Here’s a little bit for you tinkerers.

It’s now possible to replace conventional light bulbs with recently-invented white light LED’s in small torches. I tried this with my mini maglite solitaire recently and it works perfectly. It results in a much more even spread of light which is more useful for a small, short-range torch - especially for reading because there are no rings of light & dark. Also LED’s have a much longer life when compared to light bulbs and use much less power - that’s why they’re used by NASA in spacecraft! My scheme requires a bit of tinkering but it’s educational and quite fun! So how do you do it? You get a 5mm white LED (available at Dick Smith Electronics, Cat # Z4004, $10), three one-third size AAA rechargeable batteries (1/3 the length of a normal AAA battery) (model # N-50 at Asset Electronics 3771771 , $5 each) and a battery charging circuit. I built my own, set to the correct current, from a kit at Dick Smith’s (K2808 $25) plus a 6-12V dc power transformer You then cut the LED terminals down to 6mm and remove the wee sticky-out bits on the terminals and also cut off the thicker plastic collar around the base of the LED. The reflector in the torch needs to be drilled out to 6mm (a bit tricky) and the LED is inserted where the bulb used to go. It needs to be the right polarity so if it doesn’t go, turn it around. The positive battery terminal in the torch can slide out and needs the plastic ridge around it sliced off so the batteries can make good contact. Then charge the batteries and go! The torch needs the 3 batteries because the LED is very picky about what voltage it runs at – below 2.4V it does nothing and above 4V it heats up & burns out. The 3.6V of three NiCad batteries is ideal and they will power the torch for 2 hours.

Want more power? Just do the same with the AA Maglite! It can fit up to 9 LEDs in its’ head (8 around the outside, 1 in the middle) on a PCB or something like that and can fit three 2/3 AA size rechargeable batteries (again from Asset Electronics or dissect a standard cordless phone battery) which can be charged in a standard battery charger that takes AAA batteries which have the same capacity (just insert a metal spacer between the battery & the charger terminals)

Still not enough? Then you can fork out about $600 for the ULTIMATE headlamp which uses 24 LEDs powered by a lithium battery and is very well designed. Check it out at: http://www.hdssystems.com/ActionLight.htm

Yep, here’s another gadget to spend your money on! I couldn’t resist... I just bought a new Multi-tool from a company called Swiss-Tech distributed in Chch by CEBEX Holdings, PO Box 17562, Sumner, 021 2510114. It’s a mini pliers whose handles fold up and have flat and philips screwdrivers at the ends of them. It also has a micro flat & philips screwdriver set into the handles and a wire cutter. Big deal? Well, no – very small actually. It is smaller and half the thickness of a matchbox when folded up and weighs 45g. It clamps onto a keyring just by folding it up with the jaws around the keyring and it’s very cool! It cost $49.95 and there are 3 variations as well as a version that has only the 4 screwdrivers. They also sell the Utili-Key, a key shaped thing that weighs 14g but packs flat & philips micro screwdrivers, bottle opener and a really viciously sharp serrated and straight edge knife blade that folds up safely. That one is $34.95.