eternaLight™ EliteXRay™ modificationI put a white LED inside the XRay, along with the blue one that it comes with. The purpose is that pressing the "mode" button illuminates this white LED (along with the blue one), and it shines enough that you can walk around in a dark house without turning the XRay on, and paging through the dimmer modes. It also makes the NightBeacon™ feature brighter. It's NightBeacon². I call this the "shankus mod", due to the addition of the highly desirable "shankus mode".
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Placement of the LED
LED cathode (NEG) lead goes in empty solder pad, at arrow (1). LED anode (POS) lead goes to pin 1 of the chip, at arrow (2). I soldered two clipped resistor leads onto the LED to extend them, and put heat-shrink over them. Later I will get around to putting clear RTV between the chip and LED, to secure it in place. I angled the LED so that it points out through the front as near as I could get it aligned, but without the beam being interrupted by the stiffening structure of the bottom ½ of the XRay’s case, or the gasket around the LEDs. Note the factory blue LED is angled the in same way. |
Bottom view after modification
The white LED now mimics the operation of the blue LED with the NightBeacon mode on or off. The white LED is actually dimmer than the blue one in “blip” and “glow” modes, but it does add to the brightness. Both LEDs illuminate when the mode button is depressed, the blue shining dimly, as before, and the white one shining brightly. |
Bottom view after modification
This photo is the modified Xray in glow mode, and with the mode button depressed. (Note the angle of the Xray, to look into the brightest part of the beam). It should be noted that per the manual, in "blip mode" the cells are claimed to last 1.5 - 2.5 years, while in "glow mode" they are claimed to last 1 - 2 years. This mod will probably decrease those estimates by ½, i.e. blip mode / 9 months - 1 year 3 months, glow mode / 6 months - 1 year. Also note that this modification may disable the power status feature. I don't use it myself, so I didn't check it before the mod. I checked it afterward, and it doesn't seem to function properly. My cells are new, and the light does come on with 4 LEDs, but they do not flash four times as the manual states. |
