Another 3AAA mod !!

Here's another cheap and quick 3AAA mod! Originally came with 11 LED's which had a very nice flood beam but a definite blueish tint. Two versions of the mod, a 1 watt and 3 watt version with either optic or modified minimag reflector. Throws nicely to about 100 feet. You can actually see what you are lighting not just see that there's a faint glow. Run time is about 2 hrs and 1.3 hrs respectively.











Beam shots later tonight.

Is the optic that off center?

Wow!

That resembles heavily a Garrity 3AAA 1LED light I got at Wallyworld.

It has a focusing lense and I don't much like it. It ain't all that bright even with the head off. It has a BEEEFY body!

Who has modded one???

direct drive?

Yes..., the optic is off center. I made the aluminum sink for it and it isn't perfectly round so it moves jusssst a tad till I tighten the head down. Took me less than an hour to make so you kind of have to expect a little leeway somewhere. I farkled (sic?) one LUX I by tightening too much. Then I modded a minimag reflector and that sits just a hair lower. Basically same beam as an NX-05 if you ask me. It is direct drive so with new batteries it's pulling about 500 mA from some Rayovac Alkalines for the 1 watt version and ~700 mA for the 3 watt version.

Direct Drive off of 4.5V from 3AAA cells and you only get 500 and 700mA? What am I missing?

By the way, great mods!

The batteries aren't the freshest daisy's in the field anymore. IMHO, I really don't like how most people rate the light output and current draw of a light in the first 5 minutes with new batteries. I don't think that is a real world representation unless ofcourse you have very flat regulation from a good circuit. These are direct drive without resistors and slightly used batteries (still at or above 1.5V each). Also, the current draw depends on the Vf BIN of the LED ofcourse plus any resistance from the light itself.

DD a TWOL produces 800-1000ma with NiMH's

Is that through the light or measured from a battery pack? I get that from a pack on a bread board but once it goes in a light with all the contacts and switches I get some built in resistance fighting me. I am getting 1.29A from 3 fresh "D" battery's without the tailcap. I measure the tailcap and that adds .5 ohms therefore just a few less mA to the LED.

4sevens 'L' means a Vf or 3.75- 3.99V. Does this mean that a V of 3.75-3.99V with a current of 750ma flowing will produce from 67.2 - 87.4 lumens of light? Also, from your experience, increasing the V to 4.5V will overpower the LED by only 50 - 250mA? Will this alwayse be the case with TWOL Luxeons?

zapper: your breadboard should have more resistance than the light itself. that reading is through my light.

eebowler: there are lots of variables. type of battery, internal resistance of battery. resistance of switch.

depending on type of battery - your battery v will sag under load.
alkalines are notorious for sagging. nimh will hold their voltage very well. but different nimh's have varying internal resistances.
the lower the internal resistance, the higher the current.

Also, what you measure across your meter will always be higher than
if the whole circuit is contained in the flashlight.

What I always do is measure across the meter momentarily to see how
much current goes through the light with fresh batteries. Then I know
that without the meter it'll be slightly higher.

Also, the Vf rating with each led will vary too. The rating is a range and your mileage will vary - so it's not a science so much as
trial and error.

I am about to get one of these myself(the light), and I was thinking of modding it with a Royal Blue Lux. What did you use to make the heatsink? Did it take machine tools or just a chunk of AL and a hammer? Thanks,
Cameron

Would a Luxeon star fit comfortably in the head?

bobisculous: it has a metal plate on the back of the star.

eebowler: it houses a full size star

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif!! Sorry for the blind question. Thanks for the answer 4sevens. I just saw the star on the heatsink in the photo above.

Very promising mod. By the way, great job zapper.

Did you ever take the beamshots zapper?

Sorry guys, I lost my own thread!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

eebowler: It is sitting on it's own star still on top of the heatsink.

bobisculous: I just used a piece of aluminum bar stock and a coping saw then a ******* file and smooth file.

I used a 1/16th drill bit a drilled a hole through the star and heat sink right next to the lead coming off the emitter. Then I soldered a wire to the emitter lead, through the hole and soldered to an epoxied piece of single sided copper cladded pcb for the positive contact under the sink.



Beam @ 1 ft against wall with cut down minimag relfector


Beam @ 4 ft against ceiling with cut down minimag relfector


I'll try and get some against the garage tonight! Thanks guys!

OK, so here go the pictures, we all love pictures!! First though, the current should be more but these battery holders are adding about 3 ohms. That's OK though because it limits the current to ~500mA and ~700mA for the 1W (K BIN) and 3W (H BIN) respectively therefore longer runtimes. My guesstimate would be about 1hr 20 mins and just at an hour respectively (probably a little less). If this becomes a critical factor I'll break down and actually measure and time them. Also, these are cut down minimag reflectors because I just like them more than either the NX05 or Fraen low profile optics. I have an SO17 and 27 coming. We'll see how those fit and look later!

Police 3w 1W at 2 feet white wall



Police 1W 3W 2 yards



Police 1W 3W 5 yards



Police 1W



Police 3W



Police 1W 15 yards



Police 3W 15 yards



No light 23 yards



Police 1W 23 yards



Police 3W 23 yards



No Light 13 yards



Police 1W 13 yards



Police 3W 13 yards



I corrected the gamma in the some of the pictures but equally for all of the same shots. The settings on the camera were locked at 2 seconds at f3.2 for all the pictures.

That's great! I'm surely going to mod one like you when I have time!

I sold both of these tonight (at cost to my friends) almost as soon as I turned them on. Apparently there is at least a small market for these little guys. Well either it's off to mod a new light or crank out a few more for anyone else interested.