I’m looking for as small as possible, as cheap as possible, COB floodlight powered by 1 x 18650.
Build quality only has to be good enough to not self destruct. No particular brightness level or modes needed, except a mode that’ll produce 200lm+ for 2 hours+ from an average, replaceable, 18650 cell.
If that ends up being a headlamp that I take the strap off of and grind off any protrusions no longer needed for non-headlamp use, that’s fine.
I’m looking for something with close to half the volume of this headlamp, the smallest it can be with only one COB and a switch:
That’s kind of vague, could you be more specific, including that it’s not black friday and I kinda didn’t want to wait till then?
Just sayin’, I don’t know why you bothered to post that.
Sorry if that is offensive but it’s kind of offensive for you to post that, like it serves no purpose, wasted my time reading it. No? Just trying to be realistic here.
Those are my thoughts on your original post. Look I’ll show you.
Dave:
Me:
Dave:
Me:
Lol
The thing your looking for isnt going to be made by any real company. They won’t have a website you can go check out. It’s just going to be some mass produced non name thing in a bin at the hardware store. Just go see what’s there. And harbour frieght still sell them when its not black Friday. Just at regular price.
Completely flood as-in no focus whatsoever would be fine. If all else fails, I’ll end up hunting down some 18500 based light, pull the reflector out, put in a chunk of aluminum to get the LED up near the lens and have an o-ring spacer so they don’t collide.
I agree, that I don’t want some premium brand light, but for the most part anything I would find at hardware stores, I’d find on their site before bothering to go there.
I was asking for specifics, like WHAT light at HF? A link maybe? A HF search for 18650 light, brings up no relevant hits, nor does “work light”. Broadening the search to merely “flashlight”, there’s a large 3xAA COB light that looks like a copy of a Nebo Big Larry, and then what I could only guess would be their free light on BF, which is not especially small, not 200lm, and not 18650: https://www.harborfreight.com/lighting/flashlights/144-lumen-ultra-bright-portable-led-worklightflashlight-63878.html
“COB light” finds a hit, that’s largish and uses 4xAAA, and everything I recall them giving away, was AA or AAA powered, not 18650, as are most no-name things in bins at hardware stores.
“Look around at hardware stores” isn’t the kind of reply I’d bother making a forum topic to read.
Sometimes, not all the time, you can take out the aaa or aa battery carrier and put an 18650 in it. The voltage is right so your not destroying anything. It’s hit or miss sometimes. I have done it to alot of those 3 aaa cell multi emitter one dollar lights from dollar general. Use to give them to the kids when we went camping. They were probably a couple hundred lumens and seem to run for quite some time.
If I want a completely floody light I take a sheet of the material they use in LED tv’s and monitors, cut it to the right size, remove the reflector or optics and put it on the lens. No defined hot spot or cut off point to the light at all. Just super flood.
Thanks but apparently I did not emphasize enough, that it needs to be very small. Anything taking 3xAAA is too large a diameter, and I specifically do not want a 2nd LED for throw that adds to the size of the flashlight. Goal is sub-23mm diameter and 90mm length, just a body tube with an end cap, a tail cap with a switch (or a twisty would be fine) and the COB mounted on a flat area of the body tube or a recessed area with an acrylic lens over it, I could accept 1mm extra ridge in the tube to accommodate that.
I looked around a bit more and one option seems to be a Sipik SK98, in candle mode, with the large rings on the body tube ground off. Another option might be one of those lights that does have both the side COB and a thrower head, and just remove the head and find an end cap even if it has to be epoxied on in place of the head.
It would help if there were better pictures of the internals and other angle views for some headlamps and bike lights, to get a better idea of what material can be removed.
The cheapest ones probably won’t be on the website, they’ll just be on a clearance rack or something. Or if it is on the website it might just be on your local store’s site and idk where that is for you. I mean if you want as cheap as possible I think that’s good advice. The one you posted was $4 so I was assuming you wanted something $4 or less
No offense intended, but you just don’t seem to be adding anything to the topic but noise.
You’re posting vague, generic ideas instead of anything I was looking for.
I already had better ideas than that. Just sayin’, sometimes if you don’t have a useful reply, you shouldn’t.
I appreciate that you mean well but there’s the purpose of the topic and the goal and wanting low cost zombie lights doesn’t jive with driving all over town to find something which isn’t even that.
I concede that I may have to make this from nearly -scratch, take some cheap 18650 host, lopp off the head, flatten the body tube to heatsink a cob. Except that there is probably some product out there, and it’s merely a case of nobody seeing this topic, being present to let me know about it.
It doesn’t have to be $4 or less, but it does have to be the other parameters without an obscene cost to get there. Size trumps cost.
I know FireFlies makes a nice mule light. Not cheap though. Not something you want to bang around in the shop or under a car. I will keep an eye out and keep searching around. I usually don’t look at gas station flashlights but, I will start paying attention to what they got. Possibly find something that will work for you.
I have this EDC18L. Three modes with a moonlight and turbo mode. I’ve put some LED TV panel diffuser on it. It’s super floody while leaving the original optic and glow gasket below it. I don’t use it. It’s been sitting in a box in a cabinet for well over a year. It’s about 95mm by 24mm. So it’s pretty compact. I don’t remember what power level the modes are. Looks about 50, 300, 800, then about a 2000 plus turbo and a 5 lumen moonlight. Takes flattop or button tops. Magnetic tail cap. Think I have the pocket clip for it. That hallway was dark and that was on high mode so maybe 800 or more lumens. Nichia 219’s at 4000k. Can’t find the manual for it but the UI is super simple I can jot it down for ya.
I’ll send it to you. No charge. It’d be nice if someone got some use out of it.
I kept looking online and getting closer to assuming I’m going to have to just take an already small, normal 18650 based light, some generic cheaper version similar to a Convoy S2+ and machine it down to get the size as small as I want, put (or increase) the flat surface on the body tube and thermal epoxy a thin strip COB there. I can just use more epoxy to protect the wires to it and seal the entry holes into the body or remainder of the head after removing the extra length not needed for a (removed) reflector and LED there.
Right around the time I finish doing that, I’ll probably come across a light that’s pretty similar and lower total cost.
toddcshoe, thanks for the offer but that looks too nice to hack up and I think I can get a smaller result going with something else as the starting point, and get a broader more even beam that a COB would give me.
