Hi everyone! Some non scientific observations on a LED flashlight.<br><br>I had received a Dorcy brand 'Coolblue' waterproof flahlight that was purchased at wallmart for about $8. It is a single focused LED flashlight running on 4 AA batteries. It claims to be waterproof, floats, and runs for 200 hours on one set of AA cells. I have not put that to the test yet. <br><br>Being one of those folks who if it can be dissasembled takes it apart I discovered this. The LED is mounted in a standard flashlight bulb base. Being an experimenter I thought to try it in my 3 D cell Mag-Lite. I use it around the house for power outs and such. It is my policy to change out the batteries for fresh ones each year after the first of the year, needed or not, so they are always ready. It worked fine.<br><br>This led me to do an experiment. Before I changed the batteries I thought I would see how long they would last in the 3D Mag-Lite with the LED bulb in place of the regular bulb. Well......<br><br>I turned it on Jan 2, 2002. It has run 24/7 since then (7 weeks and counting!) The light output has dropped aproximatly 25% over this time. It is now getting to be a challenge to see how long it can go before it finally dies. The batteries are Rayovac alkaline D cells. <br><br>If you are looking for a long term light source you might want to consider something like this. The light output is not as bright as the original bulb but more than enough for most uses. It is still plenty bright for me to read by easily, even now. If you remove the reflector head and put it uprite like a candle it will light the room, not like a 60 watt bulb by any means, but enough to reasonably see by.<br>Like I said nothing scientific but thought I would pass along my observations.<br><br>Enjoy life, Mike Mc

Have you tried it the other way around, with the Mag bulb in the LED base?<br><br>Not sure if there would be enough there to light the filimant-based bulb, but it might be an idea. <br><br>Also, there would be current differnces, I would think between the Dorcy and the Mag bodies, so there may be changes to the LED- do you know if it come back up to the origional lightl level with new batteries?

Yes, I put the Mag-Lite filiment bulb in the Dorcy flaslight. It is very bright, 6 volts vs 4.5 volts. But the battery life is short.<br><br>As to the current differences, they should be minimal since some manufacturers slightly overdrive the LEDs to make them more bright, the reduced current should bring it more in to the low end of the operating range for longer life. I could not tell the difference by eye in light ouput from one to another.<br><br>I am sure that the light output will come back to normal with new batteries. I just don't want to change them untill it finally quits. If it hasn't died in another month, I will give up and change the batteries.<br><br>I have to admit I am impressed by this, I thought it would have gone dark several weeks ago.<br><br>Enjoy life, Mike Mc

Mikem Way to go I enjoyed reading this.... please keep up the experiment. I just love guy like you! I have to take everything apart too ;-) I found this usefull info, but i have not seen the led light I will hunt one down.... Thanks again Mac

Well it finaly died, sort of. The light was still going but had lost the "bright spot" in the middle of the light pattern. <br><br>The light output was useable. I could read by it as long as there was no 'fine print'! When I replaced the batteries the light came back to full output.<br><br>It has been an interesting non-scientific experiment that went on a LOT longer than I thought it would. From start to finish 10 weeks of continuous light! That's 70 days or 1680 hours! WOW!!!<br><br>Enjoy life, Mike Mc

That was an interesting expierment. Thanks for sharring your results.

this LED thing is going on all over the WEB ultra lite backpackers are trying to do it I sent them your idea (by the way is the best that I've seen) thanks a lot for the info.