I would just grab a 3*AAA or 3*AA Light, get rid of the driver and use a 5mm LED instead of the existing one.
probably way more sturdy than any of those cheap AA lights made of plastic.
example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-Blacklight-Invisible-Ink-Marker-9LED-UV-Ultra-Violet-Flashlight-Torch-Light-3xAAA-Batteries-powered/32691941785.html?
Just desolder all the LEDs and put a single white one in it + resistor of your choice.
I was at walmart yesterday and they had a 1-AA Ray o vac, LED flashlight that I think might serve this purpose very well. It was ~$3, and had what looked like a 5mm LED behind some kind of optic lens. Surely couldn’t be much more than 10 Lumens. I have no idea how reliable or durable they are though, but at that price you could just buy 3-4 of them and stash them in the tent or RV.
Since my suggestion isn’t available anymore maybe someone knows of something similar???
I would suggest an XTAR H1, it’s a AA or 14500 powered angle head light that was intended as a headlamp. The low is pretty good but it came with a red LED that I prefer to most moonlight modes. These came out 5 or 6 years ago and I don’t see any on ebay or amazon.
Maybe something like this:
https://www.dorcy.com/outdoors/28-lumen-led-headlight
(Dorcy often has 20 percent off sales, watch for those; I’ve found they also have great customer support if there’s any problem buying from Dorcy direct — the one time I dropped and broke an outdoor motion sensor light, they just sent me another one, I presume knowing they were a bit fragile)
Gerber still sells the Infinity Ultra. It’s single mode & has a 5mm Nichia. Essentially the same as the Fenix EO1 except using a AA. They were popular back in the day.
Gerber (or CMG) used to make the Infinity with an amber emitter, which is very helpful for camping as it doesn’t wake people up like a while/blue-white light source will do.
Look inside the tailcap if you get a Gerber — some models will have a + indicator to remind you to put the battery in ‘backwards’ to the usual direction.
Discussion at How bright is the gerber infinity ultra? | Candle Power Flashlight Forum is relevant.
You probably want not to get the brighter “ultra” model.
The runtimes on that one must be beautiful.
I don’t remember ever actually seeing a Gerber branded ‘regular’ Infinity. I only saw the CMG version before Gerber bought them out. Still even the Ultra is only rated at 8 lumens.
I remember one thread on SPF where an owner was still getting usable light after 72 hours.
Its unlisted at gerbers site so buy one before its gone.
Didn’t some company make a led light that just snaps on top of a 9V battery, with low lumen, long life output?
Where did you get that from?
Thanks!!
I like my AAA Fenix E05 for it's low 8 lumens output. Not much of a perceived difference to 5lm. The other 25lm and 85lm output requires quick twist off/on less than a second. Not many adults realize this, should be pretty hidden for kids. The quality also very good, made to last. VERY efficient on it's lowest setting. It's on AAA, should equally easy to find as AA too.
EDIT: swapping to any high CRI LED will reduce the output closer to your 5lm spec (bonus light quality)
lumintop tool is decent
it has a 5 or so lumen low
$10 on sale
the thing about dim is, now it doesn;t need to be big to run a long time
so why stop at AA?
go to AAA
wle
The Tool CRI has an even dimmer low mode. Perfect by my standards.