so when were you L.E.D. poisoned

the led dart got me 3 years ago. it was the wide beam photon. last summer i started modding and then makeing led lights. well, over 75 led lights later i stuggle to go a week without buying at least one light anddont often succeed. when i cant find or afford a light i mod one. this forum doesn't help, either

For me it was a photon as well but for the life of me, I can't remember where I found out about it. Once I did do more research on LED lights, I discovered glow-bug.com, then Brock's site which led me to here. That's a great subject, ie what was your first LED light?

For me, it was the lowly Lightwave 2000.

Then I stumbled upon CPF and the great Arc lights.

The rest is history. I really had no chance for a normal life.

I stumbled upon CPF while looking into low power consumption lights, just in case there was a problem with Y2K. Plus I get a lot of power outages where I live. Not usually from storms, but from the incompetence of the power company. I got the Krill, then the Infinity, then the Photon II, etc.

Pathetic by today's standards. Although the Infinity is still good for runtime, and the Photons are still remarkably bright for their size.

The first "Advanced" flashlight I had was a Maglight conversion. I bought an extra length to hold an extra battery, and changed the lamp with the one provided.

Nifty.

A GF at teh time, borrowed it for her Brother. We broke up shortly after, and I've never been able to find that mod again.

It was great, btw. The extra Double A length made the whole flashlight more of a weapon, and the brightness didn't hurt.

Early summer, 1972 or 1973 (I know it was one of them)
I spent 6 months worth of allowance at Juneau Electronics for a ceramic base red LED, which I promptly blew up within the first five minutes. :-O

5 months later, again using saved-up allowance, I bought another plus a resistor which lasted a great deal longer.
And sometime around the mid-1970s, I came up with a GaP red LED in a *clear* case. I think that's what did it for me - to actually be able to see the chip glowing with no diffusant in the way.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by telephony:
Early summer, 1973....
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And you thought he wasn't a real guru!

In the late 70's. I attached two red LED's to an LM3909N and mounted the circuit in the head of a rubber skeleton with the LED's mounted in the eye sockets!!
The whole lot hung on my rearview mirror. Kept the baddies away!
That was my start.

I was smitten last year by a blue Innova keychain light by Emissive Energy. I said to myself as I picked it up and turned it to my face before switching it on, "surely, this thing CAN'T be seen from a mile away....".

One year and a half-blind retina later, I own about a dozen other LED lights !

Hello everyone, The LED got me about a year ago when I bought a PAL light. This is my first post on CPF, so I will bring you up to date. I've always had more flashlights than anyone else I know. I just love'um, and I wait for the sun to set each day. I had no idea that I wasn't alone with this condition.I found Craig's site searching on google for LEDs, and then found Brock's site which lead me to CPF. All you guy's are great! I have learned a lot and I am trying to stay in control I now have a new Arc aaa(white) and a PhotonII at all times. I had never heard the name Surefire before,and it's a matter of time now.For now I fight it off by putting Nextstar bulbs in my aa mags and WriteRight on my magchargers. (thanks KT) Sorry to go off topic a bit, but I know you understand.

Some people collect stamps???

I think I first became aware of LEDs 6 years ago when I started driving a semi, alot of the "decked out" trucks used LED
tail lights. If you have ever seen one, you know why they made an impression on me. My first LED light was an ASP Mirage. I ran across a Brinkman Long Life at Wally World a short time later, and that was it!

My first was a PAL (yawn) than a Eternalight (brighter but bulky). The bug bit with the ARC-LE (WOW). Now I have respect for LED's. Awaiting my ARC-LS and a couple of other ARC products on order with Mr. Gransee.

Mid seventies - got some red LEDs and LM3909's and was astounded that a "C" battery could flash anything for 9-12 months non-stop. Then I started seeing GREEN leds, then yellow, and orange. I saved forever to get a LED wristwatch which I had maybe 4 months before the band snapped and I lost it. I discovered that if I peeled back the cover of a 2N3055 transistor and fried the C-B junction a certain way I could coax faint green light from it in a dark room (I was building amps and blowing a lot of 2N3055's due to my inexperience. I liked opening them up to see what they looked like after they failed. Thats when I saw the faint glow on one or two dead ones.) I was mesmerized by the first blue LEDs in the early 90's, and am trying to get hold of some violet near UV LEDs. Made my first LED penlight for darkroom use in the mid eighties!

I had a project to do for an electricity class in junior high (somewhere in the mid-70's). I was just starting to get into electronics and had a bunch of catalogs. I saw the word LED and could not figure out how a diode could emit light. I got a book and learned about it and decided a blinking LED was gonna be my "big" project. The project ended up being a Sucrets box covered in black electrical tape with a push button switch and a blinking red LED sticking out of it and some rudimenatary parts inside of it. I was given an A+. I went on to new things in electronics.

About 3 years ago while knife shopping I stumbled onto ASP Sapphire lights. I was amazed (and still am) at what LED's have transformed into - light sources instead of indicators! Then a couple months back I decided to get some Surefire lights. Then I found this forum. Now I own several Arc lights, 2 Eternalights and 2 UV lights from Ken Ma. There will be more, as soon as the Visa recovers a bit.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PhilAlex:
... a Maglight conversion. I bought an extra length to hold an extra battery ...
It was great, btw. The extra Double A length ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Phil, what do you mean by an extra AA extension - was this a Mag-Lite product, or what ?

lightlover

About 6 or 7 years ago I got this bright red led light from Japan as a present. I was impressed! Such a handy concept, a keychain light that lasted long, and was fairly bright for the size. About 3 years ago I stumbled on a BLUE light!!! It was called the sapphire. Although we all know about the sapphire and photon now, back then a blue led was impressive. Not too many people have seen such a thing. 2 Years ago I got a photon because I got tired of not being able to distinguish colors and wanted to change the batteries on my own. Then november of 2001 I started to look for x-mas presents. I typed in led flashlights in the yahoo link and came across arc flashlight llc. It was then that I was hooked. I did more and more searches for lights. I ordered a bunch of arc-aaa's and found an attitude at sports authority.(the attitude still being my favorite light) In that short time, I bought a bunch of other led lights my brightest being the lw-3000. I'm the type that goes through phases, constantly getting tired of things. But, for some reason I never get tired of flashlights. People tell me I got real problems...

Re: Mag Lite Extention:

No. It was not a Mag Lite product, but an aftermarket item.

It was a 1 AA length of male/female threaded tube that extended the light, and had an extra lamp (To deal with the higher voltage).

I thought it was the neatest thing. The whole shabang got left at an Ex-Gf's, and trust me, even if it was a blue laser, I wouldn't go back.

And, no, I'm not going to make any snide comments as to what she's doing with it.

Wow! I figured that I'd be the earliest "adopter" here but Telephony, and maybe PHP_44 have me beat by a few months.

In mid-'74 I made red LED covert penlights for my buddies and some of my superiors in my Ranger unit. Everyone was astounded by my "magic" and how long they would last with one set of batteries. {A few months prior to that I used a bare red LED with a watch battery for a super-covert light in Ranger school. (Shh, don't tell anyone- it wasn't on the list of approved training equipment and they might kick me out retroactively). Sure helped me out on the night navigation course. }

Soldier of Fortune magazine published an article on my LED penlights a couple of years later, and several months after that, covert red LED penlights started appearing commercially.

After that, I kind of never really thought about using LEDS for anything but indicator lights until I ran across the Brinkmann Long Life in WalMart last spring. I thought "Oh COOL", (being unaware of white LEDs prior to that). I bought one, played with it for a few hours, then hopped on the computer, found CPF and the rest, as they say, is history....

I'm fairly new to LEDs, having only bought my first lights a few months ago. The "bug" is probably in the incubation stage.

My EDC: a white Arc LE on my keychain, a blue Photon II knock-off in my pocket, and a turquoise Arc AAA in my work bag. At home I have a red LED flashlight toy from a McDonald's Happy Meal (or was it Burger King?) and another blue Photon II knock-off in my dresser drawer (they were on sale during Christmas for $5 each). Speaking of Christmas, I gave away two white Arc AAAs as gifts.

As you can see, all of them are single LED flashlights. If and when the infection goes "full blown", I'll start buying multiple LED lights and lithium powered ones. Should I go "terminal", I might even make my own mods!

It all started a few years ago when I saw LED flashlight ads in Sharper Image and Lifestyle Fascination catalogs. They were for Photons and Lightwaves. I didn't give the lights much thought, except that someday I might buy one.

Then, in the summer of last year, I was watching the show "Popular Mechanics for Kids" one Saturday morning. The show's focus was either military, police or covert operations. During one of the segments, "Charlie" made a red LED flashlight from Radio Shack parts. What interested me was that he said red is good for night vision, LEDs are durable and energy efficient, and navy SEALs use them.

Here I was carrying a Mag Solitaire for 8 years on my keychain. At that moment, I desperately wanted a red LED flashlight. I went to Ebay to see if I could find one for sale. Lo and behold, I found dozens of LED lights for sale. I was going to bid on a CMG Infinity because it sounded like a great light, but I held back. I decided I wanted to learn more about what else is out there. I went to Yahoo and started searching. Eventually, I found my way to the Arc website, the CPF, and all the great flashlight review pages out there (you know who you are). I read a lot of good things about the Arc AAA and wanted to buy one, but I still held back.

Then, in September, my department at work hired a new guy. When I gave him his office keys, I saw that he had a blue Photon II on his keychain. This must be a sign, I thought. I talked to him about it and he said he even had a Krill light at home. He brought it in a few days later to show me. This definitely must be a sign, I thought.

And so, I finally gave in and bought an Arc LE. (Long live Arc Flashlight!)

Now, I have my eye on the new Arc 3.0, an Arc LS, an Inova 5X, and a Lightwave 4000. The "bug" probably mutated itself because I also want a Surefire E2e, a Streamlight UltraStinger, and a Spyderco Spydercard!

In conclusion, I would like to end with a line I just saw in the 1981 classic "Swamp Thing": Oh, s***. There goes the neighborhood.

Had to be back in the mid-70's when I modified a cheesy 2-AA pocket light to use a red LED. Wow, I was underwhelmed with the lack of brightness. It looked cool but was pretty worthless as a flashlight. I've dabbled with flashlights for probably 38 of my 45 years.