Blue LED Flashlight Mod

Here's a quick 10 minute hack to turn an ordinary white LED flashlight into a much cooler blue LED one.

Step 1: Dismantle the LED part of the flashlight

Take appart the top part of the flashlight, and remove the LEDs from the reflector part.
This may be hard, as it's stuck in there, but in the 2 that i've done this two, they aren't glued at all, so it should be easy.

Comments

[AerialInk]

I read your instructable some time ago, but never really had a reason to switch out LED's in a flashlight other than just for fun. Recently though, I had the need for a portable and bright UV light source. I found two Guidesman flashlights, each under $10, at a local Menards and went to work. Thanks to the inspiration from your instructable I was able to convert both flashlights, one with 9 LED's and the other with 15, with relative ease. I don't know if I would of thought to do this myself, so I wanted to give you my thanks.

[Deadly Computer]

no problem that's why i made it!
I do have a question, how is the UV leds?
Because I was recently looking to get a UV light for some stuff, and I'd much rather make my own if possible.

[king kolton9]

do you know any way to teach a 11 year old how to defuse a LED

[Deadly Computer]

what do you mean by defuse?

like diffuse the light so it's not a point, encasing it in clear hot glue is somewhat usefull for diffusing it.

i'm not sure what you mean by defuse though.

[AerialInk]

I was more than happy with the ones I bought from http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2398 . If you need the tech specs of the LED's look to the comments on that same page. If I have my flashlights on for a while, they get pretty warm though, but they are bright and that's exactly what I wanted.

[LuciferTengu]

you could buy brighter blue LEDs that are made by the same manufacturer of the flashlight from frys.com, since I've only frys sells them. And of the three stores ive been to (all in one day lol) I've only found red. I think coast uses cree LEDs and brands them as their own.

[ZOOBREAK]

why don't you just color the LED lightbulb blue with a sharpie or something

[joeofloath]

because you'll just let the blue light out, and the rest (white is a mixture of all colours, after all), and the rest will turn to heat. Blue LED's just turn most of the available electricity into blue light, so are more efficient.

[mackintoshlinessless]

what about a red blue and green led in it and three swithes to have about eight diferent colours including white

[ironsmiter]

could do it, but in that tiny space... it's be beyond the authors soldering skills. :-) Seriously though, it's be easier to use three colored led's, and add color subtraction filters to the lens instead.

[mackintoshlinessless]

yeah thats a thought and is much easier

[xdarkxsparkyx]

answer me fast plz can u make the light black

[ironsmiter]

The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. What is the Speed of dark?

[cornflaker]

Accidently replied to Frogz instead lol You can make it "black" (as in ultra-violet) but not really black. This is because darkness is just the absence of light.

[Frogz]

there is "black light" leds
http://www.google.com/products?q=uv+led

[k300000]

why wont red or yellow work??

[Deadly Computer]

it will work with red or yellow, but the voltages are different. the blue LEDs i used were the same voltage as the white ones. If you used red or yellow you would have to have more LEDs or a resistor of some sorts because they use less volts then the blue ones. i also used blue because, i like the color blue better

[Derin]

But I read that all LED's can run correctly up to 3 Volts.

[ironsmiter]

Consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED For a primer.
Note though, that it is not exact.
The blue led I ripped out of my broken external harddrive won't even dimly glow till AT LEAST 3.5 volts are applied. 3.7 volt Li-ion battery gives it 'just enough' power to run at 'normal' brightness. SOME leds, have resistors integrated, for 5 volt, or 12 volt applications. I even have one BRIGHT blue led, pulled from a toasted external harddrive, that requires 4.3 volt just to light, and begins getting 'warm' at 5.2 volt.As far as i can tell, that one has no resistor in it.... but it may be really tiny, and hiding in the plastic lens body so infer what you will from that.

The problem with using lower voltage leds, with a higher supply voltage, is you are over driving them. they may light up nice and bright for a time, but then will burn themselves out from the thermal overload.

[Noodle god]

Where you buy that flashlight O_o?

[peede1]

a red mode would go along way. if im not mistaken , at night red is better on the eyes. helps with your night vision....my astronomy software on my laptop is lit up in red for night..

[Thelonelysandwitch]

i have the exact same light

[electronic nut]

wwell atleast we know that your not color blind LOL. (it's blue) ah no offence saw an oppertunity and took it dude! \

[Estwald]

Same flashlight, I modded mine with UV LEDs from DealExtream.
Cheap 5mm UV LED DealExtream UV LEDs (20-Pack) $2.93 (shipping included)
UVs cheap enough to experiment with. I've modded a few flashlights now.
I'm working up some Instructables on them.

[benthekahn]

cool. Maybe ill make a green one?

[Istarian]

An easier way is to leave in the really bright white leds and just insert a blue colored filter in front. Could be done cheaply with blue cellophane.

[Deadly Computer]

that would have probably worked I agree, but, I had blue LEDs, and 20 mins of free time, and I did not have blue cellophane.

[www.led-depot.co.uk]

Very cool looking blue. I like it

[Lftndbt]

Nice, your right the simple fact it's blue makes up for it...

[brainwise]

This is a pretty good idea ... and handy, too. We always need blue lights when working backstage at the theater.

[GorillazMiko]

Really great idea! I might do this to the 99 cent store ones, this is a great Instructable, and it looks an awesome blue at the end! About 2 pictures are blurry, but it's okay, you said sorry. :P Doesn't matter, this Instructable rules. Nice job. +1 rating. (added to favorites)