Possible New Mod Fodder

How about THIS?

It looks like this:





and is under twelve bucks...

But it's huge! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

Larry

It looks like a pipe light. It is huge, but may a good host for a modestly driven 5W. 1.2" diameter bezel should accommodate a nice size reflector.

Nice find, Charlie.

It looks like the $5 light from Cheaper than Dirt people were talking about last July here . Cost then was $5 each plus $7 shipping for up to 4 of them.

Others have found the head a little tight for a Luxeon and an optic, but it has been done. The light is made of cast zinc which doesn't conduct heat as well as aluminum, but people have put DD 3 watters in it.

Larry, everything's huge to You!

Chop, we'll see in time I guess.

nerdengineer, I modded something similar but the one I used was indeed aluminum and came from the same vendor (Electronic GoldMine). Even made the IMS 20.5mm reflector fit in the head, and it turned out to be a pretty decent light:

http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/gm.htm

That is the same light from CTD (for $5). They used to have the design Charlie used for his mod, then it changed to this new and not-improved design.

Now that EG has the same light I'm thinking this must be the newer version. I have both. And the older knurled one was nicer. Better fit and finish, and better switch function and feel. The new one still works well for the price, but definitely has a lower quality, cheezier feel to it.

I've been planing on modding them, but been too busy... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Okay, reading this thread reminded me I had some of these lights to mod and I've been slacking. So instead of going to bed like I should have, I decided to do one of the quick-and-dirty mods.

I have different plans for several of these lights, and one of the plans was to do a UV mod. So I fired up the soldering iron and here is the result:



8 bright UV LEDs in place of the original whites. I may further enhance this later with a glass lens and a high pass filter. But for now it works. It fluoresces things very brightly.

Now I'm going to bed... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif

Don't use glass.. it tends to block UV...!

nice mod!

Actually, most plastics are pretty poor for UV as well. Although this light does work well at fluorescing things, there is a noticeable increase without the plastic lens. I talked to Chris at FlashlightLens.com and he said the Schott B270 glass is around 94% transmittance at 390nm which sounds pretty good. I was also thinking about a Wratten 18A filter which would block almost all of the visible light output (and I think I may even have one of those... somewhere?).

Aloha, Tim

Well, nothing wrong with 94%.

In spectrophotometry, if you want to get a decent absorption profile across the UV range one has to switch to a cuvette (sample container) cut out of a large NaCl crystal...!

Thank goodness we don't have to be so concerned with our flashlights... somehow I think salt lenses would cause problems for EDC use! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif