2 C Cell Mini Maglite LED at Wal Mart

[bykfixer]

^^ agreed.
Mag and Streamlight change little things to make whole sale modifying their products without a drill or dremel..shall we say..difficult.
Some parts will swap on some other lights sometimes.
I'm guessing removing the LED pill won't be hard once we know how. But what others fit? Time will tell.

Mag has indeed found a way to provide a solid regulated light for not a lot of dough.
And after buying a buncha C cells for lights out scenarios I have a pair of 1.2 volt 5000 maH cells in my pewter one now.

My (formerly 30 lumen) red incan one has a pair of 18500's and a 4 cell xenon Mag bulb.


^^ the incan beam after the change.


^^ encore pic of the LED version

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Makes me want to go back to incandescent bulbs. Good comparison.

Bill

 

[Tac Gunner]

Makes me want to go back to incandescent bulbs. Good comparison.

Bill

I agree that incan looks great, a lot better than the LED version. Of course I have come to prefer 4000k to 4500k tint in my led lights anyway

 

[bykfixer]

I was just showing off my fancy new smartphone app for dialing in a manual camera.
I'll do a 2 hour run on the 3cell this weekend to see if it dims...if it stays steady I'll keep the clock going.

Test began at 11:20. Using 3 cells with oh, maybe 10 minutes on them I used the same technique as the 2 cell test.


^^ the wall was included in the observation.
Because I was looking for this light to dim I used the spill cast on the wall as well.


11:22am
Right off the bat I noticed this light is not as bright as the 640 lux reading of the 2 cell version.
In outdoor use the difference isn't noticable. But the light meter says there's a big difference.

After 30 minutes it appeared as though the spill cast on the wall was dimmer. The meter did not show the change I thought I saw. An hour in I was pretty sure...but again the meter said otherwise.
Instead of doing the "watched pot never boils" thing I waited out the extra hour.


^^ 1:29 pm
Yep I was right.

Now this wasn't some sudden step down thing. So if Mag designed this to step down it's akin to say...the PK FL2 where it steps down gradually.
I suppose DVM readings will be in order to determine for certain. I can say for certain that it does gradually dim.

 

[Woods Walker]

Well under 3 hours on fresh Duracells.

That Sucks.

Wow. That totally sucks. I actually like m@g but...... No....... Anyone get a photo of the emitter?

edit. Looks like it might be regulated per some other posts.

 

[Frdlite]

Just bought one in 2 cell it is plenty bright for most tasks.It is not yet dark out so I have not really put it through it's pace.

 

[bykfixer]

The 2 cell is flat regulated for 2+ hours on a pair of 1000 +/- mah 1.2 volt alkaleaks with at least an hour decline.
The 3 cell using 3 alkaleaks is rated to last 18 hours...and in this case a very gradual decline.

Both are simple, reliable operating systems with predictable output, built in the US for under $25.

Compared to all those over engineered crowd pleaser gizmos of late I think Mag dun good here.

 

[StorminMatt]

Makes me want to go back to incandescent bulbs. Good comparison.

Bill

I agree. If I would be happy with two hours at 177 lumens, I can just grab my SC5w. That gives me 187 lumens for 1.8 hours from a single AA (with a FAR better tint to boot). By that measure, this light SHOULD run for close to 8 hours on two C cells (which have four times the energy of a single AA). So the way I see things, the LED version just doesn't offer much. The incandescent at least has something unique to offer (particularly since I'm guessing the LED version uses some nasty cool white emitter).

 

[bykfixer]

Makes me want to go back to incandescent bulbs. Good comparison.

Bill

Agreed. The turbo charged mag star 2 is pretty fun while it lasts.

 

[nitedrive]

I agree. If I would be happy with two hours at 177 lumens, I can just grab my SC5w. That gives me 187 lumens for 1.8 hours from a single AA (with a FAR better tint to boot). By that measure, this light SHOULD run for close to 8 hours on two C cells (which have four times the energy of a single AA). So the way I see things, the LED version just doesn't offer much. The incandescent at least has something unique to offer (particularly since I'm guessing the LED version uses some nasty cool white emitter).

A while back I asked the forum what sort of "lumen*hours" might one reasonably expect out of a AA alkaline battery. Of course it's not as simple but consider, an older Energizer Lithium Ultimate I had delivered a basically flat-regulated 110 lumens for about 1 hour on 2AA batteries. The newer LEDs are more efficient but not much more. With a 1 cell light you likely lose more power to the boost converter. Is it realistic to expect that with half the battery capacity (1 vs 2) a light will produce ~60% more light, 80% longer (assuming same efficiency that's 288% more lumen*hours). It is highly likely the SC5w is dropping output to get that combination of long runtime and high output. I suspect a light with 2 alkaline cells isn't going to be significantly more efficient than this Maglite. Which means we could kind of assume it takes the power of 2C cells to actually deliver 177 lumens for 2 hours.

Note: 3C regulation is more poewr efficient hence adding a third cell can result in more than just 50% more regulated run time (see the 2d vs 3d "low" power, regulated run time of the ML300L lights).

 

[Bullzeyebill]

We are shooting in the dark here. We need current draw at the tailcap for the 2C and 3C. This will give us some good info.

Bill1

 

[bykfixer]

We are shooting in the dark here. We need current draw at the tailcap for the 2C and 3C. This will give us some good info.

Bill1

Point me to a 'how to' and I'll take a stab at it.
I have a decent Klein DVM I used a few times on my cars. But the how to memories were long since purged after joining CPF...replaced with battery chemistry, lux n lumens info and stuff like that.

 

[FRITZHID]

Point me to a 'how to' and I'll take a stab at it.
I have a decent Klein DVM I used a few times on my cars. But the how to memories were long since purged after joining CPF...replaced with battery chemistry, lux n lumens info.

Easy. Set vom to highest amp reading, take probes and put on batt neg and the other on the threads of the body tube while the light is ON. Will show you the current draw.

 

[bykfixer]

Easy. Set vom to highest amp reading, take probes and put on batt neg and the other on the threads of the body tube while the light is ON. Will show you the current draw.

These lights turn off when the tail cap is rotated a quarter turn.
Does that matter?
Black on the battery?

 

[AVService]

These lights turn off when the tail cap is rotated a quarter turn.
Does that matter?
Black on the battery?

The Meter should complete the circuit as you are going to be reading the current flowing through the completed circuit including the meter.
So when you connect it like suggested above the light will turn back on.

 

[Frdlite]

I measured 1.11 amp for the 2 cell led with a fresh set of batterys

 

[bykfixer]

The Meter should complete the circuit as you are going to be reading the current flowing through the completed circuit including the meter.
So when you connect it like suggested above the light will turn back on.

Cool. I'll dig out the meter tomorrow in daylight. I thought it was in my spare room, but believe it's in the trunk of my Prelude that's still wrapped up for winter storage.

I measured 1.11 amp for the 2 cell led with a fresh set of batterys

^^ welcome to the site.
Thanks for the info.


So yet another question:
Run it a while, check draw, run another while and check draw? Or tape the meter to the light and watch for changes perhaps?

I get the whole touch the cell/body part but what am I looking for reading-wise to determine regulated or no and/or step down rate if that's the case?

 

[FroggyTaco]

For the 2C LED model:

I'm measuring 1.04A w/ a Nimh cell @ 1.31V resting voltage.

I'm going to recharge the Nimh cells & perform a runtime test as well.

My cells are Accuevolution 4500mAh that are about 4 years old but only have around 10 partial cycles on them. They have been charged & conditioned via a MAHA 808M.

 

[fivemega]

Point me to a 'how to' and I'll take a stab at it.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-Simple-guide-to-using-a-DMM-for-measurements

 

[FroggyTaco]

The 2C must be regulated.

With freshly charged cells showing 1.437V resting I measured .998A current draw at the tail cap.

So far I'm 45 minutes into the runtime test & zero output loss so far.

Edit1: 1Hr 45 min: no drop in output.

Edit2: 2hr 51 min: no drop in output.

Edit3: 3hr 31 min: no drop in output. This is going to be longer than I thought....

Edit4: 3hr 51 min: no drop in output.

Edit5: 4hr 15 min: Big drop in output.

The lux meter app I was using on my was showing "145" until the 4hr 15min test. At that point it had dropped down to "9".

The batteries were at .95V at this point. I will have to retest & start checking more closely @the 4hr mark on another day.