5mm LED Light to burn up those near dead 123's

Hey everyone,

I've got a couple dozen 123 batts removed from Hi-power lights because they were nearly depleted.

To squeeze the very last bit of juice from them I'm looking for a 5mm LED light powered by only one(1) 123 cell.

Right now I'm using an old Streamlight Twin-Task single 123.

I asked Peak if they made something that had a few (1 to 3) yellow or amber 5mm LEDs powered off a single 123 cell. IIRC they mentioned that they had not found an Amber LED that met their requirements (?)

Why amber or yellow color LED's?

I figure the lower Vf would squeeze the last of any juice from these 123's and it seems to performs with less color issues than a red led.

Suggestions?

I use my red or amber glo toob lithium for this task. better options out there, but meh

Why not just throw away the depleted CR123s? What is the point of draining them completely?

Knuckles said:

Why not just throw away the depleted CR123s? What is the point of draining them completely?

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Because they will often power my bedside light for 5-10 minutes a night for two months or more before they are dead-dead and it's wasteful to thrown them out when they have 20% left.

ETA:
This is an old habit when I first got my Surefire M6 (2001?) I was paying nearly $5 per SF123 and the M6 was burning up close to $30 worth of batteries for a hour of runtime. There is a noticeble drop as they get close to the end. Running an Incandescent at a low voltage is not good for the lamp. So they would be removed and replaced with fresh batts.

I used to use a couple of the old bowling pin lights to drain CR123s. Then I got a red Inova X5 and that is THE light for draining single 123s.

Like you said, after my old Streamlight TL-2 LED wouldn't turn on, I'm guessing the cells would power low drain lights for another 30 or 40 hours.

I think I actually had an old brass Peak LED light that had three amber LEDs. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure they made SOME amber LED lights. But mine was 1xAAA.

Check out this thread.

Another option is try to find a Peak McKinley.

cratz2 said:

I used to use a couple of the old bowling pin lights to drain CR123s. Then I got a red Inova X5 and that is THE light for draining single 123s.

Like you said, after my old Streamlight TL-2 LED wouldn't turn on, I'm guessing the cells would power low drain lights for another 30 or 40 hours.

I think I actually had an old brass Peak LED light that had three amber LEDs. I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure they made SOME amber LED lights. But mine was 1xAAA.

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Yep I've got a Peak powered off 1 AAA and uses 3 red leds, nice light but frankly the Amber or a yellow color would be more useful to me than the red, that's why I approached Peak a few years ago.

I've pulled out all my lights and I'm inventorying them. So far I've over $1600 worth of lights, Surefire being the majority with several E2e's, C3, and and E2W new unused in box. I need to get rid of some stuff.

jabe1 said:

Check out this thread.

Another option is try to find a Peak McKinley.

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Good thread thank you Jabe1

KNUCKLE, that thread will explain things.

Double_A said:

Good thread thank you Jabe1

KNUCKLE, that thread will explain things.

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Let me know if you need me to put pic's back up for ya Double-A, and Welcome to CPF!

angelofwar said:

Let me know if you need me to put pic's back up for ya Double-A, and Welcome to CPF!

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Naw no pics needed I've moded my share of lights and should have thought of this sooner! I know I've seen a thread here on modding burnt out E series incandescent lamps.

I've got a E1e with an early KL1 head on it, no the KL1 won't get touched .... but I'm gonna look at the incandescent lamp & head for it. If it doesn't look like I can do a clean job with those lamps, the P60 in my seldom used G2 will get a hard stare.

Thanks for the welcome back! Good to see lots of old faces here.