I stopped by TS today and found they have a few new lights, or remakes of the old ones. Looks like a better 3D and 3C light and these little AA lights. I found them interesting and got a pack, just to open one up.
Rated at 15 lumens. Inside looks to be a 5mm led. Takes a single AA battery.
Triangular shape, very thick one piece body/head, with fins.
Cheat tail cap button
The guts of the head are below this bezel that is screwed on and those tiny screws are TIGHT! It took a hellofa force to get them out.
Tail Cap.
Everything pushed out of the head. It's smooth bore 17mm diameter.
Driver and led are in a plastic housing. The housing measures 17mm OD, by 10mm deep. Plenty of room for a Copper insert to replace the plastic.
Here's the driver. I wonder if it will take a 14500?
The bottom of the plastic reflector would need to be trimmed down, giving another 2+mm of depth, for a longer Copper insert. Should be enough room to mod this little light.
The lens is plastic and so is the reflector. I don't know if there are 17mm glass lenses or not, but even with the plastic, it would still be a good little light to mod with.
The reflector, plastic pill and led look identical to the mini C8 lights. The driver is different. Theres lots of threads around modifying these C8 lights.
The driver-led-plastic housing looks the same compared to some lights I found at Big Lots. So does the reflector. These were single AA lights with what looks to be a 0.5w 5mm led, a round aluminum body with rubber grips and tail button that glow in the dark. I have no clue who made them. They were available in a pack of 4 for $10USD.
They were actually pretty cool lights. I think I may have one operational left, somewhere. You could put a 14500 in it, although it was made for a regular AA 1.5v cell. Both the head and end-cap screwed on and had the same threads, so you could switch them around or even mod a head to be an end-cap or vice-versa
I may have to swing by TS and see/buy these new lights!
See that odd oval shape pattern on the right, and the triple triangle pattern on the left, it’s missing a 7135 type linear regulator and possibly a FET that would have handled the 4.2vdc of a Li Ion
This appears to only safely handle AA
If you could build a 17mm diameter pill out of copper or brass it should work just fine, interesting build but in stock form it’s very neutered with that 1W LED jobbie, at least it’s not one of those IC based joule thief circuits…
How tall is the reflector, is it approx 13mm, if so might be able to put in a TIR rather than a reflector
Thanks, WarHawk! You saved me from possibly frying myself. I am such a newbie, I stuck a 14500 into my little flashlight just to see what it would do. It worked, so I assumed it was okay, although I didn’t leave it in there very long. Now I need to find one lying around and crack it open to see if it has the 7135 regulator, or if it is truly like this one.
That LED isn’t even a 1w, it is only a 0.5w 5mm LED.
Thanks for the teardown pics and info O-L. I purchased a set a bit ago and have been debating whether to open up the package or return it. Now I know they will be good hosts for modding. Yay!
Just off the top of my head, from looking at it, I would guess a TIR could be put in there, if the OD was shaved down. The way the screws are, you can’t open up the inside of the head, but you could cut down the OD on the TIR. Also, I am pretty sure that a 1/2" copper pipe, or coupling will be “close” to the ID of the head, so that would make a good base for a heat sink.
It's WAY too hot in the garage now and the nights don't cool off any more. Probably September before I get to touch them. XP-G2 on a 16mm star at 3 amps ought to brighten them up a little. The ano is not great, just ok. I think I will keep the black one black, but polish the other two. Who knows, it's a long way off.
Cereal_killer sent me a royal blue XP-E (that I really don’t know what to do with), could possibly take the blue one and have it throw a deep blue light (if interested) [not sure if it is capable of handling 3A though]
It’s actually an XT-E (not an XP at all), from my testing they handle 2.4A when on a copper XP MCPCB but I’m not sure about 3A, I only have one more spare or I’d try it for you.
