Early LED Luxeon flashlight, was retrofitted with new white LED, given to Hewlett Packard executives who developed it. Circa mid 90’s.

Did Luxeon make very many flashlights?
Got this from my dad who worked at hp for 36 years. They were very proud of their development of the LED, starting in the late 60's with red ones. This unit uses an unusual C + 123a battery config, being a retrofit / demo. Have not found another like it, would like to know more about it.
 
Confess to not understanding the 'retrofitted with new LED' aspect; the pics appear to show the 'Luxeon I' LED, as well as the original optic that was engineered for it. I am seeing no evidence of a modern retrofit.

And that C + CR123 combo is crazy; would only be the result of a nightmare from Silverfox or mdocod, is what I'd think. :-/
 
Confess to not understanding the 'retrofitted with new LED' aspect; the pics appear to show the 'Luxeon I' LED, as well as the original optic that was engineered for it. I am seeing no evidence of a modern retrofit.

And that C + CR123 combo is crazy; would only be the result of a nightmare from Silverfox or mdocod, is what I'd think. :-/

Maybe they're misusing the term retrofit and they just had to put in a new old stock LED in there because the old one was burned out?
 
Confess to not understanding the 'retrofitted with new LED' aspect; the pics appear to show the 'Luxeon I' LED, as well as the original optic that was engineered for it. I am seeing no evidence of a modern retrofit.

And that C + CR123 combo is crazy; would only be the result of a nightmare from Silverfox or mdocod, is what I'd think. :-/
Not modern retrofit, done in the 90's with first white LED. Case was probably 2C incandescent originally.
 
Maybe they're misusing the term retrofit and they just had to put in a new old stock LED in there because the old one was burned out?
I think this was a pre-production unit to show off the new white LED technology, Lumileds, maker of Luxeon, was a joint venture between HP (Agilent) and Phillips. This may be a historic unit that was never in production?
 
"Early LED Luxeon flashlight, was retrofitted with ..." to me, means an early LED Luxeon flashlight, that was retrofitted with something else.

I guess it's just because I learned English in school, unlike the people who post on Imgur.
 
Last edited:
"Early LED Luxeon flashlight, was retrofitted with ..." to me, means an early LED Luxeon flashlight, that was retrofitted with something else.

I guess it's just because I learned English in school, unlike the people who post on Imgur.
Retrofitted means the existing lamp was replaced with a newly invented white LED, hence battery combo / adaptor. I don't know what lamp it was originally designed for, but not the one in it now. I think it's a prototype, ever seen one? Nothing wrong with my English, why you slamming imgur? Is CPF full of trolls like you?
 
LOL troll; yup just ask the membership here - during the ~decade that I was a site admin here, I did ban a number of trolls right here on the forum. Even got all sorts of hate mail for enforcing CPF's rules about trolling. :)

My apologies if the writeup was yours; just that it could be written better is all - it honestly sounds like it was an LED flashlight that was subsequently retrofitted with a new white LED. ;-)

Edit: I guess we need my buddy Monocrom to weigh in - he's even grumpier than I am. :)
 
LOL troll; yup just ask the membership here - during the ~decade that I was a site admin here, I did ban a number of trolls right here on the forum. Even got all sorts of hate mail for enforcing CPF's rules about trolling. :)

My apologies if the writeup was yours; just that it could be written better is all - it honestly sounds like it was an LED flashlight that was subsequently retrofitted with a new white LED. ;-)

Edit: I guess we need my buddy Monocrom to weigh in - he's even grumpier than I am. :)
Thanks, I do have respect for knowledgeable but grumpy admins, they're on every forum no matter the topic. This is my first post here, I think this unit is pretty rare and maybe historic, and if anyone could tell me more about they'd be here. My dad was at hp for 36 years, being involved with all their LED development. He retired about the time white LEDs were invented. He used the term "retrofitted" to describe it.
 
The way it's written makes it sound like it was an old LED flashlight that was recently retrofitted with a new LED.

So it's an old incandescent that was retrofitted back in the day with the Luxeon LED?
 
The host is a Brinkmann Nextsar. I don't know much about them but there must have been a lot to go around in the '90s since even today you can find huge lots for sale.
That's what I was looking for. I see you can get 12 for 50 bucks on ebay. Mines got to be a lot brighter than that c cell config. Maybe I'll get one just to compare.
 
Here is my first mod. A Luxeon 1 in a Wenzel headlight that originally had a 3v PR bulb. Direct Drive so worked best with Energizer Lithium primaries and not so bright with NiMh. Back then the luxeon lottery "white" meant some random shade of blue, green, puke, or violet.
wentzel_mod_lux1.jpg
 
I remember that back when LED colours varied I could go to Lowes and test a Led Lenser Hokus Focus or whatever they call it here and get the best one out of six on the shelf.
 
The way it's written makes it sound like it was an old LED flashlight that was recently retrofitted with a new LED.

So it's an old incandescent that was retrofitted back in the day with the Luxeon LED?
Yes, by Luxeon. I didn't know the original configuration. I hear the old Nexstars are incan, new ones LED, but all 2 -c cell.
 
Top