6V Streamlight Stinger...

Thanks to the good folks at batterystation.com, I obtained a 5-cell 1/2 SUB-C battery stick, which they assembled and shrinkwrapped for me...I took one layer of shrinkwrap off, and with scavanged pieces from an old Stinger battery stick, assembled a 6V stick that will fit into a standard Stinger body.

So..........I now have an Ultrastinger/Superstinger (depending on head and bulb config.) but w/out the Ultra's length. Output is identical to an Ultra.

The only drawback is runtime. The 1/2 Sub-C's are Sanyo 1300SCR cells (1300MAH). SCR cells are Sanyo's fast charge cells, and can handle large loads without damage (not an issue under flashlight loads). The stock Ultra stick is 1800MAH. I haven't done a complete test, but I'd guess output at around 30 minutes before dimming...

***UPDATE: Runtest revealed 39 minutes of bright light before the batteries dumped...Not bad at all. the light body did get really hot, though.
As for fit, the new stick is a bit longer than a stock Stinger stick, but fit perfectly in a standard Stinger. The StingerXT's tailcap left a small gap between the body and tail cap with the new stick. XT still worked, fine, though.

I have a few pics that I'll put up on my Yahoo pics. site soon...



--dan

Very cool, dan! I'm surprised more people haven't tried this yet. I was thinking of doing something similar by using 2 3.7V Li-Ion battteries. Hopefully the Ultrastinger bulb won't blow from overdriving it to 7.2+ volts.

Question: Is there room inside the Stinger for a battery pack that measures about 5 5/16" (136mm) long?

Thanks!

Well, I tried putting two Pila 3.7V Li-Ion cells into a Stinger body. The Pila cells are too skinny, and aren't long enough. Also, they'd have to be soldered together, with a connection to place both battery terminals on the positive side of the battery.
--dan

[ QUOTE ]
Sproing said:
Question: Is there room inside the Stinger for a battery pack that measures about 5 5/16" (136mm) long?

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe.
The stock battery is 5-1/16" and it pushes in about 1/4".
It might just make it but it will be tight.

dan,

you can use 2 of the 68mm batteries and use a plastic pipe as a spacer to keep the batteries centered. I use this setup in a Mag 2C and it works very well.

Nice pics on your yahoo site btw. I noticed in one pic that you have an SL35X lamp next to a Tigerlight. Have you tried this lamp inside the Tigerlight yet?

GJW,

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

The company Dan mentioned referred me to a company that is going to rebuild a couple of Streamlight Stinger sticks for me as indicated above as a 6 volt. If anyone is interested, let me know and I will post prices, etc.

Another update (also a bump of sorts for those looking for this thread). I've had connection problems using this 6V stick in a Stinger XT...The stick is just a bit too long, and gives unreliable performnce in terms of the XT's switch operating normally. Not a real big deal, but a worthwhile piece of info.

--dan

**EDIT** Okay, I see there is a superstinger, or was. Streamlight doens't list it on their site but I find parts for them searching google.

<font color="purple">Will a superstinger bulb fit in a stinger head??</font>

[ QUOTE ]
JAS said:
The company Dan mentioned referred me to a company that is going to rebuild a couple of Streamlight Stinger sticks for me as indicated above as a 6 volt. If anyone is interested, let me know and I will post prices, etc.

[/ QUOTE ] Prices please. Are they going to build them just like factory so they drop in, no soldering?

bump

They'll put the sticks together, but you (or someone else) has to find the metal rings and flat wire to place the negative terminal around the poritive terminal on the stick.


--dan

I found two discarded Streamlight Stinger battery sticks in the battery bucket at work. I sent them to Pat at

http://www.tnrtechnical.com

I don't have the exact price yet, but I shound know soon.

[ QUOTE ]
JAS said:
I found two discarded Streamlight Stinger battery sticks in the battery bucket at work. I sent them to Pat at

http://www.tnrtechnical.com

I don't have the exact price yet, but I shound know soon.

[/ QUOTE ]How would you charge the 6v stick?

I am planning on just using the wall-wart connected to the charger sleeve that I have used in the past. My reasoning is that the Ultra Stinger battery stick should be electrically similar to the "custom" stick. In fact, the following ratings are plagiarized directly from the www.streamlight.com web-site.

-UltraStinger battery 6 volt

-Stinger/Stinger XT/PolyStinger battery 3.6 volt

So, since the same charger cradle and wall wart can be used with both of these, I don't think this should be an issue.

The rating I get from the wall-wart itself is 13.8 V DC 6.5W. However the cradle I have is marked as follows:

-Stinger Charger Model No. 75100
Input: 12-15VDC .2A
Output: 4.8VDC .18A

I also have the bigger sleeve that I use for my Streamlight SL-20X that has the SL-35X lamp assembly in it. Although I cannot see the ratings on this, it is for the 6V battery in either the SL-20X or SL-35X. And although I can't see the ratings on it, it might also charge at 4.8VDC .18A since it used the same wall-wart or 12V car cord. Does anyone here know for sure what the rating is of that charging sleeve?

I did receive an e-mail from Pat at TNR Technical. He advised that they have made all the needed CAM drawing to send out to their vendors to see if they can get some parts tooled up for the 6V packs. They are going to rebuid two Streamlight Stinger battery packs and they are going to charge $25.00, which includes labor, for each rebuilt battery pack. I already bought 3 UltraStinger bulbs recently from Tri here on the board. So when these packs arrive I should be able to charge them up and give reports to the readers here on their performance.

TKL and the Group. I haven't forget about you guys. I know TKL was asking about the price. I received an e-mail from Pat at TNR Technical today stating that he personally boxed these up. The charge on the credit card was $56.00 for two. I believe the breakdown on that is $25 per pack (times two) plus $6 for shipping via Priority Mail. That is actually considerably more expensive than the replacement Stinger sticks that I have seen as cheap as $15 or $16 that meet original 3.6 volt 1.8 amp hour specifications. I am told that with Priority Mail I could have these in 2-3 days.

Maybe you're better off just finding some high powered Welch-Allyn Bulb, that gives Ultrastringer-level brightness at 3.6 volts, instead of messing with custom made battery packs.

It does sound like a cool idea though, cranking up a Stinger's brightness while still being able to drop it in the standard charger. Think a Polystinger would overheat?

paulr, I think the poly would overheat, though that HP head would absorb a lot of heat. The perfect host is the standard Stinger or XT I run the HP head on my poly stinger with no noticable heat, though that is a 6 watt bulb, as compared to the Ultra 10 watter. I am looking around for a bi-pin that would be brighter than the stock HP bulb, but still run to HP specs.. These Stingers are great flashlights, and have efficient batteries that seldom break down. Stinger bulbs are rated at 3.7 volts.

Bill

Okay folks, both of my custom battery packs arrived yesterday. I swapped the bulb out to an UltraStinger bulb and put the new stick in. It needed charging, of course, so I gave it the long, slow 10+ hours charge. I tried it this morning and it is BRIGHT! I have the second stick charging now. Paulr, do you know of a Welch-Allyn bulb that would work in these? If so, do you have a URL for me and a part number? I might be inclined to sell my UltraStinger now because I can get the UltraStinger brightness in a shorter light. Unless, of course, I can find an UltraStinger modification to make it even brighter.

Welch Allyn's site is www.walamp.com and they have something like a $100 minimum order. There's often a group buy going on because of that, and I think there's one on BST now.

I don't have a specific part number but maybe you can find something by browsing their site. Lemlux is the big WA aficionado around here, and he might know of something, though he hasn't been seen posting in a while. Edit: 01144 and 0112 look promising.

As for Ultrastinger bulbs, that's a 5 cell light, right? There are some monstrous WA bulbs (for example 01160) that people are using in Magchargers, like 20 watts and 600 lumens. I don't know if you can try that in the Ultrastinger though.