Black & Decker Spotlight from Wal-Mart 4AA batteries - Photo Heavy - It's Done!

I've been looking at this little spotlight for a couple weeks now and today I picked one up. I am interested in the 4AA end of it. That's right down my alley.

1

Rated 500 meters, 100 lumens, 10 hours. It has a high and a low. Click it on once, it's high, click it on again, it's low.

It's a small light and that's another reason I like it. I have never favored the big and heavy spotlights. This one is small and light weight.

2

I have not measured the diameter of the lens and reflector. I will do that when I tear it down again, to mod it.

3

Here's the tail cap. It screws off. The inner contact plate is independent of the cap, so it can fit in and the cap can turn without turning the contact plate.

4

5

The batteries are in series.

6

Never heard of these.

1a

First, remove the rubber cap off the lens

1b

Remove two screws that hold the lens on, one on top and one on bottom of the lens holder.

1c

Lens and holder. Yes it is a GLASS lens. I was wrong on the last one...

5 screws to take the body apart.

1d

As you can see, the other reason I wanted to play with this light, is the large aluminum heat sink that it has. That whole housing is heat sink.

12

The trigger and switch.

13

Battery compartment.

Photos of the driver board

d1

d2

d3

Any idea what that screw adjusts? Voltage or more like Amperage?? Anyone?

Photos of the heat sink and LED

z1

Is that maybe an XP-C emitter in there? Sure is small.

z2

z3

z4

I did a test of the amp draw

a1

HIGH - That is awfully high for this emitter. 1.5a max? No wonder it's blue when I turn it on.

a2

LOW

a3

I did this test several times and repositioned my leads each time, in case I did not have them held on tight. The readings came out the same after 20 times of high and 20 times of low, so I think they are close to correct.

I did not do voltage. I will when I tear it back down again. Yes, I put it all back together, to do beam shots tonight.

I played with it in Wal-Mart and I played with it in the garage. It has a very TIGHT beam. It is going to throw well. I just haven't decided for sure yet, but I happen to have a Nichia from Craig, that I really want to put into this light.

EDIT: The lens measured 54.7mm and the overall OD of the reflector is 60mm, but the lens sits down into the reflector, so the usable diameter is 53mm. I still didn’t measure the depth.

The LED voltage measured 3.34vdc under load. High setting on LED.

That's all for now......... Beam shots tonight, well after midnight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08-09-2012

Well, it's complete. I used a Nichia 219 and made a copper plug for the heat sink. I am using the board as it is, since the Nichia will take 2000ma anyhow and I'm putting out around 1800ma, it should be fine.

Here's the photos:

h1

Not pretty. but functional

h2

d1

I replaced the wires with teflon wire for everything except that stupid litle red led. It's all tucked away better than stock.

re1

I found thermal grease in the bottom of the reflector and I also found several spots inside the reflector. Of course, you can never wash a reflector. They always seem to look worse afterwards, so I stippled it with clear. I do not like spotlights with a tiny spot and no spill. I have no use for them, so I'm not worried about having a bigger spot and a little spill, which is what I have now.

It works, it's done, beam shots tonight for comparison.

If it’s an xpc nothing else will throw that tight :frowning:

Looking forward to it O-L! This light really looks like a nice modder! Fairly easy to get into and tear apart! Thanks B&D!

-Garry

I'll have to go and check it out at Walmart later.

Looks interesting, O-L! I always passed that one buy because the reflector looks so small compared to the other ones. I’m afraid I’d want to use an XM-L in it and it wouldn’t work too well with one. XR-E R2 at 2A should be great with it though. That XP-C has to go! :bigsmile:

They should have given the LED star a bigger platform to sit flat onto/against. Looks like its sitting up on a pedestal. Other than that, it looks like a nice mod host. Trippy looking driver board. Looks more like an audio amplifier circuit than a DC-DC board, 10Volt caps? Not sure about that trim-pot, and what it does. Did you try turning it? Might not be a bad idea to give it a try since the LED is turning blue from the 1.5A. That is a lot of current for an XPC. You could probably mount an XML-T6/U2 star in there and almost double the lumen output.

ive had one of those lights before. it was pretty bright without anything done to it. left it in the kayak for 8 months or so until it finally gave in to the salt water

1.5a, it was more like 1.8a.
I am going to find out what that trim pot does, when I take it back apart, after doing beam shots. Once I get the star off, I will see if it’s marked.
I think an XM-L would turn it into a floody light, but I noticed on another light with a Nichia 219, that it seemed to do pretty good in a thrower type of reflector. I really think I will try the Nichia in it. I’m just not loving mega lumens, like I used to. It’s amazing just how few lumens it takes, in a well focused light. My multi emitter builds are over and other than the SST-90 aspheric I had already planned, I will stick to XM-l, Nichia and maybe an XT-E.

Anyhow, when I get home, I will see how it does at 100 yards, that’s about as far as I can get at home.

Yeah the 219 has a very similar dispersion to the XPG… both work well in large dish throw reflectors (IMHO). Curious… Who is selling the 219 on a star? Its a great emitter.

At 1.5-1.8A that XPC on a little pedestal doesn’t stand a chance, outside of short bursts only. Depending on the thermal design of that host 1.8A might even be a bit much for a 219 or XPG with long enough ON cycles.

Looking forward to your mods OL.

Very nice it looks just like my Stanley spotlight but mine does not have a 4aa holder :frowning:

Illumination Supply

What’s the reflector size on this?

The input power is ~10W on this. Kinda crazy for a xp-c but not bad for an xm-l. 20mm star, too.

I don’t have it apart again, but right now rough measurement, 58mm lens Sits in a rubber ring), 60mm reflector. Don’t know depth yet.

Beam Shots

Inside the garage, with the normal lights on

za

All shots from here on, were done with ISO 200, F:2.7, Daylight White Balance.

Inside the garage 1 second shutter

zx

Inside the garage 2 seconds shutter

zs

Side of the house, standard 1 second shutter

zq

Side of the house 1 second shutter

zw

Side of the house standard 2 seconds shutter

zc

Side of the house 2 second shutter

zd

Pond at 80-100 yards standard - 2 seconds shutter

qa

Pond 2 seconds shutter

qw

and here's one at 1 second shutter

qs

Here's High and Low at 1 second shutter

xc

cv

That's about the best I can do with beam shots. Hopefully it will tell something. It is a very tight beam and much brighter than I thought. For me, it's too tight. I don't have use for, nor care for a tight spot, so hopefully the Nichia will give out a larger spot.

The nichia 219 will provide several times larger spot (and supposedly very nice color). However, be careful as 8W assuming ~80% efficiency is still above rated input of the emitter.

I’m interested to see if the amperage is adjustable with the trim pot on the board. I will be testing that tomorrow. Depending on that, I might either use that board, or use a 7135 board.

OH, the lens measured 54.7mm and the overall OD of the reflector is 60mm, but the lens sits down into the reflector, so the usable diameter is 53mm. I still didn’t measure the depth.

The LED voltage measured 3.34vdc under load. High setting on LED.

xp

Close up of star

hs1

Pad on heat sink, that star touches against. I'm thinking of milling (dremel), it down and just make a copper one, the same thickness, but fills the whole bottom diameter. Not sure yet, but that's my inclination right now.

I tested the board trim pot and it is for the LOW setting. The HIGH setting is non adjustable and still reads 1.8+A, so I guess it will have to go and be replaced with a 7135 driver. If I knew electronics, I could probably just change out one of the resistors, but that's way beyond me.

Was thinking about it further, you could probably improve the thermal contact and heat performance with a little dremel work.

Cut the 3x screws that attach the star to the reflector. I would leave the screws in the reflector and just dremel off the philips heads. Use a damp sponge to keep the metal cool as your dremel does its thing. You don’t want to melt and deform the reflector plastic. Use whats left of the screws to center position the LED in the reflector. That will create a flat heatsink-star plane. Next grind down the rectangular pedestal on the cast heatsink, go slow and make sure its a flat surface. Next grind down the 3 posts on the reflector, little by little until you get the LED star to sit flat against the heatsink. You might have to shorten the 3x remaining screws by the height of the removed heatsink pedestal. A little dab of AS-5 or heatsink grease and youre good to go. If you did this you would have the same thermal design as the home depot Defiant.

EDIT You might have a lose fitting lens after doing this. It looks like the reflector presses firmly against the glass. With the removed heatsink pedestal, you’ll be shortening the overall height of the LED+reflector stack by the thickness of the removed metal.

A mod like that might be just enough to alleviate the angry blue-ness from the XPC (if you wanted to keep it in there).

Sounds like an excellent mod. The Nichia 219 is a good one.

Does anyone sell the 219 with a cooler color temp?…. around 5000K?

Awesome mod… I might give this one a try too. I’ve got enough spare eneloops just laying around, and I have a spare XML-T6 in 1A tint. That would be an EASY drag and drop mod to double the lumen output., if you skip the dremel work.

I don’t know anything, but want to ask if you gonna put a Cree XM-L LED on that thing?