Have you ever modded your keychain lights?

Other Types of Lights Keychain / Pocket Flashlights
1

And I mean your smaller, CR2032 and such with 5mm led.

Well, I did one thing yesterday for Goinggear keychain. :D

I took the 5mm generic LED out and "de-domed" it.

I´ve always hated the spot-of-light they make. Now I have a floody keychain.

It would be better to do it probably with a hot wore or something similar, I did it with knife ans the cut is not the best you can get from it...

2

Great idea! Will try it immediately (one mod I can easily decide trying out myself without the need to see some beamshots first ;) )

3

Just back from my workshop.

Sanded off the tip and used some mobile phone display polish to smoothen the "lens".

I agree the beam is much nicer for use at close range.

Thanks for the tip! :beer:

4

Even better idea to sand it off than cut, thanks for posting this (don´t know how I did not figure that out myself)!

Sanding + surface left a bit coarse = floodier or just a mess?

I always use my fauxtons at extreme close range, I have been wondering why they make the 5mm leds like they are trying t throw some?

Got the idea from these industrial backup ledlights, we have them in electric rooms and in such places. They have a 5mm LED but with flat tip. http://www.mica.fi/en/products_industrial_ml600.html

5

If you leave the surface coarse the LED will glare quite intensely.

With polished surface the glare is reduced so I assume that more light is leaving the front.

(Hmm, if I sand the entire "dome" and leave it coarse it may make a good keychain lantern...)

6

I have changed 5mm LED of my LED Lenser Photonpump V8 to Nichia LED (44000mcd). Much brighter but has annoying blue spot on beam.

7

i mod my fauxtons with this Radio Shack LED. it's only rated at 7000mcd, but the tint is neutral, the beam is 30 degrees wide and it is awesome. also, instead of using 2x2016 batteries, i use 1x2032. there's less output, but it runs longer.

8

I too use 1 2032 instead of the 2 2016s .

Except I put a small piece of heat shrink tubing around the base of the LED to eliminate most of the side spill .

One of these was my sneak around without waking the wife light until I sanded and frosted my BLF Tank .