DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA? (PICS Updated)

are 2 AA batteries enough to direct drive a red or red orange HD luxeon with an F bin Vf?

Thinking about doing a cheap minimag conversion. Have a spare HD red, and a NX-05 optic laying aorund...I may decide to use a chopped mag reflector instead though...

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

See my detailed reply to your question in the "Extremely simple red led minimag mod" thread.

Let me know if chopping the reflector works well. I used a HD red and an NX05, but have been wondering if the reflector would work. It's probably better to use a side emitter with a reflector.

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

you'd need to take measures to isolate the slug on the luxeon, but other than that it shouldnt be an issue /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

i've had good sucess with a sharpie marker, but you need to be very careful so as not to scratch it in any way.

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

isn't the slug isolated on a Star? I thought it was isolated on the star just not the emitters. I know it is for sure n the Star-O's

Unfortunately I just broke the little clip on my roomates mag, under the part that says do not remove. its a bit hard not to remove when it falls out when you try to change the bulb ... Grrrr

Looks like I may just end up with some sorta drop in modual now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I would rather have run it DD....Sounded like a good idea untill this happened...

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

yes, the star is nuetral.

personally i only use the star when absolutely necessary (haven't needed to do that yet /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif ), but i never thought of mounting the star directly to the top of the lip! (is that what you were thinking?)

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

[ QUOTE ]
Rothrandir said:
yes, the star is nuetral.

personally i only use the star when absolutely necessary (haven't needed to do that yet /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif ), but i never thought of mounting the star directly to the top of the lip! (is that what you were thinking?)

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes exactly, only I broke the supid crappy MM switch /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif so i guess it is too late.

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

I made a 2xAA out of a dorcy frostbite. direct drive, ran just under full power. was really bright.
Jeff

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

I did one DD on a CR2 (3V). Don't know what the Vf bin was, but you could probably "pull someone over" with it! It never got hot but impressed the hell outta everyone who saw it. Used AA epoxy to isolate the slug. GreenGoose has it now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif .

Larry

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Well Screw it, I decided to rig the broken MiniMag to light up when you screw it down, instead of lighting up when you unscew it (Because it was broken And I did not know how else to make it work)

I sanded down a red HD Lux Star untill it fit in the head.

I soldered 2 thin soldering wires (copper coated with tin) to the emmiter part of the star, wrapped the wires in electrical tape, and plugged them into the light bulb socket. Added an old NX-05 optic (not my favorite choice) but its that I had from blowing up the Star-O's on my ATV project a long time ago.

The result is a nice bright red flood beam.
It will hold me over untill Lambda makes some more sandwitaches for a good price. It is much brighter than a stock Mag AA.

* the way it is setup the thin wires flex when you tighten the light down (so I left plenty of extra length for a couple twists). Should they break eventually it would take me a good 5 minutes to solder new ones /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif. Needles to say this is a VERY ghetto mod, the light can no longer be used in candle mode either, due to the star being mounted in the head rather than the tube, and also because of the way I had to rig the light to turn on when tightened because I broke the switch (the whole reason I had to buy my roomate a replacement and try this mod)

From the outside it looks like any other Mag 2AA with NX-05 Optic, the inside is a bit sloppy, but the price of the mod $6 is quite nice. And you can't see anything unusualy from the outside.

if anyone would like pics I can post some tomarrow. Looks spiffy in a silver mini-mag from the outside, but "I" know what is inside. The light should not be turned opend more than 1/2 turn because of the way the wires are mounted inside. However there is no reason to turn it more than this since im using an optic instead of the reflector, and the star is mounted in the head instead of the tube. So turning the head ONLY turns it on and off, it does not change the distance from the optic to the star.

There is no heatsink but since its running on 2 AA's I figure the Star-board itself should be enough...Someone correct me if I am wrong. There is plenty of electrical tape around it too to isolate it (like that would help with heat)

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

screw it here are pics.




Next to 3C Lux III mod with sputtered reflector (Can you say adicted? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

The right beamshot is a Stock Mag 3D as you can see the Red easily overpower the throw on the giant mag!

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

no comments eh? heh

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

I like the red/orange ones too. nice mod /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif My R/O is in my dorcy AAA mod. really nice when checking on the kids at night. There is nothing like a battery operated blow-torch.
Jeff

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Well it was fun while it lasted, I snapped a wire trying to repair the origional switch, I thought I could rig it up a little better....Well I got all the wires soldered on, My soldering iron went on the fritz and was working on and off...Finaly attached the new wires to the LED, went to put the LED in and the cap on the emitter just fell off?!?!?!?! WTF!

So bye bye HD red....Damn that sucked...No idea why it fell off, I have never had that happen before... I think I'll have to be patient and wait for more sandwitches to come available since I hate to see everythig wasted...

Sure blows when you waste your whole night on something and then the cap from the emitter just falls off for no reason

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif

I did fix the stock switch BTW, so now it is back to regular maglight and im out another $7...I have only killed like 10 of these things now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I know for 100% sure my plan would have worked...Pity it had to end in such a crappy way...Cant believe the glue jsut came off the emitter's dome....

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

wow, sorry man. Did the reflector/optic press to hard on it?
At some time in the future I'd like to make one. I'd make a big alluminum slug, file away the lip in the body, and the anodizing, and press fit it in there. On the bottom of the tube would be a spacer with an anode contact. The emiter would be isolated with a coat of AA epoxy over the heatsink. I would have to use a kroll swtich but thats good anyways. I think a McFlood would be neat, but to get the smoothese beam you need a LD and I've herd those aren't as bright? I wonder why? Is the die constructed differently? I don't think I've ever seen a macro shot of a LD red/o

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

I'm not sure why it came off. The only time I sceen this before is when I tried to remove the emitter from a Dead Star so I did not care. In the dead emitter case the whole plastic casing including the black plastic ring came off.

In the case last night, just the top of the dome came off. The slug and the black plastic ring are still attached to the star. it looks like the domes are just glued on? The optic actualy does not press on the dome, it pressed on the black ring which should be ok from my understanding. It just fell off when I was placing it into the head of the mini maglite. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Hmm. Maybe it was stressed previously in handling/shipping. Is it ruined or are the bond wires still intact?

Luxeons are really fragile in all reality. Not tough like epoxy 5mm's. But they are made this way to survive the extreme temperatures etc..

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Does it still light up? Unless the removal of the dome pulled on the bond wires, it should work w/o the dome.

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

its broken, I tried to put the dome back on, and it would not light up, SO I ripped the thing to pieces cause I was pissed off and flicked the crystal across the room..

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Sorry about the dome coming off. I've had that happen alot... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I don't experiment with LS's that much because I can't afford my screwups...but after reading this thread...I think I'm going to get an Amber LS and try that in a minimag. It has a Vf of 2.95? I think. I have an extra nx05 for the mod. It should work.

Re: DD red or red-orange Lux of 2AA?

Let me know how you end up setting it up, the flexing wires obviously isnt the best way. Im not too upset about the $7 loss, whats bad is the time and shipping it takes to get a new one...I will have to wait untill I make another larger purchase..