LED Book-Light Suggestions?

Dormous asks: "My wife and I are both night owls and avid readers, and usually one of us goes to bed before the other, hence the need for a small portable light source. We recently had a booklight, and somehow, my wife managed to shatter the light bulb all over the bed. Therefore, I want to find a booklight that uses an LED as the Light Source. Anybody got any ideas where I can find such a thing. I've already tried ThinkGeek."

Comments

Simple homebrew solution

[Gordonjcp]

Most of these little clip-on booklights take two HP7 (AA) batteries, giving 3v. Remove the incandescent bulb (or bits of, in your case). Solder a high-brightness white LED in place of the incandescent bulb, and add a series resistor in there somewhere. You'll need to work out a suitable value - some LEDs may not need one at all.

Another handy mod is to use a fairly bright red LED instead of white. This will make a light that's great for reading maps and star charts at night (for you navigators or astronomers) that won't mess with your dark adaption.

Re:Simple homebrew solution

[n9hmg]

Mini maglights use a tiny bulb with straight parallel leads stuck in a pair of holes... just about the configuration of a standard LED. Buy a minimaglight, a 2.9something volt LED, and a pair of NiMH AA cells. I suggest the NiMH more for the lower voltage than for rechargeability. That lets you skip trying to fit in a resistor, which I've never managed. LEDs leads tend to be a hair skinnier than the ones on the lamps, so you will probably have to knurl them. I just lightly "bite" them, with vise-grips.

Pull the lamp out just enough to expose a bit of lead without disconnecting it, and use your VOM to see the polarity. Remove the bulb and gouge a little pit at the positive side.
Cut the LED leads to match the bulb.
Test fit. If it doesn't come on, knurl the leads and try again.
You'll probably have to ream out the reflector a little, as the LED is probably slightly bigger around than the bulb.

Mine's lasted for 3 years now, and goes about 20 hours on a charge.
I've seen little LED hiking lights recently, at Eastern Mountain Sports, for not much more than what I've got in the homebrew, though. They're smaller and brighter than mine, and they come with an elastic headband, which is awfully convenient. Most of them, though, use non-standard batteries, so the cost may get out of hand. I just don't know about that part.
I just figured I'd provide something a little kinder, though really less helpful, than what everybody else is probably suggesting.

Demotechs' Nightreader

[SisterRay]

Demotech ("Design for self-reliance") is currently working on the Nightreader.

It's a small piece of reflecting foil, put together with two leds sticked in wood and a couple of batteries. The Nightreader is designed to be able to use two or three batteries of various sizes (whatever you have at hand) which have to little power to be used for something else.

Astronomers nightlight

[laughing_badger]

Try the store at Sky and Telescope. They sell LED flashlights with red leds. They are really restfull on the eyes when reading in bed and will not keep your partner awake. They are also small enough to prop-up somewhere to illuminate your book.

Uh... ThinkGeek does have these

[highcaffeine]

Right Here.

I have two of these, bought through ThinkGeek, and they're great. Both of mine are still on the first set of batteries.

LED replacement bulb

[Kent_Franken]

You can convert any flashlight to LED. These guys have a nifty little LED flashlight replacement bulb in all the normal colors. You can buy one here

Re:Sorry, I had to write this.....

[GrumpyOldMan]

I figure that must be how his wife broke the old light ;)