I don't know if this can help but this is an old post from another forum regarding complex modding of dorcy aaa to increase
Runtime.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?149416-Dorcy-1AAA-gen4-Mods
By making the circuit as efficient as possible and lowering further the end voltage might give us a very long running light. Not good for rechargeables though and high chance of alkaline leaks due to over discharge.
Interested- I’ll watch this thread.
Wow, good read, thanks for the link. I know this is not something new to get a long run time out of a single LED, but with the single AAA 5mm LEDs flashlights, most of the other type of lights do not lend themselves to fairly easy mods, they usually cram everything onto a single board and crimp it into the head.
I agree, and a two mode Fenix would totally negate this thread. I also agree that the Manker Boney is not ideal, but it is modable, and they are willing to do this (at least at this time). I intend to work on the projecting LED issue and address the tail standing ability as well. I am wondering if anyone would be able to find a more efficient 5mm LED for this, perhaps even a shorter one like a straw hat version. HERE is the data sheet for the stock LED.
If we can get this to go with just the original LED, I will be happy. I would also like other colors, green, aqua, red and amber all come to mind. I think with the different vF of the different colors, we may have some substantial changes to keep light and run time near the white one. The warm color doesn’t seem to be available in a 5mm LED, at least I cannot find it. The stock one greatly benefits from a sanding with very fine steel wool or scrubpad, it makes it much more warm than the blueish tint of the original.
I would be up for another color that is close enough to the specs of the original that we do not have to change anything to keep it close, but I do not have time to research that….
Another good read, thank you DBSAR… I am going to look at adding a resistor mod to this if Manker can get me some “open” pills… Other wise, I will have to crack another one open (gonna hate this 
) but then I have some figuring to do on the combination of resistor and inductor….
So far so fun! Please feel free to chime in if you have any ideas on the development.
Interested in at least 3 pcs.
Here are some Strawhat LEDs that are warm white. I just did a quick search in eBay, and this is the first thing I found. Just to show that they do exist. In other words, there may be better options than this one, but this one would work too.
The unglued pill makes this guy makes it look pretty interesting to play around with. & thus I’d be down for 2+ of these lights to fiddle around with.
I recalled I liked modding lights such as the Fenix e0s & e1s. But I also recall the part I hated the most of those were the glued heads. What a royal PITA those were!
Ok, so we have had some setback with the original idea. I am an awful estimator of lumen, it appears what i thought were five lumen in reality were less than two, closer to one lumen.
Question: How many lumen would you need in a long run time light would you consider minimum? 1, 3, 5? Lets try to get a consensus on this so we can proceed….
I am currently running some tests using both AAA and AA cells in both alkaline and NiMh in single
-cell light setups, with different resistors, LEDs and a couple low cost boost drivers to see what run times and low usable outputs thst can work. Between 1 to 15 Lumens. Should have some results in a week or two with photos.
Looking forward to this, thanks!
I have the 220uH inductors that I ordered, I will wait until the weekend to see if the others come in (180uH) so I can mod the other lights for testing….
Have you ever had output decreased on something like this when potting with RTV DBSAR?
The actual test by Mhanlen is going on HERE
RTV silicone?
Yup, RTV silicone, specifically Harbor Freight low volatile Black Gasket maker kind…
It seemed about twice as bright before I potted it… or maybe my first impression of dim was not as dim as after I had been whiffing RTV… LOL, this is a learning experience for me…
I do not think that it would have affected it, but it sure seemed dimmer just before I sent it off to Mhanlen with a fresh battery… I have to say, the seven day run test may have just faded it in my memory…
i never use any silicone or any adhesive to pot any of the electronic parts especially the driver board. if i need to cement or glue any parts, i use 5-minute epoxy.
I think the Boney is about 3 lumen stock.
I just took it outside and compared it to my LD01 at 3 lumen, and I just kept seeing the same light from both, with a nicer beam from the Fenix.
Manker is selling a total fraud, I didn’t need a 3 lumen AAA light, I wanted something that was going to be brighter than my E01s, something over 13 lumens and at least close to the claimed 18 lumens.
I am of the messy clan, that five minute stuff is a lost challenge to me… If I mix stuff into it to make it thicker, I lose the time to use it. On the other hand, when it is runny, five minutes is the time it takes to get all over before starting to harden. By all over, I mean everywhere but where I wanted it…
I have potted some flash drives and such in silicone before, and not had any issues, but perhaps it was not this type of cheap-o silicone, or my imagination was that the light was brighter a week before…
Thanks for the replies on this… Looking forward to your results as well…
I have an E01, well, my co worker has it now, but the Manker Boneys that I have are about as bright as the Fenix E01. That is what made me give the E01 away, I could get 2+ for the same price.
If it is that dim, you should open a dispute, there is something wrong with it. I had one that was DOA out of over 12 ordered, BangGood shipped me a replacement. The DOA one was the repair that started all of this, I knocked the inductor coil off (or it was off and DOA due to that) when I was opening it up…. Replaced the inductor and got the low/long run time, thus this post.
I will not estimate lumen anymore though… I was WAY off on this…
EDIT: You have an LD01 or an E01? I would think any reflector light at the same lumen would appear brighter than a 5mm LED.
Some types of rtv will conduct electricity, but are usually sold as doing so, wonder if the potting could cause a short?
Or just enough to cause it to dim… I just had never had an issue out of RTV… I will NOT be using this again… I will try some epoxy perhaps (not five minute, so I can stir in thickener, lol) but I was thinking for now to just use duct seal for durability…
Here are my first beamshots ever, see if you can make some sense of them.
The beam on the left is a 2 or 3 year old E01, the beam in the middle and slightly above the others is the Boney, and the beam on the right is the LD01, on it’s 3 lumen setting, they are about 52” from the wall.
Good looking photos, no problem making them out. I agree, the Manker seems dim in those pics. If you contact your seller and they agree to a refund, I would take that.
If you are up for a quick mod and not worried about the return, take some scotchbrite or steel wool to the LED on the Manker, scuff it up a bit and see if that helps. I know that it made mine warmer and not so blue tint. It also erased the “figure 8” of the 5mm led…
Thanks, I just PMed Gearbest to see what they think.
I been running some tests with a few different boost drivers recovered form various scrapped single AAA & single AA lights. Some of the drivers are very inefficient, (as expected due to the quality of some, and the fact that they have to boost the voltage up to run an LED form a 1.5 volt cell) they are not going to be easy to get run times form versus Lumens. I have one however that with a resistor mod its drawing just 0.05 amps from a single AA cell, white producing roughly 5 to 10 lumens from a Luxeon warm white bead LED. it will run for a couple days before its so dim and unusable.
It will be difficult to get 6 or 7 days run time and any amount of usable light from a single 1.5 volt cell, as the drivers we have are not very efficient.
as expected,. when 2 AA or AAA cells are used the efficiency and possibilities multiply many times. i have tested a run time once using a Luxeon WW LED, and a resistor on 2 AA cells to produce an output a bit higher than a Candle, but able to run for a couple weeks continuous on just two Alkaline cells. Tf just a “glow” is needed, then the simple circuit i used in my Steam Pipe light Glow-tube will run for years on just to AA cells non stop. (So far i have been running the original on the same two AA Alkalines non stop for a year and half glowing a blue micro LED)
when it comes to AA versus AAA the AA will give 2 to 3 times to capacity & run times, though the host/light will be bigger.
EDIT: - added a photo of the most successful ( and efficient modded AAA light i have been testing (and using for the last year) its a $ 3 light bought from Fast Tech that i modded the driver with a resistor to lower the output to roughly twice that of a candle, but runs on a single AAA generic Alkaline cell for more than 10 hours continuous.
