# Altoids Flashlight



## edc3 (Apr 5, 2008)

*Empty Altoids tin*
* 5mm LED*
* Panel mount LED holder*
* Clicky switch from dollar store flashlight*
* 3xAA battery holder*
* Resistor*
* Wire*
*Too much free time*


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## AMD64Blondie (Apr 5, 2008)

O.K., I feel a college guy's phrase springing to mind..
"Dude...wait,what!!"

That is quite creative.


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## paulr (Apr 5, 2008)

Nice. I made a nicad/nimh charger in a Sucrets tin a long while back, using a 4aa holder. Looked similar to your light but instead of a led it had one of those barrel connectors that you plug a wall cube into.


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## revs (Apr 6, 2008)

Nice. That would be a good light for my boys to play with. My youngest loves flashlights. Any specific size resistor? I'm kinda new at making/modding lights. Looks like everything can be found at my local electronics store.


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## warlord (Apr 6, 2008)

Nice!

That looks like a great starter electronics project. It's kinda big for EDC but it's lots of fun making projects for altoids tins.

For your next project I would suggest and Altoids gum tin and a joule thief...single AA of course.


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

Thanks AMD64Blondie. Actually I got the idea from a Tic-Tac flashlight I saw on the web. I didn't happen to have any Tic-Tac boxes, but I did have an Altoids tin.

Revs, I can't remember what value resistor I used and I don't know where my wife put the light. Of all the lights I have, that's the one she uses at 4am. Anyway, I just hooked up the same circuit as in the Altoids light with a 20ohm resistor. I measured the current at about 26mA which is a little over the recommended forward current of 20mA of the LED, but I think that would work fine.

I'm not very electronically experienced either, but it was a pretty easy project. I got the LEDs from DealExtreme (see specs below). The LED holder came from Radio Shack (#276-080). They're only a couple of bucks and make it super easy to mount the LED in the tin. Have fun!

Warlord, as I said, I'm a beginner at electronics, but I'm not sure a single AA would light up the LED. The min VF for this particular LED is 3.2V.


Specifications for 14000mcd White 5mm Led:
Detail specification provided by the manufacturer
- Model: C500SW4LD, Material: GaN, Emitting: White
- Forward Voltage 3.2V MIN, 3.4V MAX (20mA)
- Reverse current: 10u (VR=5V)
- Power dissipation: 60mW
- Luminous Intension 14000 mcd MIN, 16000 mcd MAX
- Peak Forward Current: 100mA
- Recommend Forward Current 20mA


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## revs (Apr 6, 2008)

Got wondering, would a 2 position switch work and power 2 LEDs? Have the first position light one and the second light both. My Radio Shack is closed on Sunday. I think the same value resistor would work. Thanks


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

I was thinking of doing that, but it wouldn't work without more batteries or a battery with a higher voltage (maybe 9v will fit in an Altoids tin?). If the two LEDs were wired in serial, the total voltage would be divided between the LEDs. So 3AAx1.5v (1.2 for rechargeables) = 4.5volts. Divided by two LEDs = 2.25v per LED - less than the minimum forward voltage. Another thought I had was to put a white LED and a red LED together parallel and use a switch to choose between the two. I think that would work. There's a good tutorial here about wiring LEDs in serial and parallel.


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## revs (Apr 6, 2008)

What about using the A23 battery? I think that is what size it is. It is a 12V battery that has been used in Solitaire mods. It should power 2 LEDs easily.


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

revs said:


> What about using the A23 battery? I think that is what size it is. It is a 12V battery that has been used in Solitaire mods. It should power 2 LEDs easily.




That should be enough for three LEDs! One on, two on and three on. Someone with more knowledge than I would have to help you with the circuit. I'd be interested in the best way to it. If you had a single resistor for all three it would have too high a value when you're only using one LED. I think you'd have to have three different resistors - one for when one LED is used, another for two and another for running all three at once. :thinking:

Another neat thing to do would be to put a variable resistor on so you could vary the brightness.


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## warlord (Apr 6, 2008)

edc3 said:


> Warlord, as I said, I'm a beginner at electronics, but I'm not sure a single AA would light up the LED. The min VF for this particular LED is 3.2V.



That's why I suggested you make a "joule thief" it's a good beginner circuit for those interested in driving a LED from a single 1.2-1.5v cell.

Joule Thief

instructables ~JouleThief


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## Illum (Apr 6, 2008)

for a regulated [well, semi-] LED light...I'd probably just go with buying a nite-ize 3LED [email protected] drop in and epoxy it to the aluminum. since you have plenty of estate in that mess tin put in two 2AA holders and solder them in parallel...that oughta do for a good 20 hour runtime:laughing:

as for the joule thief...I've made my own
Max756 set to 3.3V out. the original specs required a 150uF cap on the outbound, I didn't have one so I used a 100uF on it...I can only achieve 3V from 1.5V and somewhat unstable at open circuit



looks somewhat ridiculous to group all the wires together like that...
It was a failed attempt to do what this guy did: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=max756&[email protected]
put it on a PCB board small enough to slide into a minimag and provide regulated 3.3V to the lamp using only one AA cell


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

Just watched the video. Thanks! I'm going to try that.



warlord said:


> That's why I suggested you make a "joule thief" it's a good beginner circuit for those interested in driving a LED from a single 1.2-1.5v cell.
> 
> Joule Thief
> 
> instructables ~JouleThief


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

Illum_the_nation said:


> for a regulated [well, semi-] LED light...I'd probably just go with buying a nite-ize 3LED [email protected] drop in and epoxy it to the aluminum. since you have plenty of estate in that mess tin put in two 2AA holders and solder them in parallel...that oughta do for a good 20 hour runtime:laughing:



That's cheating. But it sounds like fun too!


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## warlord (Apr 6, 2008)

It's a pretty cool circuit...it also gives a good amount of insight into how those ARC AAA's and E0's (or now E01's) work. It's also a pretty cool way of getting rid of those 'dead' single cells.

Let me show you one of my projects I resurrected today:






I made a bunch of these a while ago since I get used 9V's for free. I just got around to potting a coulple of them today with some epoxy and glow powder. Basically I just finished up some glow epoxy I had mixed for potting my headlamp.

On a fresh 9V they'll run for days straight. They're made simply from a disassembled 9V, a resistor, and an LED.

More pics:


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## Illum (Apr 6, 2008)

edc3 said:


> Just watched the video. Thanks! I'm going to try that.



the inductor may have to be handcrafted but the resistors are [radioshackable] and the 2N3904 low voltage transistors also [radioshackable]
if you want to start building them and not wait for parts to arrive


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## edc3 (Apr 6, 2008)

warlord said:


> It's a pretty cool circuit...it also gives a good amount of insight into how those ARC AAA's and E0's (or now E01's) work. It's also a pretty cool way of getting rid of those 'dead' single cells.
> 
> Let me show you one of my projects I resurrected today:




Thanks again. That'll be another cool project to try. I hardly ever use 9v batteries, but I'll have to make some candles.

I like the Altoids gum tin. I wonder if I can squeeze the joule thief into one of those?


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## edc3 (Apr 7, 2008)

Illum_the_nation said:


> the inductor may have to be handcrafted but the resistors are [radioshackable] and the 2N3904 low voltage transistors also [radioshackable]
> if you want to start building them and not wait for parts to arrive



Thanks, I'm making my shopping list. I have to take something apart for the toroid. 

Next, the Altoids mp3 player.

http://www.diylive.net/index.php/2006/01/25/altoid-can-mp3-player/


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## warlord (Apr 7, 2008)

edc3 said:


> Thanks again. That'll be another cool project to try. I hardly ever use 9v batteries, but I'll have to make some candles.
> 
> I like the Altoids gum tin. I wonder if I can squeeze the joule thief into one of those?


I think so:


warlord said:


> For your next project I would suggest an Altoids gum tin and a joule thief...single AA of course.



I frequently visit www.instructables.com for project ideas just like these. The real problem is that there are so many ideas to try...it's hard to choose.


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## edc3 (Apr 7, 2008)

warlord said:


> I think so:
> 
> Originally Posted by *warlord*
> 
> ...


_

Oops! _




warlord said:


> I frequently visit www.instructables.com for project ideas just like these. The real problem is that there are so many ideas to try...it's hard to choose.



Thanks. I've already seen a TON of things I want to try. Thanks again for all the help!


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## revs (Apr 8, 2008)

Sorry for the thread jack. Warlord, what value resistor did you use? They look cool. That would be a good night light for my wife when she gets up in the middle of the night. 
You just pulled the top off a used 9 volt and then soldered the resistor from positive to the LED and the negative leg of the LED to negative, I am assuming.
I'm guessing the resistor is a 1K or a 510 ohm. If I reading my color chart right. I'm used to using 4 colors not 5. And the last is usually gold or silver.


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## warlord (Apr 9, 2008)

revs said:


> Sorry for the thread jack. Warlord, what value resistor did you use? They look cool. That would be a good night light for my wife when she gets up in the middle of the night.
> You just pulled the top off a used 9 volt and then soldered the resistor from positive to the LED and the negative leg of the LED to negative, I am assuming.
> I'm guessing the resistor is a 1K or a 510 ohm. If I reading my color chart right. I'm used to using 4 colors not 5. And the last is usually gold or silver.



Yes, the resistor used was 510 ohm which is good for about 12v. This is because I got the leds and resistors for $10ish for a 100pack on ebay. Presumably, they sell the kit for automotive use. I did make a few using a more appropriate 270 ohm resistor which although slightly brighter would mean wasting a lot of 510 ohm resistors.

I get tons of free partially used 9v batteries from work. To open I just use a staple puller to uncrimp one end and push the cells out of the housing. Then the terminal just pulls right out. after that you're left with some AAAAish batteries and solder tabs.

I also made a version with 2 leds in series which was very bright. I'm planning on making a couple with some Nichia CS leds that'll be coming out of some E0's I have 

Oh yeah, and they'll run for a long, long time...especially if you use a lithium 10year smoke detector battery.


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## revs (Apr 9, 2008)

Get this, I send the wife to my local Radio Shack with a list of stuff I need with the stock numbers from the Radio Shack website. She gets there and they are all out of the things on my list. All I had on it was AA battery holder, 5mm White LEDs, and LED holder.


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## spencer (Apr 9, 2008)

Either a weird coincidence or lots of people are making this light.


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## Mike Painter (Apr 10, 2008)

I've lined the inside of some altoid tins with rubber shelf lining and use them as AA battery holders.


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## edc3 (Apr 10, 2008)

revs said:


> Get this, I send the wife to my local Radio Shack with a list of stuff I need with the stock numbers from the Radio Shack website. She gets there and they are all out of the things on my list. All I had on it was AA battery holder, 5mm White LEDs, and LED holder.



Look at it this way. You're unlucky at your local Radio Shack, but you're lucky to have a wife who will shop there for you. If I gave my wife a shopping list for Radio Shack she'd tell me to get lost. :shakehead


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## edc3 (Apr 10, 2008)

warlord said:


> Let me show you one of my projects I resurrected today:
> 
> I made a bunch of these a while ago since I get used 9V's for free. I just got around to potting a coulple of them today with some epoxy and glow powder. Basically I just finished up some glow epoxy I had mixed for potting my headlamp.
> 
> ...




I made one of these tonight. It was very easy, although the closest resistor I had was a 220ohm. so the led is drawing 25mA instead of the recommended 20mA. Fun, easy project. Thanks!


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## revs (Apr 10, 2008)

My wife will go anywhere I ask her to as long as I give her a list of exactly what I need. She has no electronics training at all. I have an Associates in Electronics Technology.


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## warlord (Apr 10, 2008)

edc3 said:


> I made one of these tonight. It was very easy, although the closest resistor I had was a 220ohm. so the led is drawing 25mA instead of the recommended 20mA. Fun, easy project. Thanks!



No Problem. So you got a brighter light, nice! 

BTW, I forgot to mention that you can hot glue a magnet on the battery and stick them on the fridge. That way they'll always be handy


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## edc3 (Apr 10, 2008)

warlord said:


> No Problem. So you got a brighter light, nice!
> 
> BTW, I forgot to mention that you can hot glue a magnet on the battery and stick them on the fridge. That way they'll always be handy



Good idea! I used glittery hot glue left over from my kid's school project to pot it since I didn't have any epoxy. I also thought of putting a photo sensor of some type on it to automatically switch in on in the dark. 

Now, to work out the Joule Thief Altoids Gum tin flashlight...


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## revs (Apr 20, 2008)

I have built two of the joule thief circuits and neither one work. Can't figure out why, either. I double checked all my connections, resoldered both of them and they still don't work.


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## edc3 (Apr 20, 2008)

I haven't had any luck with the joule thief yet either. What gauge wire are you using to wrap the toroid? I'm thinking I need thinner wire. When I have some extra money (i.e. not needed to pay for gas or food) I'm going to buy some 30 gauge wire and give it another try.


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## Illum (Apr 21, 2008)

revs said:


> I have built two of the joule thief circuits and neither one work. Can't figure out why, either. I double checked all my connections, resoldered both of them and they still don't work.


 
considering the homemade inductor serves two loops of wires, try disconnecting your existing pair and reverse one side before reconnecting it. 

How many wounds of wire did you put on the ferrite core?
with 24 gauge wire and my ferrite donut I can only get approx 30 loops....theres a site that said approx 100 loops, I've not sure whats the frequency the transistor require and I'm out of ideas on my joulethief I still prefer using the Max756 step-up I built, but its quite bulky compared to the jouldthief [well, at least by picture comparison]


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