Simple One hour build - Defiant $5 light, $5 led and a few minutes time.

safe to assume a 3s AAA carrier and direct drive?

It is not a driver. Just a contact plate. Just two wires a ground ring and a spring.

Yes, 3xAAA carrier and DD.

very nice mod!

You get a lot of cheap but nice flashlights suitable for modding over there in the states, unlike here in Europe. Lately I found some Varta lights with XRE's in them, might have a go at one of them, but they are just a bit pricy

awesome mod! Thanks for posting this, you inspired me to go through my old inexpensive lights and “pump them up”

Old Lumens I’ve been reading your mod posts and wonder how you choose your projects? I’m sure cost is involved but are you looking for metal bodies, battery size, reflector….

I bought the Defiant headlamps at Home Depot and your post made me wonder if they could be modified. Problem I see is that the headlamps are a plastic body which makes a mod less practical.

Good question!

Aluminum body first and foremost. After that, I just look it over. Is it appealing at all, does it seem like it would be worth the modded price, which is the original cost plus all the modding costs.

Battery size, for me, means mostly NiMH- AA, AAA, C, or D. Once in a while a Li-ion, if I feel I know it will resell.

Budget is the biggest thing. $10 or less is great $15 is ok, $20 or over? Not for me. Makes the end result way too high priced. Mod a $50 light and you have a $50 light, which someone just found for $30 somewhere else.

Maglites are my main stream because they are good modding lights and the prices for Incan hosts (so far) stay the same most all the time.

Nice Mod, whats the runtime (and current draw) on the lights with 3aaa, and did you use primaries or eneloops?

Hmm. . . I like! Might have to try a Nichia in one of these. Gotta stop by Home Depot soon and see if they still got these!

-Garry

where do you get the discs (brass) and how do you attach the LED (i.e., pill)? Told you I didn’t know anything. BTW, awesome photos and doable build (I hope).

Looks like a nice fun project. Those are my favorite kind!

Nice work!!!

Thank you Old-Lumens, I've always wanted to try something like this but I was never really clear on how to do it. I have no idea if this is going to work or not but I'm going to give it a shot. I just got back from Home Depot with two sets of these lights. I've had to order everything I'm going to need so I guess it's going to be a couple of weeks before everything gets here and I can give it a try. I'm old, blind without my trifocals and my hands shake but I'm determined to try it. I've read a lot of other "how to do it" posts but none as clear and as simple as this one. From the looks of your pictures I'm assuming you also upgraded the wiring, can you tell me what gauge wire you used?

22ga silver plated, teflon coated wire from ebay seller navships.

multi-stranded.

No idea. I don’t check amps and volts.

Runtime? left on, about an hour, but alkalines burn bright and then drop off fast, leaving lower output that lasts a good while. Alkaline - Duracell.

Discs are from etsy, just search for the size you want. I normally use copper, but I ran out. Search “5/8 copper disc” or 3/4 disc, or whatever size you want.

I use etsy member "bopper" quite a bit.

Discs are soldered together and then adhered to the aluminum pill with AA (Arctic Alumina adhesive). The star is also adhered with AA.

Great mod, once again!

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but can 3xAAA alkalines run this thing reliably? Isn't that really stressing the cells to the point that they will rupture? I'm curious how many amps the thing is pulling. And what about 3xAAA NiMH, will they be driving the XM-L too hard in DD?

XM-L may stress them, but a Nichia will not. On the ones I have checked with a meter, I never saw more than about an amp out of the AAA Alkalines with any led. I have never had one leak, even when leaving the light on till it got dim as hell. It’s probably a possibility, but I have just never seen it.

Run 3xAAA NiMHs. They work fine. I'm just making these to sell to "regular people" and they don't want to screw with rechargeables, but prefer throw aways. NiMH will not hurt the leds. With AAA being such a low output, the voltage drops immediately and you're not putting much over 3 volts in the led. With Alkalines, they read higher (about 4v to start) and then they drop off fast. Remember also that I do not mod the battery holders, so there is considerable V/mA loss thru them. I don't mod them on purpose, to have the resistance there as a buffer of sorts.

That makes perfect sense, thanks O-L :)

Picked up two packs (4 lights) at my local H.D. Figure I'll mod all four eventually. Still a good many at my store.

-Garry

Wow, incredible job Justin! As somebody else said, a quick 10 minute mod for you would turn into a 10 hour ordeal for me. :slight_smile: Your craftsmanship is very admirable. Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.