I picked up this halogen desktop lamp at a garage sale for $3.00, it worked fine but for a while I have been looking for a light that I could convert to a battery powered light for emergency use and camping. This light fits the bill (for the most part) I have several LED flashlights that I don’t use for various reasons. The one I chose for this is a Streamlight 7-LED (I have 4 of these lights) light. It will light up my whole backyard with a fresh set of AA Batts. The LEDs are supposed to last over 100,000 hours, or that’s what it said on the package.

I removed all the wiring, controls and the halogen light & mounting bracket. I made a mounting bracket then mounted the flashlight head into the top of the desk light, soldered wires onto it and ran the wire down the inside of one of the tubes. I made an extra hole to mount a plug in the back to allow me to run the light off external power. I also mounted a switch so I could switch from internal and external power. I put a battery holder under the light (inside) it’s a 4-AA battery holder. The light runs on 6-volts. It allows the light to run with no wires or the need for external power. I have been using these Streamlight flashlights for 3 or 4 years and I get good life out of a set of alkaline AA batts. For external power I have an old cell phone charger (I pickup wall chargers all the time at garage sales for .50 to $1.00, so I have a lot of them in various voltages) that is rated at 5.2 volts at one amp. It actually puts out 5.8-volts, so it’s almost a perfect voltage match to the 4 AA batteries. I also have a 4-D battery holder that I use for other battery powered projects I have made and it also works with this light. And I have a cigarette lighter plug that steps power down to 6-volts. I have a small 6-volt solar panel that I’m going to mount on top of the light, it came from an old solar rechargeable flashlight that had the batteries go bad (I never throw anything away, I usually part things out and save the parts)

The solar panel fits on top of the light great, it’s almost the same size as the top. I just ordered some Schottky diodes off e-bay to use in line from it to the batteries. Normal diodes have a .6 volt drop when power is run through them and Schottky diodes only have a .2 or .3 voltage drop that’s ½ the voltage drop of a normal diode, it means more power will end up flowing into the batteries when the solar panel is recharging the batteries. I will get the solar panel mounted once the diodes get here. I’m goint to put a switch inline between the solar panel so I can turn it off when I have alkaline batteries in the light.

This light will run on it’s own power (the AA batteries) and also from 3 different external power sources (120-volts AC, 12-volts DC and the 6-volt D battery pack. This gives me a very good chance of being able to have a room light in a wide range of situations. And with the solar panel it gives me the ability to have light indefinably as long as I set it out in the sun to recharge.

Anyone with some mechanical and electrical skills could easily make some kind of light like this. LED flashlights are coming down in price every day so it makes it a lot less expensive to part one out for lighting projects like this. And LEDs consume very little power and give useful light for a long time.

You can’t see it from these pictures because of the camera flash, but it lights up a whole room fairly well. It lights up a table very well. At first it focused all the light down to where the switch is on the bottom of the light. To defuse the light I took a dermal and cut the reflector off the light head and also buffed the LEDs with a Scotch Bright pad to defuse it even more. It works great and the light now spreads out well.

In the pictures you can see how I mounted the LED light head, the batteries, the wall charger 12-volt charger and D battery pack. Also there is a picture of the flashlight before I cut it apart and also the flashlight with the solar panel.

I still have some work to do on it; I want to get the solar panel on it and some rubber feet on it to keep it from scratching any table top it’s setting on.

When sitting on a table it looks and works like any normal light, it doesn’t look like a piece of survival gear. But at a moments notice it can be switched over to battery power to become an emergency light useable with numerous power sources.



Here is the flashlight I used.


This is a picture of the table light & the wall power pack.


Here the LED light is on, but it's hard to see because of the camera flash (Running on batteries)


The solar panel for it.


The bottom showing the battery pack, external plug, wiring and the switch for internal or external power.


And the light with the D Battery pack and 12-volt adaptor.

I forgot a picture, this picture shows the top of the light removed and the LED head mounted and the wires running down the tube.

If you are into LED lighting you might be interested in this module.


http://www.techass.com/el/versalux/vlprod.php

I have nothing to do with the site or have even bought one. But it looks like it has some possibilities.

An LED flashlight cost $3.00 to $25.00, that module cost $50.00 that’s a big difference.

BobS--i assume you know about the MAKE website and magazine---

No, what is it?

A magazine devoted to people who make the things they can't buy, or even the things they can buy and just don't want to. Good stuff.

+1 on [url=www.makezine.com]www.makezine.com[/url]. I check it every day for ideas. I'm in awe of the projects people have built.

-Blast