# solitaire mod??



## poppeye (Sep 12, 2007)

i dont understand the 3mm soltaire mod on flashlight review 2?


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## greenLED (Sep 13, 2007)

Welcome to CPF, poppeye.

That particular mod entails exchanging the stock bulb for a 3mm LED. To power the little beast, you'll need an A23 battery (they're 12V, used in garage door openers). That battery is the same thickness as a AAA, but it's shorter, so you'll need to make up a spacer to make up for the missing length. The spring from a mechanical pen, a screw cut to size, or even a long wad of aluminum foil should work.

Hope that helps. That mod is not very bright, but the LED will glow for a looooooong time.


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## clg0159 (Sep 13, 2007)

You could also use a higher mcd 5mm led for more light. You can get a new spring to make up the battery distance at a hardware store. Have Fun:thumbsup:


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## datiLED (Sep 13, 2007)

How about an easier solution? The Sandwich Shoppe sells the SMJ2 AAA Solitaire modules. It is "plug and play".

No modification to the is Solitaire required, and you can even carry your spare bulb in the tailcap as a backup.


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## greenLED (Sep 13, 2007)

Yeah, you could do that. Personally, I can't resist tinkering with lights, even if they pay the ultimate price in the process.


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## SunnyQueensland (Sep 14, 2007)

A 10440 3v cell would work right?


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## greenLED (Sep 14, 2007)

Yup, that's around the Vf of those little LED's, IIRC. I don't know about the current, though.


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## clg0159 (Sep 14, 2007)

current is 20ma on all 5mm I have ever seen. Some 10mm finally reach the 100-150ma range.


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## greenLED (Sep 14, 2007)

I was wondering how much current the li-ion cell would deliver in DD, not the LED's spec If.


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## marcdilnutt (Sep 14, 2007)

I am not sure if he is still around, but LedASAP made me a lovely little pill for a Solitairre that is a tiny boost circuit and a s-bin lux 1. I put that in a HA3 solitairre a got from a group buy ages ago and put a McR11 reflector in it. It is a perfect little EDC and gives loads of light.


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## Robatman (Sep 15, 2007)

greenLED said:


> Yeah, you could do that. Personally, I can't resist tinkering with lights, even if they pay the ultimate price in the process.


 

I think I've lost more money in wrecked lights, blown leds (4 crees on a CPU hotsink!) , and fried boards just simply replacing 5mm leds, than if I had bought the desired light for each project.

Will I stop? No way. Its all learning I guess and hopefully I wiil one day be able to mod lights to my specs not the manufacturers.

Robert


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## olrac (Sep 17, 2007)

datiLED said:


> How about an easier solution? The Sandwich Shoppe sells the SMJ2 AAA Solitaire modules. It is "plug and play".
> 
> No modification to the is Solitaire required, and you can even carry your spare bulb in the tailcap as a backup.



Has anyone used this drop in or knows how bright it is?


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## munkybiz_9881 (Sep 17, 2007)

I bought several of the original ones and they are much brighter than a stock bulb, but still not all that bright. They are great in the fact that they simply plug right in. Can't comment on the newer versions.....

But now-a-days anything under "Burn yer' eyes out" just simply wont do...

Overall I thought they were a good deal for the money, and made a usefull light out of the solitare. They're on all my keychains.


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## greenLED (Sep 18, 2007)

That's the spirit, Robert!! Don't be fooled by all these über-cool and perfect mods people post about - the ones that don't make it are swept under the rug.


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## poppeye (Oct 14, 2007)

can i just use an red 3mm led and a regular aaa batery?


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## MikeSalt (Oct 15, 2007)

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to do this modification? I did it because I wanted a bright-ish LED powered light that would fit on my keyring.

However, I have since discovered the Fenix L0D-CE (AAA-powered Cree LED). Same size as a Maglite Solitaire, but blows it out of the water in terms of output!


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## Gunner12 (Oct 15, 2007)

A white LED requires at least 2.5v to light up visibly and at least 3v for usable light. A 1.5v AAA would not light up the LED.

Why not a L0D-CE, it has more overall light on high then the Maglite 3D. It runs for 5 hours on low. Low has 6 something lumen on and alkaline cell, compared to the 1.6 something of the Solitaire. The solitaire runs for 11 minutes to 50 output.

A cheaper light would be the Fenix E0, 12 something hour runtime at 4 lumens.

If you want to keep your Solitaire and use a AAA battery, you best choice would be this Drop-in at around 6 something lumen output.


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## greenLED (Oct 15, 2007)

MikeSalt said:


> Just out of curiosity, why do you want to do this modification?


Simple: some of us like to tinker with stuff.


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## rhuck60 (Oct 19, 2007)

greenLED said:


> Welcome to CPF, poppeye.
> 
> That particular mod entails exchanging the stock bulb for a 3mm LED. To power the little beast, you'll need an A23 battery (they're 12V, used in garage door openers). That battery is the same thickness as a AAA, but it's shorter, so you'll need to make up a spacer to make up for the missing length. The spring from a mechanical pen, a screw cut to size, or even a long wad of aluminum foil should work.
> 
> Hope that helps. That mod is not very bright, but the LED will glow for a looooooong time.


 
what keeps the 12 volt battery from blowing the 3mm LED? Isnt 3.6 - 3.8 about the maximum listed voltage for a white LED? :thinking:


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## rhuck60 (Oct 19, 2007)

poppeye said:


> i dont understand the 3mm soltaire mod on flashlight review 2?


 
can somebody post the link to this mod? I cant find it in the reviews forum.


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## Marduke (Oct 19, 2007)

This
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/solitaire.htm

or this
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/solitaire2.htm

or this
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/yc_stepup_sol.htm

or this
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/steve_c_soliltaire.htm

or this
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/aeryk_sol.htm

or this
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/yitah_w_solitaire.htm


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## rhuck60 (Oct 20, 2007)

thanks to Marduke for so many different links. I never knew a solitaire could be modded so mny different ways. Your basic solitaire is about the worlds dimmest bulb.
I think I will use a 3mm white LED. Can anyone recommend a good one and a source? All I have are some junky ones from Hong Kong.:huh:


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## poppeye (Oct 31, 2007)

MikeSalt said:


> Just out of curiosity, why do you want to do this modification? I did it because I wanted a bright-ish LED powered light that would fit on my keyring.
> 
> However, I have since discovered the Fenix L0D-CE (AAA-powered Cree LED). Same size as a Maglite Solitaire, but blows it out of the water in terms of output!




ummmmmm OK then no clue what you just said but that is the only one at raidio shack and i dont want to dril for 5mm


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## greenLED (Oct 31, 2007)

rhuck60 said:


> what keeps the 12 volt battery from blowing the 3mm LED? Isnt 3.6 - 3.8 about the maximum listed voltage for a white LED? :thinking:


 High internal resistance of that battery. No doubt you're overdriving the LED, but it's a cool mod to play with.


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## Gunner12 (Oct 31, 2007)

poppeye said:


> ummmmmm OK then no clue what you just said but that is the only one at raidio shack and i dont want to dril for 5mm



I think he means buy a new light. He was referring to the Fenix L0D-CE, a Cree XR-E LED light that has more overall output then the Maglite 3D on high and runs on a AAA battery. It is about the same size as the Solitaire, but with more useful light output, multimode, more runtime, is much brighter, and has a tougher outer coating then the solitaire. Once you use this light I doubt that you will ever want to use the stock solitaire.

There are many good stores online that won't cheat you for your money and Fenix stores ships pretty quickly and has good customer service. there is also a 8% off coupon, "CPF8".

If you still feel like modding, the Solitaire is a hard place to start because of it's small size.


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## alphazeta (Oct 31, 2007)

Kind of OT, but my buddy tossed me his old beat up solitare after I modded a few of his D mags with proper heatsinks & crees... Believe it or not, that was my first soli...

Anyhow, a cheap 14mcd 5mm, a rattail file, some tinfoil (my replacement spring ) & a 10440... 5 minutes later this has now become my middle of the night light...

& yes, except for the ti, I have every 1aaa light every made from Fenix, self-seouled E1s, etc.... But this "pathetic" 5mm solitaire has become my current favorite =) 

Of course, maybe it's b/c I have a tendency to *roll* lights off my bedstand & cringe each time.. no worries about this beater taking another bump...

Before the big boys chime in -> yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll keep my trap shut & go pick up a Novatac for some low light restroom trips...


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## Gunner12 (Oct 31, 2007)

How is the LED taking the extra power from the 10440 battery?


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## alphazeta (Oct 31, 2007)

Gunner12 said:


> How is the LED taking the extra power from the 10440 battery?



I too was worried about the drain on the 10440.... After about 10 minutes of run, the battery still read 4.19v (start there too)

I have not noticed the LED dimming.. But it's hard too say. On the other hand, I did try running a 12v 23A in the light thinking the internal resistance would kick in. That led quickly greened out & died. 

The light is absolutely USELESS in daytime but, it just give a perfect moonlight glow. Think floody Arc-P or Fenix E0. I had a a red emitting cree that was going to be popped into one of my emitter-free L*D heads. But I might not need that light for night time use after all.

I've only been using the soli for a little over a week on the same 10440. I'll let you know if it craps out. Then again a bag of 100pcs of cheap 14,000mcd 5mm is what? $7. I'll be bored of the light before I run out of 5mms..


Here were some quick snaps i took whilst slappign this thing up last week...

Jam the 5mm in the head whilst chatting w/ pal over a beer...






Nah, you can look... no way u can be blinded by that wimpy guy...





Very cheesy beam profile shot... beers are kicking in.. it looked like it was in focus whilst i was snappping the pic...


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## alphazeta (Oct 31, 2007)

Okay, being slightly less lazy, I took a current reading from the tail & my DMM bounced between 0.01 & 0.02 amps.... So it looks like 5mm LED ISN"T being overdriven at all...

Want a reading from the front? Sorry, I'm too lazy to bust out the tiny alligator clamps for that


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## Gunner12 (Oct 31, 2007)

Seems like there is either a lot of resistance or the LEDs have a very high Vf. Either way, seems to be the perfect night time light.

Presuming 400mA from the 10440 battery, runtime should be around 20-40 hours. Seems like a great long runtime/emergency light and should also be very reliable.


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## koala (Oct 31, 2007)

I did a mod not long ago... at that time high power AAAs are not easy to find.

Since then I have done quite a few for family members. If I were to do it again, I would use Rebel which suit the reflector well and small enough. Still a 1.5V AAA for common primary source.


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