Sears 4 AA - 5 LED Flashlight - anyone got it?

I saw this light at Sears yesterday on sale for $16.99.
Sears

It's about the same size and shape as a Dorcy Cool Blue, but it has 5 LEDs arranged in a circle with one in the center. Pressing the switch is supposed to cycle through 3 modes: the center LED (spotlight), the 4 outer LEDs (floodlight) and all LEDs on. It runs on 4 AA batteries.

I haven't heard of this light before. Has anyone got it? What do you think? It's kind of chunky but it looks like it would be good to have around the house for power failures and such.

Edit: the website specs say Xenon/LED, but I think the package in the store only mentioned LEDs.

yeah, i've got one. it's in my wifes car. you can easily put in a xenon bulb in place of the middle led or even a reversed polarity everled.

pretty rugged little light and the lens seems to be pretty scratch resistant and tough too. middle led puts out a Inova X1 or Brinkmann Rebel led type beam. the other 4 are what i prefer and put out a pretty wide and bright beam.

I picked one up a few months ago (found out about it from this thread). Got it for $13.99 with a Craftsman Club discount on top of the sale price. Seems like a pretty sturdy light, but haven't used it a lot - still too intrigued with Luxeon-based lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

- Dwayne

Got 1 a few weeks ago myself. 15.00 at Sears. It's been lying on the back seat of the old Bronco 2.
Hasn't seen much use but it appears indestructible!
Money well spent in this "Flashaholics" opinion.

I just have to ask whether you could fit a mag reflector in that thing, although from the pic it looks kind of short.

I bought one and am not overly impressed. It's heavy and clunky and the cycles aren't all that useful. The 1-led setting and the 5-led cycle are just not all that practical. The 4-led setting works pretty well.

Maybe if you replaced the middle led w xenon the light would be more useful......actually Dorcy gets super light on 4AA using a 3-cell xenon bulb.

I think it's going into the Xmas present box because it just doesn't really fit into the flashaholic stable.

If yours is the version with LED's & Xenon, would you be interested in selling it?

I saw these on sale in the flyer, but haven't checked them out yet.

How is the Single LED focused? Is it like the Turtle Lite with a reflector or does it use an optic?

It's an optic, Think pal-light, PT Attitude 2, Brinkmann Rebel etc.

I bought one of these. The lens is focused like the Brinkmann LongLife. Using the 1 LED, there is not enough spill to walk around easily. The 4 LED setting is the most useful. Using all 5 LED's is useless to walk around. The focus thing in the center destroys the flood.

I tried to r&r the lens and broke it. I do like the removeable pr based LED. I wish it could stand on end like This .

I just saw another thread about What's next from Dorcy.

Assuming the Sears light is made by Dorcy, it looks like Dorcy is releasing the same thing in a different housing under their own name (third light down).
Dorcy web page

Not too bad. I rigged one up on my bike earlier this year for a Night Ride in Indianapolis. Had a Yukon HL Luxeon strapped to my helmet for seeing. The center bulb is reverse polarity, the shell is positive and the tip is negative. It is a Dorcy in Craftsman clothes. Dorcy has a stainless boss light out there at one of the Dollar stores. It has a flat base if I remember correctly.

So, will an incandescent bulb work in place of the single LED that is in the middle of the reflector?

Here's an odd one, I just got one of these in Japan. The only thing that says Dorcy are the batteries. The light itself doesn't appear to be branded. I thought it was an interesting design particularly if I stick a Lux in place of the center 5mm LED.

Just for fun I swapped the center LED to a 2.5V .5A halogen bulb and it seems to work fine tho the LEDs+halogen is kind of a waste.

[ QUOTE ]
Lunal_Tic said:
Here's an odd one, I just got one of these in Japan. The only thing that says Dorcy are the batteries. The light itself doesn't appear to be branded. I thought it was an interesting design particularly if I stick a Lux in place of the center 5mm LED.

Actually, this light is sold in Japan with a 1 Watt lux. I will try and get the retailers who carry it for you

oops, totally forgot i had some pics of mine....

2 on page 1 and then a couple of beamshots on the second page:
http://community.webshots.com/album/148602116uLMHib

I also saw the light at a sears store did a search and found some threads and like buglightgeek, I was wondering the same:

(buglightgeek said
So, will an incandescent bulb work in place of the single LED that is in the middle of the reflector?

Does anyone know if a 3 or 4 cell will work in this light. Also does anyone know if the light will overheat by doing this.

Another thread mentioned that the polarity for the PR socket is reversed. The reason I ask is because I was thinking that I can replace the center led with a xenon bulb and use the led bulb in another 4aa light. Or will this polarity issue wreck my plans? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks,
Steven

[ QUOTE ]
STEVENT6 said:
I also saw the light at a sears store did a search and found some threads and like buglightgeek, I was wondering the same:

(buglightgeek said
So, will an incandescent bulb work in place of the single LED that is in the middle of the reflector?

Does anyone know if a 3 or 4 cell will work in this light. Also does anyone know if the light will overheat by doing this.

Another thread mentioned that the polarity for the PR socket is reversed. The reason I ask is because I was thinking that I can replace the center led with a xenon bulb and use the led bulb in another 4aa light. Or will this polarity issue wreck my plans? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks,
Steven

[/ QUOTE ]

yep, i tried it. it will work. incandescent bulbs don't "care" about polarity. an ideal setup, though, would be to use one of the new Everled bulbs that utilize a high dome luxeon and get that in the reversed polarity format.........heck i tried out my normal everled with a side-emitter luxeon and the beam was still pretty nice.


but yes, a 3 cell krypton bulb would probably be a good setup in this light.

Thanks 4x4,

Also have you tried the bulb from the craftsman in another 3-4 cell pr base light? If so how is it?

Do you think a 3-4 cell krypton or xenon can melt anything in the light, have you tried this also?

I think that if all this works that it would really make this a versatile light, as you can change the options.

Thanks for your help.

Steve

[ QUOTE ]
STEVENT6 said:
Thanks 4x4,

Also have you tried the bulb from the craftsman in another 3-4 cell pr base light? If so how is it?

Do you think a 3-4 cell krypton or xenon can melt anything in the light, have you tried this also?

I think that if all this works that it would really make this a versatile light, as you can change the options.

Thanks for your help.

Steve

[/ QUOTE ]

i don't see any melting problems since alot of other people have overdriven bulbs in other plastic based lights like the Princeton Tec 40 without any problems.

the led bulb is of course on a raised platform so i would be tough to find an optimal reflector/optic.....that and you would have to use it in a reversed polarity light such as one of those bigger 6v lanterns(super long runtime then!) or you could rearrange the batteries somehow in any other light.

ya see, krypton and xenon bulbs will work with negative or positive battery contact, and most of your leds only work with positive battery contact. well in this light they have re-configured the pr-based led bulb to work with negative battery contact.