upgraded Mini Mags

Mag-man

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
122
So, I broke down and upgraded a few of my $8 Mini Maglites to 140 lumens by installing Terralux TLE-5EX LED bulbs. $12 per bulb. If you have a MiniMag it's totally worth it. This archaic little flash is now 85% as bright as any other huge bat of a Maglite I own. It's cool and rather annoying at the same time. But it doesn't have the throw and due to the tiny AA's it won't last as long as say, a 6D. But it's just great to have that kind of light in your pocket. I almost like it better than my XL50... sort of. They're just different but both have their usefulness. The XL's fit better in your pocket but the Mini Mags are rather better household, car and garage lights. The MiniMag spins (which is simple and cool) and the XL has the tactical button, which comes on quicker. Candlemode now lights up a larger area more brightly. But my wife won't let me upgrade her Mini Mag... the same way she won't let me make the Christmas lights LED.... :thinking:
 

AnAppleSnail

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Aug 21, 2009
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4,200
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South Hill, VA
Good luck with the minimag (and wifely) conversion. Make sure the reflector doesn't twist the pins off the LED unit ;)

For a few bucks more, a minimag AA on sale isn't bad. Some of the newer ones have a low mode to save batteries.
 

Mag-man

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Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
122
I know what you mean... don't twist them too hard... Thanks!

I thought about the new Mini Mag LED but the "Regular" MiniMag LED is 69 lumens and what I built is 140 lumens... The Pro is more respectable, almost too bright at 220+ lumens and it's a few more bucks too. If I want the mutli-settings with 220+ lumens, then I need to special order the elusive LED Pro+... and that's almost 2X the price of the MiniMag LED and 3X $ what I built.

For now, I like how the old incandescents are 0.75" shorter. I'll probably just give these away to family members... I like to build/upgrade them, but I think I really want an XL200...
 
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NeonLights

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 18, 2003
Messages
1,493
Location
Ohio
I've got at least a dozen AA and AAA MiniMags I have upgraded to LED over the years, probably half of them using Terralux modules. Never had a problem with any of the Terralux LED's, not sure it is worth it to buy a new incan Minimag just to buy the Terralux LED drop-in, but for those old outdated incan Minimags laying around, its a no-brainer to upgrade.
 

Got Lumens?

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 12, 2011
Messages
2,458
Location
Champlain Valley
So, I broke down and upgraded a few of my $8 Mini Maglites to 140 lumens by installing Terralux TLE-5EX LED bulbs. $12 per bulb. If you have a MiniMag it's totally worth it. This archaic little flash is now 85% as bright as any other huge bat of a Maglite I own. It's cool and rather annoying at the same time. But it doesn't have the throw and due to the tiny AA's it won't last as long as say, a 6D. But it's just great to have that kind of light in your pocket. I almost like it better than my XL50... sort of. They're just different but both have their usefulness. The XL's fit better in your pocket but the Mini Mags are rather better household, car and garage lights. The MiniMag spins (which is simple and cool) and the XL has the tactical button, which comes on quicker. Candlemode now lights up a larger area more brightly. But my wife won't let me upgrade her Mini Mag... the same way she won't let me make the Christmas lights LED.... :thinking:
Mag-man,
You need to turn your other half into Mag-woman, LOL. Seriously, the Terralux upgrade is well worth the money to bring life back into the older style mini-mags. I think in your description, waiting until the time comes, when your wife can not see with the standard bulb, you could say "here honey try this one" :).
Unfortunately I have not heard of Terralux offering thier Mini-Mag upgrades in HCRI, but it sounds like that is what your wife needs to be consistant with how she uses her Mini-mag. Of course thier is always switching to say a 47's Preon 1 or 2 in HCRI that has 3 levels, I think she would go woooo over that.
GL
 
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