Suggestions for mod of old Delta Power King lantern

onchiman · Jun 22, 2015

Hi there, I'm a long time visitor but first time poster. I picked up a 1960 vintage Delta Power King lantern at a yard sale over the weekend. It takes two six volt lantern batteries and in series it's a 12 volt lamp. It's in nice shape and works. It has a 9.6 volt screw-base GE 965 bulb and is rather unimpressive as far as output. I'd like to mod this lantern to use a bright led and am looking for some suggestions. The specs are 12 volts (two 6 volt lantern batteries in series), The present bulb draws .5 amp and 4.9 watts. What would be a good led emitter and driver to use with this setup. I like to have a bright lantern with and am thinking it has potential for a long runtime with those two 6 volt batteries. Here's a picture of one like mine

Any thoughts?

bigchelis · Jun 22, 2015

onchiman said:
Hi there, I'm a long time visitor but first time poster. I picked up a 1960 vintage Delta Power King lantern at a yard sale over the weekend. It takes two six volt lantern batteries and in series it's a 12 volt lamp. It's in nice shape and works. It has a 9.6 volt screw-base GE 965 bulb and is rather unimpressive as far as output. I'd like to mod this lantern to use a bright led and am looking for some suggestions. The specs are 12 volts (two 6 volt lantern batteries in series), The present bulb draws .5 amp and 4.9 watts. What would be a good led emitter and driver to use with this setup. I like to have a bright lantern with and am thinking it has potential for a long runtime with those two 6 volt batteries. Here's a picture of one like mine

Any thoughts?

Well, since the Lamps are typically Direct Drive and in your case off 12V input.

Assuming you have some metal heatsink you can Artic Adhesive thermal epoxy any 16mm~20mm LED on there than you can put a XHP70 with 12V board from Mtnelectronics.com. I myself would put a MTG2 9V board in there and the 12V input would overdrive that emitter just perfectly. If you think your stock switch cant take the 5~10A of current than you can get a FET DD Driver from Mtnlectronics too. Those can take the load so your sometimes plastic switches don't melt. The FET DD drivers have 5 modes as a bonus too.

bigC

Timothybil · Jun 22, 2015

Can a 6v lantern battery reliably deliver 5A or more for a reasonable amount of time?

How bright to you want this lantern to be? Just significantly brighter than it is now, or enough to reach out and touch someone? The GE 965 bulb has an E10 base, and there are lots of 12v LED bulbs available, since it appears that the backup lights in most cars use an E10 base. I found one lamp on Amazon the had 5 SMD 5060 emitters, for a total of 210 lumens and 2.5w draw. That seems to be an ideal swap for your current bulb while leaving everything else the same. And yes, at that draw you should enjoy some very good run times.

The next step would be to replace the two 6v lantern batteries with a 12v Sealed Lead Acid Battery for better voltage stability and longer run times. If 200 lumens isn't bright enough, I am sure you can find brighter LED assemblies with an E10 base. I personally would try to stay with the E10 form factor, because that will keep you closer to the original design, and work better with the reflector to produce a good beam pattern.

onchiman · Jun 22, 2015

I'm very impressed with the reflector in this lantern. It's silver plated and with some wright's silver polish it shined up quite nicely. The plastic lens is another story. Pretty thin and cheap. The bulb sits up on a tall socket and there isn't too much clearance between it and the lens so I'm not certain a multi-led e10 base bulb will fit but maybe I can bring the bulb with me to compare.

Timothybil · Jun 22, 2015

If you compare this bulb to a 965, to my eye the led actually looks shorter than the incandescent.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AR79ZF2/?tag=cpf0b6-20

What size lens is on the lamp? You can always check flashlightlens.com to see if they have a replacement.

broadgage · Jun 23, 2015

Timothybil said:
Can a 6v lantern battery reliably deliver 5A or more for a reasonable amount of time?

How bright to you want this lantern to be? Just significantly brighter than it is now, or enough to reach out and touch someone? The GE 965 bulb has an E10 base, and there are lots of 12v LED bulbs available, since it appears that the backup lights in most cars use an E10 base. I found one lamp on Amazon the had 5 SMD 5060 emitters, for a total of 210 lumens and 2.5w draw. That seems to be an ideal swap for your current bulb while leaving everything else the same. And yes, at that draw you should enjoy some very good run times.

The next step would be to replace the two 6v lantern batteries with a 12v Sealed Lead Acid Battery for better voltage stability and longer run times. If 200 lumens isn't bright enough, I am sure you can find brighter LED assemblies with an E10 base. I personally would try to stay with the E10 form factor, because that will keep you closer to the original design, and work better with the reflector to produce a good beam pattern.

No standard type of 6 volt lantern battery can deliver 5 amps for a useful time.
The disposable 6 volt lantern batteries cant deliver 5 amps at a useful voltage, even briefly.
Some rechargeable 6 volt lantern batteries might manage 5 amps for 15 minutes or so.

A home built battery of the same size could contain 4 high capacity nimhi D cells of say 8AH and would deliver 5 amps for over an hour, but at 4.8 volts.

mdk187 · Jun 27, 2015

I use an automotive T-10 LED bulb in my Power-King. A little whittling and modification is required.

Straighten wires, and slide off plastic T-10 base.

Notch the plastic so one lead can exit out the side of the bottom.

Cut threads in the plastic: Use a flat blade screw driver to force the plastic base in to the spare bulb holder inside your Power-King. Just screw it in a little at a time, back up, repeat.

replace base on bulb.

Run the positive wire down the outside over the treads you just cut.
Fold the other wire over in the middle.

Test, if it doesn't work, you've got the wires back to front.

onchiman · Jun 30, 2015

Well I bought a e10 base smd 12 volt bulb from Amazon and it worked dreadfully. Not much output and crazy beam from the reflector. It was worth a shot but I'm beginning to think probably multi emitter with a sla or 18650 battery pack might be the way to go. Now I have to try to find a large multi led reflector 110mm.

Suggestions for mod of old Delta Power King lantern

onchiman

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bigchelis

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Timothybil

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onchiman

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Timothybil

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broadgage

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onchiman

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