to just take and "gut" the LED and electronics from one of my old dorcy keychain lights, and slap it in a cheapo 1AA host (alternatively, I think I have a busted LM301 laying around that I could use as the host). So that kind of gives an idea of what I'm thinking along the lines of...
Suggestions/Thoughts?
Thank You,
-Eric
