I’ve seen this old 1968 NASA ACR Apollo brass light around a few times and although it is not my usual style it kept catching my attention as I liked the simplistic look of it, and it is a historic piece with some being flown on the LM.
The originals are very expensive if you can find one, auctioning up to $10k. Space flown artifacts
NASA description: PENLIGHT
Manufacturer: ACR Electronics Co.
Model: ACR-FA-5
Dimensions: 5¼” x 1” x 5/8” (battery tube)
134mm x 25mm x 16mm (battery tube)
Weight: 2½ oz (70g) (without cells)
High: 15lm
NASA part no.: ACR-FA-5
No. carried/mission: 6 to 8 (Apollo)
No. carried in LM: 2
NASA usage: Apollo through Shuttle (late 80’s)
Barbarin from CPF has a replica kickstarter project going on for machine made versions in brass and also made one in Ti, should be nice if it goes into production but they run on alkaline cells with a single mode and lower max output.
I don’t have a lathe or such to make one but I couldn’t resist having a go at making my own replica version by hand with some differences.
The CRX Apollo is powered by a single 10440 with another cell carried spare in the partitioned insulated copper battery carrier, the reason for this is that the 16mm battery tube was too tight to fit a 14500 and I need to get a boring tool plus the storage compartment adds something different.
I may modify the light for 14500 compatibilty at some point in the future.
A simple two mode interface operated by twisting the head of the light switches between high and low modes.
The LED is a Cree XM-L2 5C on 16mm Noctigon on a sanded down S2 brass pill under a 20mm light OP aluminium reflector with 20mm ARC glass.
The 5C tint is about as warm as I like to have in my lights and still pays a little homage to the incan lamp used in the original, especially on low mode which is approximately the same output.
There is also a magnetic tail on my version.
CRX description: PENLIGHT
Manufacturer: CRX
Model: CRX Apollo
Dimensions: 5¼” x 7/8” x 5/8” (battery tube)
134mm x 22mm x 16mm (battery tube)
Weight: 5oz (142g) (with cells)
High: 440lm
Low: 18lm
NASA part no.: CRX-A2
No. carried/mission: 1
No. carried in LM: 0
NASA usage: None yet
Nice, but if you go through a development process and produce Apollo 2, Apollo 3, etc, remember to stop at Apollo 12. We wouldn’t want you to go out at night to test moonlight mode, have it blow up in your face, and barely make it back alive.
Well, one of the things I like about this light is the consistently smooth, shiny finish all over. But, if you want it to look more like the original, then go for it!
Yeah I was thinking about it last night, leaving it plain or maybe some rings cut in something like the OL light?
Don’t encourage me :laughing:
The thought had crossed my mind but I’m trying to use up some drivers, emitters & stuff I already have sitting here. I think the PK paladin driver will work from two alkaline/ NiMH cells too, will check that later.
You could add a texture band or two to the head so it looks more similar to the original. FWIW, I like the silky smooth look but being a twisty, I can see that being troublesome for operation.
So it runs fine on two AAA eneloops too, got one hour out of it on high mode 390lm, low is 18lm on those.
The single 10440 runs it for about 45mins on high down to 3v and four hours to 3.7v on low.
I might just keep the loops in it.
