Tailstand flood-to-throw 1*AA flashlight with ultralow mode and reasonable max brightness

Hi all - where can I find a low-priced torch that meets these requirements?

Thanks for any help!

I think that every flashaholic dreams with something like that..

Aloha and welcome to BLF simple!

Maybe you could just tape one of those little keychain flashlights to a single mode FTT flashlight.

Welcome.

This meets all your criteria:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39585

Hi Budgeteer - thanks, that one is already on my DX wishlist...

But it doesn't have a low mode. Anything like it that DOES have a low mode, or any way of modding it to have one? I'm very new to this stuff ;)

Welcome Simple!

You can mod that Sipik with a different driver to get multi-mode. The problem lies with most drivers low mode only goes down to 10-20%. This one is a 3 mode 900ma max, and goes down to 25ma (2.8%), which is decent... Maybe someone else knows of another.

Btw, my flashaholic dream would be a Zebralight SC51 with the flood to throw feature (for <$20 :) )

The sipik uses 15mm driver (if I am not wrong). So sanding required

Oh forgot the low part silly me... I'm a bit worried how a low low ends up in a zoomie.

[quote=fran82]

The sipik uses 15mm driver (if I am not wrong). So sanding required

[/quote]

Follow the link... The driver is 14mm, i.e. it should fit right in with no sanding.

Umm I forgot also about this driver http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.50526~r.43033281

[quote=fran82]

Umm I forgot also about this driver http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.50526~r.43033281

[/quote]

That driver has neither ultra-low mode or high brightness. 300ma max out. 45ma low. Also, one would have to make an adapter in order for it to fit a 15mm socket.

Wow, thanks for all the help!

Anybody know of a modding guide for complete newbies? It's been 20 years since I've soldered anything!

With shipping, the ShiningBeam circuit board comes to US$10.20... I can't see any DX options but thought someone may know of something I didn't see!

1xAA zoomable lights with multimode are indeed rather hard to find. I'm looking for one myself. There are a ton of really nice 3xAAA / 18650 zoomers, but not many 1xAA.

The Ultrafire K41 appears to be the closest match, but no low mode. I like the clean design, I can't handle the exaggerated styling of many zoom lights.

If you still know what + and - is and can hold a soldering iron in hand you possibly need tko know a few things more to mod rightaway:

- Don't heat up electronics more than needed

- Try to not make cold joints

- Dont short circuit anything

- After done, check if all solder joints are made properly.

Apart for that everything should be pretty straightforward.

Tools to ease the work:

- Good soldering iron

- Steady hand

- thermal goop (sold as FUJIK on DX)

- Pointy tweezers or needle nose pliers

- Quality solder - important!

- the required parts (usually a driver, two wires and a emitter on a star)

The most difficult thing for me when i started was to properly disassemble the light. The sipik 68 and romisen C8 was a bit tricky at first to disassemble.

I have the K41. Quality is kinda lousy. The star isn't flat, but is actually angled slightly. Also, not sure how easy it would be to change the emitter. The pill is super-easy to pull out - no tools required. But the star seems to be glued in.

A bigger problem with the K41 is that the flood mode is far too narrow to be used close in, which pretty much negates the benefit of having a flood to throw flashlight. After taking apart my K41 last night, I think I may have a solution to this. The problem is that in flood mode the lens sits too far out from the emitter. Grinding down the stops on the exterior of the body of the light with a grinding wheel should allow the head to retract further. This should give the light a usable zoom mode with the added benefit that it would be even smaller in the pocket than it is now.

Even on a 14500 this isn't the brighest of flashlights though. Might be better to replace the emitter and driver with something better.

Just spent an hour filing down the body of my K41 just below the sliding bezel. The bezel now retracts an extra 3mm in flood mode resulting in a significantly floodier beam.

To decrease the gap in flood mode even further I could either file some more, or add a spacer between the pill and the body so the pill can't screw completely down. Both would probably work, though filing has the advantage it makes the light even smaller.

Added a spacer between the pill and the body from a bit of small paperclip curled into a ring. Combined with the filing job, the lens now screws down as far as possible. Any further and the LED will hit the lense. The spill on the K41 is signficantly wider than before. Now its the same width as the Sipik 68 in a considerably slimmer light. This thing is still pretty dim though. Needs an emitter/driver upgrade.