Home Depot special... worth modding?

Got this light in a bundle of lights at a decent price at Home Depot awhile back. The LEDs in it are a joke. It works decent in a closed room when it's dark... anything more than a few feet in front of you and you're better off using just your eyes with no light. I was curious to know if there would be any worthwhile mods to do to make it a more usable light... the size is fairly decent so it could be a host for something? It's slightly longer than an iPhone...

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt352/publicarms/securedownload2.jpg

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt352/publicarms/securedownload1.jpg

This is what the backside of the lens cap looks like
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt352/publicarms/securedownload.jpg


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Any thoughts as to what could be done to change this set up into something usable? Besides it being a paper weight...

in my opinion it looks like it's the perfect size (for modding and for carrying). do you have any measurements?

p.s.: welcome to CPF!

I'm playing with somehting much like that right now that I am going to put an XM-L and a 7135 based driver in and run it from 3 AAA NiMH batteries (no reflector). Not sure how well it will turn out so I can't recomend it one way or the other yet.

I'd say the first 3 things to think about are what kind of batteries you want to use, what you'll use for a heat sink/LED mount, and how much money you want to put into this. Then you can get into what LED to use, how hard to run the led, and what reflector/optic.

I think some people might tell you that for the amount of money you'd spend on this project you could buy an off the shelf light that would work just as well or better; and that is something to consider.

edit:
So if it is 'worth' it or not is really up to you as to if you'll have fun doing it and having a light thats different that you 'made' relative to the cost and effort. From a purly finacial stand point I would think it is unlikly to be cost effective, but I could be wrong

A 7135 based driver is also what I'd go with. I like the cheap lights that use that particular battery holder. It's only a couple of millimeters longer than a button top 18500, so you can swap between that and three AAA NiMH cells. They both have about the same voltage hot off the charger.

Then maybe get an XP-G on a ~20mm star with a reflector and call it good.

If the head is too shallow for a reflector, try a TIR optic instead.

With the head off, it's 4" long and the inside diameter is 14/16 of an inch.

What kind of light throw could I get from a setup like Mike S is suggesting? I don't mind dabbling and having a DIY project, but if it'd cost near the same to buy an off the shelf one for similar results...then that makes more sense. Going to do some looking up of parts until more people can respond.

As for Yaz's comment on batteries... doesn't matter to me. Just trying to figure out the cheapest/best way to make this light usable.

350 to 700 mA linear driver: $2 - $3
LED: $5 - $8
Lens/Reflector: $2 - $10
18500: $5 - $12
Li-ion charger: $8 - $25 or more

If you haven't already started using li-ion cells, then I would just skip the 18500.

I don't think it worth putting much into; Better to start with a solid shell & reliable switch for the body. ...then there is the 3AAA. Ok if you are using rechargeable.

My suggestion if you just want to get your feet wet with modding, get some bare 7135 chips from Illumination Supply, and maybe one of those nice 92CRI Nichia 219 leds, and make it into a no reflector 'mule light'. These can be very useful for many tasks if you haven't tried them.

The single 7135 will run 350mA (or you can get the 380mA version), so that's about 2 hours on the AAA Eneloops. The Nichia will put out just over 100 lumen at this current.

I have several old 3AA lights (solid tube, twist head switch) that had 4 sickly purple 5mm LED's. Amazing the circuit board just happened to have pads placed where I was able to solder the 7135 directly for a clean install. I put these together primarily for power outage, but are quite handy for other household use as well.

You will have to come up with a heat sink to put the LED on, but if you are not driving over 380mA, shouldn't need too much there.

55 cent driver, $7.50 LED, and you can salvage the LED if the flashlight ever gives up.

Much of the parts of that flashlight look the same as the HF free 9 LED lights, same battery carrier and LED board it looks like to me. Makes me wonder why this one is so much longer, empty space?