I'm looking for a very warm " high CRI " led upgrade bulb ?

[Hickory n steel]

This morning I discovered and instantly fell in love with the Ray-o-vac sportsman " super power search light, I'm looking on Ebay and will absolutely be buying one.


look at this thing it's like a 1950's car headlight that you hold in your hands.


They're just so cool looking, and I've gotta have one.

For " practicality "concerns an LED upgrade is obvious, but then I thought what if it not only performed better but also retained the charm of that pleasant warm glow ?
So that's what I'm looking for, a warm high CRI LED upgrade bulb.
I have tried looking online but haven't come up with anything so far.
I don't need a ton of output, 250- 300 would be good enough for me.

Hopefully there's something out there for under $50, because the flashlight is going to cost me $50-$60 for one in good condition, plus I'll need to buy 7 AA battery adapters.

 

[Sharp Steel]

I have seen LED replacement bulb replacements but they tend to be on the brighter side of the scale for output (towards the 5500K side of the scale). The ones I have purchased for old Mag-Lites did not have a color temperature listed on the package. If you do decide to go that route, make sure it is one suited for the number of cells in the light. The ones in my local hardware store are only for 2-3 cell lights.

Experimented with an old Office Max LED light which failed. It has a small 1 inch round circuit board with the LED in the center. There are places online to buy those boards without LEDs, and you pick the LED you want to match the voltage output on the board. Managed to score a combo with an LED close to the 2700K range. If I didn't tell you, you would think it was a vintage light from the light color. It does not look like that will work with the Ray-O-Vac though, so you may be limited to the drop-in LED replacements for the old police style lights.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I have looked and looked and have concluded that there just are no off the shelf LED drop-in's with a warm high CRI emitter available and there are no makers on etsy...etc offering anything, I really wish there were but as far as I can tell there aren't.
The other thing which sucks is that it seems the higher performance upgrade units out there are only made for Maglites.
I'm pretty much just limited to a drop in LED bulb, because I can't afford to have a custom module made for it or anything like that.

Now I'm just looking for an off the shelf drop in LED with decent output that will work with 7 cells and emits light in 360°, because in my experience the typical Nite-ize style the just emits light out the front doesn't really work very well with the old reflectors that are optimized for incandescent bulbs.
I have seen the Dorcy which has a bulb tip to it, but they're only 30L.

There's a few other options out there but I can't confirm the voltage rating, output, or quality.
A few years ago I bought a Litt industries upgrade for my 4D Maglite, but I also bought a 2 D extension for it and the bulb doesn't work with 6 cells in it even though that meets the 9v it's rated for.
It's a great upgrade otherwise that puts out about 300L with the 4 cells, but obviously that's not going to work with 7 cells.

I just bought one of these Ray-o-vac searchlight's on Ebay, and the cool thing about them is that you can remove sections to change it between 3 4 6 & 7 cells so I can actually use any of the drop in LED's on the market but I want to use it in it's full length 7 cell form.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I think I may have found a suitable LED upgrade bulb.

Cree 10W XL-M2 P13.5s Upgrade LED for MAGLITE 5, 6, 7, 8-12 Cell - 520 Lumen

Cree LED Bulb 10 Watt, 6 - 30 Volt Replacement PR Flange Non-Polarity Brightest & Best Cree 10-Watt Drop in upgrade Replacement LED LED 10W Upgrade Bulb Replaces Xenon with LED for MAGLITE® 5, 6, 7, 8 -Cell light 6-30V The LED Emitter is a Cree 10W LED Cree® XLamp® XM-L2 LED" Cool White 6500K...

www.dracoproducts.net

It's listed as 520L, it says it can be used with up to a 12 cell Maglite ( mag never went longer than 7 cells ) unlike the Litt bulb I have which is limited to 9v, and it has a bit of a bulb tip to it which should spread the light to the reflector.

 

[RickHuf]

6500k is going to be the sharpest white light you have ever seen. Like stadium lighting.

You are going to want 4k max if you want to keep that warm glow. More likely 3000k for the real orange warm look....

Now I'm gonna be searching for a bulb lol!

 

[Hickory n steel]

6500k is going to be the sharpest white light you have ever seen. Like stadium lighting.

You are going to want 4k max if you want to keep that warm glow. More likely 3000k for the real orange warm look....

Now I'm gonna be searching for a bulb lol!

At this point I've given up on looking for a warm LED, unlike somebody happens to just find one.
I came across some warm white PR base 12v LED's on Ebay, but they're probably crap and I don't like ordering unknown direct from China products.

Now i'm just looking for something that is rated for at least 10V , has a minimum of 250L, and is well known to the flashlight community.
I think the 520L Cree bulb from Draco products may be the way to go, but I have not found anything from the flashlight community about them.
They've had a website since 2013 and have been on EBAY with good feedback since '03 but that's all I know.

 

[RickHuf]

flashlight community

This is definitely something I didn't know existed. Kinda scared to check it out as I'm blissfully and ignorantly happy with my harbor freight led flashlight. Lol!

If I figure anything out I'll let you know. There is bunch of old chromed tin flashlights at work, maybe something will come along. Mad scientist time.

If you get yours together please report back! That's a sweet light.

 

[Hickory n steel]

If you get yours together please report back! That's a sweet light

I'm currently thinking I'll probably buy the 520 lumen bulb from Litt industries and just use one of those dummy batteries so I can keep it full length without overpowering the LED.
their products are known, and i have their 350 lumen drop in that I've been happy with.
Speaking of that I tried the LITT 2 battery extension again ( my old Mag is actually a 3 cell not a 4 like I was thinking ) and it's currently working fine, I don't know why it wouldn't before but now it is working fine in a 5 cell light as it should.


I'm just not sure I want to buy the Draco products bulb that has no reviews beyond positive feedback from Ebay customers.
I need to hear from people in the community who know the difference, not from people who are blown away by any flashlight that's brighter than their 30 year old incan.

 

[Sharp Steel]

One other option to consider is frosting the lens to diffuse the light more, and/or adding an amber filter to the lens. Don't ask me how to do that, because I have no idea. Just throwing possibilities out there.

 

[Hickory n steel]

One other option to consider is frosting the lens to diffuse the light more, and/or adding an amber filter to the lens. Don't ask me how to do that, because I have no idea. Just throwing possibilities out there.

An amber filter is something I've thought about but don't know how it would be done.

 

[rycen]

Try looking at headlight tint film

 

[Hickory n steel]

Try looking at headlight tint film

That might work .

To be clear I never really wanted to exactly replicate the dim orange-ish glow, but rather just something nice and warm that reminds me of an incan.
Like my little EDC light here with it's nitchia 219c led which reminds me of the light you get from those little 40 watt appliance bulbs.





With that being said, it's been at least 15 years since I used any type of incan flashlight that wasn't nearly useless, I expect this thing to be less terrible so I'll have to mess around with it and decide whether I want to replicate it's original light color.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I haven't received my flashlight yet because it had to transfer from FedEx to USPS and FedEx decided to sit on it for almost a week before transferring it, but I did receive my Litt industries 505L led's and discovered a bit of a hiccup.
It turns out these are larger in diameter than a standard PR base LED.
They're 11.4mm while the standard PR base bulbs are 9.1mm.

if this light uses the same plastic screw in bulb holder that my old 2D sportsman uses it can be drilled out.
I drilled out the one on this light and it works perfectly fine, if they're the same I'll just swap them.
I don't use the old 2D sportsman anymore anyways because 2 D's don't get you much out of these LED's.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I just got the light in and I'm very happy.

It has both original incan bulbs, and while it may not be much by today's standards it's much more impressive than I expected and I can imagine getting the job done quite adequately with one of these back in the 60's & 70's.


I expected to not even function with the 7 batteries, but it works fine and I'm thinking that 1 extra battery may not be enough to create a problem.
I will have that dummy battery for another project if I need it, but do not think I'll use it in this.
I'm not going to worry about a color filter or anything like that, because the incan in this light is not particularly orange.
I'm mostly used to the super dim 2 cell incans that are quite orange, but not when it's this bright.

I was actually able to use the original bulb retaining cap, all I needed was a wrap of electrical tape around the base of the bulb since it doesn't fit inside the cardboard insulation sleeve used in the original setup.

The 300L led module it's a direct drop in replacement, while the 505L requires a wrap of electrical tape ( or strip of card stock ) but is otherwise a drop in replacement as well.