For christmas, my younger brother gave me a flashlight, apparently a very cheap one... Anyway, put batteries in it, worked okay, not real bright. Last night had a raccoon in the backyard, and wanted to check it out. Grabbed the flashlight. It seemed to be dimmer this time, turned it up a saw that several LEDS weren't lit.
This morning, counted 5 LEDs burned out (have a yellow tint compared to the neighbors). So took it apart, thinking to just replace the LEDS (got 74 from strings I bought on sale). Anyway, there is no protection, just 16 LEDS in parallel. So, as is, I can expect to be replacing LEDs pretty much everytime I use it.
It has a heavy, thick, skull-crusher metal body, well machined, so not total garbage, just poor electical design. I need to make it better. Don't think my PCB software does anything but retangular boards, but can work around that. The origional board is about 2" in diameter, and there is a plastic reflector with 16 holes for the LEDs.
Don't have any specs on the christmas light LEDs, so a series resistor on each LED would be a guess at best. Figure I can check some specs for bright white 5mm LEDs, and use an average. Just wonder if any suggestions on getting this going. No idea how I'm going to cut a circular PCB. Wondering if it would be better to get a 3 watt LED instead. How bright could I go off 3 'D' cells? Basically a good flashlight body, would like to use it, the electronics is wide open. Have the parts and materials to do something with 5mm LEDs, but could afford to go a little crazy and buy insanely bright. Any input?
This morning, counted 5 LEDs burned out (have a yellow tint compared to the neighbors). So took it apart, thinking to just replace the LEDS (got 74 from strings I bought on sale). Anyway, there is no protection, just 16 LEDS in parallel. So, as is, I can expect to be replacing LEDs pretty much everytime I use it.
It has a heavy, thick, skull-crusher metal body, well machined, so not total garbage, just poor electical design. I need to make it better. Don't think my PCB software does anything but retangular boards, but can work around that. The origional board is about 2" in diameter, and there is a plastic reflector with 16 holes for the LEDs.
Don't have any specs on the christmas light LEDs, so a series resistor on each LED would be a guess at best. Figure I can check some specs for bright white 5mm LEDs, and use an average. Just wonder if any suggestions on getting this going. No idea how I'm going to cut a circular PCB. Wondering if it would be better to get a 3 watt LED instead. How bright could I go off 3 'D' cells? Basically a good flashlight body, would like to use it, the electronics is wide open. Have the parts and materials to do something with 5mm LEDs, but could afford to go a little crazy and buy insanely bright. Any input?