I recently purchased a $3 dollar headlamp from harbor freight. This headlamp uses two AA cells that directly powers an incandescent bulb. I want to use a white output led instead of the incandescent bulb. The bulb has two small pins that can be pushed in or pulled out thus no soldering required. I will be using lithium or eneloop AA batteries. What led(s) do you suggest i try?
Want To Modify A Harbor Freight Head Lamp. (Western Safety Swivel Lens Head Lamp)
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Depends on how much output you want, but direct driving a white LED limits the output with Energizer lithiums however you start with about 3.6v so it should be decent output but on nimh you may have 3.0v but more likely closer to 2.8v. If you want decent output from it you will need a boost circuit and better than a single 5mm LED. I don't have the headlamp but I'm guessing a decent white LED you can scavenge will be better than the bipin bulb in that thing. Long time ago before luxeon headlamps were cheap enough I modded a similar 2AA headlamp I got for $1 but I use a boost circuit out of a cell phone charger I got for 50 cents and 12 white LEDs in a cross pattern. I still have it but would rather use my 1AA luxeon headlamp.
There is no "bulb" to replace the 2 wire bulbs in those cheap incan lamps if you are lucky you can swap in a 5mm LED but then it would be direct drive and unless you use lithium primaries it will not be very bright. On my lamp I removed the lamp and soldered wires into a boost circuit and replace the lamp with an array of 5mm LEDs. It worked good but I got a better headlamp that put out a lot better light pattern so I retired the modded headlamp.
