DIY camping LED lantern. Camping LED lanterns - home comfort in camping conditions Do-it-yourself table lantern for camping

I decided all my camping lantern needs are more than covered by the latter. Nevertheless, I wanted to make the most complete multi-review and I ordered 3 more that looked more or less promising. The chandelier was purchased on the occasion of an outdoor revelry back in 2006-2007. Surely, almost everyone who goes out into nature in the slightest degree has come across this type of lantern.

Delivery
Gearbest goes to extremes. On July 9, I ordered a Ganzo G704 and already returned the money for the GB wallet without receiving the knife. The same situation with another order. And two flashlights with GB were ordered on August 10, shipped on August 17 and arrived on September 2. Bravo, what more can I say. If only this speed was stable for all orders... The lantern from Ali took about 6 weeks to arrive. If I had known that everything would drag on for so long, I would have ordered a remnant from suboos again to replace the one that was broken due to stupidity.

That is why the review was actually ready at the beginning of September, but was published right now. But, by rewriting the text several times, we managed to give it the most digestible look in comparison with the original, at the same time retaking the photos.

Specifications stated on the website.

Glaree C1

CREE XT-E 3W LED light source
Powered by 4 x AAA batteries
IPX6 waterproof
Light color: Warm white
98mm when folded and 134 when extended, 52mm diameter, weight - 54g.

Suboos. There's almost no description here.

36 powerful LED bulbs are super bright at night
Powered by 1 x 18650 rechargeable lithium battery or 3 x AAA battery (not included)

U 60-diode

Light color: white
Color temperature: 4500-5000K
Luminous flux: 215 lm
Item Color: Black
Material: ABS plastics
Battery: 3*AAA batteries or 1*18650 batteries (not included)
Size: 11.5*5.5 cm
Weight: 114g/

Chandelier
4xAAA
24 LEDs

(all other information on sizes and photos
18650
350lumes in turbo mode (stepdown after 10 minutes), 200lumens, 50 lumens, 0.8 lumens, 1.5 lumens in red light.

While preparing to write the review, it turned out that Glaree is not some kind of sharashka office, but quite a decent company, operating since 2006, with a not very meager assortment of flashlights. Among the camping ones there are even VERY interesting ones. their website. I liked the CC3 about 9000 mah with a power bank mode and the stated 11 hours of light at a maximum of 400 lumens. It looks like a wonderful thing. If you have points, then you can get it from GB a little cheaper than from Ali. Without points, the price is inadequate even with a coupon that symbolically reduces it. It is worth noting that, nevertheless, for a lot of things in GB, there are constantly or periodically extremely low prices. Thus, I managed to buy an Olight mini intimidator for $39(!!!)$.

Suboos 36 diode per GB at a completely inadequate price, inflated by at least 3 times. I bought its version with 60 diodes for 4.5 dollars for review. Now it's a dollar more expensive. AHTUNG! Ali sells a hell of a lot of these flashlights. I was lucky and both of them turned out to be suboos. There is no guarantee that in pursuit of savings of ten chervonets you will receive the same thing that came to me.

There is an even more advanced version - Suboos 2nd gen. Sold for 20 bucks. The same design, but with 2 banks and working in power bank mode. On the other hand, for this price you can buy at least 3-4 flashlights and sets of batteries for them using the above link.

Be that as it may, I repeat - taking all this into account, the simplicity and obvious cheapness of the flashlight under review makes the price of the GB completely outrageous and inadequate. To be honest, I was very, very sorry coupon, which could be used to take the same convoy or tank. However, the desire to make a decent comparative review prevailed. After all, I owe many good purchases and advice on how to avoid bad purchases to Muskovites. It is worth responding in kind.

Package

The packaging of C1 is very decent. Same class and design as Fenix ​​CL25R.
Good plastic, good printing and overall design execution. Inside is a flashlight, under it is a compartment for batteries + carabiner + instructions. There are special grooves on the compartment lid into which the flashlight fits.

There is no point in describing the Suboos packaging. The photo speaks for itself. An ordinary popularly illustrated cardboard with a couple of general short phrases.

Set:.

As I mentioned, the C1 kit includes a flashlight, 4 Energizer batteries (look and feel like real ones), a handy carabiner and instructions. The latter is entirely in Chinese. What is there - curses addressed to the laowai or a recipe for rotten egg soup can only be guessed.

Suboos 36, in addition to the flashlight, pampers us with an 18650 battery provided by the generous hand of Uncle Liu. Out of his Asian kindness, he is ashamed to admit that the actual capacity of the can will be about 1200mAh and the proud figure of 1800mAh is emblazoned on the heat shrink. There is also a 3AAA-18650 adapter inside the battery compartment.

The 6000 comes in the same box as the 36, the only difference being the absence of a battery. In my opinion, this is the best.


Dimensions and appearance.
C1 98mm when folded and 134 when extended, 52mm diameter, weight - 54g without batteries, 109 with them

Suboss 11x5 cm. 104g without can and 151g with Panasonic 3400 protected.



Nutrition.
C1- 4 AAA batteries.
Suboos - 18650 or 3 AAA.
Bright beam - 4xAA

Appearance, build quality, controls. And in general everything worth mentioning.

Already the packaging of the C1 shows that it must be assembled conscientiously. This is true. The plastic is pleasant to the touch, there is no play or creaking. There are no gaps. The retractable flask moves tightly, with a noticeable and reassuring “click” when I remove it.

The lantern can be disassembled into 3 parts.
1) Battery compartment for 4x AAA. The compartment is equipped with grooves, so you won’t be able to insert it by mistake. Inside the flashlight there are 2 small contact springs

2) The carcass itself. It has a logo on one side and a button on the other. The button goes deep and tight, with a click. There is a diode at the end of the flask. The reflector is smooth and deep relative to the size of the flashlight, the diode is located clearly in the center.

3) A flask made of some kind of matte plastic. There is a reflector located inside the cover. On the outside of the lid there is a standard semicircular handle for hanging.



As already mentioned, the assembly is not bad. However, the flashlight seems somehow frivolous and flimsy, probably due to its light weight and dismountable design. Once again, this is not the fault of the C1, but rather the cost of comparison with a flashlight of a different price category.

The controls are simple, but it seemed inconvenient to me. I constantly end up in the wrong modes. Basically, a short press toggles between brightness levels and different strobes. Long between constant light and strobes.

Let's check water resistance. All is good. The sealing of the flask is good - I mentioned the “chpok”.

Regarding the hydrophobia of the Bright Ray, I will copy the entire comment:
Biero
I’ll add about “Bright Ray”:
Hydrophobia is still an exaggeration. I've been using it for five years, and I've been in the rain a lot. The record is almost a day in drizzling rain and full performance after that. The design allows water to flow down the body without getting inside.
And one more plus - the absence of any electronics makes it almost indestructible and repairable “on the knee, with a stick and a cobblestone”

Suboos clearly larger than C1. However, the build quality (and the light) differs for the worse from the C1 and that yellow remnant that I made. By the way, the soap has already been completely destroyed or is sold under the Yarkiy Luch brand.
Everything is assembled without obvious complaints, but the feeling of cheapness does not leave you. The lampshade unscrews without any effort by 36 and with a clear effort of 60, exposing the simple innards.

The soldering looks neat, I didn’t see any snot. True, I can’t say that the lampshade can be unscrewed just as easily due to shaking and other things. The grooves are still quite deep. There is a charging connector - but there is no indicator. If the flashlight were 3 bucks, this would be expected, but at a price that is twice that of a well-assembled remnant, this is the stupidity of the manufacturer or the stupidity of the buyer.

Okay, I'll continue. The protected battery easily fit into the battery compartment, but the cover is designed for a regular one. The photo clearly shows 2 protrusions that should secure the jar. Here one of them rests against the protection board and the cover bulges along this edge. In principle, cutting off the protrusion is not a problem. And a folded piece of paper can easily help against looseness of an unprotected battery.


The controls are extremely simple - a short click turns it on and off and switches between 3 brightness levels.

Charging connector one of the common ones, it will fit from many. Charge is charging. I won't tell you more details. And I wouldn’t recommend charging it at such a low price. I came across messages that power is supplied there bypassing charging, and that it charges, but wildly heats up the batteries. Everything is ambiguous. To be fair, in the comments on the review of the remnant, it seems that I remember someone wrote that he, similar to the one being reviewed, charges everything normally over a long period of use.

Bright beam.
The workmanship is at the Suboos level. Everything is simple and unpretentious. Now “Yarky Luch” sells the second model of this chandelier, the price is about 450-500 rubles, and there are plenty of clones for sale. Of course, there’s no point in talking about moisture protection. The control is simple - on-off.

Here the appearance determines the completely different functionality of these lanterns. Offtopic. Memory helpfully throws up the term “ structural functionalism", they say, here the form determines the functionality. But, having refreshed my memory, I realized that this was a useless legacy of university lectures on sociology. Tell me, what is the correct name for this concept?

The main thing is light.

So, here is a comparison photo with different modes. The lanterns are suspended about a meter above the book and 170 from the floor. The distance at the widest point is 140cm. I note that if the book were located on the side of the C1 flashlight, it would be brighter due to the specific nature of the dispersion. This is also true for the phoenix. In the photo it seems that in maximum mode it gives less light than Suboos. But that's not true. The flashlight is really bright, it’s just that the dispersion is different.

When you turn on both Suboos, the brightness subjectively becomes at the level of the Fenix ​​in turbo mode.

C1
C1, like the phoenix, gives light around. Hang it or stand it - it will be brighter around than below. It seems to me that it is impossible to say whether this is right or wrong. In some places this distribution of light will be the most suitable, in others it will be like a classic chandelier, such as the other models under review
In camping lamp mode it gives quite good illumination. But in comparison, it’s still probably the worst among those reviewed. At the level of a “bright ray”, at a much higher price. You can only read by placing a lamp next to a book.

I’ll mark it as a bold plus nice warm light C1. Very cozy and familiar, lamp-like). It looks exactly positive against the backdrop of the Suboos light. The fenix cl25r has light somewhere between them, a little closer to C1.

In early reviews, I characterized the Suboos' color as "dead." After all this time, I still got used to it. Normal color.

In flashlight mode, the C1 is surprisingly not too bad. It has a fairly wide illumination. Here in the photo it’s hard to see due to overexposure, but in the middle there is a pronounced hotspot. If I made the shutter speed shorter, a hotspot appeared, but other details disappeared. In short, he is like the ever-memorable DMB gopher.

It shines with a not very pleasant white-blue color, white light that does not hurt the eyes. It is noticeably brighter than the Glaree due to its more downward-facing lampshade, and can be read comfortably. True, you can’t put it on the table anymore. In the absence of trees, you will have to hang out with a suspension. At maximum settings, both Suboos are slightly warm.

"Bright Ray" showed itself quite well in terms of price-light ratio. The latter has a rather pleasant neutral shade, midway between C1 and Suboos. The brightness is intermediate between maximum and average for the latter.

Claimed brightness modes for C1- 165 lumens (5 hours), 70 (13 hours), 40 lumens (80 hours). For me, the brightness is too high by half. As batteries, I charged 4 fresh GP ReCyko at 850mah each. C1 gave 2.5 hours at maximum and at 3 hours it switched to minimum mode. Another half hour and that's it.

Suboos 36 illuminated on the popular ICR26FM 2600mah for about 5-5.5 hours, at the end the diodes barely smoldered, the brightness was comparable to the minimum mode. Maybe it would have enlightened me longer. But the batteries were unprotected, so I didn’t take any risks.

Suboos 60 on the same banks the light was 3.5-4 hours.

I would characterize the modes of both of these lanterns as “for the table” - “to play cards in the tent” - “night light”. They're really well balanced for this.

"Bright Ray" from 4x AA at 2500 mah it illuminated for about 7 hours and began to rapidly fade. I think this is a very good result.

As a result.

The flip side of this plus is that the suspension will waste a lot of light. Power from AAA is a plus for some, but a minus for others (like me), so I won’t evaluate it. His destiny is short evening barbecues with a possible overnight stay in nature - this is where the flashlight will reveal itself. For a slightly more serious trip than barbecue and fishing, alas, the supply of batteries will greatly burden you. I probably wouldn't buy it. Spoiled by better and more expensive solutions. At this cost, you can get by quite well with a longer-lasting combination of a convoy and a diffuser + the bottom line is that you also get a flashlight. Or see below.

"Bright Ray"
A good budget solution for simple barbecue-dachas, again for those who are far from 18650. The price, operating time and light brightness are in plus. Another plus is power from the ubiquitous AA. Flimsy design, 1 mode and hydrophobia in minus. It seems to me that it will show itself best when hung above a table, where it needs to be brighter and longer lasting. Another option is lighting a large awning. A couple of these chandeliers will do the job quite well. In terms of price and functionality, in my opinion, it is clearly more interesting than Sunree.

Suboos.
36 diodes.
The build quality and functionality do not correspond to the price. I would still be ready to give 4-5 bucks and give up a free, stupid can. And the opportunity to buy the older 60-diode version of this flashlight proves for this amount that the real cost of the thing being reviewed is most likely 2-3 bucks. It is not clear to me what the GB is guided by in such cases. Another minus– no moisture protection. In case of rain, you will have to wrap it in a bag or seal the lid of the battery compartment with electrical tape. And so, through the hole in the mentioned lid, in the morning it can pick up dew all over the insides.
How plus– greater brightness than C1 and Beam and a different light distribution, more appropriate in situations with a suspension. Well, and support for 18650 (optional and the same AAA in the cassette), which significantly lengthens the work. In short, at a maximum price of 5 bucks, it’s a completely worthwhile purchase.

I will call the winner the 60 diode. It's really bright, you can buy it for mere pennies. For 1tr you can buy 3 of these lamps, which, with adequate luggage, will be enough batteries for any outdoor trip or barbecue.

I don’t take Fenix ​​into account in this situation. Due to its price, this flashlight is completely for other, much more demanding costs and functional needs.

Ultimately, the choice is yours; I only spoke about these flashlights to the best of my ability, adding a couple of my own thoughts to the objective data.
As for me, all these flashlights have their very different strengths and weaknesses - you can choose something specifically for your needs.

What would I choose? As for me, AA, I think, is clearly inferior to 18650 for camping trips. Therefore, I repeat, I would choose a combination of some Convoy with a diffuser for the table and a penny Suboos 60 chandelier for the tent and would keep it to a small amount.

Finally, I would like to remind you of a good phrase: “a good flashlight is the one that is at hand when it gets dark”

In the last decade, with the beginning of the accelerated development of the automotive industry in our country, and the emergence of the opportunity for almost anyone to purchase a car, automobile tourism began to develop rapidly. Autotourists, traveling throughout the country, stop to rest in campsites and roadside hotels specially equipped for them, relaxing in comfortable conditions. But sometimes you have to spend the night, as they say, where night fell, for example, in a tent on the shore of a lake or river. Yes, and some campsites sometimes provide only a guarded place to stop and relax, and you have to spend the night just like on the lake shore - in a tent. Well, that’s okay, that’s what tourism is for.

A rechargeable flashlight becomes an indispensable assistant in the evening and at night, spent in a tent or under a canopy. With , you can have dinner together at the same table, talk about tomorrow, prepare equipment, refuel the car, children can play ball or other games, and so on. But not only should the lighting be good, it should also be enough for the entire evening. What should a lantern be like? Let's consider the basic requirements for such flashlights and note some advantages and disadvantages of flashlights from individual companies.

Among the variety of rechargeable flashlights, there are flashlights for hunting and fishing, pocket or hand-held, head-mounted, underwater, under-barrel, powerful search or tactical, as well as camping flashlights. The name of the last type of lanterns speaks for itself, namely, that they are designed to illuminate the place where you stop and spend the night.

Camping lanterns differ from all other lanterns in both design and lighting characteristics.

Camping Lantern Design

The appearance of camping lanterns can be very different. Some lantern models are made in the style of a kerosene lamp, others are in the form of a regular ceiling or wall lamp, which is a hemisphere or rectangle.

Since almost all camping lanterns use LEDs as a light source, the design of some lamps generally resembles either a tablet or a donut.

I believe that a lantern should resemble the lantern that we are accustomed to in the usual sense of the word, and I do not like various unusual forms of lanterns. Such miracle lanterns are produced by handicraft Chinese companies and are sold in our country under various trademarks, such as “Navigator”, “Cosmos”, “Era”, “Bright Ray”. I have nothing against these brands; many of the products they sell have good characteristics and quality, but in this case I can say that the flashlights they sell are complete nonsense. We will also touch on the disadvantages of such lanterns when we analyze the lighting characteristics of camping lanterns.

I also consider unsuccessful models of camping lanterns to be those lanterns whose design combines the functions of camping and . It gets even funnier when they try to make a powerful flashlight out of them; an example of such a flashlight is shown below. Some Chinese "shops" even manage to fit a radio into the lantern.

In general, I am against such disgrace. Just as there are no universal cars that can pass over rough terrain and drive at high speed on the highway, there are no universal flashlights.

Therefore, my choice, from a design point of view, is an LED camping lantern similar to a kerosene lamp without any additions. If such a lantern, when choosing, does not fit the other criteria of my assessment, then I leave myself as an alternative choice, a lantern in the form of a hemisphere or a rectangular shape.

Optical system

The optical system of camping lanterns can be divided into two main types: direct and reflected light. Direct light is used in inexpensive flashlights, where cheap, outdated “super-bright” LEDs with a “bluish” emission spectrum in the region of 6400 K, poorly perceived by the human eye, are used as a light source. To increase visibility, manufacturers increase the number of such LEDs to very large values: 24, 42, 48, 64 pieces and so on. But no matter how much you install them, it won’t make things brighter around you. There is only enough light to, for example, see the faces of the interlocutors at the table, and if you move further away, you can already trip over something.

The bluish color of the LED glow is to blame for everything. The fact is that the human eye is most sensitive to sunlight. And therefore, in sunlight, people see surrounding objects very clearly. Anyone who lives in private houses and runs a household knows that when you enter the owner’s building, which is located in the courtyard in the wall or roof of which there is a through gap to the street, the sunlight penetrating through this gap illuminates the entire room quite well. Without turning on the lamp, you can easily find the item you came for.

In sunlight, the predominant emission spectrum is green.

When illuminated by a halogen incandescent lamp, the emission spectrum is shifted to the red zone.

The first super-bright LEDs emitted light in the blue spectrum.

Therefore, no matter how you increase the number of LEDs used to illuminate the flashlight, a person will not be able to see any better. But the power consumption of electrical energy will increase, and the operating time of the flashlight will correspondingly decrease. In addition, super-bright blue LEDs, which are in the direct line of sight of human eyes, cause a very strong glare effect. Once, by looking at the flashlight and taking your eyes away from it, you can “walk away” from exposure to bright light for about five minutes. The way out of this situation is to use diffuse filters made of opal or milk glass. But such filters further block the already insufficient light.

In the last 3-4 years, LED manufacturers have improved their light characteristics and achieved almost complete coincidence of the emitted light spectrum with sunlight. Now the color temperature of LED light is 4800 - 5200 K. One of the leaders in the production of such LEDs is the American company "CREE".

Currently, in the production of lamps, spotlights and lanterns, it has become sufficient to use one or several such LEDs to create a luminous flux similar to the luminous flux created by a dozen or several dozen LEDs of the previous generation.

Manufacturers of rechargeable lanterns have jumped on this wave and have come up with many new designs of camping lanterns. For example, the Fenix ​​company has created a small but very bright Fenix ​​CL20 camping lantern. The weight of the flashlight is only 103 grams, and the maximum size is 79 mm. With such a modest size, the flashlight produces a luminous flux of up to 165 lumens. Since the lantern illuminates the surrounding area with direct light, it is equipped with milky diffusing glass. The luminous range of the flashlight is 10 m. Operating time in turbo mode (at 165 lumens) is 2 hours 23 minutes. The flashlight runs on 2 AA batteries.

The portable LED rechargeable flashlight is very small and can even fit in a pocket and is therefore suitable for hiking. The lantern has rather modest luminous flux characteristics and is only suitable for good illumination of the interior of the tent with natural light. In terms of price/quality ratio, the cost of the flashlight is significantly overestimated - 2680 rubles.

If we talk about lanterns in the form of a kerosene lamp, then they began to look more natural. One - four powerful LEDs began to be installed at the location of the wick of a real kerosene lamp. To disperse the light emanating from the LED in all directions, a cone-shaped mirror is installed in the upper part of the lampshade, simulating lamp glass. But recently, various manufacturers have begun to move away from the cone shape and are giving this mirror various complex shapes that improve the quality and uniformity of scattering.

On almost all lantern designs, the lampshade is made removable. With the canopy removed, the lantern is hung “upside down” by the hook located on the bottom of the lantern and used as usual.

Based on all the considerations, I believe that it would be wise to opt for lanterns equipped exclusively with modern LEDs that emit naturally white light, close to sunlight.

Camping Lantern Power Sources

The power sources for camping lanterns are standard batteries and rechargeable batteries such as AAA, AA, CR123, 18650, D, as well as built-in batteries. If everything is clear with standard batteries, you took out the used ones and installed new ones, then you need to understand in more detail the charging of the batteries.

Charging of flashlights with built-in batteries is carried out directly in the flashlight from the mains AC voltage 220 V or from constant voltage sources, 12 V and 5 V. The voltage depends on the specific model.

The availability of an alternating voltage network of 220 V is not always the case in camping conditions. The ability to charge batteries from a constant supply voltage of 5 V means that the battery can be charged, for example, from a laptop or computer, which are also unlikely to be on a hike. Therefore, in my opinion, it would be logical to choose a flashlight that can be charged from the car’s on-board network (cigarette lighter) 12 V.

Sometimes the design charger allows the use of both AC and DC voltages.

There are models of flashlights, for example, the same “Navigator” (model NPT-CA09) which additionally have for charging: solar battery and a hand-operated dynamo. Having collected all the information about the effectiveness of these devices, I can assure you that they are absolutely useless in operation.

A solar battery, given its area, can create a current that can only power a microcalculator. It will charge the battery for a week, subject to sunny weather. Although no, if you look at the capacity of the battery installed in this flashlight (1200 mAh, 3.6 V), then you can agree that it will be charged in two days. For information, one little finger battery, type AAA, has a capacity of 1000 mAh, at 1.5 V, that is, two batteries, type AAA, are practically installed in the flashlight. Let's calculate how long it will take for this battery to discharge. 3.6 V × 1.2 A = 4.32 W. This means that the battery can produce 4.32 W of electrical power within an hour. The flashlight contains 12 LEDs with an estimated power of 0.5 W. The total power of all LEDs is 12 × 0.5 W = 6 W. So, the time that the flashlight will work is 4.32 / 6 = 0.72 hours = 43.2 minutes. Charge for two days, only to be left in the dark 43 minutes later? The same can be said about a dynamo. In short, it's just ridiculous, money down the drain.

The conclusion suggests itself is that it would be better if the flashlight had removable batteries installed.

Waterproof

Well, we’ve reached the last evaluation criterion when choosing a camping lantern. The moisture resistance of all flashlights, be it a hand-held, search, or headlamp, is a very important parameter, since different situations occur during their operation. It is hand-held and can slip out of your hands and fall into the water; the headband can become wet when a person is in the rain. A camping lantern is no exception. Most often, of course, a rechargeable LED camping flashlight gets caught in the sudden rain. Raindrops fall both vertically and at some angle. Therefore, the bulk of the lanterns produced are produced with a degree of protection against rain (IPX4 - IPX6).

But there are models that can withstand short-term immersion in water (protection level IPX7). And it doesn’t have to be expensive flashlights. An example of an inexpensive waterproof flashlight is the Energizer LED tourist flashlight, the estimated cost of which is 1000 rubles.

My choice

Having searched for a suitable flashlight for myself, I settled on this one: “Streamlight Siege”.

Brief characteristics of the flashlight:

• Manufacturer - American company "Streamlight";
• Model - "Siege";
• Light source - 4 white Cree XB-D LEDs, 1 red LED;
• Color temperature - 5200 K (cool white), red;
• Optics - matte cap with reverse conical reflector, removable;
• Power supply: three D-type batteries; corresponding batteries can be installed instead;
• Modes/brightness - 340, 175, 33 lm white light, 10 lm and SOS red light;
• Turning on and changing modes - alternating presses on one control button;
• Operating time - 30/70/295 hours (at maximum/medium/minimum brightness);
• Weight and dimensions - 185 × 90 mm, 430 grams empty.

On the eBay website, this flashlight can be purchased for approximately 2000 rubles, plus shipping 1200 rubles. In one of the Russian online stores, the cost of such a lantern was 4,400 rubles, the lantern was in stock.

Watch a short video review of this flashlight.

And everything would have been fine, only he didn’t shine at all. Those. it shone, of course, but so weakly that there was only enough light to illuminate the lantern itself. It was necessary to do something about it and now, after several years, his hands came to him. Below the cut are details of the improvements.

The original design uses several LED strips

Power supply consists of 4 form factor D batteries (in Russian - 373 elements)

So, let's start finalizing the design: we disassemble the lantern, take out all the giblets.

Instead of standard LED strips, we wind an LED strip consisting of 5050 LEDs. We managed to wind exactly 1 meter. Actually, I didn’t have any more...

The tape is powered by 12 volts. As a result, a step-up voltage converter is needed. After rummaging through the feeds, I finally found what I needed - LM2577 DC-DC Adjustable Step-up Power Converter. I once bought it on E-bay "in reserve". Price $2.46 per piece.

Just in case, they installed a radiator on the mikruha. The radiator is a piece of cleverly cut cooler from an ancient Pentium-like processor

A plug was installed on top of the lantern design, so that the space would not be wasted, we decided to additionally install a Cree Q5 LED there. On the radiator, of course.

A small reflector was built into the cover of the plug

Now let's move on to nutrition. Somehow the soul did not initially lie with D-elements, so instead of D-cells it was decided to use 18650 lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are somewhat longer in size, but the stroke of the contact springs of the battery compartment turned out to be quite large, which allowed them there without any problems install.

In order for the batteries to fit normally and not hang out in the battery pack, bushings with an outer diameter similar to D-shells were machined

The battery connection circuit had to be changed to parallel-series; this required slightly re-soldering the battery pack

The changes also affected the back cover of the battery pack: you need to solder the jumper strip

Next, we proceed to setting up the circuit. During the testing process, the original power button burned out, unable to withstand the current. I had to cut down the normal toggle switch. The output voltage of the converter was set to 11.5 V, while the current consumption of the LED strip was 0.9 A. Current consumption at the converter input (from the batteries): 1.45 A at an input voltage of 7.5 V.

We proceed to the final assembly of the structure. Loading the torpedo tube

Complete structure

Solemn moment. Let's light it up...it's on fire! The LEDs in the strip emit warm yellow light.

Photos, of course, do not fully convey the brightness of the glow. But I can say that it turned out quite well, quite brightly. Just right for a flashlight like this.

I'm testing the second mode - I light a single cree q5 LED at the top of the flashlight. He put the lantern on the floor and shone it on the chandelier. Stretch ceiling - glossy. The result was fairly uniform illumination of the entire room, of course, not as bright as in the main operating mode, but nevertheless I am pleased with the result.

That's all. Sending rays of goodness

I propose a design for a camping lantern with a low battery alarm and subsequent shutdown when the battery voltage drops to a threshold level.

The automatic shutdown function protects the battery from deep discharge. Battery voltage 7.2…7.4 V - six Ni-MH or Ni-Cd batteries of size AA, AAA or two Li-ion batteries. The choice of a relatively high battery voltage required the use of a step-down voltage converter to power the LEDs, the circuit of which is shown in the figure below.

The converter is based on a specialized converter microcircuit (DA2) with a built-in synchronous rectifier and a SZ smoothing capacitor. The conversion frequency is 900 kHz, and at this frequency a storage choke (L1) with a relatively small inductance can be used. The output voltage is set by a resistive divider R7R8 and for the ratings indicated on the diagram it is equal to 3.1 V. The inductance of the inductor is determined by the current consumed by the load (LEDs). For output current up to 0.3 A it should be 22 µH, up to 0.45 A - 15 µH, up to 0.6 A - 12 µH, up to 0.7 A - 10 µH. Lighting LEDs EL1 and EL2 are connected in series with current equalizing resistors R9 and R10. As practice has shown, for the LEDs used, the resistance of these resistors (1 Ohm) is sufficient.

The unit for monitoring the supply voltage and controlling the converter microcircuit is assembled on a dual comparator DA1 with low current consumption. The reference voltage for the comparators is formed by the parametric voltage stabilizer R4VD1. The battery voltage is supplied to the non-inverting inputs of the comparators through the resistive divider R1R2R3. By selecting the resistor values ​​of this divider, the response thresholds are set. Comparator DA1.2 switches at a supply voltage of 6.5...6.8 V (U 6p), while its output will set to a low voltage level and the HL1 indicator LED will light, signaling that the battery is low. Comparator DA1.1 switches when the battery voltage reaches 5.4 V (U off), and the low voltage level at its output will go to the control input of the voltage converter chip DA2 (pin 2) and prohibit its operation - the LEDs EL1 and EL2 will go out.

Design and details of LED flashlight

Fee along with battery can be placed in a suitable size case - a cosmetics jar or, for example, in a sufficiently durable food-grade plastic container for the microwave oven. If the housing is opaque, holes are made for the LEDs, which are sealed with durable transparent film or thin plexiglass. To better protect the board from the external environment, the socket for connecting the charger can be placed inside the case. Then the charger is connected, having first removed the housing cover. You can also install some kind of mount for a small carabiner on the body, which will make it much more convenient to use the flashlight while traveling. If galvanic cells or batteries of AA or AAA size are used and the batteries are planned to be charged separately from a specialized charger, then the socket for connecting the charger will become unnecessary. It should be noted that the synchronous rectifier used in the ST1S10 microcircuit is characterized by high efficiency at low output voltages. In the original version, the efficiency of the entire converter was 93%.

It may be necessary to change the converter output voltage (U out). It is set by resistive divider R7R8, and the required value is set by selecting resistor R7: R7 = R8(U out - 0.8)/0.8, and the resistance of resistor R8 should not exceed 20 kOhm. If it is necessary to set other values ​​of the comparator switching thresholds, you will need to select the resistance of resistors R1 and R2 (R3 is set arbitrarily, 5...50 kOhm). To do this, without a battery, voltage is supplied to the device from the output of the regulated power supply and the stabilization voltage of the zener diode VD1 is measured: U st1 - at supply voltage U supply = U br: U st2 - at U supply = U off. Calculate the total resistance R sum of resistors R1, R2 and R3: R sum = R3* U br /U st1. Then the resistances of resistors R1 and R2 are calculated:
R1 = (U off - U st2) R sum /U off; R2 = R sum - R1 - R3.