Looking for a solution to woweful Fire Fighter torches...

Hi Guys. I'm a firefighter in the UK, looking for a better solution than currently available to us..

We're personally issued with the following torches http://www.wolf-safety.co.uk/torches/atex_torch/ (the 90 degree head, fillament bulb version)

To be honest, they're poor, you always find yourself taking the rechargable box lamps from the appliance if you want anything half decent, personal torches never get used..

I've purchased a second torch so i can start modifying.

My plans we're to convert from 2D cells, to either 6 AA Ni-Mh or 2 Li-Ion batteries. I was going to see if i can completely remove the reflector assembly and replace with a new reflector and high power LED.

What's people's thoughts / suggestions? I'm open to ideas

** I wrote this about 3 hours ago and sods law got a callout before i could hit send lol.

Thanks

There's no way to know how your modifications could alter the safety rating of your light; I'd just replace it with a better safety-rated light, like the Streamlight Survivor.

Hi, Thanks for that...

I'd prefer to modify a current issue torch so it visually looks the same, i think questions may be asked if it looks different to everyone elses torches...

To be honest, we carry Ex torches, but the radios we use aren't safe for gaseous environments and my current torch has a crack in the battery housing anyway.

Thanks for your input..

Sadly its a plastic torch so you wont be able to have a real high power light. I think around 2 watts is the max in a plastic body without active cooling and venting holes.

The best would be to simply replace the bulb with a brighter one.

Fair enough; if your light uses the standard PR-based bulb, as found in Maglites, you can swap it out with a TerraLux Ministar and it will match the output of the aforementioned Streamlight, without changing the battery config.

Very good suggestion from star halo there, should quadruple the output and give you the same run time.only one thing if your a fire man you would be better off with a neutral or warm tinted light as these penetrate smoke better, and for me I would be looking at a zebra light or something else with a 45 degree head instead of wasting your cash on upgrading your stock issue, they issue us 2aa mags! Needless to day they get binned!

Wolf do make an led version that looks almost identical to your current torch (minus the crack in the battery housing!). It might be possible to swap out the stock led for a neutral/warmer tint as Vickers suggested...

It amazes me that you firefighters dont get better torches as standard :shakehead

I've gone a bit overkill and gone with this:

Terralux TTS-3WCREE

I've got 2 li-ion cells coming to run it on.

It wont be used for extended periods so i think heat shouldn't be too bad..

We'll see, i'll post up pics when it all arrives..

Odds are not very good that will run well in a plastic light, especially not with 8+ volts blasting through it. But I suppose there's something ironic about a firefighter melting his flashlight..

It will not overheat but it will turn down the power after a while.

I'm going to fix a temperature strip inside the unit to check max temps..

There's plenty of room in the head of the torch, i may turn up a heatsink on the lathe to aid temps a bit.

If it does struggle i'll go down to 1 watt and consider it a lesson learnt

The_bad_Frag said:

Sadly its a plastic torch so you wont be able to have a real high power light. I think around 2 watts is the max in a plastic body without active cooling and venting holes.

The best would be to simply replace the bulb with a brighter one.

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Not necessarily, it can be done, it just depends how much effort you want to put into modding a plastic flashlight. I recently modded a similar light (A $5.00 black and yellow Rayovac straight body flashlight) with an XM-L and a 8 X AMC7135 driver. It is powered with a single 26650 and, of course required fabricating a custom heat sink. The stock switch is not used so a Judco switch on the tail cap had to be added. I replaced the stock reflector with a mag rebel reflector and the beam shots look the same as any mag mod with a rebel reflector. It is a nice "Sleeper" light that I can leave in plain sight in my car without concern that some one will break in and steal it, because even to a non-flashaholic my beat-up looking plastic light screams cheap (Undesirable).

And your cheap plastic light has some new developed heat conducting plastic or what? How do you get the heat to the outside? Even if you would put 2kg or copper inside as a heatsink it still would overheat. If you make a heatsink heavier it only makes the time longer until it overheats. I also have a XM-L + 8x7135 light and after an hour the first half of the thick aluminum body is about 40-50°C. No way that this ever suvives inside a plastic case.

The_bad_Frag said:

And your cheap plastic light has some new developed heat conducting plastic or what? How do you get the heat to the outside? Even if you would put 2kg or copper inside as a heatsink it still would overheat. If you make a heatsink heavier it only makes the time longer until it overheats. I also have a XM-L + 8x7135 light and after an hour the first half of the thick aluminum body is about 40-50°C. No way that this ever suvives inside a plastic case.

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Of course not, anyone who can solve that problem should be working at NASA! This light was designed to be unobtrusive, not torture tested. I have no need to run any of my XM-L lights on high for an hour, let alone the one with the weakest (Practically non-existent) heat transfer capabilities. Low and medium are more than adequate for my needs. I would not suggest to the OP to try this for a work light, as he would need a light capable of being on for an hour. I was simply saying it can work under the right circumstances (Lower power, shorter run times)

Yeah under the right circumstances it is possible. You have different needs for a flashlight than I have. My homemade flashlights need to be save against user mistakes. There is no way that I can insure that I will never forget to watch my flashlight temprature. Most times you dont "light up things" as a task but you do other things in the dark with the help of your flashlight.

You maybe should think about that. You use a lithium battery inside the same plastic tube as a unprotected electric circuit that generates a lot of heat. 1 mistake can end badly. I dont want to blame you but just make you think about.

You use a lithium battery inside the same plastic tube as a unprotected electric circuit that generates a lot of heat.

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I definitely share your concerns with lithium batteries bad frag. Safety must come first . This flashlight also accepts AA eneloops or primaries. The 26650 LiMnNiCo cell does make the driver run more efficiently though.
By the way, great job on your triple neutral XM-L! The build log, pictures and beam shots are fantastic.

I'm going to fix a temperature strip inside the unit to check max temps..

There's plenty of room in the head of the torch, i may turn up a heatsink on the lathe to aid temps a bit.

If it does struggle i'll go down to 1 watt and consider it a lesson learnt

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Can't wait to see how it turns out krazykev. You have a lathe!?! Nice!!!

krazykev said:

I'd prefer to modify a current issue torch so it visually looks the same, i think questions may be asked if it looks different to everyone elses torches...

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Hi krazykev, welcome to CPF if you haven't gotten a :wave: yet.

For folks wanting to maintain a similar appearance, the standard approach has been an incan ROP (3854-H or -L) mod, using either a 6xAA (NiMH) battery carrier or 2x18650 (LiCo) instead of the stock 2xD setup. I couldn't be certain if you had ruled out incandescent setups, but the ROP is a natural to keep appearances the same.

Furthermore, assuming that light utilizes a PR-base bulb, it's about the easiest mod out there.

Got the drop-in Cree upgrade, really impressed with the results.

I have a question about the batteries.. They're labelled as UltraFire BRC 32600 4000mAh 3.0V li-ion.

I've done some reading and now realise they probably weren't the best option, but I've paid for them and they're here now so I'll have to make do for the moment.

I have access to a current and voltage regulated power supply and will be using that for charging.

Am i right in thinking that i can charge them up to 3.6v and then constant voltage from that point?

Been searching the net but there's nothing really specific about these cells..

Thanks

Glad to hear the Terralux is is a good fix for your work light krazykev. I'll bet your fellow firefighters are wondering if their flashlights are defective after

seeing yours! By the way, if you don't get any responses to you battery questions after a day or two, you might want to post a query in the "Flashlight

electronics - Batteries included" section. Cheers!

krazykev said:

I have access to a current and voltage regulated power supply and will be using that for charging.

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Get a chrager for li-ions! Your power supply will not stop charging when the cell is full and maybe blow up the cells!