Has anyone put an LED in a solitaire?

Is it even possible? SHould I dare take mine apart and try it!!!

It is possible - I build an LED replacement bulb out of two HP high efficiency red LEDS (these are the surface mount, chip LEDs) - then used 3 of the 1/3AAA nicd cells, which take up the same space as the AAA it would normally have, but give you 3.6V. The two chip leds are soldered back to back with leads off them that insert where the normal bulb would have gone.


It does work, and runs for a long time -- of course, it is red, but I haven't seen any white surface mount leds small enough to go through the hole in the solitare. Best part is that it still can be focused and used just like the normal flashight.

There's supposedly a company that makes replacement heads for the solitare to turn it into an LED flashlight - I never could find them so I just made my own.

HTS not to be confused with HDS has some. They were some of my first LED lights, still use them. They are nice and small, but use a A23 12v battery with a resistor. It works and I like the size, I wish CMG would make an infinity in a AAA version. Here is where HTS has them, I would recommend the model GB, the GX$ has a 10mm LED in it and is really narrow, unless you want a really tight beam.
http://rocketads.bizland.com/hts2.htm

Brock

I'm working on one right now. I have a couple hundred 3mm white LEDs at 2000 mcd that fit nicely. I just have to work out the resistor setup for the 12v battery. I'm going to the plastics supply tomorrow for some materials. I let you know how it turns out. Anyone have a better idea for the power supply?

Regarding the AAAA's in a 9V...3 of them taped together have a larger "diameter" than a single AA. I really had to jam it into my single AA flashlight. To get them out I'll need to use pliers. I would expect that it wouldn't work in most AA flashlights.

BTW...The 9V battery I ripped apart was a Duracell Alkaline.

Yes! Lithium aaaa cells cut from a lithium 9 volt battery! (this is based on Mike's post )

I just made two of them. One white 5600mcd and a blue/green LED in the other.
Take a small pair of pliers and pull the reflector out of the head of the light. I tried drilling out the reflector so the LED would fit in it but I liked the look of the light better without it.
Put in a Duracell MN21 12 volt battery and a 1 inch spring between the negative end of the battery and the tail cap cone spring. You can get these little springs from an ACE hardware store.
Now for the fun part. Take a very small file like the kind you buy at an electronics store and file down the little square pieces that stick out on the sides on the LED leads. You have to file the leads down so the LED fits flush against the round black plastic part where you plug it in. There should be no gap at all between the LED and the plastic. Trim the leads of the LED so they are a little longer then the leads on the original bulb. Push it in carefully. The light should light. If not, try the other way. When you screw the flashlight closed the LED presses against the plastic lense and turns the light off. Be carefull, the lense can get loose after removing the reflector. At first I was concerned about the 12 volts on a 4 volt max LED but I don't think that only one of these little 12 volt batteries has enough current to harm it. I have run mine for a while now and no heat build-up yet. I originally wanted to use a resister but there is no where to put it that I could find. I would guess the battery will last about eight hours or so. I got two batteries at Wallmart for $1.77. The light only costs about $7.00. The 5600mcd LED was $1.75 on the net. The spring was .40 cents. This was an easy, fun and inexpensive little project. Also after running for a while the LED gets a little dimmer but after resting the batteries a while it seems to get brighter the next time I use it. The light isn't super bright but it is way better then with the original bulb. It lights up my whole basement with a dim but soft white light plenty good enough to walk around and look in boxes.

Can you check the mA draw with a new battery? I would be curious to know how much you are feeding them with that battery. Is it brighter than the Photon?

Brock

That`s a great idea- and I just tried it myself with my old AAA Solitaire- it works well. I have had a couple of those 12 volt batteries out of an old wireless doorbell, waiting for some other use, and now they have one.

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The LED is an old and slightly injured Nichia 30 degree one I`ve had for a few years now, and is dim compared to the latest models, but still seems to give a better light than the teeny Mag bulb it had before. It`s not quite as yellow as this in reality (though is more yellow than other white LEDs I have) but my video camera`s white balance wasn`t quite right in these pictures.

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It`s nothing spectacular comapred to a white PhotonII but it is a wider beam and older LED. If I had a Nichia 5.6cd LED like the Photons use, I`d put one of them in instead and think it would be brighter than the Photon? The current draw seemed like about 65-70mA but quickly dropped off a bit- I expect due to the battery being partially used. It does get quite warm too, but since it`s an older and partially damaged LED I can`t say how well it`d perform with a new one. I expect it`d be really good, and many times better than the original filament bulb.

......Now where can I get a turquoise LED like the P-IIs use, that`d be really bright I`m sure!

woops, posted it twice! sorry!

Nice work!

I'm thinking you might seriously shorten an LED's life running 12v through it. I'm no expert, but it seems putting more than maybe 5 volts across the LED is counter-productive. Perhaps someone with real expertise can answer that point here for us.

There's a relatively easy way to put a resistor in-line. Just use a short piece of wooden dowel cut to fit inside the case between the battery and one contact.

Trench out one side of the dowel to hold the resistor. Push a thumbtack in one end, pull it back out, stick one shortened lead from the resistor in the hole and put the thumbtack back in. Cut a finishing nail pretty short and use the head on the other end ... do the same thing with the other resistor lead. Glue the resistor in place. I wrapped the dowel in a single sheet of paper to give it a slightly more snug fit in the barrel.

Granted, this is more effort than putting in a spring, but the current limiting resistor will keep the LED from degrading.

I have three issues with the single LED Solitare conversion to overcome:

1) The LED deforms the plastic lens slightly when turning off the light. Not a big deal, but I can't guess the effect over time.

2) As a direct effect from the pressure applied to the LED, after MANY on/off repitions, the torque caused one of the LED leads to break off right at the resin. I now only use CHEAP LED's in the Solitare.

3) Its a fun project, but the Photon or its competition makes a lot more sense for me in real world application.

Of course, if you share the same obsession as many of us who visit this site, 'real world application' doesn't have much bearing on whether or not to do the conversion! When I see a new, conventional flashlight, I immediately start planning how to convert it and most often end up doing it!

What I wish I could create is a flashlight with the Solitare's form factor containing 3 5mm LED's in the lens area (wired in series for 4 volts each) running off a 12v battery & no resistor, while keeping the factory style twist-switch functional. I'm not sure I'm ready to do a custom mold & resin pour to form the part (or that I have the skill in the first place) ... but it would be a very sweet flashlight!

-BTW,
Those little 1/3AAA Nicad batts.
that hmmmv (1/17) refers to, can
be ordered www.goldmine-elec.com (cat.#G9420-pg.22)[#238].
I will be converting my old Mag.
solitaire to a nichia 5600 with
3 of these little rechargeables.
Thanx for the great idea!!
Batteryman

According to my AVO, the LED is getting 6.5 volts accross it which is way over its 3.6 volt rating, however it has been slightly damaged (overload) in the past and now seems quite happy at this higher level and is way too dim at 3.6v. Part of the die inside no longer lights. I have another newer, undamaged white LED, probably one of the "new chip" wider angle Nichias (not a 5.6cd one though), and if I can find it (it`s here somewhere....why`d they have to make`em so small?!) I`ll try it in there and see.
I like your resistor idea- actually I just stretched out the original spring for this initial experiment, plus I had to put a blob of solder on the top of the battery cos it didn`t touch the top contact- the "button" on it is too wide and low.
It`s definately a better idea to have some from of current limiting, apart from anything it`ll extend the battery life cos the total current drain will be less, say 40mA instead of 65-70 (maybe more with a new battery). With that poor injured LED it won`t do much but I`ll experiment as soon as I find the other- let you know the results.

Certainly something a PII is a better light- smaller and brighter, etc, but I agree- it`s a great project for flashaholics and has also transformed an otherwise fairly useless part of my keychain into something much more useful.

Voltage is an issue in LED's but the thing you really want to look at is mA. 65 is high, but some manufactures intentionally push the LED's to that in there products. The new Streamlight Baton is about that on each LED, granted as the batteries die it will drop.

Back to this light, I bet if you put a Nichia 20 degree in the it beat the photon without a problem. So are those batteries the same as an A23? both 12v. hummm. The solitare I have has a resistor shrinkwraped to be the spacer, I have a 56k and a 22k spacer.

Brock

Just found that other LED and fitted it in place of the old one...

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It`s much brighter than the other one and emits a much bluer, slightly purple colour. I believe it`s a NSPW510BS, 50 degree model which is wider than the old damaged one I had, the result is a wide beam that is good for closeup stuff- finding your keyhole, etc. I`m not sure if this actually is the new-chip model since it`s from last year sometime, but it`s OK for me and side by side with a PII, and taking into account the wider beam, it seems about right.

The voltage accross it was about 3.3v and the current started at 40mA and went down to 35 in a few seconds. I think the ex-doorbell battery is on its way out and I`m sure it would have been up near 60-70mA with a fresher one. I`ll have to pick up a new one and experiment with current limiting resistors, etc, but they`re hard to come by in this part of the world, and expensive too so it may be a while. Never mind, it`s still OK for now and I expect it`ll go on working at a reasonable brightness for quite some time too.

I put a white 5600mcd in my first one. It's just as bright as my photon II white now. I converted my Photon II turquoise light by bending and puting in a 5600 white. I then took the turquoise light and unbent it and put it in my other solitaire. Its OK but I like the white one way better. I really don't intend to worry about the resistor yet. I have no problem with a brand new 12 volt battery. If it fries the LED then I'll have to try it though.

I cut a small piece of contractor grade coax cable less then an inch and pulled the guts out of it leaving me with a hollow plastic tube. Then I cut the heads off of two small nails leaving about a quarter inch of the nail from the head. The head was the same diameter as the cable. I took a small pair of needle nose pliers and starting at the end of a 220 ohm resister twisted it around a few time to make a round loop. I stuck it on the nail and soldered it together. Then I bent it around so the nail and remaining length of resister went through the cable case with the head stopping up the end. Then I looped the other end of the resister and soldered it to the other nail. I twisted it just enough to stop up the other end. I was left with a small black tube with the resister in the middle and two nice metal flat ends. I used this in place of the spring I used earlier. The light isn't quite ad bright now but I don't have to worry about blowing the LED either. The little tail cap spring was just enough to make the whole thing fit tight enough to work. If you use to long of resister tube it'll be too tight and won't work right. I used another white 5600 in a AAA Brinkman too. It worked but I like the maglight better.

Well that was a fun little project. I had just gotten some 56's and already had a couple of those little 12volts around. I've had this one solitare for, gosh, over 10 years. It had been placed in my computer toolkit for the last couple of years. I guess it'll get some play now until I get bored of course.

Here is a picture of the solitaire with the resistor tube as described in other post.

Next I will do the AAA Mini Maglight. I will use at least two small 12 volts, maybe three. Three will be really tight but if I drill out the end cap a little I think it'll work. The resistor tube will have to be really short. Two batteries with a long resistor tube would be easier though.