Any Mini Maglite bulb upgrades?

[Chicken Drumstick]

Just curious. Are there any bulb
Upgrades for the AA/AAA Mini Mags?

O look I know there are lots of LED options. Just wondering if there are any incan options. Or was it only ever the stock bulb?

Anyone know what volts the stock bulb can handle? Wasn't there a 3 cell Mini Mag once? Ie 4.5v. Did they use the same bulb?

 

[alpg88]

not really no, leds came to replace incan. bulbs, so as they began making led minimags, that seriously outperform bulb model, pretty much any bulb development was abandoned.
Yes, there was 3aaa maglite, but only for a brief moment, and they were leds, not bulbs.

 

[konifans]

The plastic components inside the Mini Mag will melt (socket / reflector / lens) if you use something too powerful. I used a 5-cell bulb with 2x Lifepo4 AA batteries and everything melts. The best upgrade for me is just to use a 2-cell bi pin bulb from Mag 2D / 2C, because the current is around 0.8 A instead of 0.3A of Mini Mag AA bulb. The Mag 2D / 2C bi pin bulb is bigger so you have to expand the reflector. It is much brighter compared with the stock Mini Mag AA bulb...

 

[bykfixer]

If you can find them, Lamptronix bi-pin bulbs can hang in there well with 3aa batteries. I have a 3aa Brinkmann "minimag" style light with one.

They were bulbs for dash board lights of F-14 fighters. I put one in an ML25 with 2x18500's and it lasted about 3 minutes and faded away instead of .

Lamptronix (Mini Mag LM2A001) replacement bipin lamps

I had posted in the "I've come full circle" thread that... I just went long on MagLite Solitaire. I already have a red one, so I just ordered a new green one, along with 24 MiniMag (Lamptronix brand) LM2A001 lamps, and bit the FastTech Li-ion shipping bullet :'( with 12 new LifePO4 3.2V...

www.candlepowerforums.com

The Streamlight TwinTask 3aa bulb is pretty good too.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

The plastic components inside the Mini Mag will melt (socket / reflector / lens) if you use something too powerful. I used a 5-cell bulb with 2x Lifepo4 AA batteries and everything melts. The best upgrade for me is just to use a 2-cell bi pin bulb from Mag 2D / 2C, because the current is around 0.8 A instead of 0.3A of Mini Mag AA bulb. The Mag 2D / 2C bi pin bulb is bigger so you have to expand the reflector. It is much brighter compared with the stock Mini Mag AA bulb...

View attachment 34818


View attachment 34819

View attachment 34820

Thanks. I like this idea. I was messing about with a Mini Mag last night. Consider the low output it is amazing how they throw. But the beam and spot are so narrow and spill so dim. My immediate thought was a larger bulb would be ideal.

I'll get a bulb orders up and try this out.

 

[alpg88]

The bi-pin bulb for 2c\d makes 30 lm, add to it lack of focus in AA reflector, and you get a light that is very much inferior to any AA maglite led model, even the first generation. i honestly do not see any practical sense to do it. yea, it will make 2x as much lumens as stock 2aa bulb, but it is still no where near performance of led models.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

The bi-pin bulb for 2c\d makes 30 lm, add to it lack of focus in AA reflector, and you get a light that is very much inferior to any AA maglite led model, even the first generation. i honestly do not see any practical sense to do it. yea, it will make 2x as much lumens as stock 2aa bulb, but it is still no where near performance of led models.

But it can be fun. Have a CRI of 100 and be able to produce enough light for certain situations.

 

[alpg88]

Lol 100 cri can be very misleading, and way overrated, sounds good on paper but in real world, it comes after brightness, proper focus, quality of a beam. without those 3 cri by itself is worthless.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

This is the Incan section of the forum though. I like my other incans. Have a 7.4v KD p60 with me know and often use my full size Maglites. The beam colour really is better than any LED I have tried. Plenty bright enough and good enough beams too.

The Mini Mag will always be under powered I'm sure. I have LED ones and LED drop ins. But can't see the harm messing about with the incans still.

 

[alpg88]

It sure can be fun to play around with, i'm into flashlight hobby for over 20 years, before leds i experimented with bulbs too, and most likely would respond the same way you did, if someone told me it was not worth it. I'm afraid to even count how much money i spend on such mods, and time.

 

[bykfixer]

I did up two minimags for Yujis...stick with me here.
When drilling the hole larger in the reflector for them I did one from the shiney side and one from the back. There was bit of foil damage either way but drilling from the rear resulted in less shiney foil peeled from the plastic underneath.

Point being if you go with bi-pin for a C/D light keep that in mind. And you can make the hole about 2-3mm larger than the bulb and still get a nice beam with minimal reflector melt if you decide to go with 3 volt batteries and a 5 cell bulb. I oversized the hole on an ML25 in order to halt melt and the beam is that of an incan minimag only brighter.

 

[Chicken Drumstick]

Got a 2 cell bi-pin bulb inbound. Delivery in less than hr according to Amazon. I needed a new 6D bulb as I insta flashed the one in my 3D yesterday evening. So I ordered up last night.

I already have a reflector or two for Mini Mags with larger holes in, as some LED drop-ins required them. I think one I modded and one came with the drop-in. So I'll try those out and see.

I'm currently using some 1.5v Li-ion AA's in my stock Mini Mag. But also have some AA blanks and 14500's. I'm guessing a 2D bulb might handle a 14500 for a little more output. Around the house the Mini Mag is quite usable really, although I'm finding I'm grabbing my Kaidomain 3.7v Xenon p60 the most at the moment. Have it in a KDLITKER E6 27100.

 

[bykfixer]

Yes, the Nite Ize LED mod comes with a reflector that has an oversize hole.

Bright Star came out with a minimag-a-lot back in the day that had a bloated bulb I believe is called T1 bi-pin. It's over sized hole was even better suited for the C/D sized bulb, but finding one is like finding an honest politician in Parliment. It had a clicky tail cap too.