Brightest AAA size light available

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AAA Flashlights
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nice suggestions so far…thank you

im not too worried about runtime, or max output for only a minute, or throw, but thanks for the alternatives and head up everybody.
the reason for this is because i also edc, a 18650 light, and a 16340 light as well haha. i just minimized my keychain by a whole lot, and now it looks naked, which is why i decided…hey why not add another light to my edc gear.

i looked up every light mentioned, and the only two lights that caught my eye were the eo5ssvn and the mod it yourself jexree mini. all the other lights are very cool, but just not enough lumens.

anybody else with more host for mods or suggestions for off the shelf stock lights?

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I am glad you see the possibility :wink: sorry the Jexree Mini is the best host i have found yet, but i am always searching for something better.

Most lights that is in this size have often been glued together in various ways or have had a bad hollow shelf or even plastic pill design, the Jexree Mini have been really easy to mod and have a proper shelf for the mcpcb, the only downside with it really if i am going to be very picky is because every part is dismantlable ,head from lens side & driver side & even the bottom spring is accessible, the twisty grip is a bit short so if you don’t lube it up properly the twisty action can be less than perfect, but everything else is almost ideal so as i started with it is the best i have found for now.

Vinh’s eo5ssvn & DBCstm’s Texas Poker & some inspiring mod work that djozz did on the same host as the Jexree Mini, was the reason i wanted something that small & powerful.

I thought of buying the eo5ssvn but i wanted to learn how to do something similar & hopefully better myself :wink: and the eo5ssvn option D for $85 i felt was to much money for something i could create for 12-13$, 5$ for the host (EDIT i just found out it cost more now, 3 for $14 or 1 for $10 :frowning: ) & 6-7$ for what i believe is a much nicer selection of possible warmer hues in the XP-L V6 3C, 3D at Hank’s, 3A at LEDDNA or if you like CW both those sellers have those now (Vinh says the option D is 5700K so i think he uses the XP-L V6 2C) unfortunately my current favorite the V6 3D tint is sold out everywhere for now.

And the stainless steel host has much worse heatsinking than a aluminum host, i think it’s because it’s SS he says it is for 2min burst only, and the eo5ssvn option D is only in one mode and i knew i wanted some nice modes in the future & a good reason to learn how to build drivers & tune firmwares.

I have used it when running at night in the winter from 4,17v to 3,3v in one long 10-12min stretch, and it got hot real hot but because it was so cold outside it was actually very nice :slight_smile: but it didn’t break and i think the battery runs down the volt fast enough that it basically can’t self destruct, but if it did i can still build 5 new ones for the money i saved :wink:

But of course if i had such a disposable income, i would also like to collect fully modded & tricked out Vinh monster lights, like i see some do :stuck_out_tongue: but for now i got more extra time than money and a desire to learn something new, so a flashlight modding hobby fits perfectly :bigsmile:

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sounds like you saved some work for me already then Cajampa! looking for reliable hosts can be a pita. i think id like to try this jexree. the odd thing and what concerns me is that i have never heard anybody on the board talking about this light. but i trust you nonetheless.

the only other host i will be looking for is one with a tail cap switch for my other AAA keychain light.
to be honest, im not too fond of twisties, but ill let this one slide.
do you mind sharing what are all the parts needed to build one just like yours?

and you mentioned that you plan on building one with wights driver, will this be less bright, but just better modes?

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I have made bright lights with Smiling Shark SS-5039 hosts. However this is not the easiest way because the pill and preferably the reflector need to be replaced, in addition to the LED and driver. The advantages are that it looks and feels good and that the host itself is cheap. The thick aluminum head also distributes heat well.
I have probably gotten 500 lumens with direct drive in these, but I don’t have a way of measuring it. That example has nothing but a connection plate for a driver. There should be room for an FET driver, but I don’t know of a board to build it on. I have one with two and one with three 1731 chips, but 500 lumens would probably take 4 or 5 of them, which would be hard to fit in. As far as I know these limitations apply to all AAA size lights. Efest IMR 10440 cells supply amperes of current with no difficulty and little voltage droop. To be practical, you probably need modes and preferably several modes. Two amps. from a 350 mah. cell is about is 10 minutes. It will actually give off useful light for much longer than that, before you need to turn it off to save the battery, but slowly getting dimmer. That’s good for several times looking under the sofa for toys or under your car for something you dropped but not for much walking. I think you can run it continuously at 500 lumens if you keep switching it between hands and hold it tightly. When the head gets too hot to hold, you can hold it by the tail to shut it off if no modes or to switch modes if it has them.
The 5039 switch is steel. With the spring braided, it works fine at 1 amp., but my most powerful version is a twisty.

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Yes, is must be made if aluminum, brass, copper, silver, gold or diamond, or be fluid cooled. There is a table of heat conductivity somewhere in Wikipedia.

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Check out my mod thread for some more info on the host

djozz have 1 2 mods on this host, the host is also called Ultrafire LZZ-06

This is wights 12/13mm driver, it should be almost as bright maybe some 0,1-0,3A less (guesstimated ;)) I have not even upgraded the wires yet or drilled through the driver board so there is more performance to get so i think it will end up about the same or a bit more with full low resistance mods & the FET driver, i have held back those till i can get some modes because it is plenty bright & hot already :slight_smile:

This newer package version that wight uses for his tiniest driver of these tiny MOSFETS is more efficient than the old one used in the Tiny10DD & Tiny12DD drivers, and the best part is with a single AMC7135 chip that controls all the lower modes up to ~160 lumens it should have a possible very long runtime + the benefit of max lumens when ever :bigsmile:

I agree that a good clicky host would be preferable but i haven’t found one that i liked yet, but am still searching, i like the Hugsby XP-1’s i have finally gotten the head apart but i haven’t removed the star yet so i can’t determine yet how the star connects to the shelf and it is a tiny tiny star only 8mm wide…….but i am still searching for the optimal cheap host that are easily modable.
Most are expensive and very glued it looks like……

Here is the Jexree Mini link again somthimes they sell them for 5$ for one somthimes they want 5$plus shipping, and most times you can buy 3 for 15$, if you know aliexpress you know that they run sales all the time so you can always wait them out if you don’t want to pay full price :wink:

I used the XP-L V6 3D hue bin on a Noctigon XP16 that i cut down to size with a big sheath metal scissor, that hue bin is unfortunately sold out but
LEDDNA have the sinpads with V6 3A for a NW hue & 1A for a CW, Hank at http://intl-outdoor.com sells the Noctigon with V6 3C, 2C & 1A, if you like one of Hanks tints i would chose one of his, generally people around here seem to regard the Noctigon as a higher performing option and that is what i used on my first Jexree Mini mod, but i think i like the 3A hue over the 3C so it tricky if you want a particular hue, i guess you could always reflow some nice led on a Noctigon.

I have bought a bunch of different ones of these and plan to build some variations with different tints, when i get some driver building action going………

17

just read through your mod thread….am i reading this right. so all you did was put in a xpl on noctigon and that created this 1000 lumen monster!?

stock driver and everything?

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Yes, the trick is the XP-L with the V6 flux bin, they are very bright direct driven at 3-3.6A & the right host + the Efest IMR10440 battery.

And these new XP-L’s fits in the reflector+plastic protector perfectly, because they are XP package sized but with an XM-L2 die.

When djozz did his mod with a similar host, these where not available and he used a XM-L2 that made the fit more problematic.

Because this is a twisty with a good short bottom spring, there isn’t so much losses like in a clicky with a long thin steel spring+switch pcb+switch assembly

That why i said almost everything is almost ideal, to really give it lots of output :slight_smile: but i still want to find a good clicky host :wink:

These boost drivers goes DD when you use a lithium battery in them, you don’t even lose the 1,5v functionality, at least at first as you can read in my mod thread when i tried to use the QTC i broke the stock driver, so i can’t know how long it would have lasted if i hadn’t tried the QTC.

And there is more refinement you can do to really get max out of it, like sanding down the anodizing layer on the shelf to get better heatsinking, and upgrading the wires to as thick gauge you can comfortably fit, and drill through the stripped driver board like djozz did to lessen the resistance losses through the pcb.

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Holy $&@! You got 6 amps out of a event 10440?

I’d be afraid of it blowing my fingers off.

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No, 3A to 3,6A, you misread :wink: the Efest IMR10440 is only good for max 3,6A.

The reason i write it like that is because the last bit of amp, depends a lot of how low you can make the resistance in the circuit, from the battery through the spring and through the pcb with heavier gauge wire to the Noctigon mcpcb.

And it is not certain you even want max amp without any modes because then it gets even hotter and lasts even shorter.

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Ahhhh Ok, that makes since. I was like Wtf how in the world is this possible. I read at 3.3 to 6 amps and was really confused.

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You may be right, i will change it to 3-3.6A instead that may be a more correct way to express it.

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Cajampa,
So if using the stock driver on 10440, I only get one mode which is max? And if I install that wights 12/13 driver , I should get more modes correct?

If so, I may purchase two or maybe even more, and get both versions made. Thanks for your help.

Fritz cat did respond with a tail clicky host. Sounds a bit difficult tho. Smiling shark ss 5039

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Yes that is correct, with wight’s driver it should be able to provide any modes set up one could want.
The “should” comes from that i haven’t done it yet, but anyone who can program any other ATTINT13A-SSU based driver should be able to use the plenty available firmwares here on BLF for this driver also.

This is a good start on how to program a firmware on the attiny13a.

Yeah i have checked his mod thread, but the pill design looks a bit problematic, actually VFMaddict in this thread spoke about the
TANK007 TK-703 that looks a bit interesting, i found a mod thread on it that indicates that at least the driver is replaceable, i still don’t know what the pill design is or if it even is possible to get to the star to replace it.
But it has some nice quality’s like aluminum reflector (that will get much less throwy with a XP-L in it ;)) and some nice knurling and of course the clicky.
I know the Tank E09 is glued to make it very hard to mod but who know maybe the TK-703 isn’t.

It is still kind of expensive thou, more so than would take a chance buy on it, but i will see, it is a possible candidate.

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Looks like you found one.

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The problem with the THRUNITE Ti4 Ti is that it is really not safe running an efest 10440, the titanium is an even worse heatsink than stainless, so the risk of the light breaking by desoldering the led or wires & shorting out or burning the driver is very high, it could possible be usable with a lifepo4 10440 3,2v but then you are already down to maybe 250-300 lumens or less of output, but that could at least be usable.
I have though about it because it is a beautiful & cheap (for titanium :laughing: light :wink: and it is modable, at least the led is reachable for a nice upgrade.

You said up there that you didn’t know of a board to base a small FET driver on for the SS 5039, have you checked out wight’s smaller drivers? could those fit, what is the driver size needed?

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Boaz said the lumintop tool with a 10440 can hit about 400 lumens. That’s pretty impressive and a clicky as well.
I don’t like the UI tho.
Are there any other factory ligjts besides the lumi tool and ti4 that can do 500 lumens?

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How come you didn’t dedome any xpl’s on your jexree? I hear output is nearly the same for an xpl dedome.

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Where is a good place to buy the jexree mini?