Ok so I just really enjoy using the Sofirn C01 flashlight, an awesome tiny light for indoors, tent camping, small spaces and potty breaks at night.
Could it be better? A slightly larger version so I would not loose it, powered by an AA cell vs AAA and have a push button interface, the best of all worlds.
Here is my attempt using the Lumintop tool AA as a host and one of the best 5mm LED’s available from Rngwn 2300K Hi CRI
1. Took the tool AA removed the led and driver module, simple. Removed the LED board an removed LED, figure out the best way to fit a 5mm LED
2. Drilled a hole in the LED PCB to insert the 2300K Hi CRI LED. Then drilled a hole in the Metal pill so I could mount the LED from inside the pill and eventually have a self contained pill
3. I actually drilled a larger hole in the pill so I could just fit the LED into the board and then glue it over the pill with the LED legs inside the pill. I then had to experiment and calculate a current limiting resistor to use to not destroy the LED in the 4 modes using a 1.5v cell. This turned out to be 15 Ohms. I took an 1/8 watt metal film resistor and put it in series with the + lead from the driver. This give the following currents for the 4 modes
Level 1 - 0ma (my meter only has 3 decimals after the . So it must be less than 1 ma)
Level 2 - 2 ma
Level 3 - 11 ma
Level 4 - 23 ma
! https://i.imgur.com/xWiAYnv.jpg!
4. Mounted all of this back into the pill and it is now nice and compact and ready to test
5. This is what it looked like assembled, not bad.
6. To smooth out the beam profile I added some 3M tape to the glass in front of the LED, this worked very nicely
7. Here are some after pics, this was a fun project, I have an awesome flashlight that is much better than my C01 and I actually made a second one, love the warm color and hi CRI
8. Lowest mode Level 1 next to my C01
9. Hi Mode (Level 4) also next to the C01
10. A shot against my workshop white painted door
My first real post here at BLF