A dead battery on my lighted key head, gave me a reason for finally doing the conversion to LED.

Opening up the case shows the original parts... 1.5V alkaline battery, incandesent bulb, etc....



Here's another mod I found... http://p-car.com/diy/key/

I used a single 3V lithium battery and white high brightness LED from Radio Shack. It requires the following parts:

1 - CR1025 lithium battery, 3V, $4USD
1 - High brightness LED, Radio Shack Part Number 276-0017, $1.99USD
1 - 3/8" O.D. x 1/8" I.D. x 1/8" LG, nylon spacer, $0.15USD
1- 5/8" O.D. x 3/8" I.D. x 1/8" LG, nylon spacer, $0.20USD

I purchased the nylon spacers at a local hardware store that has an extensive assortment of nuts and bolts (B&B Do It Center).



You’ll need to slightly modify the large nylon spacer. The small nylon spacer should fit inside the larger nylon spacer, but it’s bore is slightly to small to allow the battery to fit inside. So you need to sand or file the inside of the large nylon spacer enough that the new battery fits inside without friction. Then use a razor knife to cut a notch as shown.



You’ll also need to bend and trim the LED so it fits nicely inside. Be careful, you can’t bend the leads more than once without them breaking. The flat edge of the clear LED lense faces up, place it downwards and the LED won’t light.

Here's the partially assembled key head.. The battery goes in as shown, the small washer goes on top of the LED lead and battery. The large nylon spacer keeps the battery from sliding around and the small nylon spacer fits between the external button and the LED lead and battery.



and back together..



And here’s what goes to the local landfill…

 

Borland

Just wanted to thank you for this solution to the weak key light. I followed your directions and it worked perfectly. I posted my success on the Pelican forum.

Thanks again

 

Barry hasn't logged on in 2 years? Hope he's alright.

Here's the pics from this thread.

 

When using a CR1620 or CR1632 battery you don't need the large nylon spacer to center the battery.
It will center itself in the 16mm whole in the key head

 

That is not true. CR1620 would not fit into the old style key head as the battery slot is for the V625U which is slightly narrower than CR1620. Only the later style LED head has wider slot to use CR1620.
Steve

 

I'm trying to follow along with how the actual switching takes place here? Isn't the bottom lead of the LED in contact with the spring? And doesn't the spring make contact with the battery? Just seems like this would make it so the light is always lit whether you are pushing the button or not.

Oh, wait the bottom lead of the LED is touching the copper part that used to be the contact for the end of the light bulb.... Got it.