making the brightest lux III mag?

GarageBoy

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ok, it's easier to rephrase my question than to go on with a thread that's inconclusive...so here we go.

i want to mod a lux iii into a mag for maximum throw using the stock 52mm reflector. how should i go about doing this, direct drive or a boost circuit? what current should i run it at, if i go regulated. I want to top my former sx1l lux iii mag mod. thanks!
 

Pajamas

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If you use J bin, you'll likely kill your Lux. When you DD a lux, the bin determines how much overdrive you're giving the LED and thus affects its life time.

Checkout this thread and anything over 1000mA (yellow) is overdriving. The higher the number the shorter the LED life.

I use L-bin with alkies and K-bin with D nimhs although some have used K-bin with alkies. Hope this helps.
 

GarageBoy

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my current set up,now my friend's is a l bin, s flux. i hope to beat that.
when you use nimhs, shouldn't you use a higher bin, because alks sag under load, making the voltage way less than it should be?
 

BentHeadTX

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GarageBoy,
Get a nFlex variable output current regulator board, a U bin LuxIII (what voltage does not matter since it is regulated) a UCL lens and hotlips heat sink (or O-sink)
My nFlex WX1S Luxeon V Mag is very bright and is setup this way. Have fun with the mod and remember, thermal epoxy is your friend.
 

Doug Owen

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[ QUOTE ]
Pajamas said:

If you use J bin, you'll likely kill your Lux. When you DD a lux, the bin determines how much overdrive you're giving the LED and thus affects its life time.



[/ QUOTE ]

This may be true when you first set it up, but if you do a search on 'Vf drop' you'll no doubt find some interesting reports from several 'bright guys' around here of Vf *decline* in the first 100 hours or so of life. Quite large in some cases.

Meaning it get's more and more overdriven as time goes on and you don't even know.

I still think DD is 'the drive of last resort'.

Doug Owen
 

HarryN

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It is surprisingly easy to obtain die temperatures with a Lux III which cause the Lux to overheat to the point where output actually declines very rapidly.

A good example is a bench setup I made where I mounted a Lux III on a 5/16 dia x 6 in long steel bolt using silver filled epoxy. Using a light meter, it quickly reaches its max output at approx 400ma. If you push it to 500 - 1200ma, the same story - within 20 - 30 seconds, the output drops to the same as 400ma.

If you want a really bright light, keep that Lux as cool as possible.
 

Chop

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"Beating" an SX1L setup shouldn't be hard. The S flux is pretty much the bottom of the Lux III barrel as far as "brightness" goes.

Just go with a T bin and drive it to anything about 700mA. That should get you where you're saying you want to go.

I've always been a big fan of direct drive setups because it's easy and cheap to do, but it's not the best way to do things. I'd go with a constant current driver of one flavor or another. It will give you constant output, as long as the batteries can keep up, and you won't have to play the Vf matching game.

As mentioned above, you could use one of George's converters, or one of Wayne's converters. Which ones you could use depends on the battery configuration that you are planning to use.

The most simple way to do it would be to just get a T flux Lux III with a J Vf and plant it on top of a hotlips or o-sink. Drive it to 1A with a converter and you're there.
 

AuroraLite

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That is correct--When fully accessed, there are 8 levels of brightness on nflex. And as the batteries voltage dropped, it will fall out of regulation from the highest level one by one. Personally, I think it is a great thing, since you could 'count' how many level of brightness you could access and kinda gauge how much battery/runtime you have left.

If your friend have a SxxL bin light(depending on his/her battery setup, take a look at Modamag direct drive reference thread), your light with a Lux III TxxJ(or even UxxJ)with Nflex 6 nimh AAs(or even 4 nimh AAs) will most likely beat it with style. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

BentHeadTX

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I agree with AuroraLite,
The nFlex is an amazing piece of engineering. All my lights have been on/off maximum blast devices until I built a nFlex LuxeonV light. After using the 2D Mag for awhile, it corrupts you and you don't want anything else (large lights anyway)
The nFlex regulates and varies the output keeping the LED from burning up, giving you the light you need and saving on battery life. An added bonus is even non-flashoholics see the wisdom of variable output and are impressed.
Heck, my wife actually likes my expensive variable-output Mag. All the flashlights I will buy in the future have to have variable/regulated output. The only downside is the added complexity/cost and (maybe) reliability. The MJ LED minimag still has it's place for "it has to work no matter what"
Keep us posted on your progress.
 

GarageBoy

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ok, 1amp to the lux iii is over driving it?
also, with foward voltage, is that the voltage that will cause it to light up, or run at spec, and how much over can i go before i pop it? thanks, i guess i'll run a bb1000ng on 2ds (est. run time please?) or a db1000 on 3 or 4 ds (help me out?)
 

scudinc

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Since the current Lux III will be obsolete in a few months, I see no reason not to drive it at high levels. It will still have a life-span of thousands of hours.
 

3rd_shift

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A T**H bin with a resistor in a 3cell has the most headroom for overdrive and approaching 100 lumens.
just as long as the total wattage stays under 5 watts, it should be ok.
Amps x Volts is the total wattage and the heat that goes with it.
Lower voltage at the led = more amperage overdrive room for more output.
Aim for 1.2 amps with nimh batteries, and it should impress. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wow.gif
A .5 ohm works fine with a TWOJ at .95 amps
A .22 works fine with a TV1K at .90 amps run with nimhs too.
 

HarryN

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Nice light Eric. So, does the front lens hold the Fraen optics on, or are they held on some other way ?

Sorry for another dumb question, but do you happen to know is that optic 17mm OD or is it a little larger than that ?

Thanks a lot.
 

Chop

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Garageboy,

If you want 1A to the luxeon, I don't think you'll be able to get that using a NexGen converter and 2 D cells. When NexGen has a built in "safe mode" that kicks in when input current gets to ge about 1.2A and you're going to need to draw more than that to get 1A from the luxeon from a ~2.4v power source. If the batteries are up to the task of supplying the current, then a badboy might be what you need. I don't know if George has a converter that will get you 1A to the luxeon from a pair of NiMH cells. You should look into that though.

3rd Shift,

Have you verified that lumen output? If you are actually getting 100 lumens out of a Lux III mod, that's pretty impressive.
 

GarageBoy

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mr chop: if i use a downboy at 1000ma (which will be slight overdrive for the lux iii), what batt configuration shall i use?
 
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