I’m interested in coming up with some tiny lantern that I can hang from the ceiling of a tent.
Basically, similar to the Nitecore LA10, but with a few changes:
- Centered loop / caribiner to hang it with
- 1 x 18650 for long runtime. Might be convinced to go with
- 2700k temperature, ideally high CRI…* this is the one everyone seems to miss*! (Does nichia make a low temperature version?). I don’t know why NiteCore and others think it makes sense to use blue light at night time.
- Simple operation - probably just 3 preprogrammed modes, probably something like 1 lumen, 20lumen, 100 lumen, off
diffuser for 360* (or 180*) lighting
Any thoughts on an easy way to build this, or a host body that might work for it?
I have already custom built many various hanging small lanterns for those exact reasons, one favorite i modded from a host that has three options, a flashlight, table lantern, and a hanging lantern & runs from a single 18650. (i can take some photos of it soon.)
Just for s&g, I went and got one of these to haqcue apart and fit with 1800K LEDs. Didn’t get them, but got a bunch of 2000K LEDs from strip-lights and “amber” car-lights (actual 2000K white, not monochromatic amber). So those should look like actual candlelight.
Should be easy to fit with some parallelled Li cells, maybe even a charging circuit (those stamp-sized boards) for convenience.
The clear plastic column has to go, and figure I’d make a cluster of those 2000K LEDs and diffuser (a pinch of aquarium-filter material should do nicely), and it might pass as a decent lightweight lantern.
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Hmmm. Just looking at the page again, and it kinda stresses “REAL METAL LANTERN” (which is why I got it), but I vaguely recall it looked/felt like lightweight plastic. I backburnered that “project” for a while, but I’ll have to have another look at it, p&m to the seller and/or Amazon if it’s really plastic and not metal.
lol I did the same thing 2 years ago. Here i converted one of those to an LED to look as close to the real kerosene one as possible. ( left lantern is LED, and right lantern is Kerosene flame. ) it gives a great effect of the real flame thing, but not the nest for hanging in a tent. ( as the base creates a big shadow below it.)
Just buy a cheap 18650 flashlight and mod it to be like you want? Maybe a zoomie would work. Remove the zooming part and replace with a diffused plastic sleeve/cap. At the far end of the cap, place a chromed small dome or cone to reflect the light coming from the led outward through the diffused material. Boaz said in his DC-Fix sale thread that he has some diffuser material that makes light compress into a ‘horizontal’ line. You could use a clear cap/tube and wrap that material around it maybe. Small decorative chromed domes and cones can probably be bought on-line and/or at craft stores. I don’t know what to use for the sleeve itself, but there’s got to be some clear tubing somewhere that would work. Buy and install the led and driver that suits you. If you make the sleeve/cap removable, you could interchange it with the original zooming lens/sleeve and use it both ways.
Hmm, so the top set of pix… they’re both real lanterns, one (right) still burning kerosene, the other (left) the LED conversion? Or is the left one an off-the-rack LED replica that you modded to be that much better?
Either way, looks nice!
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Think it was djozz who posted about the 1800K Stanley LED. Couldn’t get that anywhere in the states, RS (?) in the UK would ship some, but for some rather obscene shipping costs (more’n the LEDs!), so I looked around. On 11.11 I found a bunch of 2000K LEDs as I mentioned earlier, but didn’t get the chance to play with the lantern/LEDs yet. Honestly, I just kinda forgot about it ’til now.
Yep, the one on the right is a real Kero hurricane lantern, the one on the left is still metal and nearly identical is style (with a glass globe too) but was bought as a 10-dollar LED variant, ( uses 4-AA cells in the base, and has a variable dimmer switch on the filler cap spot. (i gutted and trashed the crappy blue-tint 5mm LEDs, and modded it with two 2700K Luxeon bead LEDs, ( then used a dab of transparent yellow paint on the domes to get the tints closer to that of the kero flame one. (*as seen in the lower photo collage.)
