I just picked up the Harbor Freight 120 LED rechargeable work light as I’m always wrenching under a hood or needing a portable work light. You see can the light and specs here: http://www.harborfreight.com/120-led-rechargeable-under-hood-work-light-60793.html The documentation claims 2 hr runtime on low and 4 hr on high. I haven’t run it through its paces so I can’t validate those claims yet.
I pulled it apart to see if there was anything worth upgrading. I’m almost 100% sure I can squeeze a 26650 into the case. I’d really love to dump the 5mm LEDs too.
Hey man welcome to BLF! I see you’ve been here a while but onl have 8 posts so you still qualify for a warm welcome lol.
First thing I’ll say is this- 5mm encapsulated LED’s work great for their purpose. A batt upgrade sounds nice but the amount of work to make that take HBLED’s would be straight up retarted. You’re better off starting from scratch that trying to convert that thing. Where would the heat go? Even if there was a heatsink how would it dissipate to air? By the time you build a Heatsink and figure out everything an seal it back up there probably wouldnt be 1% of those parts left. Serously not to be a dick but use that thing how it is and build something from scratch (or atlease find a better host) if you want to upgrading that thing properly.
One other thing- with a non-removable cell like that you might be better off using LiPO pack’s in there, might fit more capacity overall with less weight.
If it were mine I’d leave it as is and use it, I have other lights for other needs, however if I absolutely insisted on upgrading it I beliebe my only changes would be a LiPO foil pack cell and a TP4056 charger housed inside somewhere!
Don’t let my post count fool you. I’ve been getting in trouble with the wife every time I buy a new light or pull a new one apart. Her apathy persists despite my best efforts.
I’d really love to do a battery pack but I don’t think it would be feasible. Ideally, without going too crazy, I’d like to upgrade the run time, color, and beam spread. These 5mm create a large hotspot and I think I’d prefer it to flood a bit more. Plus, the ~6500k gives me the sads. Thanks for the feedback.
In that case I’d wrap it in a sheet of DC-fix. DC-fix however is pretty rough on the surface and is great at trapping dirt, not ideal for a work light. You can find totally smooth diffuser film or you could try to affix the DC film on the inside of the tube.
As for the LiPO you dont have to build a pack, it wouldn’t be any more difficult than an 26650 conversion and you could probably get around 5000mAh capacity in there at the same 4.2v (3.7 nominal). I mention the TP4056 because they cost $1, can be set to whatever current you need (up to ~1A) and are tiny. They work with Li-ion or LiPO so I would do that regardless, HKJ tested them and ranked them very well overall, I’ve never had one miss termination on a LiPO and I charge all my R/c hobby 1s packs with them.
I absolutely would not even bother changing the cell at all with that factory charger, with the cell being protected like snakebite mentions that means almost for sure that they already know the charger overcharges and is in general bad on the cell and most likely even on the verge of being unsafe (the protected cell is a work around to be legal). Even if I wasnt doing a battery swap I’d still wire in a TP4056, assuming that’s a 5v source you could even use the same power cord and wire the TP4056’s in to that socket.
This is again getting way to advanced ($$:money_mouth_face: for this light but for pure flood you should research remote phosphor (RP). Instead of using white LED’s (which are just blue LED’s with a embedded phosphor layer) you would use visible blue LED’s and the RP would convert it to even, diffused white light. You can get them in different CCT’s and they usually have great CRI. I’ve never seen them in a flexable sheet (I’ve only ever used round glass RP panels) but I think something like that might exist, otherwise you could put any rectangle panel that fits down in there over the emitter’s and hot glue it in place (because a RP tube I’m sure costs to much).
as others have said…dangerous setup…no CC/CV charge control for that Li Ion pack…
I wonder if just wadding up a chunk of 0000 steel wool and pushing it thru the tube w/ a broom handle a few dozen times wouldn’t “frost” it up enough…
Seriously…if you plan on using it and using just a regular 5vdc input…put a TP4056 board w/ battery protection on that battery
Definitely a nice looking under hood light…anemic battery though
Hi guys!
I’m looking for some help with this same light. Resistors R1 and R3 are both blown out on the main board and the battery isn’t getting charged anymore. Any ideas on saving this light? Was thinking about replacing battery with LiPo 18650 and a USB charging board. I guess I’d lose the low/high feature, no big deal. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Just got this light as well on sale for $24 and was wanting to install a bigger battery. Could not figure out how this thing comes apart without breaking it. Can anyone give me some pointers? Thanks so much!
How can i take this apart t find and replace the battery? It worked well when i got it and then battery started lasting shorter and shorter time. Now turns on and lasts a short while only one time before needing to be recharged.
I’ve taken this thing apart so long ago I can’t remember how I did it. I do remember there was a trick. I am on vacation at the moment, once I get home I’ll bust it back open and let you know how I did it.
It looks from the picture that there is a screw in the black plastic part that goes through the clear plastic tube and secures the ends on to the tube. You certainly could buy an NCR/Panasonic 18650 battery with tabs on the end for around $7.50 and replace the existing battery.
I’ve gotten really down on Harbor Freight Tool after buying two soldering guns to replace the one HFT gun that I had for a decade. The first of the two wouldn’t heat the tip right out of the box. Traipsed back to the store and got a replacement. The tips on that one all failed after a couple of months making the soldering gun useless. It was $17 wasted.
Wire up a set of alligator clips to attach to the battery. Epoxy glue a couple of magnets to the back metal bar and it will stay in place on a car hood. You can get this light with a clear or milky lens. I bought around two dozen of them to use as undercounter lights and for retrofitting incandescent fixtures. I also bought a 12V CCTV li-polymer backup battery to power the light when I had no other source. You can run the light off any old 12V DC wall converter from discarded electronics.
Apologies for the delay but here’s the information that you wanted. It took me a minute to figure out how to get it back apart. I forgot how crusty this thing is on the inside. I cut the battery out and I am performing a capacity test as I type. I’ll update with the capacity when it is done.
The key to getting the light apart is the collar below, on the left. It has little keys that lock onto ears on the handle portion. If you are holding the light straight up and looking down at the collar, give it a clockwise turn to disengage the locks. From there it is just 4 screws.
