Black body/red LED AAA's

Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Since quite a few of these came onto the scene last week, I was wondering where they came from. I seem to remember that the red LED lights were government only for a while now, and the black anodizing was discontinued a while back.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

I've got a couple I picked up about 2 or 3 years ago. Pretty nice. Got them off Ebay IIRC.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

So where did all these pop up from? There were a couple companies selling them last week all of the sudden.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Peter, can you shed any light (pun intended) on these?

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Assuming they are genuine Arc. They should have the HP red LED. This produces a nice cherry flood of light.

Not many were made. Maybe 50 max with the bright red, several hundred with an older red that wasn't as bright.

What else would you like to know?

Peter

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

I was wondering why they suddenly appeared at a couple of retailers (TADgear and Pocketlights), since both the black anodized and red LED's haven't been seen for a while. I was surprised to see this version and wondered what the history behind them was and why the sudden appearance.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Peter, what is HP?

Are these black bodied/red LED HA 3?

Are any AAA's HA 2? If so, which ones?

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Huh, I just got one of these reds, now I am wondering, Is it real? Wow. What color should the inside of the battery tube be? My white real one, is Gold/brass colored. This one is Aluminum color. The threads are a little bit longer, and it doesnt have a ORing like the latest AAA. It has a gasket weird thing that doesnt look very promising as far as water tightness. The beam is not very flood-ish, more of a hot spot...As I type this, I am thinking of what I am going to ask Pocketlights here in a minute. Whats the deal?
Cameron

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Here's the timeline, I'm wondering where these turned up from?

1.0 First offered in May of 2001. Had gasket instead of O-ring. Type II finish.
1.? Switched to O-ring which made the units waterproof
2.5 Switched to Type III anodize, new retail packaging
3.0 Added ChemKote
3.1 Added roll crimp to increase reliability
3.2 Change circuit design and layout to slightly increase output

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

HP (www.hp.com ) is the LED manufacturer. They make some exceptionally bright red leds. But I thought they were around 635 nm like most other bright red leds these days, not a deeper cherry color.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

i just got mine from pocketlights today and was wondering why it didn't come with any sort of packaging /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif or the pocket clip??

oh well, i may see if anyone wants to trade me for a NIP turquoise or some other color.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

The batch of black body/red LED Arc AAA's that PocketLights.com recently shipped came without packaging because that is the way they came from my supplier. My supplier received these lights from Arc Flashlight about two years without packaging. These lights that PocketLights.com sold are new and unused.

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

[ QUOTE ]
PocketLights.com said:
The batch of black body/red LED Arc AAA's that PocketLights.com recently shipped came without packaging because that is the way they came from my supplier. My supplier received these lights from Arc Flashlight about two years without packaging. These lights that PocketLights.com sold are new and unused.

[/ QUOTE ]

we, or at least I trust you pocketlights. we're all just curious i guess /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Mine that i got from pocketlights had a blue LED /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif don't know why but i LIKE IT. ANy idea? its black body and i put in a battery and turned the head expecting red and Bam BLUE but its cool i like it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Thanks for the reply to our thread. We all wanted to just be on the same page on this and make sure we hadnt been scammed I am sure. So on to another question about these specific AAAs,
Can we place an ORing in the place of the gasket? I havent tried it yet, but it just doesnt seem to appear to be all thgat water proof. Any specific size to be looking for or just take the head to a hardware store and look for the best size? Thanks,
Cameron

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

My AAA from Pocketlights turns REALLY hard. It doesn't look like it's been greased, but other than that a great light. Seems really bright, but other than having several to comapre, is there a way to fogure out if it's one of the 50 with "bright" LED's or one of the others?

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

Dharma,

I just posted on another thread that my black widow is really bright too.

Does your have Chemkote? O-ring?

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

The first AAAs didn`t have retail packaging as such, but rather were shipped in the plain ziploc bags. The retail pack was introduced later on, as was the internal Chemkote layer. The very first run of AAAs had a fairly wide gasket sealing the head instead of an o-ring (I am looking for one of those if anyone has one for sale). Version 2.0 came later and also used a gasket, but it was thinner, more like a square o-ring, since the original V1 gasket was prone to tearing and bunching. Neiter gasket design was very effective so version 2.1 went to an ordinary round o-ring that oddly enough was also used on the very first prototypes.

The red AAAs from PocketLights are probably version 2.0, and as mentioned, are indeed collector`s items now. The red LED with narrow beam is a Toshiba part if I remember rightly. Later reds used the Hewlett Packard LED that was/is also used in the Photon lights (and incidentally was originally bought from Photon makers LRI at ~$6 each!) that emitted a much wider, smoother and brighter red beam.

And yes, I *am* dissapointed to have missed out on this deal, but have one the same or similar coming from another source so all is good nevertheless.


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re: Black body/red LED AAA\'s

I got mine today from TADgear. No clips, no chemkote, both have 0-rings, writing wraps around head, I assume type II black anodize instead of HA.