I put together a Carrington box a while ago with a couple of AA powered lights and a radio. Since then it seems like lights have become more efficient. What would be a AA powered light with a long run time I could add to it? I wouldn’t be looking for something that could generate a lot of light too, just a longer run time than the basic 2 AA powered lights I have in there now.
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The Convoy T4 is a solid 2AA light, and the Convoy T2/T3 is a solid 1AA. The old 4-mode T2 driver appears to be much more efficient than the new 12-group driver. Hard to find 4AA lights nowadays, so just grabbing extra copies might be the way.
Nice thing about these non-generic lights is that they have a very low mode than can run for days, if not weeks.
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I guess you’d want something more mechanically based, like a simple non-pcb circuit? Otherwise, you could probably try to pot the guts of a d3aa for toughness and durability, and hope the electronics don’t fail…
@sbslider did a runtest on lithium primaries on a zebralight on super low, got like 1k hours out of it, lol.
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What’s a Carrington box?
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Not hard at all, haha: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008052204697.html
It must be an electromagnetically shielded box to keep electronics safe in case of an electromagnetic storm event, etc.
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The test mentioned was actually run with a AAA cell. AA would run more than 2000 hours likely. Zebralights have decent lows. My experience is the 2nd level from the dimmest uses the least current.
Not sure what a Carrington box is but I’m guessing its for EMP or ? In that case any light with an integrated circuit could be toast. I’m not sure if an LED would survive either? AA incandescent maybe the only way to go. You could reduce the output and increase the run time with the right choice of resistor in series between the cells and the light.
another super simple option is go get a few voltvamp circuits from Datiled on CPF. The 3V ones he makes seem to run longer than the 1.5V ones. But I believe both contain an IC . . .
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Like Delphi said, a Carrington box is designed to shield electrical things from Electromagnetic Pulses. These EMPs could come from nature in the form of lightning, solar flares (the Northern Lights are an example of this) or man made like a nuclear explosion. Carrington is the name of the scientist who studied the phenomenon after a huge solar flare knocked out the telegraph system after the Civil War. Microwaves offer this kind of protection, there are bags and boxes for this too.
I put one together just to be somewhat prepared if another event like this happens, the disruption would be way worse if it happened today than earlier and having a light that would last a while could make it less unpleasant while waiting for the grid to be restored.
I grew up in the country in the 60’s and 70’s when the power would go out after storms and we might get snowed in for a day or two. People would prepare for this by stockpiling supplies, making a Carrington box just takes this another step further. I’m surprised this isn’t more common with you guys, it’s another excuse to buy more flashlights.
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3v ones probably require less inefficiencies in conversion…2aa lithium would multiply the runtime by 4 in relation to the single aaa lithium…4k hours? That’s honestly kind of nuts, lol…
What magnitude of an EMP would an ungrounded box deflect? I understand faraday cages essentially block everything, but would they heat up substantially?
I use an ammo can as a carrington box, lol..
That’s what I used too! I lined it with wood and put everything in double ziplock bags inside.
I really don’t know how effective it would be beyond a lot better than nothing and the few bucks I spent buying extra stuff to go with the things I already had that went in to it won’t hurt me.
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Great clarifying question, it’s the former, not the version with XPG2. I’m basing my efficiency assessments on reviews by ZeroAir, who has tested both the old 4-mode driver (LH351D) and the new 12-group T3 driver.
Very nice! I was thinking about something along the lines of Thrunite TN4A or Sunwayman D40A.
You need to replace the rubber gaskets with conductive gaskets for the ammo box to work.
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Thanks, I’ll have to look at that. I think they’re from WWII and spent about 10 years in Florida during the 60’s so I doubt whatever gasket they came with is in good shape today.
After looking there aren’t any gaskets there, and I can’t tell if there ever was one.
I believe the issue is that the entire enclosure has to be metal or else EMP will just go through the rubber gaskets, the conductive gaskets make for an all metal enclosure.
When people use an all metal cookie can for emp blocking they sand off the paint around the lid edges and use aluminum foil to make sure the seal is metal to metal tight because a loose lid would allow the emp to enter.
I’ve seen that, I think I should do that too. Or just put everything in the spare microwave down there.
Supposedly “A microwave oven is optimally shielded for around 2.4 GHz. That is a very very high frequency compared to the solar flare. At lower frequencies, the shielding isn’t as optimal and will only yield a minor reduction.”
Try an all metal garbage can with the thick aluminum foil seal, you can also wrap your individual items in plastic, then 3 layers of aluminum foil, and then plastic wrap again before putting them away in your protective carrington container.
You’ll love the first 60 seconds of this video about the ammo box, she then does the microwave oven.
Oh man, I’m going to watch all of that later. I think she’s way past the point where I would want to survive whatever it is that takes out the grid.
And thanks for sharing this, you’re right about liking it.
I think there are arguments about the grounding, not grounding, of faraday boxes.