3 volts will it run a white 5 mm led?

i wanna put one in my maglight just wire it straight will that work?

It depends on the individual LED. Some will, some won't, -but none will be very bright.

-Get some 2/3 AA Nicads -3 of 'em will fit in your 2-AA minimag. They will give you a voltage total of 3.6-3.8 and run any white LED very brightly. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Raggie33,

I made my own 2xAA light driving two 5mm LEDs in parallel. Yes, it will work (either direct drive or with some resitance) but isn't very bright.

I would recommend you take vcal's suggestion about the 2/3AA cells to get some better voltage to your LED thus making it brighter.

EDIT: Make sure you get the polairty correct. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Raggie, you have an interesting idea, and I decided to do it just now.

I pulled the incandescent bulb out of my Minimag just enough to be able to touch the leads of my DMM to them and check the polarity. After I had established which side is positive and negative, I took out the bulb and held in a 5mm. I had to hold it a certain way to get it to light up. When it did light up, it wasn't very bright at all. The incandescent bulb was many times brighter. Even though it is a 5mm LED, it wasn't as bright as a 5mm driven even at specs. It was dimmer than the an Arc AAA or CMG Ultra-G.

So it works, but isn't very bright at all.

Raggie, if you haven't seen it already, here's a link to Quickbeam's site, which has a huge list of mods, ranging from simple and cheap to complicated stuff, which have been contributed by various knowledgable CPFers... Think there's enough stuff there to keep anyone busy for a while!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Use Lithium 1.7 volt batteries direct drive and it is about as bright as my Ultra-G.

wwglen.

One version of the Electralumes fishing light uses two white LEDs and two 1.7 volt lithium AA cells. The LEDs are bright, but not overly so.
Somewhere on my website, I have a page about these...ahhh, there it is if you wish to see it.