Flashlight without battery, last lifetime, no dangerous chemicals and recharging in few minutes!
Yes! It is possible.
Hello and thank you for visiting my blog.
Flashlight battery was dead so I decided to replace it with super capacitor. I didn't expect it to run longer than 4 hours, but it did. It exceeded all my expectations. Battery was replaced with 2 super capacitors 2.7 Volt 300 Farad and paired with Joule Thief.
Advantages are that I will never need to replace super capacitors, run time is same as with lead acid battery that it had before, no dangerous chemicals and I can charge it in few minutes.
I will continue to make improvements in the future.
For charging I use Apple charger and it is great but I have to connect it with open wires so it's not practical and since it's 5.3 volts I have to be careful not to overcharge super capacitors to avoid damaging them.
I ordered on eBay LM2596 Buck Step-down Power Converter Module DC 4.0~40 to 1.3-37V LED Voltmeter. You can check it out here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/400802470941 ( This is not ad :-) )
It will allow me to lower voltage to 2.5 volts, not charging over 100% capacity will last lifetime, and charge them with 2 amp constant current. Converter have short protection function and that will be useful when capacitors are at 100% empty.
Here is video of my new Super capacitor Flashlight V2
Assembly guide.
Now, I will explain in detail how I made it and what you need to replicate it.
Obviously you need to remove lead acid battery and make room inside flashlight for your capacitors.
Your flashlight will be different so think carefully where you will make space for capacitors.
Disconnect circuit for charging battery, switch and LED lights. LED lights will have 2 wires. Red and black/white. Red is positive and other is negative. Polarity is VERY important because if you charge capacitors in reverse polarity they can EXPLODE!
Solder capacitors together in parallel connection and wire/connector for charging. Like this:
Make sure to check again for polarity before soldering. After that, test the connection from capacitor and switch to LED lights and if all is ok you can solder capacitor and switch.
Now, it's time to make a Joule Thief.
Eexample:
Here is video if you are a beginner or really don't know what to do:
Now that you have Joule Thief you can connect it to switch and capacitor and test everything if it works. If everything is fine and working as it should, you can assemble you modified flashlight.
Congratulations! You have successfully modified your LED flashlight.
