1200 Lumen 2D Maglite Mod

[Klem]

If you use a nut to hold it in place then you only need to seal it...So, a squirt of polyeurathane glue like Sikaflex will work. If you're just going to use a shallow bolt without nut then you need to not only seal it but also fix it in place...So JB Weld.

Truth be known polyeurathane will also hold it in place well enough, and I like the flexible cure of it.

JB Weld is nice and strong.

Up to you

I'd only put the JB Weld in the join/gap...The bolt is solid metal and needs no coat of glue

 

[beekeeper5]

That's good advice as always. I was also thinking of using a washer (without the hole in the middle). That way I won't have a bump on the maglite. Yes, I like to streamline my maglite so I can glide through the water with ease.

 

[Klem]

Don't we all...But for me it's more like a whale.

Yes a washer will work, especially if you can find one that sits perfectly in that cut-away area. Sand paper the washer and a few mm's of the surrounding torch handle and complete coat with JB, followed by a sanding smooth.

If you build it up before sanding it back with something like Selleys Aqua Knead-it (or whatever is equivalent over your way...It's a 2 part epoxy putty), and a lick of paint it will be hard to see the hole was ever there.

 

[beekeeper5]

Hi Klem,

I wired everything up, put a tire tube over the hole (temporary) so I could test how it looked in a bucket of water. It looks really bright! It was going fine then at about 30 to 45 min mark, the dropin just stopped working. The head was barely warm and it wasn't wet inside.

I tested it with another set of battery and nothing. Do you know what could happen? I was thinking of removing the driver but I can't pop it out. I removed the two blobs of solder and I still couldn't pop it out. hmm.. I'll try later after I charge my first set of batteries. I'm hoping that my second set of batteries are dead but very unlikely since they are at 8.4V fully charge.

 

[jspeybro]

probably some bad contact in the module, not the batteries.

 

[Klem]

+1

That driver will pop out if you use a bit of elbow grease. You can also separate it where the brass ring joins the aluminium head. The brass ring is only a press fit in the reflector...no glue.

If it's been underwater for the 45mins then the head would be cool, so nothing unusual about that.

 

[beekeeper5]

I'll try putting some elbow grease tonight. I hope I don't break the driver.

How do I find out if there are bad contacts in the module?

 

[jspeybro]

pull the wires. if it comes loose, it's a bad contact ;-)
by visual inspection you can usually see that the solder is lying on top of it instead of being in 1 part with the circuit board. another indication is when some of the tiny twisted wires of the wire are loose.

a multimeter can also help to check continuity.

 

[beekeeper5]

pull the wires. if it comes loose, it's a bad contact ;-)
by visual inspection you can usually see that the solder is lying on top of it instead of being in 1 part with the circuit board. another indication is when some of the tiny twisted wires of the wire are loose.

a multimeter can also help to check continuity.

HAha.. is that the redneck way? Keep pulling till something breaks? And if it breaks, then fix it.

For some reason, my driver is really stuck inside. I'm going to take a break and then try again. Regarding the continuity, I checked the +ve and -ve of the dropin and there is a continuity but it doesn't light up.

Oh, and I tried another set of fully charged battery and it's not lighting up. I guess my only option is to pop that driver out and see where we're at. If the driver is buggered, any idea what driver I should replace it with?

 

[Klem]

There are two types of boost drivers for this 1200lumen 5*XR-E drop-in; a 5 mode, and the single mode. The 5 mode driver is found here;
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5v-8-4...circuit-board-for-flashlights-26mm-13mm-26106

There does not seem to be a single mode for sale, however I have just read the discussion in the 'reviews' on how to remove or bypass the microcontroller in order to change it to single mode. For that you have to first remove the coil and all that exceeds my patience and ability so good luck if you want to experiment on that.

A third way to separate that driver from the head is to carefully hack-saw it off just forward of the brass ring. That area is hollow so it won't take long.

I'd go with prising the driver out first, or prising the brass ring where it joins the head. It does take a bit of effort to get that board out and I used the can-opener on a Swiss Army knife. Just do a little bit to each side and lever it up that way. Let's face it, if it's not working then your care factor should be pretty low, so you can be more brutal.

Just think Osama Bin Laden when you go in for the kill.

 

[jspeybro]

HAha.. is that the redneck way? Keep pulling till something breaks? And if it breaks, then fix it.

lol, well I guess it's the Belgian way ;-) if a soldered wire is comming loose by just pulling it a little, the soldering is not good or the wire is damaged and will almost certainly cause a problem later.

I used the driver linked by klem and bypassed the modes (also increased the current). Its an easy fix but you may need some soldering skills since the components are a bit small...
The capacitor on this driver is not the best one although I think they solved that in the newer versions.
There's a lengthy thread about this driver somewhere on this forum.

 

[beekeeper5]

ugh.. I'm not having the best of luck with my first mod. I finally managed to get the driver out. There was this big gob of solder inside that was holding the driver in place. I think the driver is toast. It smelled burnt. As for the LEDs, all but 1 works. I think the star is not working properly. When I test the star, the LED does not light up but when I test the actual LED, it lights up. I'm not sure if I can salvage this dropin or if I should get another dropin. Maybe an XM-L dropin?

 

[Klem]

'Burnt' is not a good smell from a circuit board. Sounds like one LED acted as a fuse for the rest of them. You could replace or re-solder that LED but I wouldn't like your chances using that driver.

Why don't you buy a replacement driver and in the meantime see if you can get that fifth LED working. If not, buy another XR-E from DE. It'll be a lot cheaper than buying a whole replacement drop-in.

As for the popping that driver out...the old hidden solder blob on the inside trick...get's us every time! I'd say that driver was cooked anyway so no more damage done than was already there.

At least you now see the inside of that head. See how you can also prise that brass ring out? That's a way around the internal blobs of solder.

Sorry to hear tyou got a dud drop-in. I guess it's the risk we take when buying cheap-and-cheerful stuff from China.

 

[beekeeper5]

I'll try to solder the wire from the star directly to the LED. That may work. Otherwise, I have an extra R2 LED.

Regarding the driver, what driver would you recommend? I was looking at the 5*Cree 5-mode driver (DX 26106) but I don't want the 5-mode. I'm a simple guy that likes an "On" and "Off" switch. I'll be using two 32650 batteries for a total of 8.4V.

I'm going to clean inside the brass ring plus metal shavings. There are solder gobs all over the place (it's not my doing this time ).

 

[Klem]

Those shavings may have caused the short. There were no shavings in mine when it came out.

That's the only DX boost driver I know that can provide 18V forward voltage and deliver 1A from 2-lithium cells. I also can't see how you can re-wire the LEDs to use another driver, unless you put them all in parallel. If you do this then you would need a 5A driver... plus if one LED blows there's suddenly a cascade effect as the remaining LED's divide up the fixed current among them. If one goes in parallel, they will probably all go. Stick to how they are wired in series in this case.

Another solution is to use a MaxFlex driver from Taskled.com. It's $35+postage but you can program in how you want it to work. It's more efficient also so there's less wasted in heat and you can drive the XR-E's closer to their max rating for best effect.

 

[jspeybro]

if you don't want to solder 1 wire to a different location on the board, I'm sure you'll find a suitable driver on taskled.com. I don't think it will fit in the module though.

Johan

 

[beekeeper5]

Ok.. to make a long story short, I think I killed my dropin. I can't seem to pop the R2 star from the dropin. And when I was using the dropin as a leverage to pry it off with a screw-driver, I've dented the lip. There wasn't much aluminum left with all that grinding. I think it's a lost cause so I'm thinking of buying another 5 * Cree R2 dropin or the XML dropin. Hmm..

I'll chalk this up to experience and fun. Maybe I can use some of the parts at a later date when (if) I get "better". haha

 

[350xfire]

Ok.. to make a long story short, I think I killed my dropin. I can't seem to pop the R2 star from the dropin. And when I was using the dropin as a leverage to pry it off with a screw-driver, I've dented the lip. There wasn't much aluminum left with all that grinding. I think it's a lost cause so I'm thinking of buying another 5 * Cree R2 dropin or the XML dropin. Hmm..

I'll chalk this up to experience and fun. Maybe I can use some of the parts at a later date when (if) I get "better". haha

You can't go wrong with the XML. Much easier to mod, about $15 cheaper and only a very slight bit dimmer. Not even enough to worry about. I just did a C Maglite with XML and compared it to my D with R2 1200 lumen drop in and all things considered, the XML rocks!

 

[beekeeper5]

You can't go wrong with the XML. Much easier to mod, about $15 cheaper and only a very slight bit dimmer. Not even enough to worry about. I just did a C Maglite with XML and compared it to my D with R2 1200 lumen drop in and all things considered, the XML rocks!

I was getting too excited and I bought the R2 1200 dropin (again!!) before I read your email. I was contemplating about the two and I think I want to give the R2 1200 dropin another chance. I'm going to be buying a better grinder (the same one as what ma_sha1) uses and not the grinding stone I was using that would gum up. Once I get this dropin working then I'll move on to DW's triple XM-L and hopefully by then you'll have your canisters.

<Uncle Klem, let me know if I'm hijacking your thread?>

 

[Klem]

<Uncle Klem, let me know if I'm hijacking your thread?>[/QUOTE]

No mate, go for it. All good.

On the XM-L drop-in... I've purchased one as well but it has yet to arrive. Looking forward to comparing it against the 1200 XR-E