285 Lumen Mag 2C

I have posted how I bored out an 11/16 hole in a section of 1" dowell to place 3 @ CR123's into a Mag 2c to overdrive a Carley 6.0 V 1.7 A Krypton Star at somewhere between 180 design voltage Lumens and 220 Lumen.

I tonight discovered that if I remove the spring and scratch off the anodizing on the bottom of the endcap that I can fit 4 @ CR123's into a Mag 2C with a little tin foil wad on the bottom.

This is the battery perfect battery combination for my special-ordered ceramic PR base-potted #808 Carley 9.6 V 1.2 A 285 Lumen 20-hour life T-2 1/2 Xenon bulb that cost me $8.64. I figure the bulb has somewhere between 9.4V and 9.6 V delivered to it. This light draws between 11 and 11.5 volts which is as hard as I want to drive Mag's 320 degree F Polycarbonate reflector.

I think I am somewhere between design voltage and 97% of design voltage with a close to 280 L light that will run for about an hour. This is a brighter, cheaper poor man's M4 in a very attractive and comfortable package.

I'm able to put my DB lights with lots of CR123's away as very bright emergency lights. This light feels so nice that I'm afraid I'll burn up lots of batteries in it. This is really fun!

FWIW, 4 '@ CR123's require 4 * 34 mm or 136 mm.

This means the Mag 2C can also be driven by 3 @ 43 mm long 4/5 A cells totaling 129 mm with a spring or a thicker aluminum foil wad.

I have enough 2000 mAh 4/5 A cells from some surplus battery packs to drive 8 @ 2C flashlights. Three 4/5 A NiMH cells could also drive my 3.7 V Carley ceramic-potted PR base 3.7 V 1.6 A 5.9 V 146 Lumen #805 Xenon for over an hour.

If you haven't held a Mag 2C do so. It is very seductive.

You could also try to pass it off as a standard Mag 2C in a 'who's got a bigger light' competition you know all guys engage in at sometime or other.

Onyx:

I'm not a LEO, but I think your Crocidile Dundee "That's not a knife" suggestion might resonate with Mr. Bulk. He has been on a quest to build the ultimate 2D Maglight driven by up to 8 alkalines. He won't use rechargeables but he's willing to play with lithiums. I can imagine him sandbagging by limping into the squad room with his "li'l ole 2C."

The problem is that by now everyone will know Charlie's sandbagging.

Clark, I think I'm gonna just go with 5 or 6 AAs in the 2D, and pump'em through a 5W white Luxeon when I get one. This 8AA/2D business is killing me trying to find the right fit...unless I invest in a lathe...

Lemlux said--I have posted how I bored out an 11/16 hole in a section of 1" dowell to place 3 @ CR123's into a Mag 2c to overdrive a Carley 6.0 V 1.7 A Krypton Star at somewhere between 180 design voltage Lumens and 220 Lumen.
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I couldn't find this do you have a link to the thread?

witsend:

I can't find the thread, but there isn't much more to report. Since 3 @ 34 mm long CR123's are essentially the same length as 2 @ 50.5 mm long C or A or AA cells the only trick is to allign the batteries so they have good contact and don't rattle.

I've found that even the dowell pieces that split when I drill them are good enough for this purpose as long as I have 240 degrees of circumference or so.

VERY interesting... So I could cheaply hotrod my Maglite 2C with a Maglite 6-Cell bulb and 3 123s? Anybody have any idea what runtime would be like on that?

I would guess that the stock Maglite 6 cell bulb draws in the neighborhood of 0.85 Amp. 123's are 1.2 to 1.4 AH. I would guess you'd get between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 hours. The 1.0 A bulb for the E2 is rated at 1 1/4 hours run time.

What is the runtime on the 285 lu. baby?

The 285 Lumen 9.6V light is 1.2 A. It should run brightly for a little under an hour.

By comparison:

The Legend LX bulb and MN 20 are each also 1.20A
The P90 is 1.15 A
The Scorpion and P60 bulbs are each 1.10 A
The E2 is 1.00 A

The P61 is 2.30 A
The P91 is 2.35 A

The P91 and P61 are each rated at 20 minutes run

The 1.7 A Krypton Star should be good for 35 to 40 minutes on 3 123's.

Thanks for the info. I think that I am going to go stop by the police supply on my lunch this afternoon. I knew that there was a reason that I was keeping that little 2C cell around.

Guess that I am goning to have to get in on the next Carely group buy now.

ok...how is the beam quality? would write wright melt?

Beam Quality is standard mag. That topic has been beaten to death.

Writewrite seems OK on the Mag and DB plastic lenses I've used with bulbs of this wattage. Although I bought a few of Mag Charger tempered soda glass lenses for my Mags from BriteGuy, I haven't really needed tham.

I did notice once on a Mag that a little air bubble under the film heated up and caused the WW to baloon out until I repositioned the writeright.

This is indeed interesting enough that I went and got a 2C to mod. For a battery tube I used 1/2" PVC pipe with a strip of duct tape around each end for a snug fit in the light. The bulb is a Radio Shack 6 cell krypton. Next I will try to overdrive a 5 cell bulb.

It works very well, quite bright, and beam is much smoother than my d-cell mags.

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kz100s1

I have no idea why your 2 C beam is smoother than your 6 D beam with the same bulb. The C and D mags use the same reflector.

To put brightness in perspective, The R/S KPR118 7.2 V 0.6 A bulb is rated at 66 Lumen. My guess is that the relatively light 0.6 A draw on the CR123's means that you're probably slightly overdriving it already at somewhere between 7.5 V and 7.9 volts. That overdriving means you're probably getting around 85 Lumens or so.

I knew that Sub C cells that are wider than 3/4" fit snugly into 3/4" PVC pipe. Sub C = 23 mm diameter and 3/4 " = 19.1 mm. Unfortunately, my 3/4" PVC pipe won't fit into a C body.

I also knew that C cells that are wider that 1" fit loosely into 1" PVC pipe. C = 26 mm diameter and 1" = 25.4 mm. 1" PVC pipe fits into a D body.

It didn't occur to me to check and see if 17 mm wide CR123's would fit into nominal 1/2" pipe that should be only 12.7 mm ID. That sounds a lot easier than my dowell approach.

kz1000s1-
How'd it go overdriving a 5 cell bulb?
I'm interested to know so I know whether or not I need to keep my eye open for a 2C maglite. I already know I need to get a 2D one to do the 2D/3C mod.

I passed up a silver 2C at Home Depot today in search of a 3C.....

May just have to go back and get that, and some pipe!

Lemlux-

I don't know either why the 2C is smoother. The reflectors are indeed the same. Perhaps the greater intensity of light fills in the rings somewhat. They are still there, just not as noticeable.

The pipe I used came from Home Depot and is marked as 1/2" drinking water pvc. Actual dimensions are: I.D.-17mm, O.D.-21mm, my Surefire 123's measure 16.5mm. I cut the pipe to 95mm long, and wrapped a 1" wide strip of duct tape around each end to a diameter of 25mm to support the pipe.

One other problem is that the end of the tailcap spring is too large in diameter to make good contact with a 123 cell. For now I just stuck a small wad of aluminum foil in the end of it. I'll come up better solution later.

ChrisM-
I just put in the KPR112 5 cell bulb tonight. Only used it for about 10 minutes so far and it's still working. Slightly brighter than the 6 cell bulb. It can light up the trees at the end of my street 525 ft. away. I've had good luck overdriving RS krypton bulbs. A Craftsman tool light 4AA with a 3 cell, still going, and a AA minimag with an RS krypton and lithium cells lasted 2 months even after dropping it twice on concrete.