Friends offgrid need amber lights, and NiMH (not li-ion) -- ideas?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I have friends living off-grid who’ve started looking for — specifically — amber/yellow LED lights for nighttime use
(some in the family, older with insomnia, have discovered the “no white light after 8pm” approach works really well for them).

I’ve given them SK68s modified by swapping in amber Cree emitters still with the stock driver
(these, I think: https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10007033/1574707-cree-xp-e-1w-580-59… )

They work.

And I’m making them some motion detector “piss lights”

Now I need to make more and better lights — these will be for several families on the same farm and for hanging in regularly used spaces.

More help needed — more and better ideas.

Of course they hit the “next mode memory” curse with the SK68s

And they hit the “low battery suddenly no light at all” curse (reports from the outhouse at 3am were — irate — no moon that night, dark dark dark ….)

And they only use NiMH — limited solar power for recharging, and they know and don’t want to mess with Li-ion.

I’m trying out 4/3A NiMH cells (same size as 18650, mentioned in another topic) and drivers that will run off them, that I can put into 1x18650 hosts

So — I’m looking for more and better ideas.

Solar rechargeable yard lights with/moddable with amber?

Lots of 12v amber in auto supply, but not easy to use.

What else is out there? I can get the amber XP-Es cheap, and can also get amber PC Rebels ($$:money_mouth_face:

—> Can anyone recommend a cheap 2×18650 HOST light?
—> Can anyone recommend a cheap 2xAA HOST so I can use two ordinary Eneloops?
—> How about a cheap 3xAA host — do those exist? Or even cheap 3xAAA hosts.

Oh, and
—-> is there really a difference between a “2.5W” and a “1W” Cree XP-E emitter?
FastTech shows a variety of different SKUs:

Cree XP-E 580-590nm Yellow LED Emitter on 16mm Base
2.5W, Yellow Light, 16mm
SKU 2119706

Cree XP-E 1W 580-590nm Yellow Light LED Emitter on 16mm Aluminum Base
1W, Yellow Light, 16mm
SKU 1574707

2

The supfire s7 is both 1x18650 and 3xaaa
for example:

plus the s7 takes the (2) 4/5sc 1500 Ni-MH 1.2v batteries each the same ones I offered you in the other post. I still have 10 you can have that 5 lights worth, for a colored low voltage emitter they could be a good fit?

I think if you look there are very low prices for this light (there was/is a thread here on blf that offered them for .99 ea) with a fixed $4 shipping. for $7-8 I got three delivered. not bad.

3

They could get some blue light blocking glasses
https://www.lowbluelights.com/index.asp?

I will assume they have delayed sleep phase syndrome?

4

I’ll look for the Supfire F7, thanks — and yes, great to hear those cells will fit. And I’m not all that far from Alameda!

5

The PC Amber Rebels are more expensive but may be nicer for your lights, because they:

*have more light output and are more efficient than traditional amber leds

*being a phosfor-converted led (with blue led underneath) they are not near-monochromatic but have a wider colour spectrum, which makes for a more pleasant light (you can actually see some colour).

They do not fit an easy obtainable ledboard though, and mounted they mainly come on 20mm boards.

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I hunt for the ‘solid pill’ SK68s and #3 zoomies because the 10mm square PC Rebel board drops inside the circle used by a 16mm round board. Corners just touch (so a ledge gives almost no thermal path but a solid pill makes complete contact — and the wire holes are still exposed).

If I don’t have a solid pill, I use Fasttech https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10007033/1574707-cree-xp-e-1w-580-590nm-yellow-light-led-emitter
(those are not as nice as the PC Rebels compared side by side, but decent enough)

(I still haven’t figured out why Fasttech lists “1w” and “2.5w” yellow XP-Es. Are those really two different things?

I just noticed this:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10012719/2139702-ultrafire-1-cree-xp-g-q5-100lm-3-mode-yellow
1*AA / 590nm

I suspect Fasttech is confused (not surprised) because “590nm” means a precise yellow/amber emitter,
but XP-G-Q5 seems to be “warm white” — a yellowish blue pumped phosphor LED.
They also claim this one has “no mode memory”
which would be a great improvement over their other SK68 clones.
And I doubted it, so I asked and got an explicit “comes back on at the first setting” — but again, they often don’t know what theyr’e selling.

8

https://www.kiwilighting.com/30w-cree-xp-e-led-emitter-yellow

(I’m going to see if they need something huge for outdoors and have 24v available readily — they have big farm buildings to work in, so this might actually be useful)

gee, free shipping over $15, that’s good

and

hey, what’s a Cree “XBD” emitter?
They got amber
They got little tiny boards as well as the usual sizes

hmmmmmmmmm …….https://www.kiwilighting.com/cree-xbd-xb-d-led-emitter-lamp-light-cold-white-natural-white-warm-white-blue-green-amber-8mm-12mm-14mm-16mm-20mm
OOPS, damn, minimum quantity purchase is 20 for each board size. Drat.

9

I have two cheap 3xAA lights. Both have light heads so they can’t be moded very bright. I also have a 3xAA light I made from two cheap 2xAA/1xAA lights and a #3 cheepy three mode zoomy by filing the 3 mode pill to fit, junking one 2x/1x and using two extension tubes in the other. (Theoretically, with a million of them, one could smash atoms.)
Nice cheap 2xAA, but needs new pill: http://www.buyincoins.com/item/1391.html#.VRI44eEy2eM
I can’t find either 3xAA source right now. They took some searching.

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Buy red (edit: or amber, dk why your friends aren’t using red) enamel spray paint 56 Chevy RED Engine Enamel Spray Paint SEYMOUR 1956 Chevrolet | eBay and try it on the lens of a stock light (keep proper spraying distance to avoid paint blobs, use masking tape on the bezel).
Or red plastic sheet cutouts if paint is too expensive. More on night lighting: http://www.polyphasicsociety.com/polyphasic-sleep/adaptation/night-lighting/
3AAA lights are usually gimped 1x18650s, I’d avoid them by principle.
Ask fasttech support about the 1W/2.5W thing.
Nanjing 105c/d should work for 3AA.

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Maybe an Xtar WK40? I haven't disassembled one so I don't know how easy it would be to replace the emitter, though. It would give you 2xAA capacity, dual-switches to eliminate the 'next-mode' thing, 4 regular modes, 3 blinky modes are tucked away behind a fast double-click, and a low battery warning (side switch lights up in red).

I think RMM will be stocking them soon.

12

Not using red because it’s not needed — amber is more useful for getting around, reading, and doing chores, while avoiding the narrow blue-green band between 400-500nm that affects wakefulness. (LPS, low pressure sodium, the old orange streetlights, have the same benefit for outdoor lighting — illustrated here)

Amber emitters put out all their light in a narrow range

Using a red film or paint over a white emitter isn’t efficient, as those don’t emit much energy at the red end.

A bit more:

but, er, don’t get me off on this tangent, there’s new information about this every time I do a search — as it says, only in 2002 was the receptor in the eye identified. Before that, the best we knew was that “bright light” — cool white office fluorescent lights — had something in it that affected the sleep system. Turns out only the photons in that narrow band actually matter.

Why that color? It’s the color of the daylight sky, maybe through green leaves — when that color goes away from the environment, the brain starts building up melatonin and we get sleepy an hoour or two afterward. It’s a signal for which living things have receptors as it’s reliable. Algae use it, insects use it, turtles use it, people use it ….

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Right, doesn't keep drivers awake.

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(that’s also the reason yellow eyeglasses are not enough of an answer for this large farm family — light leaks in around the sides when doing chores/moving around)

Remember, if you’re a young to middle aged adult, you likely don’t notice much if any problem sleeping.
Infants and older people — who sleep less well — are more susceptible to interrupted sleep.

Although the cancer-suppression effect of the nighttime melatonin cycle would matter for any age.

Aw, heck, here come the people who want to charge you lots of money for simple lights, with vague claims to solve the problem but no spectra provided….

http://www.gelighting.com/LightingWeb/align/index.jsp
http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/connect/Lighting_University/Assets/Daily-sleep-wake-cycles-whitepaper-FINAL.pdf

15

Coming at this from a different angle

Hank first, all the insomniacs thank you for this topic and research.

So if I get this right you are looking for a high tech solution to “fire”. :slight_smile:

When it gets dark we all tell stories around the camp fire then go to sleep (kind of idea).

Has the idea been dismissed of using plain ol incan flashlights? some/many of them have a distinctly warm tint.

then C/D cell Ni-MH cells could be used with the alkaline cells as fall backs.

I know it lacks the high tech appeal but would it work? Mag light has those color lenses available (actually I have had great luck with old 52mm glass photo lenses, once the glass is popped out they fit right in and are very good quality and lots of shade options).

16

Incandescent’s still a sleep-suppression issue, from this (about 40 percent per that chart)
(and that chart draws attention away from the upper part of the 400-500nm range, because what they’re selling does emit more than candlelight in that range, I’m sure)

(and most modern incandescent flashlights use halogen bulbs, which enhance the blue end compared to the pure filament-type old bulbs)
Besides draining batteries much faster and getting dim. I couldn’t give people incandescents.

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http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/05/magazine/awakening-to-sleep.html?pagewanted=print

soooo — back to LEDs and drivers?
Besides flashlights, I’m hunting for LED drivers that will work for room lighting — one older 12-volt and a couple of newer 24-volt battery systems — capable of handling voltage spikes when the solar chargers kick on and off. This stuff is more complicated than I even imagined.

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If there is plenty of electricity, such as here in winter with only resistive electric heating, an inefficient approach is to use dimmers, to reduce the temperature of the filament which is approximately the black body temperature of the light. I am not sure whether that beats filters.

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Nope, not plenty of electricity, except summertime when this isn’t an issue.

2xAA host lights, anyone got recommendations?

NiMH and LED. Srsly.

I will drill out some old 2xAA M@gs and make P60 dropins for them — that’s in the works.
Got one or two old Brinkmann 3xAAs I think I can also drill out to make a 3.6v

2x18650 host? any recommendations? Or even a 3x18650 host?
I could put in two 4/3A NiMH to get 2.4v.

They’ve got just one (good, Eneloop) 1-2-3-4xAA charger right now, so I need to make up some extension wires to charge the larger cells.
I couldn’t have even started this til they got rid of their old battery-killer brute force charger …

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You don't like the WK40 idea?