New Aluminum Brinkmanns (2)

I have searched and found no mention of these so am I first? My local Galyans sporting goods store had two new Brinkmann LED lights. Both are aluminum! One is a 2D Mag clone (with slightly larger diameter head and very stiff switch) that has three lensed LED's. The second is a single LED AAA that looks like someone JB welded a 2AA Mag head on a Solitaire body /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Imagestation is not allowing me to upload images for some reason.

Both are lensed lights. The 2D is the better of the breed. It has three decent brightness lights converging at about 36 inches for a smooth beam with decent lack of annoying dark and light rings in the fringes common to some lensed lights. The AAA is a stinker with the most ringy dim output to date for a single LED Brinkmann. I hope it is just a bad one. I reversed the lens cap as it is about 1/4 inch deep and got a better central beam. Next will be to remove the lens. The lens cap is integral to the switching so it will need to be replaced with a sleeve. It presses the reflector down to engage the switch. Sort of a reverse Mag switch action.

2D was $25 and AAA was $10. The 2D came with a snap on red and blue filter (why? Red is too dim and blue doesn't do much for me. IMO).

Hopefully I can figure out why I can't upload an image and fix that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

There was this thread. The single AAA and the 2AA Aluminum Brinkmanns are mentioned, but not the 2D model.

Here is a pic of most of the 2D and the AAA.



Was the AAA terribly bright? Mine isn't and flickers a lot. Mine looks like there is some kind of oil on the circuit board so I am going to clean it up and scruff up the aluminim head/body joint as I don't think it is making good continuity. It does look better to me without the lens but is half brightness compared to a Sonic or ARC AAA.

The AAA looks RIDICULOUS!!! The 2D looks like a "Buy It!" when I see it light!!!

The AAA is kind of clunky and ungainly and halfway between pocketable-useful and sit in a drawer kind of ugly. But it has kind of grown on me as I am trying to make it brighter. This series is CPF friendly however. These are the easiest Brinkmann LED's to dissasemble yet. Unscrew the bezel. pull the o-ringed lens away (it seems locked but isn't) and pop out the ring and lamp assembly. No melted plastic buttons on the reflectors I have vivisected yet. Snap fit!

They all have the same circuit inside as the rebel. Only thing is that the lables on the AAA board are not the same so the 3.5K resistor on the rebel is the 1.5K and is now R2 not R1. Watch before modding. I put in a 800 ohm resistor in place of the 1.5 as the unit is very dim compared to anything else out there. Once I figure out how to remove the +post without runining it I will try a different LED. These in the AAA are tending to blue like some older rebels did.

The definite winner of the bunch is the 2D and the 2AA (Galyan's had some at another store here). The only danger I see is that they rely on continuity from the body/head screw to supply battery power to the -plate of the circuit. In the AAA the machining oils have left that joint bad. Partial dissasembly and cleaning with alcohol seems to fix this.

There is also enough volume inside the heads to fit a LS, heatsink and turned down optic (AAA-slightly smaller than std Mag/Legend lens). The circuit would only need possibly stronger transistors to handle the load. See page 2 of this Rebel Mod Post Where E=mc^2 did some good work on "more power, Arr, Arr, Arr."