Modding AAA Headlamps

I think there haven’t been any modding threads for AAA headlamps since 2013

Too bad the Images are gone now.

I am a sucker for Headlamps with colored LEDs. And was thinking to mod a cheap AAA headlamp, maybe a Coast FL75. They are lightweigh and have low to high modes, and extra button for colored LED. I heard they even sell dual color Red maybe Green?

Battery life sucks, I think the modder in the 2013 thread above, used a 10440 battery and 2x dummy batteries if I got it right

I was thinking of something more stupid and connecting a 18650 Battery Case and see if it lasts longer.

Anyone has been tinkering with these headlamps?

@sochi111, did you end up modding that headlamp? I have that exact same model lamp, and had that exact same idea to use 18650s.

Well, let’s bump this up for the heck of it.

Back in 2018 I bought three of these from Fasttech for 3.15$ each.
https://m.fasttech.com/product/9630358-lw601-1-3-led-4-mode-122lm-led-headlamp
And it looks like these are quite similar to the headlamp in OP’s picture.

I didn’t take pictures back then but if I recall correctly this used one of those 3W emitter doodah’s but I’m not 100% sure.

Anyway the main PCB has a hole right in the center of it for the stock LED to sit in and the LED connection was already on a wire.
So, that enabled me to grab whatever MCPCB I wanted and put it on the backside of the PCB, solder the wires to it and then I glued a 17mm bead TIR optic from Yajiamei on top of it.
Which was then glued to the “front housing” which supported the side LED’s as well.
Almost like a drop in replacement.
Like it was meant to be.

As such I can’t take it apart but here’s couple of pictures I took now just so you get an idea.

For each I used LED’s premounted on 20mm copper DTP MCPCB from Kaidomain.
One is XP-E2 R2 N4 620nm red and the other two are XP-G2 HE S4 3B 5000K/S2 7A1 3000K.

Here’s the optic in Yajiamei’s Aliexpress store. The conical.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2048689105.html

So 3.15$ light, ~4$ for LED on MCPCB and 0.87$ for optic.
Decent quality light and cheap enough to toss around.
If I would do this again I guess I’d use SST-20 instead.

Just as an FYI, shipping costs with Yajiamei on Aliexpress are a bit expensive…
Aliexpress tries to calculate discounts but it doesn’t work that well so if you want you can do the “place order and not pay” “trick”, then message them to ask to calculate the shipping cost properly and then pay. It still won’t be cheap but it won’t be insane.
Though it certainly isn’t cheap for them to process small orders.
Each optic comes in it’s own teeny weeny bag inside a little bag that’s then labeled.
So I do understand the why and in the end I’m just happy they sell and continue to sell single pieces of optics to weirdos like me.

In case anyone is thinking about this I hooked on up to an 18650 and in less than a minute of on time the main emitter was smoked.

They have a version that takes a lipoly pack as well as aaa but it’s much more expensive.