5mm LEDs - Any love left?

Perhaps my interest in 5mm LEDs is purely nostalgia. Before I knew what a flashaholic was, I loved those 5mm LED keychain squeeze lights. First, dollar store ones, then Inova Microlights, then Photon Micro-Lights. Like any flashaholic in the early 00's, I obtained the truly venerable Arc-AA and Arc-AAA.

When my interests moved from pocket lights to headlamps, my first were the Princeton Tec Quad and Petzl Tikka, with their quad-array of 5mm LEDs.

I still use my Tikka daily. I have a Nitecore Tube on my keys. I still enjoy my Arc-AAAs and my Muyshondt Mako and heck, the McGizmo LunaSol 27 counts too. I sneak the Gerber Infinity Ultra into my bags. A Fenix E01 adorns another pair of keys. An Inova X5 is never ever far from reach, two living in my flashlight drawer. I rediscovered my EternaLight. I dug out my old PAL Lights. I even have one of those oddball Surefire Helmet Lights. Of course, let us not forget the finest flashlight of all time, the Surefire A2.

Anybody else with a fondness for 5mm LEDs? Are there still great lights out there on this diminutive, forgotten form factor?

carrot said:

Perhaps my interest in 5mm LEDs is purely nostalgia. Before I knew what a flashaholic was, I loved those 5mm LED keychain squeeze lights. First, dollar store ones, then Inova Microlights, then Photon Micro-Lights. Like any flashaholic in the early 00's, I obtained the truly venerable Arc-AA and Arc-AAA.

When my interests moved from pocket lights to headlamps, my first were the Princeton Tec Quad and Petzl Tikka, with their quad-array of 5mm LEDs.

I still use my Tikka daily. I have a Nitecore Tube on my keys. I still enjoy my Arc-AAAs and my Muyshondt Mako and heck, the McGizmo LunaSol 27 counts too. I sneak the Gerber Infinity Ultra into my bags. A Fenix E01 adorns another pair of keys. An Inova X5 is never ever far from reach, two living in my flashlight drawer. I rediscovered my EternaLight. I dug out my old PAL Lights.

Anybody else with a fondness for 5mm LEDs? Are there still great lights out there on this diminutive, forgotten form factor?

Click to expand...

I still like my Nite-ize modules for the mini mag. They are a module of 3, 5mm LEDs. They've been tested in the past to have something like a 13 hour runtime on a set of batteries. I like using my mini mag this way to use up older AA batteries when I'm using it around the house. I like the fact that even though they are of the oldest generation of LEDs, they can still have so much efficiency.

Carrot!!!! glad to see you back :wave:


heh...
Anyone remember back in the day [circa 2000] when the CC Trek 4-LED Flashlight hit the forum and everybody was just raving about it? I joined in 2006 but lurked way before that. Then there was Arc AAA, then Turtlelite by LEDCORP? Anyone bought an Eternalight from TechAss?:devil:
5mm LEDs opened a world of lighting possibilities... and even caused the market to go a little crazy [cluster heads, 100, 238 LED lights anyone? :nana:]

Sure has been a long journey since then, but I am still a fan of it. As long as forward current is kept around 15mA and thermal considerations were taken into the design they are pretty much destined to last forever.

I hunkered down as opposed to evacuating during the arrival of Hurricane Matthew last week. After nearly nine years of not having to worry about hurricanes caused my flashlight selections to shift to the 1000 lumen varieties. When the house is boarded up from the outside and the power goes out the bright ones became totally useless, where the lack of a low mode rendered them energy hogs in the face of uncertainty. Out came the box of Fenix E01s that I had so carelessly retired and my goodness were they useful. One single 5mm LED can light up a 10 by 20 feet room. I can't read with it when its bouncing off the ceiling, but it gave me a piece of mind, especially in the bathrooms. Six E01s lit the house for two days [battery change halfway was necessary on a couple].

Many may laugh to hear that my favorite headlamps are still 5mm LEDs. In the days when PT EOS took the market by storm I bought my first headlamp, a Black diamond Moonlight [3AAA/4 5mm/single mode] and then a Princeton Tec Aurora [3AAA/3 5mm/5 mode]. To date close to 10 years later I still use them regularly. Color rendition is absurd, but it more than made up in the runtime.

While my carry lights are CREE XP-L HI's nowadays, in my backpack I still kept my trusty Inova X5 by me. Its Nichia CS still performing brilliantly since day 1.

When I am out on astronomy related events or camping, I tote along a surefire A2-RD as a camp light. Sometimes brighter is not the answer to everything. The LEDs out of a stock A2 is ringy, but a few passes with sandpaper and its smoothed out.

I loved 5mm, still do.

I believe they still have their place today, especially with the much wider variety available compared to late 90s-early '00s. I use them in various low level applications. It's a shame that they've gotten such a bad rep due to designers overdriving them and causing early failures in many applications, (I.e. My very expensive fridge using the ghastly bluish ones for the nightlight feature on the ice/water dispenser, that failed within 6 months). But yes, they are good for the proper application.

Yup. Still like 'em for certain tasks...

Any new challenges formulating in the carrot brain?
5mm week for example?

Nitecore Tube is ok with 45lumens on keychain

Sure, I'll post up a few favorites ...

http://i.imgur.com/RGDfqFQ.jpg

The sunny_nites ( not the Okluma ... )

http://i.imgur.com/DddilRy.jpg

The Spyglass has a secondary emitter, but I think this one is a 3mm

http://i.imgur.com/d9FguLi.jpg

Multi-spectrum MecArmy

http://i.imgur.com/lg155W0.jpg

Did someone say A2 ?

http://i.imgur.com/qyT4QY5.jpg

Coin cell and button cell flashlights are still useful

http://i.imgur.com/0XRox3p.jpg

Let's not forget Peak

http://i.imgur.com/O8UbI5H.jpg

And the all-time classic

carrot said:

A Fenix E01 adorns another pair of keys...

Anybody else with a fondness for 5mm LEDs? Are there still great lights out there on this diminutive, forgotten form factor?

Click to expand...

I just happened to be twirling my E01 absent-mindedly in my free hand as I read your post.

No particular love for 5mm in particular. For me it's just about what does the job, and some jobs don't need fancy optics. The EO1 is simple, durable, and runs for hours on batteries that other devices think are empty. If we get the storm that is being forecast for this weekend, it will probably be on for quite a while as a night light in the bathroom or hallway while the power is out.

I've also got an Inova microlight kicking around in a drawer. No complaints about it, but the cost of replacement button cells tends to discourage me from using it.

This rugged Rayovac 1AAA uses a 5 mm LED and is a lot brighter than the Arc AAAs. Rubber surrounds the head.

I think it cost me about $5 at Home Depot.

I'm still waiting on that neutral 5mm Nichia 40 lumen LED that was talked about here a couple years ago but never got to see again.

Was planning to DD it off a single CR123 if I ever got my hands on one, like a cheapo 31LLLL or something.

Is their anything that 5mm is best at?
Efficiency at 15mA, or efficiency at 15mA/cost?
I know one thing they are best for is ease of handling, 5mm make jury rigging a light with all thumbs possible.

I feel weird posting on a forum that I've been on for years, but rarely chime in. Anyway, I'm not an extreme flashaholic in the sense of having tons of lights. But I do have a bunch of cheap ones that I've accumulated over the years.

My sister in law got me an Arc AAA when they were popular. I still have it, although the keyring hole is nearly worn through, and it just sits in my toolbox.

My wife works at a hardware store of sorts, called Princess Auto. They are a fairly small retailer here in Canada. I've gotten many lights there over the years, as they are cheap and fairly durable. They aren't the brightest (most are probably 5mm, which ties into this thread!)

If I had a lot of disposable income, I'm sure I'd have a huge collection of high end lights, but I have a mortgage and kids, which is where most of it goes.

Anyway, I still like them. Not because I think they're still relevant. I'm just nostalgic, and remember the dim coloured ones being used in cheap hats and trinkets. I had a Labatts Blue hat as a kid that had a 9V powering a whopping 5 or 6 LEDs

Oh, and I have a Stubby Dorcy yellow floating 4 AA light that came with an LED bulb that was awfully dim and had a tiny focused spot. The 5mm LED was actually ground down or something. I ended up putting a 6V incan in it. Apparently they usually had those before LEDs started to become popular.

Three nights a week a Pak-Lite with a pair of emitters and an old 9 volt battery is left on by the wife's bedside for her late night return home. Nitecore Tubes on our keyrings. Maybe a half dozen Laughing Rabbit Photons of various vintage scattered about as backpack zipper pulls.

Anytime CPF member carrot makes a post, it gets read; including the old stuff that gets occasionally dredged up.

I have been using a CMG Infinity Ultra on occasion and of course always Photons on my keys. Pak-lites are an at home favorite for the wife and I both and still see regular use.The secondary 5MM LEDs on my Streamlight Sidewinder are used as much or more than the main LED. The red X5,UV X5,Fenix EO1,green Peak 1XAAA and green Peak 1XCR123( I lost track of the names on the old cluster model Peaks) still see occasional use.
There is probably some nostalgia involved for me with 5MM I did just recently "retire" my white X5s. Some lights like the Pak-lite really don't have an equivalent for me to replace them and aside from having poor tint in the white models they work very well. Neutral white is a preference for me now but if Fenix ,for example,were to release the EO1 with a neutral 5MM I am sure I would be buying several more.

Forgot about the original optic version of the INOVA X1. Not used very often but I keep it handy for the odd time when it serves my needs.

ZMZ67 said:

.... green Peak 1XAAA and green Peak 1XCR123( I lost track of the names on the old cluster model Peaks) still see occasional use ....

Click to expand...

Matterhorn, Kilimanjaro, McKinley

Just replaced the battery on my Red light Photon Freedom I keep on my keychain. I run it on a CR2032 for longer life with reduced max brightness, which seems plenty for the red light when I need it. Other than that though I was never a very big fan of any 'white' 5mm LEDs used for flash lights, but I have a couple CMG for historical reasons and they are a good emergency light and one of the multi-LED lights that was an interesting flood light back in the day before flood oriented lights were more popular. Still in electronics I loved the LED, just didn't see it's transition from indicator light to Flash light as being very successful... but you have to start somewhere, No way around it the LED was a milestone.

They were cool in 2003 when I never had batteries for the sucker maglites, but I wouldn't use them now being that they were usually angry blue/purple.
That said you can't get much simpler than wiring up a 5mm LED, don't even need a PCB.

In all honesty I would probably use a hotwire with rechargeables before I go back to 5mm LEDs.

http://store.yujiintl.com/collections/frontpage/products/bc-series-5mm?variant=962057553

Expensive shipping though, 19$ for a 15$ order.

Nitecore Thumb, nuff said