After it, I bought some China-made flashlight with Finnish brand with 4 x 5mm LEDs, 2 x AA.
LED´s started to burn out one by one first evening, got second one as replacement, same deal.
After that I took a while without LED´s.
First real powerful LED light was Black Cat! Used it with POS batts and thought it was broken -> bought more lights and since then I have been in forums.
First REAL, SERIOUS, WORKING LED-light was Romisen RC-C6, I gave it away when I sold my iTP A1 as a freebie.
Great thread here. My two relics from the past and the first LED flashlights I purchased are perhaps 7 or more years old, could even be 10 years old. The first takes 3 "D" alkalines and may have cost $29.00+ and the smaller uses 4 "AA" alkalines and likely cost $24.00. The larger has perhaps 109 or might actually have 128 LED's and the smaller may be about 50 LED's. Both are approximately 7000k or higher color temp. As I'm sure you're aware, the beam, or lack-there-of is all flood. I did always like the side-body clickie on them though. They were rarely used and remain in like-new condition on my display shelf.
Just finished it up today. swapped driver for solarforce single mode xml driver and xml U2 from led dna. also chopped off an inch to accomodate a 18650. a little jb weld and voila! updated for today.
Bought all 3 cca 2001 (cant remember exactly) in a China-shop, Trieste, Italy, about 5 euros each.
Interestingly, one of them was replaced few minutes after I bought them because one of the LEDs wasn't turning on. During the years I got used to 1-3 LEDs randomly working (or not), on all 3.
Over the years they suffered drops, kicks, leaked batteries, and plenty of other abuse. All 3 still work, minus the few LEDs on each. :)
I carried the left one as a keychain light for a long time. :D
I was always a flashlight enthusiast, ever since I was a small kid. :)
Viktor
Edit:
The middle one is actually a twisty. The rubber "clicky" is just a decoration, I always hated that. :)
Still one of the best form factors ever, IMO. And everybody loved and wanted it. I gave it to an uncle who lost it. I was so blown away at how easily this could whip the 2 D Mag incan I had been using.
Hi Don...actually, these shower head type lights seem to be a favorite with me. I've also been collecting vintage flashlights over the years and the large flashlight bell (shower head) has always caught my eye. Vintage TruTest, Homart, and Eveready has some great ones.
Harbor Freight has a couple of shower head lights; one is a 109-LED flashlight that runs on 4x AA cells. I'm considering buying this one because it looks like the DX 78mm optic would fit, and I'm wondering if it could be used to make an Aspheric Monster...
But the beam would just project 109 dots/areas of light... if configured for throw. Probably wouldn't work any good. Each led is an emitter with a matched aspheric anyway, focused in or out depending on the beam each led was designed to give.
My first -WHITE- LED flashlight was the Brinkmann "Long Life" 2AA. http://www.brinkmann.net/products/flashlights_and_spotlights/flashlights/details.aspx?item=809-1050-0 Wow, kind of hard to believe it's still selling for 20 bucks! I loved this light so long ago, I remember putting it up against a random 2AA incan in a runtime faceoff and always being impressed. The reason I highlighted "WHITE" LED flashlight is because I've heard numerous stories of Air Force pilots shoving an infrared LED into a resistored Minimag for use as a cockpit light, WAAYYY long ago.
Hi there Kramer...If that's true, you'll like my largest UV shower-head light. It's 128 LED's @385nm flood beam. It's powered by 4 "D" batteries and 15" long with a 3-1/2" diameter bezel. It also features a side-clickie. I acquired it about 4 years ago with the other smaller black one. There primary use and the smaller 3 "AA" powered LED light @395nm is to find the occasional cat pee/spray from our male cats in the house. Works great.
The silver light in the photo is for scale purposes to show how large the UV light is and obviously from my other post. But did turn out to also be 128 LED and is 11-1/2" long with a 3-1/4" diameter bezel.
Six years ago I joined CPF and bought about $600 in flashlights.
Later, Sasha made it her pleasure to insult and threaten me for no good reason and so I left that place forever. Seriously, Sasha/Greta was insulting a guy for nothing at all, so I posted that what he said did not seem so bad.......so that bitch lit into me. I am a combat vet. I did not "fight for the right" for fat girls to call me names and make threats.
I used the flashlights I got then for 6 years before I came into BLF and started upgrading again.
During that period I got several lights that I have used for the last 6 years.
Eternalight came first. It was "used". An emergency organization traded in the unused lights from their packs and got new ones. The owner of Eternalight sold me one for $20 cash and delivered. I still use it as a tent light.
Streamlight TL-2 LED amd TL-3 LED. Luxeon 3W and 5W. Still work fine, dull as dishwater.
I bought the first 2 Fenix 1 AA lights, about 16 lumens and $40 each. Still work fine, still dim.
For 6 years, the light that I actually used everyday was a Streamlight TL-3 incan. 215 lumen, still works, still on the first bulb.
I also got a pair of Surefire incans. Got trashed after burning out so many P60 style bulbs that Surefire charged a fortune for.
I didn't mean with the existing array, I meant to gut the host and attempt to mod it to take a single higher-power emitter. Although, 109 aspherically-focused emitters would be a cool effect...
That will scorch some retinas for sure. Thats some cool gear, thanks for sharing. A 4AA UV showerhead would be perfect for me. Where did you get those beasts?
LOL...hey Kramer. I only use them with proper safely glasses as you should. It just so happens the Ebay seller I purchased them from years ago is still in business and still sells them. Unfortunately the price for them is still up in the sky and is still the exact same as what I payed. Here is the link below to a current auction for the big guy, the smaller UV 51 LED is somewhere in his other auctions.
my first LED was a bike rear light with 5 red-glowing LED's powered by 2xAAA in series:
( click to enlarge! )
That was almost 10 years ago! Such lights are still being sold in shops lol.
The light still works and hasnt cracked yet despite many drops. I was very impressed by its brightness. More than sufficient in a traffic situation at night. Back then I think i paid 4.99€ for the complete set (rear light + front light) at a local discounter (PLUS/NETTO), price is higher now..
I can make the LED's (with no batteries connected) flash with my DMM. Funny stuff.
