Maglite Mods

Not sure where I should post this but I figured in the tech was probably the best place.

So I bought a Maglite 2D for the Taco and ehh. It's a flashlight. Whatever.

Turns on when I click it, turns off when I click it again. All is happy.

But I just so happen to have a bunch of 3w power leds, a few drivers, a 3 led- 15 deg. collimator that fit perfectly into the mag head so I figured I'd throw something together with stuff I have in house to make it a brighter flood light.

SO. As of yet, I have the stock xenon bulb (blah), a Maglite LED upgrade (older version), a TerraLux upgrade led enroute, and I'm currently making my version to bolt in.

Just for spits and giggles I'll post up pictures of beam output as I test them but figured I'd start a mod thread on it here.

I'm trying to keep all the mods ~$20.

So far, so good.

Cheers for now =)

 

Interested to see how it turns out. I have the Terralux led in my 6 cell Maglite. I also just bought a 3 C cell 500 lumen light at Home Depot on sale for $16. It far out performs the Maglite. We'll see how reliable it will be. I was thinking about buying another and swap the led into a 4 cell mag.

 

Do you have the lux 1w or 3w upgrade?

I also have a few 4Ds and 6Ds to mess around with because my boss forgot about them and decided to dedicate them to my messing with so I'm hoping to make this plug and play for the larger shells too.

I'd like to get this whole endeavor to be around 1.5k lumens so if I can get the 3-led collimator to work I'm gonna get a 5-led and start working on that.

I'm also going to get the tactical tailcap and front guard because I don't have a glassbreak in the truck and it's going to be bolted in the truck so we'll see how long it takes me to gather everything haha.

 

Its the 3w I believe.

Will you have to swap the plastic reflector for metal and swap the lens to glass or do you think it will run cool enough?

 

The collimator replaces the entire plastic reflector and it should be cool enough to keep the plastic lens, however, if need be the crystal ones are cheap enough to justify replacing it.

Here's some pictures of what I'm working with as of yet...

Stock MagLite with Maglite 1w led chip.



Comparison of Maglite chip vs 3w chip (the difference is HUGE!!!)



Where the 3w chip came from... yes, you can buy these bare but I just desoldered them because I didn't want to have to order anything for this.



The driver- 3x3w driver with high/low and high strobe



The collimator...



The collimator in the Maglite...



The only problem I've run into at this point is when the collimator is in the head and screwed down, it had a little bit of play in the lens as it's a hair shorter than the stock reflector so I made an o-ring out of some 2mm stock that I had and fitted it to the front of the collector so it's all nice and snug now. Probably more waterproof too hahaha.





The whole assembly is supposed to be run off 12v so right now I'm contemplating making a boost circuit and use CR123s retrofitted or get it up to 12 using some black magic

 

Looks good. I want to see how it turns out.

 

check this out too

http://budgetlightforum.com/node/8864

 

DX is actually where I got the driver and will probably be where I get an asymmetric lens for it too whenever I get around to needing something.

I'm planning on getting the DX 5-led collimator but not the drop in because that would be too easy

Thanks for the link though! It was a good build; a little messy for me, but very good!

 

I just siply purchased a drop in from mac's custom from candlepowerforums

 

So its worth it for the $16? I carried one around yesterday and talked myself out of buying it. Or shoukd i say the wife talked me out of it lol. Looked like it had the XML T6 bulb.

 

It's certainly not an XML haha, there is nowhere near enough light (or heat) to be a high power cree.

It looks to be just some smaller amperage 3w chip with decent power.

The beam is WAY brighter than the stock xenon bulb (or whatever the heck is in there) but the stock maglight 4D led is brighter out of the box (makes sense because they have considerably higher voltage to work with). If the maglite is all you're using, then yes, by all means, the Terralux is great for the price.

As it sits for brightness :

1. Terralux
2. Stock maglite 2D LED chip
3. Stock xenon bulb

No more adventures on the 3w collimator because I've been too dang busy in the shop.

More to come...

Cheers.