Any ARC AA mods?
- Thread starter nirad
- Start date
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djpark
Enlightened
I've seen some by others using a Luxeon.
All my mods are using 8mm from ISP.
ARC-AA with 8mm white led (10 Feb 2004)
Class 2: Arc-AA 8mm ISP + Micro-P Multi Brightness (15 Jul 2004)
And also for AAA.
ARC-AAA with 8mm white led (31 Jan 2004)
Arc-AAA with 8mm White LED - 2nd Round (15 Mar 2004)
Arc-AAA-8mm-Cyan with Li-Ion Current Regulated (31 Aug 2004)
I use 8mm led instead of Luxeon for a few reasons.
- cheaper
- easier to manage or mod
- no optic or lens required
- useful beam (55 degree)
- bright enough for a small light (100-200mA)
- longer run time (x2-3 compared to Luxeon)
- no worry of heat (almost)
Also by making it as interhcangeable plug, I can have multiple plugs with different color leds.
I tried MJ Micro converter, but I wasn't happy, I got only 80mA+ to the led instead of expected 150mA (possibly due to high Vf of led).
I tried to make my own converter to let more current to led was not that successful, either I didn't get enough current or low efficiency, or I just couldn't handle too small regulator chip with limited tools.
Another way to increase the current is to supply higher battery voltage. If you use 2 Alkaline batteries, it will let 100mA to led. So I used 2 * 1/2AA NiMh for AA and 3 * 1/3AAA NiMh to get 100mA and 180mA current to led respectively.
Now I use li-ion bare cells to drive the led directly via linear regulation. Since the voltage difference between Vbat and Vf is close, the power consumption efficiency is not that bad (around 90% to led). For a long time, I will go this way.
With 14500, running about 150mA to 8mm led gives about 5-6 hours constant brightness and a few more hours of useful light. Very nice balance between brightness and runtime.
It is also possible to drive a Luxeon 1W or 3W with 14500, but I find that the run time is rather short and the main problem is still the heat. Here is a logging of the 1W led running 350mA on Arc-AAA with 10430 li-ion (300mAh AAA size). It is nice warm when held in hand, but can get pretty hot if left on unattended.
As you can see, it was well on regulation till 25 minutes. I am not sure if a few seconds shutdown at 25 minutes and also 29 minutes are the thermal shutdown due to the heat or actually falling off regulation, I can't confirm since I didn't measure the battery voltage. I will do it again with 14500 (AA size cell) and measure the voltage together.
What I can say is this. If you are thinking of getting as bright AA mod as possible with shorter run time to "show off", go for li-ion direct drive Luxeon 3W at 700mA. If you are going for practical edc, go for 8mm at 150mA with 14500.
[Edit] Below section is added.
I did run time test of the same 1W plug on Arc-AA head instead of AAA and also used 14500 li-ion (700mAh) instead of 10430 (300mAh) cell.
To measure the current flow, I used a DMM in series and measured the voltage drop at the DMM and calculated the current from the voltage drop backward, and it is confirmed by the DMM reading.
With 350-450mA current flow, the voltage of fully charged 14500 li-ion cell dropped below 3.7V on load and with 0.1-0.2V drop at DMM, combined with high Vf led, I doubt if it was on current regulation, the result is more like a direct drive with series resistor. But still good light (1W) for 2 hours followed by 1/2 hour useful light is not too bad to be used as edc.
--dj
All my mods are using 8mm from ISP.
ARC-AA with 8mm white led (10 Feb 2004)
Class 2: Arc-AA 8mm ISP + Micro-P Multi Brightness (15 Jul 2004)
And also for AAA.
ARC-AAA with 8mm white led (31 Jan 2004)
Arc-AAA with 8mm White LED - 2nd Round (15 Mar 2004)
Arc-AAA-8mm-Cyan with Li-Ion Current Regulated (31 Aug 2004)
I use 8mm led instead of Luxeon for a few reasons.
- cheaper
- easier to manage or mod
- no optic or lens required
- useful beam (55 degree)
- bright enough for a small light (100-200mA)
- longer run time (x2-3 compared to Luxeon)
- no worry of heat (almost)
Also by making it as interhcangeable plug, I can have multiple plugs with different color leds.
I tried MJ Micro converter, but I wasn't happy, I got only 80mA+ to the led instead of expected 150mA (possibly due to high Vf of led).
I tried to make my own converter to let more current to led was not that successful, either I didn't get enough current or low efficiency, or I just couldn't handle too small regulator chip with limited tools.
Another way to increase the current is to supply higher battery voltage. If you use 2 Alkaline batteries, it will let 100mA to led. So I used 2 * 1/2AA NiMh for AA and 3 * 1/3AAA NiMh to get 100mA and 180mA current to led respectively.
Now I use li-ion bare cells to drive the led directly via linear regulation. Since the voltage difference between Vbat and Vf is close, the power consumption efficiency is not that bad (around 90% to led). For a long time, I will go this way.
With 14500, running about 150mA to 8mm led gives about 5-6 hours constant brightness and a few more hours of useful light. Very nice balance between brightness and runtime.
It is also possible to drive a Luxeon 1W or 3W with 14500, but I find that the run time is rather short and the main problem is still the heat. Here is a logging of the 1W led running 350mA on Arc-AAA with 10430 li-ion (300mAh AAA size). It is nice warm when held in hand, but can get pretty hot if left on unattended.
As you can see, it was well on regulation till 25 minutes. I am not sure if a few seconds shutdown at 25 minutes and also 29 minutes are the thermal shutdown due to the heat or actually falling off regulation, I can't confirm since I didn't measure the battery voltage. I will do it again with 14500 (AA size cell) and measure the voltage together.
What I can say is this. If you are thinking of getting as bright AA mod as possible with shorter run time to "show off", go for li-ion direct drive Luxeon 3W at 700mA. If you are going for practical edc, go for 8mm at 150mA with 14500.
[Edit] Below section is added.
I did run time test of the same 1W plug on Arc-AA head instead of AAA and also used 14500 li-ion (700mAh) instead of 10430 (300mAh) cell.
To measure the current flow, I used a DMM in series and measured the voltage drop at the DMM and calculated the current from the voltage drop backward, and it is confirmed by the DMM reading.
With 350-450mA current flow, the voltage of fully charged 14500 li-ion cell dropped below 3.7V on load and with 0.1-0.2V drop at DMM, combined with high Vf led, I doubt if it was on current regulation, the result is more like a direct drive with series resistor. But still good light (1W) for 2 hours followed by 1/2 hour useful light is not too bad to be used as edc.
--dj
