What was your first White LED Flashlight?

This one:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/romisen-cree-rc-n3-3-mode-led-flashlight-1xcr123a-2xaa-9070

Long ago parted with it and before knowing how to swap a driver.

This one. The "driver" was a resistor. It was supposed to be suitable for two rechargeables. It wasn't! It smelled truly horrible when it burned.

My first mod - replacing the resistor with one that wouldn't burn. It was fearsomely bright by the standards of the time - I measured it at 75 lumens recently.

My second one.

The bottom of its reflector wasn't very well finished and when I tightened the head down it shorted the driver and killed the LED. Replaced it with a strange blue tinted 3W LED which was a third of the price of a Luxeon 3 and another resistor "driver".

DX C30.

Well, actually one of those 2$ 2-LED "no battery" dynamo rechargeables, but I don't think they count.

I am new into lights - about 6 months - so my first light is doing great even right now: Aurora AK-P7 2 mode (by resistor).

But the first light I ever bought myself should be, 25 years ago, a mini maglite with 1-2 lumens output (focusing too ).

The Fenix LD20 Q5 was my first led-flashlight.

Don's second light was my first light.

my first high power led light was a lowes taskforce.

i stuck a 18650 in there and it was really bright but started to smell funny.

My first led Flashlight was this http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-in-1-15-1-3xaaa-flashlight-10-white-led-5-uv-led-red-laser-3248 also i f i don't know if it can be consider a real flashlight.

My first "real" flashlight was a 501 body with a q2 in it.

No, I think the 'unreal' flashlights count more! Kind of trying to trace what people were buying when 'white' LED's emerged, and were a novelty.

'Squeeze light'! Yes! My family had an incandescent one. Piece of crap. Great way to get Carpel Tunnel.

Come to think of it, my '2nd' I believe was a white 3-LED mini-mag drop-in (my first drop-in!). Fry's sold both the Nite-Ize kit (with clicky switch) and an almost identical kit branded "Balboa", I think. Stupid me, I got the Balboa, and the switch died prematurely, but the beam was slightly superior to the Nite-Ize. Still have the drop-in. But my mini-mag is dissembled, in disarray, and will probably never be used again. I truly had a love-hate relationship with the Mini Mag. Mostly hate.

Drifting off-topic: anyone remember the Radio Shack (Tandy in Europe) "free" multi-C cell plastic flashlight BODIES they used give away as a promotion every year or few for awhile back in the late '80s? I think RS was hoping you'd buy the batteries for it there. Can't remember if those came with a bulb, but the 'thing to do' was to buy RS's krypton bulb to 'hot rod' it. Remember the batteries leaking onto my friend in a tent in the middle of the night.

TerraLUX TLE-5 led upgrade for Minimag 2AA, then TerraLUX TLE-6EX led upgrade for Mag 4D, then P60 drop-in for SureFire 6P. Then the disease began...

My First LED experiences are all DIY. First were combinations of batteries connected to batteries, with resistors. The first torch format one was a double 5mm Amber LED connected to 2AA batteries via a resistor with a switch, in a PVC pipe with cork ends to hold the LED, switch and batteries.

Later there were designs for boost converters for single white emitters and Those were my first White LED torches, in various packagings. Each with a slightly different boost driver design. Everything was put together from plans, Even had to manually draw the circuit board with permanent marker before etching!

It Still works! Even the sliding switch mechanism was rebuilt from tinned wire. I think I was 14y at the time..

Emitter is Plug and Play, Can connect any 5mm emitter onto this host. But the emitter must not be disconnected when powered, otherwise the buffer capacitor on the output charges up and when reconnecting the emitter :POOF:

D10 with 4C tint XP-G on Minimum output, vs 5mm White (not a very bright emitter, prob 6000mcd or something) (this driver is very light on the emitters, low drive current)

D10 vs Green 14000 mcd LED

Lots of room

This 50 lumen powerhouse I purchased about 15 years ago because it looked like a "serious" flashlight in the package. (and its $40 price meant it had to be a "professional" torch)

It is actually very robust. Much more so than its output would suggest

As you can see, this 3-mode wunderlight has hit the ground several times from significant height, always bezel end first of course.

It's a sad light really but the 10 LEDs are white and it does turn on when the button is pressed. Which is not too damn often.

sst90host?Foy

Does it have a suitable design to take a SST-90 and sink a minutes worth of heat? hehe. Maybe...

Here's picture of the insides I took a long time ago.

maybeitcouldFoy

The first white light I remember having was an LED Lenser V2 Mini Moon it's also the only one I've ever lost.

I got it in Feb-March 2001, it has that odd coloured beam yellowish in the middle and purpley-blue around the edges.

Everyone was amazed by it. Sadly I left it on a desk in an office I was installing network cable in, sadly someone pocketed it rather than handing it in :(

My first also / Romisen RL-B7 = Still have it , but now XM-L T6

Pook: I've got something like that.

Mine is blue. I think it came with another light I bought, probably 15 years ago.

offtopiccauseitaintwhiteFoy

That was about ten years ago. It was a small LED lenser, possibly a V2 and crazy expensive. It used three AAAA batteries, that were so difficult to get. I sold it on.

An old XJC B-12 . It came in a nice box with an 18650 and a charger .

Fall of 2003 I discovered this little classic in my local home improvement store. This is a little later model of the same light (which I still have and still works just fine.)

It led me to search for 'LED flashlight' on Google, which led me to CPF, which led me to start FlashlightNews, which led me to get ticked off at CPF's management, which led me to start FlashlightNews Forums, which eventually led me here.

All because of one little LED flashlight...go figure!