Simple One hour build - Defiant $5 light, $5 led and a few minutes time.

where do you get the discs (brass) and how do you attach the LED (i.e., pill)? Told you I didn’t know anything. BTW, awesome photos and doable build (I hope).

Looks like a nice fun project. Those are my favorite kind!

Nice work!!!

Thank you Old-Lumens, I've always wanted to try something like this but I was never really clear on how to do it. I have no idea if this is going to work or not but I'm going to give it a shot. I just got back from Home Depot with two sets of these lights. I've had to order everything I'm going to need so I guess it's going to be a couple of weeks before everything gets here and I can give it a try. I'm old, blind without my trifocals and my hands shake but I'm determined to try it. I've read a lot of other "how to do it" posts but none as clear and as simple as this one. From the looks of your pictures I'm assuming you also upgraded the wiring, can you tell me what gauge wire you used?

22ga silver plated, teflon coated wire from ebay seller navships.

multi-stranded.

No idea. I don’t check amps and volts.

Runtime? left on, about an hour, but alkalines burn bright and then drop off fast, leaving lower output that lasts a good while. Alkaline - Duracell.

Discs are from etsy, just search for the size you want. I normally use copper, but I ran out. Search “5/8 copper disc” or 3/4 disc, or whatever size you want.

I use etsy member "bopper" quite a bit.

Discs are soldered together and then adhered to the aluminum pill with AA (Arctic Alumina adhesive). The star is also adhered with AA.

Great mod, once again!

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but can 3xAAA alkalines run this thing reliably? Isn't that really stressing the cells to the point that they will rupture? I'm curious how many amps the thing is pulling. And what about 3xAAA NiMH, will they be driving the XM-L too hard in DD?

XM-L may stress them, but a Nichia will not. On the ones I have checked with a meter, I never saw more than about an amp out of the AAA Alkalines with any led. I have never had one leak, even when leaving the light on till it got dim as hell. It’s probably a possibility, but I have just never seen it.

Run 3xAAA NiMHs. They work fine. I'm just making these to sell to "regular people" and they don't want to screw with rechargeables, but prefer throw aways. NiMH will not hurt the leds. With AAA being such a low output, the voltage drops immediately and you're not putting much over 3 volts in the led. With Alkalines, they read higher (about 4v to start) and then they drop off fast. Remember also that I do not mod the battery holders, so there is considerable V/mA loss thru them. I don't mod them on purpose, to have the resistance there as a buffer of sorts.

That makes perfect sense, thanks O-L :)

Picked up two packs (4 lights) at my local H.D. Figure I'll mod all four eventually. Still a good many at my store.

-Garry

Wow, incredible job Justin! As somebody else said, a quick 10 minute mod for you would turn into a 10 hour ordeal for me. :slight_smile: Your craftsmanship is very admirable. Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

Impressive and for that money, wow :D!

Sorry I missed this post. I think overall that these are no better or worse than any other $5 light. Since you get two for ten, they are $5 lights. They all had small scuffs or scratches on them and that tells me they were just bulk packed in bins, when they were made. The threads are just ok. They are not too tight and have some play. Like I say, a $5 light.

Hello, I’m new to this forum. I like the mod a lot, could I ask you where did you buy the Cree XM-L or a good source for the Led’s with the boards? A link would help, thank you very much in advance.

http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/search.php?encode=YTo0OntzOjg6ImNhdGVnb3J5IjtzOjI6Ijc1IjtzOjg6ImtleXdvcmRzIjtzOjQ6ImNyZWUiO3M6MTA6ImltYWdlRmllbGQiO3M6MToiICI7czoxODoic2VhcmNoX2VuY29kZV90aW1lIjtpOjEzNTQ3NTQyNDI7fQ==

http://www.intl-outdoor.com/led-c-107.html

There’s a start, all three of those sites are trusted and if your unsure, just ask before you buy, welcome, hope you have fun here laszlomdq

Thanks for signing up, laszlomdq!

Thank you very much for the links, I can’t wait to make my first mod.

Thanks a lot!!!

I just want to comment that these lights make excellent "mules" for tailstanding "candlelight" - even stock (stock esp. if you want more runtime I suppose). Just unscrew the head and you have a very wide even spread of light. Tailstand it and you'll light up a room (or a tent, etc. . .).

-Garry

Quick question and a little bit off topic, I have some of the flashlights from this old thread: Linky Which Cree LED should I buy? There are so many different ones that I don’t know which one to choose. Thanks again.