Dorcy 1AA LS Mod vs. Other Lil\' Lights
It took me a little while to find all the parts but Thanks to Red Robby's tip that the circuit was in the BODY (and not the head!), it all came together. After I was done I thought I'd compare it to some of the other tiny lights of the same approximate output (well, FORMERLY the same output anyways).
And so the little Dorcy 1AA was transformed from 3-Nichia configuration into Q3J HD Luxeon w/Fraen Low Profile optic configuation, driven with the same (stock) circuit on just a single AA, and it works quite well.
Here it is with seom other lil' tiny lights it will pick on tonight, the Infinity Ultra-G, Dorcy 1AAA/1-Nichia, and Arc AAA but in CNC Dan's really tiny and slim lil' AAAA body:
Here are their beam outputs in the same order:
The Dorcy kinda stomps'em all, doesn't it? Hey, no fair putting a Luxeon against those poor little Nichias. Let's be fair, and put it up against some real competition.
Here it is with a slightly modified Arc LSH-P. Now first of all this was the absolute brightest and whitest Arc LS of any version I had ever handled, and being there is a local Arc dealer right here in Hawaii (but unfortunately for how much longer we don't know), I had a chance to handle Quite a few over the past year. This was already the brighest and whitest, and to top things off this was the one that I also stuck a Fraen Low Profile optic in, and it made 439 lux (not that it matters, but the "different" look of this one was the simple addition of a RAM tailswitch in place of the stock Kroll in the 123 TSP -- and no, it doesn't screw in all the way):
Here's the beam comparison with modified Dorcy on the left:
Whoa, kinda spanks the Dorcy now, doesn't it?
But bullies were made to be avenged, so now I had to trot out my Siamese LGI, which is essentially TWO LGIs conjoined into one homemade aluminum body, using a Mouser 3AA battery pack with integral on-off slide switch, two NX-05 optics held in place with two of those impossible-to-find Lumileds optics collars, yet the whole thing manages to be smaller than a deck of cards:
Beamshots w/Siamese LGI on the left:
And our Avenging Angel now kills the Arc. In fact the Siamese LGI with "only" Batwing Luxeons and "only" NX-05 optics was the first small light I made that broke the 1,000 lux mark. Imagine what it would do with two HD Q3Js and two Fraens transplanted on there...
This is what the internals look like on the Siamese when the cover is slid off to change the three AAs:
But this post is more about the Dorcy mod, so here are some pics of parts needed to get it into its present form.
First the head from the front -- all internals and stock lens/retaining ring were gutted, replaced by the Fraen on top of which there is a new flat lens, all held in place by an o-ring stuffed into the groove already milled around the inside lip of the bezel:
Then a look at the parts that go into the head (note how the new, high-quality flat lens was carefully crafted by yours truly):
A copper disk-and-pcb sandwich was used for the battery anode contact:
And these are the two brass washers and edge-trimmed Star necessary for both heatsinking (probably overkill here given the low output of the stock circuit) as well as to achieve the correct height to mate snugly under the Fraen/lens/o-ring combo above it:
And a final look at the six contestants, all winners in their own right:
Oh yeah, the lux on the Dorcy? Just 148, but with recent informal tests by fellow CPF'ers that reported this circuit was still able to produce light with "dead" batteries that no longer worked in the Arc AAA and other lights known for their frugality, this mod may prove to be the just-right balance between brightness and runtime, and it even has a key loop...
Thanks for reading!
It took me a little while to find all the parts but Thanks to Red Robby's tip that the circuit was in the BODY (and not the head!), it all came together. After I was done I thought I'd compare it to some of the other tiny lights of the same approximate output (well, FORMERLY the same output anyways).
And so the little Dorcy 1AA was transformed from 3-Nichia configuration into Q3J HD Luxeon w/Fraen Low Profile optic configuation, driven with the same (stock) circuit on just a single AA, and it works quite well.
Here it is with seom other lil' tiny lights it will pick on tonight, the Infinity Ultra-G, Dorcy 1AAA/1-Nichia, and Arc AAA but in CNC Dan's really tiny and slim lil' AAAA body:
Here are their beam outputs in the same order:
The Dorcy kinda stomps'em all, doesn't it? Hey, no fair putting a Luxeon against those poor little Nichias. Let's be fair, and put it up against some real competition.
Here it is with a slightly modified Arc LSH-P. Now first of all this was the absolute brightest and whitest Arc LS of any version I had ever handled, and being there is a local Arc dealer right here in Hawaii (but unfortunately for how much longer we don't know), I had a chance to handle Quite a few over the past year. This was already the brighest and whitest, and to top things off this was the one that I also stuck a Fraen Low Profile optic in, and it made 439 lux (not that it matters, but the "different" look of this one was the simple addition of a RAM tailswitch in place of the stock Kroll in the 123 TSP -- and no, it doesn't screw in all the way):
Here's the beam comparison with modified Dorcy on the left:
Whoa, kinda spanks the Dorcy now, doesn't it?
But bullies were made to be avenged, so now I had to trot out my Siamese LGI, which is essentially TWO LGIs conjoined into one homemade aluminum body, using a Mouser 3AA battery pack with integral on-off slide switch, two NX-05 optics held in place with two of those impossible-to-find Lumileds optics collars, yet the whole thing manages to be smaller than a deck of cards:
Beamshots w/Siamese LGI on the left:
And our Avenging Angel now kills the Arc. In fact the Siamese LGI with "only" Batwing Luxeons and "only" NX-05 optics was the first small light I made that broke the 1,000 lux mark. Imagine what it would do with two HD Q3Js and two Fraens transplanted on there...
This is what the internals look like on the Siamese when the cover is slid off to change the three AAs:
But this post is more about the Dorcy mod, so here are some pics of parts needed to get it into its present form.
First the head from the front -- all internals and stock lens/retaining ring were gutted, replaced by the Fraen on top of which there is a new flat lens, all held in place by an o-ring stuffed into the groove already milled around the inside lip of the bezel:
Then a look at the parts that go into the head (note how the new, high-quality flat lens was carefully crafted by yours truly):
A copper disk-and-pcb sandwich was used for the battery anode contact:
And these are the two brass washers and edge-trimmed Star necessary for both heatsinking (probably overkill here given the low output of the stock circuit) as well as to achieve the correct height to mate snugly under the Fraen/lens/o-ring combo above it:
And a final look at the six contestants, all winners in their own right:
Oh yeah, the lux on the Dorcy? Just 148, but with recent informal tests by fellow CPF'ers that reported this circuit was still able to produce light with "dead" batteries that no longer worked in the Arc AAA and other lights known for their frugality, this mod may prove to be the just-right balance between brightness and runtime, and it even has a key loop...
Thanks for reading!
