# Surefire Hurricane Blackout lamp



## Xenon (Mar 24, 2004)

Can anyone tell me how bright is the Hurricane lamp from Surefire? I'm thinking of getting one to use as a bedside lamp. And how it actually works? Do I need to move the bulb around the six holes?


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## Size15's (Mar 24, 2004)

It's not that bright.
It's a complete waste of SF123As to use the Hurricane as anything other than a storage box for SF123As (IMHO)

Yes, you need to move the Lamp Assembly around.

The Hurricane was designed to give SureFire users cheaper access to DL123A batteries that had to be sold in a "flashlight" or "product" to be that cheap. Now that the situation with 123A batteries have changed, the need to Hurricanes as a source of cheaper 123As has ended. better to buy them by the SF72BB 72 box from SureFire.

Al


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## Xenon (Mar 24, 2004)

Thanks Size 15s for the useful info on the hurricane lamp. Actually I do not intend to use new 123As with this lamp but spent 123As. Since its not that bright, I guess I have to pass on this.


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## chamenos (Mar 24, 2004)

the pelican M6 LED is good for using up spent lithium batteries. its very bright too when you put in fresh batteries /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## DumboRAT (Mar 24, 2004)

The Hurricane isn't bright, but it's enough to light up a good sized bedroom in a "candle-light" kind of way. 

I actually really like it as a way to dispose of my spent 123s. I know that putting such batteries into my ARCs or other LEDs would be more efficient, but since I use *_those_* lights more on a day-to-day basis, I'd rather that my spent batteries be kept around for secondary purposes, than otherwise !

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Allen
aka DumboRAT


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## chamenos (Mar 24, 2004)

my PM6 LED is my designated around-the-house light to use up spent batteries...the batteries that my A2 spits out still put out lots of light when put in the PM6 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## DumboRAT (Mar 24, 2004)

Now there's a good idea ! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Allen
aka DumboRAT


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## Chaz (Mar 24, 2004)

Depending upon why you want the hurricane light, the brightness may be important, but running time might be more important. After being caught in the dark during the recent east coast balckout, I fired up a hurricane lamp (a real one with wick and oil) to provide a little light. It is not very bright either. Subsequently I got the SF hurricane lamp, which did not impress me with its brightness, but does seem about as bright at the real lamp. Thus it would serve the same purpose but with less mess.

I am seriously considering making a led based lamp unit to use instead of the incandescent one supplied by SF. This might provide slightly more light with an increased running time as well. If this were used, the brightness would be similar to one of the coin cell lights that run on 2 2016 batteries.


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## JoeyL (Mar 24, 2004)

I remember talking about this back in the early days of the forum when we did not have luxeons to fascinate us.

I made this mod and it works well to this day. Because the bulb and battery spring are made just right for the box, I used the bulb base, carefully shattered the glass, dug out the inside and soldered new contacts in. Then wire a 5 mm Nichia LED in series with a dropping resistor so the LED will not blow.

Two important points: use the right value resistor to drop the voltage to ablut 3.5 volts. I do not remember the correct value. It is likely about 33 to 50 ohms. Experiment before you build it. Also, pay attention to the polarity of the LED. Once you solder and epoxy it together it will be a drag to fix.

It is not as bright as the stock incandescent, but it appears so. (3 lumens vs. 1 lumen) It is a great place to use left over old 123's. A new pair of 123's will light up for over 24 hours, compared to the 8 hrs for the stock bulb.
Have fun!


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## Topper (Mar 24, 2004)

I have bought two of them to hold batterys in I check the bulbs one time to see if they worked but have never used them except for storage. They are there if I need them for light.
Topper /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## Chaz (Mar 24, 2004)

Good tips.

Does raise a question though. I took apart one of the $1 button cell lights to look at the innards. The led is (or at least appears to be) diven directly from the 2 2016 cells, which should give the same voltage as 2 123s. Is this a difference in the led (which may or may not be a Nichia), or is the internal resistance of the button cells high enough to drop the voltage?


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## JoeyL (Mar 25, 2004)

Chaz,

I think that is exactly right. I can tell you for sure that two fresh 123's with the 5mm nichias I used two years ago would get very bright, hot and die in a few seconds.
I believe I measured the 2x2016 at some point long ago. Under the load of the nichia, it gave about 4 volts on fresh button cells. On the other hand, I bet it delivers over 6 on the 123's. I don't have any more nichias to try it on, but I can tell you it would not work well.

Somewhere in the past, lots of tweaking went on. Before we had Luxeons, we tried all kind of things with Nichias. One of the first big LED mods on CPF was to take a surefire e2 and replace it with a 5mm nichia. Someone made a chart to show how much resistance would lead to a certain current flow, and I believe the point of diminishing return was 20 ohms which led to acurrent flow of 100 ma. This is overdriving the LED. I think they are happier at 40 ma, which is about 60 ohms. This is a rough approximation.

One other point that I thought was helpful. Since this might be for general lighting, I took the LED, clamped it in a drill bit, and filed it down while rotating to change the lens of the LED into a hazy point. This scatters the light into a soft flood instead of the hot spot. I figured it would be better for lighting the room. If I need a hotspot I've got the L4...

Happy tweaking! Let me know if I can be of more help...


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## CalgaryGuy (Mar 25, 2004)

Is the electronics on the Milky Candle copyright? If not, can someone point me to it? I'm thinking of building it on my Hurricane lamp. It'll probably use up the space of two 123s to accommodate the new circuitry so the Hurricane lamp will hold ten 123s instead of twelve.


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## wasabe64 (Mar 25, 2004)

CG,

You could PM Milkyspit about that...


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