Project ideas for my 5D Maglite

Hi Guys,

I've got an old-school 5D Maglite (early 1990's vintage) in basically as-new condition. I also have time on my hands, lots of tools, some cash and a large dose of boredom

So my dangerous question is this: What's a good intermediate-level DIY project for my 5D? I'd like to use the 5D as the standby torch in my vehicle so it gets used primarily as a "gentle persuader", secondly as the occasional hand-held spotlight and only rarely as a general purpose torch. Ruggedness, high output and a long distance throw are all reasonably important. Battery life, "smoothness" and multiple modes of operation are all less important to me.

So, if I was going to spend somewhere around $100 on a DIY project, what bits should you guys reckon I should do?

I'd buy one of the drop ins for a mag,
Somebody here had a driver for an sst-90 that looked good.

The triple XML is impressive too

Five 26650 LiMnNi cells from here - $55.00 plus shipping.

One 12 volt MR-16 incandescent bulb 20-75 watt range (It comes mounted in it's own reflector already. Get one with a front glass lens already mounted to the reflector and you won't have to get a high-temp borofloat lens) Get a "Long lasting" bulb rated for 3000 hours or more, otherwise it will flash (Blow) when you overdrive it with 20 plus volts from the five 26650's. Wide flood will yield a wall of light, narrow spot varieties will throw farther. - $3.00- $8.00 plus shipping.

One G5.3 MR-16 bi-pin ceramic socket with wires attached. - $1.00

A hobby charger plus power supply - Charger $18.00+, power supply $7.00+

You will need a length of appropriate size PVC to use as a battery sleeve so 26650's fit inside the m@g D tube. Easy modifications to the tailspring and switch tower and some soldering (Search CPF for how to guides) will give you several thousand lumens with higher watt bulbs! Run time will be no more than 20 minutes and the flashlight will get hot after about 10 minutes but it will blaze like the sun!

A 5D M@g was my first mod and I still enjoy it. I could not believes a humble m@glite would put out that much light 'til I tried it!

Double post... sorry

if you want to keep the light in your car, than i would reccomend to use lithium AA (none rechargable), cuz heat\cold, long period of inactivity, not good things for rechargable cells. you really don't want the light that will not work when you need it.

as much as i like simple\cheap mr16 options, i would recoend using leds, simple reason, drop mag with mr16 (espesially when it is on) on the floor, and there is a big chance filament will brake, especially overdriven that much.
not a good thing if you changing tire, or doing something else important at night.

i would get terralux tle 300e drop in, get 2AA-1D holders, and load them with 10 lithium AA cells, you'll get very bright\thowy\reliable\practical light, that could be burried in the hot desert sand or ice, for years, than work when needed with no problems.

alpg88 said:

i would get terralux tle 300e drop in, get 2AA-1D holders, and load them with 10 lithium AA cells, you'll get very bright\thowy\reliable\practical light, that could be burried in the hot desert sand or ice, for years, than work when needed with no problems.

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Thanks for this, it's all sound good advice except for 2 things:

1) I'm looking to do something a little crazy here (!); and
2) The 300e drop-in only suits the new D series Maglites and mine predates this so it simply won't fit.

On that basis, I'm still keen to do a more DIY type mod to the light. From what I've read on here, the biggest benefit of using the 5D/6D lights for the basis of mods is when you want extra voltage to drive a filament type globe so I am leaning towards that approach purely because I can

I don't want to go completely overboard and get 10,000 lumens out of this, something roughly equivalent to 1000-2000 lumens would be plenty for me I would think.

I'll research the MR16 option a bit more and consider further...

Really appreciate the input guys, love this forum!

Quest4fire said:

One G5.3 MR-16 bi-pin ceramic socket with wires attached. - $1.00

Click to expand...

OK - next question is, what sort of current can the stock switch carry? If I run this setup with a 50W globe I'm going to be pulling around 4Amps through the stock switch, right? Do I need to replace it with a higher rated rocker type?

OK - next question is, what sort of current can the stock switch carry? If I run this setup with a 50W globe I'm going to be pulling around 4Amps through the stock switch, right? Do I need to replace it with a higher rated rocker type?

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My 5D with a 75W MR-16 pulls 7+ Amps at the tail cap with hot-off-the- charger cells. While the stock switch worked fine for intermittent use, after running for 10-15 minutes the heat was causing the switch to stick. I would have to unscrew the tail cap to turn it off. Don't know why for sure, might have just been plastic starting to melt. Eventually I replaced it with a Judco switch from Digikey. This requires some minor dremeling of the cylindrical cavity the stock switch components are housed in and some epoxy to hold the new switch at the proper depth. You will also have to do something to secure the switch module inside the m@g battery tube. I drilled a hole in the tube at the level of the switch module, tapped the hole and used a screw to hold it in.
A rocker switch will work too, there is a tutorial with pictures from Mrartillary here
Happy modding bammo!

bammo said:

On that basis, I'm still keen to do a more DIY type mod to the light. From what I've read on here, the biggest benefit of using the 5D/6D lights for the basis of mods is when you want extra voltage to drive a filament type globe so I am leaning towards that approach purely because I can

I don't want to go completely overboard and get 10,000 lumens out of this, something roughly equivalent to 1000-2000 lumens would be plenty for me I would think.

I'll research the MR16 option a bit more and consider further...



Really appreciate the input guys, love this forum!

Click to expand...

well for 1-2000lm mr16 50W bulb will be enough, i have mod like that and stock switch works just fine.