just got one of these

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=03493673000

The rectangular battery holder holds the 3 AAA's 2 on one side and one on the other, i believe i could get another AAA in there with some dremel work to the battery holder , my question is will that overdrive the LED slightly to where it will reduce the life of the LED, by a little bit, or will it just smoke.

I also saw the empty spot on the rack where the 2 AA 1 watts were, i took a rain check for 4, at $6.49 each i had to buy more than one and they will be in on friday.

Thanks in advance for answering my question at the top

How does the new Craftsman 3AAA light compare to the other lights you have?

I've got its big brother, the 3D cell that looks just like it. Its my first LED flashlight and I was thinking about getting the Craftsman 3AAA.

The "bulb", which is a 1W Luxeon in a PR base with a resistor inside, is resistored to run on 3 cells. Life would be short from what I know if you ran 4xAAA. Another thread discusses putting the "bulb" in a 3C or 3D Mag, which due to the ability of the larger cells to dump more current, drives it harder and brighter. Some mixed oppinions there on expected life, but none of us doing this have fried one yet.

With respect to that, jwl, you are the first I have heard with the 3D version. Does the "bulb" come out with a retainer on the back of the reflector, like a basic 2-D light? And if so, and if you have a multimeter, could you check the resistance across the bulb. This would help determine if Craftsman uses a specific resistor for these in the 3-D application. Thanks!

Hondo

Hondo,

The reflector is attached (two screws) to a circuit board that holds a Luxeon Star. This flashlight has two 'brightness' levels. There are two resistors (one on each side) of the star. If it helps the resistors are both tan colored, the strips on each are as follows;
gold, gold, blue & green
gold, gold, gray & brown

Not sure if that helps any, been to many years since I had a class about any electrical stuff and we didn't spend much time on it either.

I'll see if I can measure any resistance with my cheap-o multimeter.

Hondo,
No luck yet. I keep coming up with no resistance. How do you measure resistance on a set-up like this?
There is one (+) terminal and two (-) terminals on the reflector/star/circuit board module.
The (+) terminal has a red wire running up to the star. The (-) terminals run up tp the resistors but I can't follow which wires exactly go where, its way to crowded inside the module to see everything and I tried to take it apart but they have the circuit board held in by melting two places on the module down close to the top of the board.
I did happen to look under the star and get the bin information - RYOKW.

You know, those RYAK and RY0K 1 watters are very impressive. I have one of each in my Dorcy 3D Super 1W lights and even resistored, they are both as bright as a mediocre S bin 3W light.

Sounds like the 3xAAA and the 3xD are very different lights indeed.

Thanks jwl, and nikon for decription. It sounds like, based on 1.2 Ohms for the PR base Luxeon from the 3xAAA (nikon's input from other thread, I couldn't measure w/o taking the assembly apart either, which nikon did) that we are dropping into the 3-D Mag, that it is being driven harder than the Craftsman 3-D light with it's 1.8 Ohm high beam resistor. Too bad it is not a portable "bulb" in the 3-D light, but who cares when you get 2-stage output!

Still not sure if going down in resistance from 1.8 Ohms to 1.2 Ohms is going to shorten the Lux life a lot. Rumor is some 3xAAA lights run the Luxeon I true direct, no resistor at all. Also, the 3-D Dorcy I have pulls the same current at the tailcap as the 3-D Mag with the Craftsman 3xAAA bulb in it. I am a little more comforatable knowing they are within 0.6 Ohms of each other, though.