What LED fits these parameters?

The thread "what light do you trust your life to?" got me to thinking...

I need to change the lights in my SHTF kit to something more "bombproof". Here's what I want:

* LED, preferably not a Luxeon (because they're tougher than a bulb, and runtime is far more important than output in this use.)

* No regulation, but nothing overdriven (electronics fail - I've had 2 regulated lights crap out on me. Seems silly to ditch a bulb because they blow, only to substitute a circuit board that can blow. I want to take maximum advantage of the LED durability.)

* AA powered (any number of cells - I can find uses for all of the form factors.)

* "Twisty" switch (again, less to go wrong. I've had issues with switches from just about every maker, and wouldn't want to deal with than when the bomb drops! And make it a "real" twisty like the CMG Infinity, not the twist-activated switch like the old Inova X5...)

* Of course, the light in general must be well designed and constructed

So, does anything fit these criteria??

-=[ grant ]=-

Trek 4,
4 white 5mm LEDs, twisty switch and it runs on 3 AA batteries. Waterproof thrown in and with the 4.5V output of 3AA, no need for anything but a resistor. You can get them at the batterystation.com for $29.
As far as the overdriving, I am not sure what they are driven at but it should be fine for your uses. It should be a great emergency light.

I respectfully disagree about the Trek 4. I'm fairly certain it still uses 10,000-mcd LEDs, and there are only four of them, yielding 40,000 mcd. By today's standards, that's very modest.

How about one of these:

1AA:

• 8-LED XNova (new version), 26,000 mcd LEDs
• 12-LED Ghost II (26,000 mcd LEDs)

2AA:

• 16-LED Wave (26,000 mcd LEDs, bluish beam)
• 11-LED Tactical Light (15,000 mcd LEDs, maybe 23,000)

3AA: No multi-LEDs that I know of; only Luxeons.

4AA: Propolymer 4-AA LED (7 LEDs, probably 10,000 mcd each)

5AA: Fantasea 44-LED ($75 list)

MM AA, white 35kmcd, ground down to resemble MJLED. Primary battery Li-ION 14500 and a spacer with a limiting resistor (30mA). Will run on 2x AA alky batts at about 10-15mA. A red ground down LED in the tailcap to take over when the AA batts get too low for the white LED. Fully waterproof, and shock resistant. Oh yeah, and mineral glass in the front. NO electronics, and twisty on/off/focus.
Jeff

I like the Xnovas, but don't know if they're tough enough to meet this request.

The Lightwave 2000 is worth considering:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/lightwave_2000.htm

C4LED said:

I like the Xnovas, but don't know if they're tough enough to meet this request.

Click to expand...

Oops--You're right. I competely overlooked that criterion. "Never mind."

NiteIze module in a Minim*g? Dead simple head twisty, 3 5mm LEDs with I believe a resistor. Should do hours and hours of decreasing light.

What about the Pelican Recoil 2410? Tuff as nails with a good runtime.


http://www.pelican.com/products.html

There's no substitute for redundancy. I agree completely with your criteria about direct drive and twisties for reliability, but even lights with all these features and good pedigrees can still fail. The other night, I was out walking with my Gerber LX1.0 which I considered about the most solid, reliable light there is for a reasonable cost. Part way through, it just flickered and died on me, and has remained dead ever since. No dropping, no abuse, little run time, but there it was. I finished walking with my backup Nuwai TM-313 which by the way could have gone about 40 hours with the battery in it and the 3 AA's from the Gerber.

Anyway, maybe it's better to have a few extra reasonable quality lights than to put all your eggs into one/few "perfect" lights. Just a thought.

Thanks to all the replys. I'd like to respond to a few points:

Trek 4,
4 white 5mm LEDs, twisty switch and it runs on 3 AA batteries. Waterproof thrown in and with the 4.5V output of 3AA, no need for anything but a resistor. You can get them at the batterystation.com for $29.

Click to expand...

Thanks - that's exactly the type of thing I was looking for.

NiteIze module in a Minim*g? Dead simple head twisty, 3 5mm LEDs with I believe a resistor. Should do hours and hours of decreasing light.

Click to expand...

This proved to be the best choice - like many folks, I have a bunch of these hanging around the house doing nothing. (In fact, several were so corroded from leaking batteries that the were unusabl!) They're simply, reliable, field repairable, and the Nite-Ize modules are cheap. Finally, with a spare bulb in the tailcap there is something of a "fail-safe" quality about it. Testing revealed that the module would give 18 hours of usuable light. Cheap, too.

Anyway, maybe it's better to have a few extra reasonable quality lights than to put all your eggs into one/few "perfect" lights. Just a thought.

Click to expand...

Actually, I probably wasn't as clear as I could have been. These will be the "last line"; before getting to these, I will have exhausted or broken the 2 lights I EDC, plus the lights in my ever-present daily emergency kit. They are the ones that HAVE to work, since they'll be the last ones available.

Thanks for all the recommendations!

too bad it has got to be AA's. You can use a surefire spares carrire and have plenty of 123a cells at your disposal,

Anyway the sutrfire A2 has non luxeon led and a nice regulated globe(another strike). Fantastic package. Why only one light? I have photons in htf package,
Yaesumofo

I put a bunch of the latest LED's in PR bases. They can be used in any light which takes this type of bulb, such as the PT Tec 20 shown here. With a dummy battery you can even use them in a 6v. light, such as the PT Tec 40.

If you grind off the bottom lips of most 5mm LEDs you can jam 3 together on a PR bulb with a 22 ohm resistor and have a nice 6v *bulb*... I have made a half dozen of these so far and am still trying to figure a way to make it so I can crank them out easily and faster. I have a few 4LED PR bulbs that I put in lights I reamed out the hole in the reflector and also the 3 and 4 LED bulbs work nice in Rayovac's kids 4AA incan lanterns costing about $6 at walmart etc. The lanterns with the translucent tops work best.