single AAA incandescent mini flashlights

[more_vampires]

Hope that's not your bedroom smoking lions past 2.9v. Your runtime visual is on point, sir! EXCELLENCE!

That's one unprotected lion down!

Any idea of your brightness at minute 25?

 

[Noctiluco]

LiFePO4 are stable, against Li-on that are not seure under 2,5V. ¿Lumen at min.25? perhaps around 5 or 6 lumens...

 

[night.hoodie]

Well, I'm back from the -world of half-charged -Cool.

Here's 3 identical sets of 2 shots with different backgrounds.
Solitaire w/ MiniMag lamp and 3.2v -- Maratac Rev.2 Cree R3 -- Fenix E05ss Cree XP-E

And only now I see for the first time the green cast of these LEDs.

What I've discovered about these Coolworlds is that they are a bit resiliant to the abuse of overdischarging. I've ruined one of my Efest flattop LiMn with a single overdischarge... won't hold its charge anymore. I'm watching it close but I know I must get rid of it. Any time I overdischarge a Li-ion, I quickly get it back on the charger and give it ~90%, then set it aside and check it constantly to see what its doing. My Coolwords and my Soshine LiCo's seem to be ok with a minor overdischarge, but taking an LiMn below 2.5v really screws it up.

I found a few other LiFePO4 makers, including Coolworlds (in no particular order):
1) Coolworld
2) Coolook
3) Soshine
4) Imren
5) Powerlion

I was going to try the Soshine's, but they look nearly identical to the Soshine LiCo's I have, and I thought that might cause trouble.

What I've noticed about the Coolwords (and I'm not sure this is indicative of all LiFePO4) is that they charge to 3.7v, but after resting they rapidly drop to a 3.4v resting charge. I try to rest them 24 hours, but have rested before use as little as 4 hours, but that drop in resting voltage happens faster than that, maybe an hour. As long as I rest them, I can use them "fully" charged in the Solitaire for about 20 mins before depleted without fear of overdriving the lamp, as long as I condition the lamp first (I condition the lamp after first installing a new one by running a 1.2v duraloop until depleated, then running a 1.9v NiZn until depleated... after which the lamp lasts longer than the 4 hour estimate). Not all mag branded lamps are the same, they differ in size and resiliance. No way to tell how long a lamp will last in my experience since my last post here with them.

But this entire exercise is really turning me on to incan light. And I am vexed by the near absense of small, quality (non-plastic crap) single-cell incan lights. I wish I could find something like the Maratac AA that uses a small replacable lamp screw bulb, you know, something in metal. This is a 180º turn for me... and I'd go so far as to say the LED lovers are selling themselves short on good light. I haven't used the Nichia 219b yet, or the High CRIs from Cree, or any other manufacturer, but with the LED lights I have, forgetting everything except the light quality, none of them even come close to comparing... incan light is just better, right now, still, to the eye and for photography, no matter what those belly-rubbers say (poke!). Granted, you're sacrificing brightness and burn time with incan, but LED light simply does not compare. I am a convert.

And since I can't find a decent small incan, I'm going to have to keep working with the Solitaire. The next step is to try a full Li-ion 4.2v with either a 2 or 3 cell Mag C&D lamp (hopefully, if I remove the reflector and the lens, I can squeeze this much larger lamp in there) and see if I can get close to 40lm of spilly flood for 20 mins.

But I like the Noctiluco solution so much, I'll be keeping it on my keychain and purchasing more Solitaire incans, and also Coolworlds from FastTech. And having found one of these in my stuff, I'll be replacing the dead bulb (Philips 112 1.2v I believe, but I'll look for higher voltage bulbs that might fit for a 3.2v or 4.2v 14500) when I can and messing around with it. I hate plastic, though. Ever seen anything like it in any metal? Please let me know, TIA

 

[night.hoodie]

And since I can't find a decent small incan, I'm going to have to keep working with the Solitaire. The next step is to try a full Li-ion 4.2v with either a 2 or 3 cell Mag C&D lamp (hopefully, if I remove the reflector and the lens, I can squeeze this much larger lamp in there) and see if I can get close to 40lm of spilly flood for 20 mins.

Proof of concept (bloody works just like I [function key] planned). This is a 2 cell C&D lamp and 3.2v Coolworld. The pins needed to be bent a little to fit into the Solitaire socket. I can only assume that is 30 lumens. Appears the lamp will fit under the head, but there will be difficulty with removing or drilling the reflector. Drilling the reflector will mean the reflector will be much more shallow and another piece will be needed to fit around the lamp to push against the switch to turn it off when tightend. I already have some copper crimps in mind that should fit around the lamp perfectly and provide some heat sinking to boot. If this setup doesn't fit under the lens, that will have to be removed, but I can't tell yet, its close, but a plastic lens will definitely melt so close to a bigger lamp requiring a glass lens. If the lamp does push beyond the end of the head, perhaps I can find a glass lens that is curved, convex on one side and concave on the other. I expect the flood to spot/throw feature will be lost, and it will simply be 30lm of flood, which is a fair trade. The light itself appears white and quite lovely. I encorage anyone interested to leap frog me and finish the project as I need to get another Solitaire to mod, and a drill bit ever so slightly larger than the diameter of the lamp, and a perfect sized cylidrical sheath so the lamp turns off when the head is tightened. I still also want to test a 3 cell C&D lamp with a 4.2v to see what it gives as that's not quite the voltage needed for the 3 cell C&D, but should still put out some warm incan.

Goes without saying the 2 or 3 cell C&D lamp will not fit as a spare in the tailcap, but you can still keep a 2 cell AA lamp in there just in case. My hope is the C&D lamps last a lot longer than the AA/AAA lamps.

 

[night.hoodie]

Well, this is not optimum, but I am confident better ideas will precipitate from others. I could not remove the reflector and lens, broke the lens trying, then just used some needle nose trying to get the reflector out, failed... realized I had widened the hole in the reflector so the larger lamp fit through, and just plowed forward. The chrome end piece actually comes with the lamp. I'm just using the split ring and o-ring for now to show that the chrome piece could be used to extend the head, and though I don't have one, a glass lens could be secured in there. As is, this won't really stay together, but its a good start. Beam shot taken without thinking from only a foot or two away. Nice flood -- as expected lost flood to throw. I stopped at Radio Shack and found a 3mm 3.7v bipin LED to store in the tail cap as a spare for when the lamp dies.

 

[night.hoodie]

Last night, I was using this 2 cell C & D lamp, as shown in the last post but without the extra stuff on the head, with a 4.2v LiMn Efest. Bright. The lamp takes the voltage, and gets dim and then dark around 3v, so less chance of me overdischarging the LiMn. The lamp is tough, and I'm going to try carrying it around on the keychain today with the lamp exposed like that to see if it holds up to physical keychain abuse. The only two issues are that 1) I keep blinding myself, not because the lamp sticks out but because I can't help myself, admiring the incan light; and 2) the lamp gets hot, like 315°F after a minute, and that could make a not so nice burn in skin; also, I like to hang my lights, and heat rises, so there is some concern about the cell absorbing heat from the lamp.

How hot can a healthy LiMn get before things get hairy?

Does anyone know if the 2 AAA MiniMaglite head theads onto the Solitaire?


edit:

I think this might give a better idea of how bright this 2 cell C & D lamp is with a 4.2v

That's direct 4pm Florida sunlight and shade, on a yellowish, sandy colored wall.

 

[more_vampires]

Awesome work, sir. I definitely think I'm going to have to pick up some Solitaire incans before they become unavailable.

 

[night.hoodie]

Awesome work, sir. I definitely think I'm going to have to pick up some Solitaire incans before they become unavailable.

I wish I could buy a pack of all available colors of them at once... I'd pay $80 for this collection.

 

[night.hoodie]

I just came across this truly at random, was not searching for it.

4V032 Bulb 4.0V .75A Incandescent Bi-Pin Base (2 Pack)

http://www.topbulb.com/4v032-bulb-4-0v-75a-incandescent-bipin-base-2-pack

Hard to tell from the pics, and they could be misleading or wrong... appears to be a replacement lamp for the mini though it doesn't specify. And this is not cheap, the magstarII lamps for the mini are usually half this. But if the specs are accurate, and it fits, its a 4v lamp.

 

[darkknightlight]

Wow that has potential to be an amazing bulb for this application! This would get me carrying a single cell light to be sure. Having said that, I hate to be a nay-sayer, but I'm curious why the bulb looks to be in Maglite blister packaging without any Maglite branding or whatnot on the package itself... thoughts?


Edit: the MPN matches with a standard Maglite 2aa xenon bulb unless I'm mistaken. In this particular case, 4v may be too much to expect the bulb to handle

 

[night.hoodie]

Wow that has potential to be an amazing bulb for this application! This would get me carrying a single cell light to be sure. Having said that, I hate to be a nay-sayer, but I'm curious why the bulb looks to be in Maglite blister packaging without any Maglite branding or whatnot on the package itself... thoughts?

I've seen these copy packs before... maybe the printer that makes the mag packs prints these as well, maybe magstar makes generics for wholesale resellers... idk.

Edit: the MPN matches with a standard Maglite 2aa xenon bulb unless I'm mistaken. In this particular case, 4v may be too much to expect the bulb to handle

That is my suspicion as well. Noctiluco showed the 2 cell Mag lamp peaks at 3.2v with fresh alkalines. I've proven to myself that 4.2v of LiMn is too much for the Mag-Star II minimag lamps, which fries them in a minute or two. The 3.2v LiFePO4 does match to that voltage much better, lamps last far longer, gives you 14-25lm out of a Solitaire.

----
News:
1) I just completed a bay auction and won this for $7:

Streamlight made replacement bipin bulbs, and there's plenty of NOS on eBay, but I don't want to run 1.5v AAA. The lamps appear to be a little bigger than the Mag-Star bipins, so I hope the 2AA MiniMag bipin fits in there... but I am really hoping to find a few more options in bipin lamps, namely something that can handle 3.6v-4.2v, but also something else that could handle 7.2v-8.4v (2x10180s), and why not 12v-18v (3x-4x 4xSR44 aka 2/3N)?

I want to see how bright I can get a keychain incan, but also want a stable, sustainable keychain incan.

2) Also, sometime ago I bought a multi-pack of Radio Shack LEDs, various colors, 5mm/3mm, for the bipin Solitaire, but all of them required voltages above 1.5v, but below 2.5v. All my li-ion blow these out, none of my duraloops can fire them. So I tried my NiZn. Bingo! (I assume L92 will work, too.) The red LED had the best voltage match, wants 2v (every other color needs a little more v), so it appears to be the brightest underdriven at I would estimate a tenth of a lumen or less. The yellow and green were even dimmer (the yellow even at .05-.1 lm allows dark-adapted eyes to identify color, up close). Runtimes are insane. Gentlemen... I bring you a true scotoptic flashlight for about $7 (not including cells).

FWIW, the original Maglite Solitaire is NOT an incandescent flashlight. It is CLEARLY a hybrid.

 

[night.hoodie]

Stumbled across LIR 10220 3.7v cells, AND 3.6v 10220 Lithium primary cells which along with NiMH 1/2AAA (10220) 1.2v cells increases the Solitaire (and in general AAA flashlight) multi-cell options. 2x10220 is a better fit than 2x 10250 nukes or 2x/3x 10280/10180. All these cells are unprotected so it takes a very attentive flashlight user to avoid damaging them in a cell eater such as incan Solitaires.

I believe there are available many options in mini bipin lamps and LEDs to accomodate these (7.4v-8.4v/9v? or 2.4v for single-AAA size) voltages directly driven... takes some digging. If I can find a viable 14.8v-16.8v lamp replacement, I think now I want to get a 2xAAA MiniMag.

At some point, counting the various cell options matched to different light sources as "modes," we'll have to figure out just how many modes the Solitaire really has.

I found a couple different replacement cap switch's for a 2xAA Mini Mag (incan only), interestingly adds H/L modes. I cannot find anything similar for the Solitare. I wonder if there are options available from other AAA clicky lights, but canniblizing other lights is not ideal.

 

[night.hoodie]

Incan Key-Mate arrived. Uses a lamp housing I did not expect. A plastic socket for the bipin lamp fits into the battery tube (and compresses battery and spring when head tighted to off) using what appears to be a standard T3 1/4 bayonet socket. The body is not threaded for the threaded head/reflector module, unfortunately, but the plastic socket is threaded instead:

The switch is similar to the Solitaire in that the reflector pushes against it to switch off when the head is tightened, but its actually a tiny plastic tab sticking out next to the lamp that the reflector pushes against breaking the circuit. The bipin lamps are similar to MagLite, but the leads are half as long (making it simple to mod a magstar lamp to fit by cutting the leads to size).

Has an o-ring. I think the lens is acrylic. I see no obvious way to safely remove/replace the lens or plastic reflector... must be installed from the front, but I can't tell how its held in... by the lens o-ring? Its possible it was installed from the other end, then the head was deformed to be smaller to fit the body, so there is no hope of servicing those parts.

I'm disappointed about the threading, but the bayonet socket is interesting. Though it couldn't be turned off, seems like a common bayonet base bulb would fit. If I can match voltages to a bulb, maybe I can find a mini lamp shade for it. I wonder if there are dual based, bayonet bulbs that are also threaded... more research required.

Should work fine with the same set up I'm using with the Solitaire (3.2v LiFePO4 10440 + 2AA MiniMag lamp), if the bulb doesn't touch the lens, but I doubt I'd mod it more than that considering I can't replace any original parts anymore.

 

[bykfixer]

^^ how bout a pocket/hat clip?

Microstream clip is ideal.


Here's a crazy mod...
http://edcmania.com/forum/archive/index.php/thread-930.html
If nothing else it describes how to get the reflector and lens out.

I'll be scouring the internet for an incan keymate to place in my 'museum' of lights next to some early LED's and a couple of solitaires.

All in all it looks like the 1aaa incan never really caught on in a competitive market way.