How to turn a $3 - 65 lumen light into a 500 lumen light! -or- How to convert a 3xAAA light into a Lithium Ion rechargable!

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hi, I was hanging out on that ‘other site’ in the lowly ‘Budget Lights’ section, where they poopoo all things cheap. Saw a link to this light…Utilitech 3xAAA 65 lumen flashlight. for $2.97

It comes with an MLE emitter and the standard battery carrier. The tint shift is horrible…blue in the middle and warmer outside of that. Still, for $3 who could complain, right? I’m pretty sure it exceeds 65 lumens and actually throws pretty well for what it is.

Someone mentioned dedoming it to help the tint shift but it doesn’t have a dome! About that time I remembered an XML U2 I’d pulled from my trusty S3, just laying around on my ‘work bench’ (actually a Ping-Pong table). So I hook it up and wrestle it for a while to center it in the reflector and put some Eneloops in there. Of course it’s direct drive but it was Bright! Estimated 400 lumens with a fresh charge, because it easily matched the high mode on my S10 w/16340.

But runtime is gonna suck with DD, right? Well, it starts bright and tapers to a still usable amount of light at 45 minutes with the Eneloops.

Then I saw the thread here about a laptop pack that contains 18500s!! They just came in today and are in the charger…I’ll report back when they are fully charged but they should last quite a bit longer and probably run the cheap little b*st*rd to greater heights of budget brightness.

2

I know someone will request pictures but I just can’t find the strength to take that head apart again…it was too tough getting the LED centered in there! :slight_smile:

3

I think someone said the 65lm version actually outputs 120, and the 120lm version actually outputs 65.

4

Those 18500's do the darnedest things.

A piece of plastic irrigation hose with ~.25inch cut out lengthwise makes a great adapter sleeve. $.40/ft @Ace Hardware, and they sell it by the foot.

5

do you mean as eneloop to 18650?

6

Estimated 500 lumens easily, with fresh 18500 in there! I made an adapter out of an old toilet paper roll in less than a minute.

This thing is bright!! :slight_smile: …and I think runtime may be OK, guessing around an hour. Of course it won’t stay 500 lumens the whole time.

7

I think he means you can cut the hose to wrap the 18500 so the 18500 doesn’t rattle when you replace the 3 cell AAA carrier (and then you wouldn’t use the AAA eneloops either).

I’ve also used cardboard from paper/towel rolls to wrap the 18500 cells; after the cardboard is loaded it generally stays in place when pulling the cells for re-charging.

8

Let us know how well the tail cap holds up in DD. They got the cheaper colored plastic ones in the back store racks for $2 but tail cap will smoke with the 18500 :slight_smile:

9

Exactly, irrigation pipe is just slightly too large so you have to cut it lengthwise and remove about a quarter-inch (~6mm). Compress it to insert and there is enough tension holding it against the tube wall so there's no rattle. Grab it with tweezers to remove it.

10

??? The tail cap is fine.

And the toilet paper cardboard adapter works great, stays in there during battery changes and eliminates rattle.

This was going to be a giveaway but I’m not so sure now! Makes a great light for the car.

11

Slick!

12

Thanks Light Junkie! This just fell together after thinking about what I had laying around and what I wanted to improve on the light.

OK, runtime is about an hour to an hour-and-a-quarter with the 18500. It’s still providing plenty of usable light but is considerably down from the initial brightness. It gets pretty warm running for that long but never too hot to hold.

I see why modding is so addictive…feels great to take a cr@ppy light and make it decently bright and more usable than it was! And total investment…$3, basically.