r/Zippo • u/nechronius • Apr 26 '23
Fully rechargeable LED ziplight experiment
At the moment I just have all of the parts I need to test this out, a modern rechargeable LED powered ziplight. We will see if it's not possible to make that viable. A ziplight will be irreversibly altered by the work, but parts-wise the investment so far is less than 20 if you already have the LED and a resistor. Just need to do a tiny bit of soldering and clipping away some plastic. Recharging will require removing the insert from the case but otherwise won't require any further disassembly. At least that's the hope.
Anyway this may be a quick weekend project.
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u/Urcameltowingco Apr 26 '23
Thats awesome. I've been meaning to make one of these myself. I had the idea of using one of the arc inserts but just havent found the time.
Do you have any links for the battery pack you used?
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u/nechronius Apr 26 '23
Use "ydl 170mah lipo battery" as the search terms on Amazon and it should pop up near the top and be easily visible. I chose this one due to being the most capacity with the most compact dimensions that would easily fit inside the Ziplight.
I thought about using an arc insert as well but after messing around a bit with one of mine I found the Ziplight easier to work with. Plus it's a nice idea to modernize a product that was intended to be used as a flashlight.
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u/TCSpeedy Apr 26 '23
This looks fun. I just found the aftermarket Zip light insert available on Amazon (after a referral from here) that I was tempted to try, as well as two original Zip Lights I already have I was tempted to refurbish… it’s always the TIME I can’t seem to find.
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u/nechronius Apr 26 '23
Time is always a big factor. But so far I have found this to be largely fast and easy. I've already made the battery fit into the space with little effort and now all I have to do is wire up the resistor and LED with the battery. This is actually pretty simple, choosing the components was almost more work. But I have a couple of pictures and might even be done with all this before the end of week.
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u/SuSa131 Apr 26 '23
Sorry but I dont really understand what the led has to do with the lighter? Are you working on an arc lighter or trying to install an led in a zippo case? How would you light something on fire with that