Difference between the Dorcy flashlights?

[Mojo_rizin]

Hello,

I am sorry to bother you all, but I just had a quick question. I purchased the regular Dorcy 1 watt flashlight and I was wondering if anyone knew if it has the same circuitry as the Dorcy Jr.? It is powered by 3 triple A's not the the lithium cr123 battery. I assumed it would work for an easy diy red laser project just like the Dorcy Jr. due to the fact it was also only one watt. I have read more on these boards in the last week than all the reading I did in college! Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Daedal]

HAHAHA... yes, you will be doing much reading for sure ;D It's unfortunately the cheapest way to learn... :

Either way... Since I personally do not have it handy, I couldn't really tell you whether it would work or not, but a picture should help us help you better

GL;
DDL

 

[Gazoo]

Isn't that the same one as the one described in this thread?

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1176725419

 

[AJ_Dual]

The only way to be sure is to tear one down with fresh batteries turn it on, and test it with a multi-meter at the contacts on the heatsink star.

I would GUESS, that the Dorcy Metal Gear, the Dorcy Super 1 Watt, and the Dorcy Jr. 1 Watt all have drivers putting out V and mA that are CLOSE, since they all drive the same 1W Luxeon white LED. But I wouldn't bet a DVD burner or group-buy diode on it. If you went into it blind with a pulled DVD burner diode of unknown specs, any of these lights are still 1000x better as a host than a direct-drive Mini-Mag like in that video.

Fortunately the Dorcy's all come apart and just unscrew in multiple places, exposing most everything, and you can test what it's doing very, very easily, and non-destructively. If it does not meet your needs, you could probably sell it on CPF as they're popular modification hosts on CPF and here on LPF.

IIRC, the Dorcy Metal Gear like in the SenKat thread was/is on final clearance nation wide at Wal-Mart for only $7. If there's any left the next time I go back, I'm going to pick one or five up as hosts for all sorts of future projects. Even though the Luxeon 1W is rather passé in flashlight circles now, in the face of the 3W, the Seoul P4/Cree, and the new Luxeon Rebel emitters, but just as a flashlight for the car or a kitchen junk-drawer a good quality 1W Luxeon is still an awesome deal.

Another very good host is the MXDL "Elly" flashlight from DealExtreme: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1120 I don't know about here, but some CPF'ers have put DVD burner diodes/Axiz modules into them with very good results. I just got one from DX for a 1Watt UV LED project, and from a modification standpoint, I'm very happy with it's simplicty and absolute ease of dissasembly, and the nice features you get (like a 3V voltage boost driver board running from a single 1.5V AA) for your $7 and change…

Only downside is it'll be 2-3 weeks from Hong Kong if you ordered it tonight...