Modded a Dorcy AAA w/ a Lux3 today

I unsoldered the existing LED. Filed the opening until the Lux3 would fit. Soldered it in place & drilled the opening in the reflector out until the dome fit into the reflector. It works. It appears another Dorcy AAA is brighter in the hotspot, but this puts out a much larger flood. This was a pretty easy mod. I was worried about my soldering capability, but even my ugly soldering job worked. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif
I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried replacing an LED to try this. It makes a nice flashlight & the donor is cheap if you make a mistake.

Andy

Good job! I like my little Dorcy. Good bang for the buck /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I hope to be modding my Dorcy single AAA soon, like I did with my Solitare Single AAA MagLite. Replacing the boost supply in the light with something more efficient and that can hold the current output should yield a much more useful tool.

Would the Lux3 be any brighter/better than a 1 W Luxeon? In either case, the AAA cell won't be able to drive the LEDs to spec currents.

BTW, I have a 3LED 1AA Dorcy with a MR Bulk Luxeon mod and I *love* it. Three cheers for underdriven Luxeons.

I am not an expert, but at the current levels we are talking I don't think the Lux3 will be any brighter. I used it because I had it on hand & the color tends to be good. I really like this light. I think it may become my EDC for lighting up the backs & inside of computers. I'll know by the end of next week if it works well for that.

Andy

whats the trick to disasembling these?
tried twisting by hand but stopped short of wringing it in 2.

The o-ring under the head can be dry and make the assembly feel like it is glued. Feels like it will break then the ring lets it go. Then you breathe again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Then the whole works slides out in one neat module.

[ QUOTE ]
snakebite said:
whats the trick to disasembling these?
tried twisting by hand but stopped short of wringing it in 2.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's a trick that I just discovered by accident that has worked every time I've tried it. Get the flashight cold. Mine was cold from sitting in the car for a while. If you are somewhere warm, you might want to put it in the freezer without the battery for a few hours. After the light is sufficiently cold, grasp only the head of the light tightly in your hand for at least a minute or so. Don't touch the body, only the head. As your hand warms the head of the light it expands ever so slightly and becomes easier to twist off with a strong effort. This has worked every time for me. None of the Dorcys I have disassembled appeared to have any sort of thread locker compound used on them. Hope this helps.

Best of luck,
Ken

I did this mod and I was supremely disappointed with it. Total waste of the potential of a luxIII. Now I wish I had not epoxied the whole thing together.

yeah i did it with a i watter it was a decent 1 watteer i didnt like it went back to stock led..to me it seems the stock circuit cant drive lux1 watt high enough but im not expert

It would probably work a lot better when you're able to put a lithium AAA in it when they become available in August.

I've put a lithium AA in my 3LED 1AA Dorcy/MR Bulk luxeon mod and it's quite a bit brighter. The boost circuit probably triples the difference between the 1.5 volt alkaline and the 1.7 volt lithium. YMMV.

I just did one of mine using a leftover 1 watt low dome luxeon. It puts out more light than the 5mm, but it is also much cleaner as far as beam quality goes.

The low dome had a pronounced flood, so it was not noticably brighter than the stock 5mm. I added a 3/4 inch 1/2 acrylic ball from Tap plastics. They cost less an than a dollar. It's the same diameter as the bezel, so I simply set it on top of the lens and taped it in place with a thin strip of black elctrical tape. Now the beam is nicely focused, giving me a 3 inch wide spot at 6 inches from the wall and about 2 foot spot at 4 foot.

After playing with it a bit, I knocked out the reflector (it's a press fit, so you press it out from the inside using a vice, C-clamp or vice grips and a socket that rests only on the barrel) and Voila! no more artifacts at all.

The only alteration to the board was shorting the resistor.

To mount the lux, I soldered a brass washer to the silver collar, drilled a hole for the positive lead and stuck the lux to the washer with heatsink tape. It's pulling around 150 ma from the battery, so that should be 60-80 ma into the lux.
I soldered the negative from the circuit board to the collar, then the neg lead of the luxeon to the collar. Heat should not be a problem.

When I added a second AAA battery the current jumped to 500ma. I suspect that, after losses, it was running over 1 watt into the luxeon.

So there you have it. It looks ugly (because of the 1/2 ball) but works very well. A high dome would have worked better, I think. It's much brighter than my other AA or AAA lights. I think it may ride in my tool kit too.

Is this for the single aaa dorcy light?

Do you have any pictures?

Will this light go nicely on a key chain?

Is it really necessary to HS a lux III at 100ma??????

Two things, one is get rid of the stock reflector and replace it with a NX05 with the edges grould down.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=451345&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1
This will drastically improve the output. Second, I had some of those $10 mini rc cars. I pulled out the Batts and found that they were 1/3AAA NiCads, I charged the 2 I had up and put them in my 1W mod (also made a spacer). running at 2.4v with the modded dorcy board I am pretty close to 310mA. WOW thats more like it. Runtime sux, but hey 110mAH. I just ordered 8x 1/3AAA NiMH at 210mAH. I am thinking of replacing the inverter board with an aluminum slug with a 1W on top and filling the body with 3x 1/3AAA' and running direct. specs show 350mA well within the discharge curve. only about 20-30 min of light, but BRIGHT light for a flashlight this size. I gotta make an adaptor for 1/3AAA to 1xAA so I can easily put them in my charger.

The batts from the rc cars need to be cycled baddly. but on first charge I got about 7min full brightness, and 1hr diminishing output. (2 cells)

Also, the 1 ohm is now 0 ohm and there is an extra 10uF in the open cap pads. this helps at higher currents.

[ QUOTE ]
WildRice said:
I just ordered 8x 1/3AAA NiMH at 210mAH.


[/ QUOTE ]
Who did you order those from?
Thanks.

http://www.batterieswholesale.com/products_batteries/nimh/nickel-metal-hydride-13-aaa-210-h.htm
about 3/4 down is a sampler pack of 8 I ordered. I also found some on ebay (search for 1/3 aaa) but I didn't need 36 of them.
Jeff

Thanks a lot, Jeff. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

BTW-I hope you are able to fit the 3 of those 20mm length cells in the space of a single AAA. According to my measurements, that 60mm is longer than the AAA length itself.
The 14mm length -x3 (3 x 1/4AAAs) fits exactly into the full AAA length.
Let us know when you get them, to see how they fit. -210mAh is just great -for an itsy-bitsy 1/3AAA. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mind you, if I put 3 of em in there, there will be no need for the inverter board. The inverter board will be replaced with an aluminum or whatever I can find, piece of rod, with a small spring on the botton (if necessary) and an emitter on the top. since it will be running at rated power, heatsinking will be needed. It will be alot easier to couple the metal slug with the case.

Hmm. As far as OPENING the Dorcy 1aaa I think I've found the ideal way to do it! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif

Was in a Sears Hardware store a few weeks ago. Didn't know such a store existed... looks like Sears' weak attempt at being a Home Depot. But that's another story. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Found a nifty item that doesn't even come up in the Sears website. It was a package of several vinyl boots for their Craftsman Robogrip locking pliers. I think the boots themselves were called RoboGuards. A 10-pack was around $2.

Now here's the deal: these little boots can just as easily fit over pretty much ANY normal size pliers. So now I take two pairs of pliers, boot 'em, grip the head of the light with one pair and the body with the other, and give a quick, sharp twist. Pops the thread locking compound so the head can spin off, and thanks to the vinyl boots, no anodizing dings! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Amazing how much easier things get with the right tool. Even when the tool only costs $2. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I took the heads off both my Dorcy AAA's by doing the following:

Take off the tailcap. Find a piece of 1/16" bar aluminum strip, put it into the notches in the end of the tailcap to use as a large screwdriver. Wrap the head in 1000-grit emery paper, turn by hand. The key was using the 1/16" barstock in the notches of the body tube.