LED room light

[dnix71]

I took used motor oil back to the local parts store this evening and saw this under the front counter.



It's $10 retail and runs on 3 AA batteries, which are included. I tried it with 2 AA batteries by removing one cell and bridging the gap with a paper clip and it works almost as well.

There are no product images on the web so I've put one in my PB account. The full sized one is here:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj62/dnix71/AC903LEDlight.jpg

It's about 5 1/2" across and lights my apartment as well as a 5 watt Harbor Freight cfl from their 45 watt kit. There are 3 button neos (not 2 like the package says) on the bottom. It was intended for auto repair use. It comes with an on/off button and a plastic disc with a triangluar pointed hook for hanging if there is nothing to stick it to.

This will be a winner in remote places for room lighting if the word gets out. It would run just fine on three AA nicads or nimh batteries. Portable and complete room lighting off grid.

Edit: I took a usb to ethernet cable from an APC UPS and cut off the ethernet end and soldered it into the light and removed the batteries. It ran correctly from my Mac's usb port power. USB is 2.5 watts max and I got no "overload" errors on the port. Less than 2.5 watts to light a room.

[ghurd]

They are somewhat commonly called "UFO tent lights".
http://www.dansdata.com/ringlight.htm
G-

[dnix71]

GHurd that is exactly the item in a different package. There are taped over corrections on my package. Like the person who modded their camera with that said, it's amazingly bright. Mine still looks pretty much original except for the usb cable I added. I can light the whole room from the usb port on my laptop.

[Norm]

20 + 3 at K-Mart tent light $8....takes 4 AA batterys and last full bright for
1/2 hr on alkaline and 20 minutes on NiCad....think they use about 300 Ma. ??

[independent]

Great link Ghurd. There are some neat articles on dansdata.
If anyone is interested, candlepowerforums has some neat stuff if you can wade through it. I don't know if it's still hot or not but there is a lantern sold in the US as the rayovac extreme 300 (orsomething like that) sometimes available for 20something US$. It is or was considered the heavyweight of lanterns. 3x 1w LEDs, PWM modulation on the dim setting. Best of all can be modded with a warm white star LED from Cree or others that have high lumen 1w LEDs.

[dnix71]

That lantern gets mixed reviews. There is a part of the base that can rotate when putting the two halves back together after changing batteries. On some it's tight and on some it's not so tight. The lantern will also drain the batteries in a month or so because it has a green blinking led to help find it in the dark. Without modding the lantern you cannot turn that "feature" off.

The biggest problem I'm having modding LED lights is making 4 to 4.5 volts. 3 volts won't light fully and 6 is too much if the light doesn't have some internal voltage regulation. Of course it's much easier and cheaper to leave off voltage regulation if you just use 3 AA batteries. Both the USB ports on my HF power boxes don't work for some reason UNLESS there is daylight. The other taps are from the battery alone, but the usb port doesn't. 5 volts would be okay to charge 3 AA nimh or nicads that see regular use.