Black & Decker Spotlight from Wal-Mart 4AA batteries - Photo Heavy - It's Done!

They should have given the LED star a bigger platform to sit flat onto/against. Looks like its sitting up on a pedestal. Other than that, it looks like a nice mod host. Trippy looking driver board. Looks more like an audio amplifier circuit than a DC-DC board, 10Volt caps? Not sure about that trim-pot, and what it does. Did you try turning it? Might not be a bad idea to give it a try since the LED is turning blue from the 1.5A. That is a lot of current for an XPC. You could probably mount an XML-T6/U2 star in there and almost double the lumen output.

ive had one of those lights before. it was pretty bright without anything done to it. left it in the kayak for 8 months or so until it finally gave in to the salt water

1.5a, it was more like 1.8a.
I am going to find out what that trim pot does, when I take it back apart, after doing beam shots. Once I get the star off, I will see if it’s marked.
I think an XM-L would turn it into a floody light, but I noticed on another light with a Nichia 219, that it seemed to do pretty good in a thrower type of reflector. I really think I will try the Nichia in it. I’m just not loving mega lumens, like I used to. It’s amazing just how few lumens it takes, in a well focused light. My multi emitter builds are over and other than the SST-90 aspheric I had already planned, I will stick to XM-l, Nichia and maybe an XT-E.

Anyhow, when I get home, I will see how it does at 100 yards, that’s about as far as I can get at home.

Yeah the 219 has a very similar dispersion to the XPG… both work well in large dish throw reflectors (IMHO). Curious… Who is selling the 219 on a star? Its a great emitter.

At 1.5-1.8A that XPC on a little pedestal doesn’t stand a chance, outside of short bursts only. Depending on the thermal design of that host 1.8A might even be a bit much for a 219 or XPG with long enough ON cycles.

Looking forward to your mods OL.

Very nice it looks just like my Stanley spotlight but mine does not have a 4aa holder :frowning:

Illumination Supply

What’s the reflector size on this?

The input power is ~10W on this. Kinda crazy for a xp-c but not bad for an xm-l. 20mm star, too.

I don’t have it apart again, but right now rough measurement, 58mm lens Sits in a rubber ring), 60mm reflector. Don’t know depth yet.

Beam Shots

Inside the garage, with the normal lights on

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All shots from here on, were done with ISO 200, F:2.7, Daylight White Balance.

Inside the garage 1 second shutter

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Inside the garage 2 seconds shutter

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Side of the house, standard 1 second shutter

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Side of the house 1 second shutter

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Side of the house standard 2 seconds shutter

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Side of the house 2 second shutter

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Pond at 80-100 yards standard - 2 seconds shutter

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Pond 2 seconds shutter

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and here's one at 1 second shutter

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Here's High and Low at 1 second shutter

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That's about the best I can do with beam shots. Hopefully it will tell something. It is a very tight beam and much brighter than I thought. For me, it's too tight. I don't have use for, nor care for a tight spot, so hopefully the Nichia will give out a larger spot.

The nichia 219 will provide several times larger spot (and supposedly very nice color). However, be careful as 8W assuming ~80% efficiency is still above rated input of the emitter.

I’m interested to see if the amperage is adjustable with the trim pot on the board. I will be testing that tomorrow. Depending on that, I might either use that board, or use a 7135 board.

OH, the lens measured 54.7mm and the overall OD of the reflector is 60mm, but the lens sits down into the reflector, so the usable diameter is 53mm. I still didn’t measure the depth.

The LED voltage measured 3.34vdc under load. High setting on LED.

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Close up of star

hs1

Pad on heat sink, that star touches against. I'm thinking of milling (dremel), it down and just make a copper one, the same thickness, but fills the whole bottom diameter. Not sure yet, but that's my inclination right now.

I tested the board trim pot and it is for the LOW setting. The HIGH setting is non adjustable and still reads 1.8+A, so I guess it will have to go and be replaced with a 7135 driver. If I knew electronics, I could probably just change out one of the resistors, but that's way beyond me.

Was thinking about it further, you could probably improve the thermal contact and heat performance with a little dremel work.

Cut the 3x screws that attach the star to the reflector. I would leave the screws in the reflector and just dremel off the philips heads. Use a damp sponge to keep the metal cool as your dremel does its thing. You don’t want to melt and deform the reflector plastic. Use whats left of the screws to center position the LED in the reflector. That will create a flat heatsink-star plane. Next grind down the rectangular pedestal on the cast heatsink, go slow and make sure its a flat surface. Next grind down the 3 posts on the reflector, little by little until you get the LED star to sit flat against the heatsink. You might have to shorten the 3x remaining screws by the height of the removed heatsink pedestal. A little dab of AS-5 or heatsink grease and youre good to go. If you did this you would have the same thermal design as the home depot Defiant.

EDIT You might have a lose fitting lens after doing this. It looks like the reflector presses firmly against the glass. With the removed heatsink pedestal, you’ll be shortening the overall height of the LED+reflector stack by the thickness of the removed metal.

A mod like that might be just enough to alleviate the angry blue-ness from the XPC (if you wanted to keep it in there).

Sounds like an excellent mod. The Nichia 219 is a good one.

Does anyone sell the 219 with a cooler color temp?…. around 5000K?

Awesome mod… I might give this one a try too. I’ve got enough spare eneloops just laying around, and I have a spare XML-T6 in 1A tint. That would be an EASY drag and drop mod to double the lumen output., if you skip the dremel work.

I don’t know anything, but want to ask if you gonna put a Cree XM-L LED on that thing?

I’m willing to bet this light was designed and manufactured by the same folks that did the Stanley fat max. I am seeing a lot of similarities between the two.

-It looks like they spent similar efforts in the thermal design.
-The trigger lock mechanism is identical
-Lite-trend is also the supplier for the stanley XML star
-Nearly identical hand-grip shape
-Trigger switch design is identical
-Identical use of a thin O-ring gasket around the lens
-Reflector shape and design is nearly identical, just scaled down in size
-The circuit board looks to be comparable quality, and overall complexity too.

Curious is it possible to turn that trim-pot around and get more than 1.8A… turn the LO into a HI for an XML?

Whats the little red LED for? Does this light have a charge port, or 12V cigarette lighter cable?

Great dissection O-L and good luck with the 219 mod… I expect greatness, thats a GREAT led.

The red light just turns on, when the light is on.
I am sure, like many other things, there’s only so many places that actually manufacture and they do it for many companies and either change the labels, or the colors, etc. It’s done all the time and has been for a long time.

Thats how I made my heatsink ect……

Nope, not an XM-L. Heat is the factor here. Sure there is a heatsink, but it’s cheap cast aluminum EDIT: (Or Die Cast Metal, which would be useless for heat transfer), so it won’t transfer heat very well. Also it’s very thin and has no real mass. The heatsink can take heat from the LED, but after that, there’s no where to go. The outer shell is rubber and plastic (both are insulators), so the heat will be trapped. I will keep it as a lower amp LED, than an XM-L driven at 2.8A to 3A. A Nichia 219 at about 1.4A should be fine. Again, I’m not going for mega lumens, there’s other things than just that, like high CRI LEDs, that give a more natural illumination.

Hey OL sorry for the rapid-fire, scatter brained comments and questioning (thats just how my mind works some times).

I would think carefully about a driver swap to 7135s… they can generate a lot of heat in lights like this that keep Vin > Vf for a good percentage of the discharge. 7135 heat generation can be as much as any plane-jane RLC circuit, or FET with current sense resistors.

I think you should load up some eneloops and run it on HI for 10-15 minutes. If that OEM driver circuit remains moderately warm to the touch… stick with it. I have found 7135 drivers can get painfully hot to the touch the longer Vin remains greater than Vf.

I know, that is a concern for those 7135 boards. There is room in the board area, for a separate heat sink for the board, once the original board is gone, it leaves quite a bit of space for that.
I may try to send this board to another member and see if it can be changed to 1.4A, I just don’t want to put a large die in it like an XM-L and I don’t want to push a small die to 1.8+A, with a poor heat sink that is enclosed in a plastic insulator. As far as modifying this board myself, no way! As bad as I shake, I would have it looking like a figure eight demo derby track in a few seconds, LOL.