AB 5 Watt Luxeon HD Mag 2D mod... *beamshots!*

A Mag 2D 5W HD Luxeon conversion

A couple of the mods I got done over the weekend were a pair of 5W Luxeon HD Mag2D conversions. These lights do not use collimators - they are focusable lights using the Mag reflectors for beam shaping. The light body donor for these lights is a common Mag 2D which has had its' entire floating-bulb holding assembly removed from the switch. The switch body is then trimmed and all of the bulb-holding elements removed. Silver-plated Teflon-jacketed wire is used to connect the switch to a V3U Luxeon Star assembly which is Arctic-Silver epoxied to a heatsink seated in the end of the Mag body. The inferior stock Mag lens has been replaced with one of the excellent UCL lenses from flashlightlens.com.

The light source is a white Luxeon Star HD V3U (not Luxeon emitter but Luxeon Star). V3U is nominally 113.6 to 147.7 lumens, bin 3 for neutral colour, Vf 6.87v to 7.35v. Power is supplied by six AA alkaline or rechargeable NiCad batteries. These are placed in a customized 6AA to 2D battery adapter to directly drive the Luxeon Star.

Output is very flexible since these lights are focusable. Focused down it throws a tight and quite "fat" beam of light. It has tremendous throw and penetration, and a well-diffused and extremely bright corona. Set for a flood beam it can create a very wide bath of light indeed, with the inevitable Mag hole in the centre of the beam.

This light is very bright, particularly from just 18 inches away - also notice the edge of the corona at the bottom of this photo.



The beam is also very bright (and slightly softened around the edges) from 6 feet away




The next three photos are taken from approximately 9 feet distance.

Here is a comparison with my excellent and bright ARC LSL-P...




Here's a comparison with the best 1W Luxeon light I've ever built or seen - a massively overdriven Q2K Luxeon LD with 30mm optics (this light handily beats my Blaster II.) Also in this photo is the LSL-P again...




Finally, how does this light compare to serious incandescents? Here's a comparison between the AB Juiced Up! Mag 2D (6W incandescent in Mag 2D body, UCL lens, etc.) and the AB Mag2D 5W HD. Notice that the 5W HD light is substantially superior.




None of these photos show the huge wash of nicely diffused and bright corona light with this unit. Very useable because of this! This light is reasonably small and convenient to carry, lighter in weight than a stock Mag 2D and extremely powerful. Its' fully focusable output is intense - markedly superior to all other Luxeon-based flashlights I have tried (with the possible exception of Lambda's superb Megaclops units - the Megaclops HD, SE and LE are quite similar to this light in output.) I'm trying not to smile too much!

To be fair, the laws of physics must always be obeyed, and this extreme output is possible only by virtue of serious heatsinking, direct drive (overdrive!), flashlightlens.com's superior UCL lens, a high current battery system, etc.

These are super functional lights and I'm really pleased with them! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

A.


p.s. - (EDIT: P.S. removed. I will not selling these lights.)

Aaron,

This looks absolutely fabulous. Did I say fabulous? I meant kick-***! Can't wait to try this killer unit out. I'm planning on running 2000 mAh Powerex cells in this. This should be ok, correct?

Anxiously awaiting my first 5W LS torch...
Wilkey

PM sent.

Thanks for the responses in PM's and emails, as well as here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Yes, NiMh should be just fine with this. That is what I have been using in these and they work well. Perhaps you should give the NiMh batteries a half hour or so to settle after just taking them out of the charger, or run them for a couple of minutes in another light at the very start of the cycle - you do want to avoid a massive current spike when hot off the charger. This goes for all DD lights with rechargeable batteries.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A.

p.s. - Orion - PM received, and replied.

PM Sent

Paypal Sent /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Oh I say that way to often /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif

looks good, i did that recently with a mag 2c with a mystery 5W hd i had, but registered 7200lux which is only 600lux under the space needle II i have.

sent you a pm

ab,

Very nice! You sure have made a lot of mod's in a short time, get some sleep! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Lambda has a similar custom designed mod, something he called MEGACLOPS HD I've been waiting for him to build another one, then hoping I had money when he offered it up for sale.

It seems that is always the way, whenever I have extra money, there are no cool lights, and when I have money, they are all "taken!"

It's amazing that the Mag-lite gets such bad reviews, but when you use the same reflector and put in a LS, it is amazing how nice the light output is.

Anyway, nice light!

(EDIT - reference to interested CPF'er removed - I will not be selling these lights.)

A.

Please add my name. How much will these cost? Wow!

(EDIT - pricing information removed. I won't be selling these lights.)

A.

Can you post some beamshots of the flood setting? I've found Mags to be pretty uneven in flood setting and am wondering if this mod is any better. Thanks

It is better than a standard Mag when set to flood, particularly with regard to evenness of the beam. However, the ubiquitous Mag dark hole in the middle of the beam when set to flood cannot be avoided.

Fortunately you would likely never need the flood setting. This is because of the very bright and even corona produced by a 5W HD light with reflector when set to the spot beam. The corona of these lights when set to spot beam is VERY bright and even. It is so wide that it's very difficult to capture with a photo - the corona tends to light the entire frame except when shooting a photo from very close.

Here's a profile photo to illustrate what I'm talking about - notice the very wide and bright corona around the centre spot:




(Please don't pay any attention to the horrible colour rendition in this photo - I am in serious need of a digital camera with a predictable white balance!)

As you can see, even when set to a tight spot beam the 5W HD light with the Mag reflector still creates a very useful and bright corona of spill light.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A.

These lights bear a strong visual resemblance to the excellent Lambda Megaclops units. Both are 5W Luxeons in 2D Mag bodies. There are some common features and quite a few differences in implementation and detail. Kevin's Megaclops units have superior heatsinking details and of course his excellent Krylon-textured reflectors. These lights feature an entirely different Luxeon-mounting scheme and (at least in my opinion) a better battery system. The lights I built up are not Megaclops units. But clearly they are similar enough to raise a couple eyebrows.

Of course I would NEVER intend to step on Kevin's toes. His custom mod flashlights are easily the best I have ever seen, and his diligent approach and articulated vision are simply non pareil in my opinion.

So I will not sell any more of these lights. The three that I sold are the last. I didn't start this project in order to sell them anyway, and since there's been at least one comment made that they are too similar to Megaclops, that's the very least I can do.

Please everyone, support Kevin (Lambda). Seriously - buy his lights whenever they are available. You won't be disappointed.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A.

I just received my AB 5W2D today and I can confirm that this thing is light and frigging bright. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif The central spot is blindingly intense and the corona is full and very bright. The output is just amazing and the color is white with no hint of blue. This bin code puts it close to the D65 standard illuminant in color and thus is pretty damn close to daylight in a tube. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif I'm impressed. I'll be bringing it to class with me tonight to see how it cuts through the night. I can't wait to see how this torch puts out with the SureFire FM24 snap-up beamshaper.

Nice Job Aaron. It's a pity there won't be more of these.

Wilkey

Well,

I just got back from playing with this torch in the back yard. I compared it to my 3D Mag with a lensed krypton bulb. On tight focus, the Mag throws an incredibly bright laser spot. I've lit the tops of 80' pines with this light. The AB mod on tight focus throws a fatter spot just as far but it is much more uniform and of course, true to daylight. The light quality is just stunning. This torch puts out a freaking amazing amount of light. And again, I have to remark how nice the wide corona is. Broad, even and bright, it's truly useful.

Controversy notwithstanding, this is a helluva light. I'm loving this ultra limited edition. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Wilkey

No disrespect towards anyone, but there are several modders here. The way I see it, if someone wants to create a flashlight, such as the one ab put together, and sell it to people, I don't see any problems with it. I am quite certain that if ab put these together and sold them, all while at the same time another person put out more of their well known mods, I still think everyone would be sold out of their stock relatively soon. People want them.

I'm not trying to step on any toes here, I'm just looking at things objectively. How many sites are sold out at the moment? I say, let people build and sell as they wish, unless they totally copy the design piece for piece.

My 2 cents, and if I'm out of line, I will understand. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

How much $$ for a 5w in a 2D body??

Orion,

I'm with you on this point. Not only are there a variety of approaches to any given engineering design problem, there's a variety of customer needs. If I had wanted a designed-from scratch 5-watter using custom machined head and body components, I would have bought a Blaster VI. And you know what? I am going to buy one. Because it's a different beast, and it fills a different need for me as well as for other folks.

I think that if AB had clearly poached something the community felt was intellectual property that would be one thing, and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

In any case, this is the most powerful torch in my arsenal and one that I'll be carrying with me whenever and wherever circumstances permit. Otherwise it'll be my 9P (which with the P90 lamp is not as bright and much yellower, and with the P91 is brighter but only gives 20 minute runtime) or 4*M (MiniMagMadMax). The only thing that would make this torch better would be a second dual 3-to-D battery carriage to enable quick-change of power supplies in the field.

I'll be back soon with outdoor beamshots.

MTFD17, as ab is not selling these units any more you might want to contact Lambda or Mr. Bulk about their Megaclops design. Had I been able to get that unit from them in the time frame I needed, I have no doubt that I'd be just as happy. 5W Luxeons just kick ***. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif

Wilkey