A couple of quick mag 3d aspherical questions

I want to build my first 3d aspherical lensed maglite but im new to all this and have a couple of questions i need answered, I already have the maglite and a Dealextreme SKU 12834 lense is on its way to me as we speak but i dont know where will i find the measurements for the best focal point.

I have searched and read on here that cree leds work best with aspherical lenses due to a narrower beam pattern but i want to know which type of cree will work best and what driver to use with what i have and where to get a heat sink that will post to the UK.

I would prefer to source as many parts from dealextreme as possible to try and keep costs down.

A Cree XRE R2 will work best. Because the maglite head screws in and out you shouldn't have a problem getting the led focussed right. I have that dealextreme lense and the focal length is around 3 centimetres.

For the heatsink there is britelumens or H22A, http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?310770-********-H22A-Heatsinks-******** here's a link to H22A's sales thread, they're a bit cheaper than britelumens. http://www.britelumens.com/emittersandparts.html and this ones a link to britelumens website.

There are several drivers that will work, this is the one I used DX SKU 6190 it's ok but because it's probably intended for Li-ion it has a stupid low voltage warning thing, when using 3 1.2-1.5 volt batteries it starts blinking and goes dim rendering the torch almost unusable whilst the batts still have a fair few minutes juice left. Just because I chose this driver doesn't mean it's the right one to use, I only got that one because I couldn't find a better one at the time. Look for a boost and buck driver, without low voltage warning.

My one cost about 30 quid in the end (without the cost of the maglite). You might be able to do it for about 25. The thing that cost me the most was the heatsink from britelumens, I used the P7 heatsink and ground the location thing off with a dremel so I could mount the Cree

Sales Link replaced with description - Norm

Thankyou norm.

That aspheric lens needs about 30mm between it and the LED for optimal focus. The best way to achieve that in a Mag and still have the head thread onto the neck passed the gasket is to recess the LED star in the neck by a few mm. I can't think of anything on DX that would allow you to do that in a D neck. If you do find a poor-man's solution for this that doesn't require use of a lathe, please share.

With the britelumens heatsink I used the LED ended up just inside the neck of the maglite so the head could screw on past the O-ring and still be in focus. I had to use a bare led though because of the small post on the heatsink, you probably could use a star if your wires from the driver were long enough.

All the cree r2 leds i have seen are mounted are they simply taken off with a soldering iron or is there somewhere i can get them unmounted ? and i cant find the DX SKU 6190 driver you have mentioned(EDIT found the driver).

Im going to drop H22A a pm in the morning.

Peter mport said:

All the cree r2 leds i have seen are mounted are they simply taken off with a soldering iron or is there somewhere i can get them unmounted ? and i cant find the DX SKU 6190 driver you have mentioned(EDIT found the driver).

Im going to drop H22A a pm in the morning.

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They're easy to remove from the star. put the star in a vice to hold it in position then put the tip of the soldering iron on the back of the star, the solder should melt in a few seconds. Then get some tweezers or pliers and pick the led of the star (you have to do this, it won't fall off on it's own). If you haven't got a vice a pair of pliers with an elastic band round the handle will work, or you could use one of those helping hands.

Another driver that would work is sku-25505