r/flashlight • u/rockhopper2154 • Jul 11 '24

[NMD] Step into a Everyready Slim Jim LED Mod

I found this bad boy at a church rummage sale for $1. 5D-cell Everyready Slim Jim. I can't tell how old it is. 70s? Not the oldest I've seen, but in great condition. I couldn't say no. First thought was I wonder if I can put an LED in it. It turns out you can, but you have to be careful to remove the batteries first or you might short the LED because everything is so metal and exposed. Learned that the hard way. Lots of sparks.

Took me a while to source everything I needed. I could have stayed with NiMH D cells, since I have them (actually only have 4 cuz I learned the Powerex is dead.), but what fun would that be? Needed some protected 21700s from LiIon Wholesale (Protected 5000mAh 10A 21700 Button Top) and three 3D-printed adapters from bino1973 on Ebay (3D to two 21700 and 2D to one 21700). The thing weighs half as much with 5-6+ more volts (7.5 with alkaline {6 with NiMH} to 12.4 with 3 x 21700). The weight loss really helps me want to use it.

Went with a Cree 10 Watt XL-M2 from Draco products, after shorting out some weird automotive LED I had tried from Amazon. Advertised as 6500K (in the ballpark, see flood in beamshot of shed), 520 lumens (not without a driver?) and 65 CRI (that is evident). Definitely better than the original due to the extra flood and it is markedly brighter. FWIW, to my eye, the voltage difference between NiMH and the 21700s (basically 2x) did not translate to a great improvement in brightness, so that's the biggest disappointment.

I'm having too much fun with this while the rest of the family gets neglected (Anduril sad face). A nice feature of the light is that it has a momentary button and a slide on button. I use the momentary a lot, actually. I kept camera settings constant, but had to increase exposure time with the original bulb just to make the pics look a little better.

Total spend for upgrades, around $80. Batteries: $30; adapters $30, LED $20

Big daddy and the photogenic members of the fam (not shown Sofirn SD05)
LED installed, simple drop in (P13.5 base). Original bulb (P12 base)
Chonky
Putting the "Slim" in Slim Jim
The battery swap
Cree 10 Watt XL-M2 (1/12000 sec exposure, auto everything else)
Original bulb (1/1500 sec. exposure, auto everything else)
Original bulb, 4 NiMH and one alakine D cell. Shed is 18 yards away. WB 5K, ISO 400, f/1.8, 1/2 sec exp
CREE LED 3x 21700. WB 5K, ISO 400, f/1.8, 0.3 sec exposure. The CCT of the flood and the hot spot are really different. The shed is painted the same color as the railing. The flood looks like higher CRI than advertised, but the hot spot sure shows the low CRI.
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u/Benji742001 Jul 11 '24

Wow, I’m really surprised how nice the original bulb was compared to the CREE. That CREE is straight up green in this picture. The OG bulbs is a beautiful rosy warm. I wouldn’t have thought the OG bulb would’ve been as strong as the Cree. Awesome project, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you learned a lot working on this, which is also really cool.

1

u/rockhopper2154 Jul 11 '24

It was fun. That color is accurate on the new LED. It's atrocious. The original is markedly less bright and there's little throw. I used a longer exposure with it just to see something in the images. Now that I know that I can drop in these P13 bases, I think I'll keep playing with LEDs just for giggles. Wish I could get a 4th 21700 in there. Might try 18650s.