Shooting Chrony DIY LED upgrade using Horrible Freight LED's

[guy_with_boolits]

I gutted 4 harbor fail FREE blue oval flashlights for the LED strips. The flashlights use three AAA's and the LED's need a current limiting resistor (use the one in the flashlight, one per LED strip)

You can also steal one of the switches to use.

I 3D printed platforms to mount the LED's on, but my first version just used the diffusers and glued the LED's to those. So if you dont have a 3D printer you could do that.

I've seen YT videos where people just took LED flashlights or pucks and simply taped them to the diffusers. I wanted something a little less top heavy and more compact.

I was able to go shooting in dusk conditions and chrono no problem.

This is pretty ghetto with glue-gunning and zip ties but it works.

Note: I tried putting the LED strips on the other side (outside) of the diffusers first, to diffuse, but it wasn't enough light and didnt work. The diffuser attenuated too much.

[Maven]

Very creative solution to a sometimes finicky device, guy....!

[Mal Paso]

Too bad Chrony went out of business last year. It was a decent device for little money.

Excellent mod by the way. Someone else used HF lights for their Chrony years ago but they used the light intact, the old style with many LEDs. Yours gets more points for style. I had a mod years ago that used side panels to kill reflected light.

[Traffer]

My wife says, "It's not Harbor Freight Tools", It's Harbor Freight RULES" SMART WIFE.

[quail4jake]

Any news on Chrony? Or "is still dead"....

[rancher1913]

lol, you got the same couch as us.

[fatnhappy]

Too bad Chrony went out of business last year. It was a decent device for little money.

hard to believe considering the amount of repeat business due to premature ventilation.

[csaqwer]

Yes, I'm a bore, but I really need to know how satisfied you are in buying a 3D printer for yourself? I like your device, you can work with it. In your example, I already realized that I also need blue LED flashlights. WiFi-enabled LED bulbs in my car can't be used for that, haha. But if everything became clear to me with light bulbs, I still can’t decide on a 3D printer. How often do you use it? Does it fully satisfy your needs? I know that if I buy this, my son will use the printer first, so I need to be aware of all the risks

[Handloader109]

I think I'd have just done a 3dprinted holder like you did, but add a couple of holes (for reinforcement) that you could pop rivet a thin sheet of steel along it and just use the whole HF flashlight intact. (might have a dead spot so it might not work as well as this) Make strip long enough so you could put a couple on each.
You CAN get pretty dang cheap a 9 or 12 inch LED strip from ebay or amazon for very little with a USB port on the end. Add a Power Port (battery) that are getting down to a few bucks and you have hours of rechargeable battery life.

BTW, I just got a coupon for a FREE blue flashlight today! They are slowly going back to their prior free item promotion model..

[uscra112]

Only thing I'd add is bamboo skewers instead of the metal rods.

And one li-ion cell is just the right voltage for white LEDs.

[elmacgyver0]

I like Harbor Freight, a fun name for it is Hazzard Fraught.