I have a newer (DL serial number) LED Maglite, 3D, and would like to make it brighter. Everything I've read is to modify older bulb-based Maglites. Are there any mods for the newer models?
The thing that is most commonly done is to cut the tower off of the switch assembly and put a heatsink in where the tower was. You would attach an LED to the front of it and a driver on the opposite end of the heatsink then wire it to the stock switch. You then cut the cam off of the back of the reflector and you're good to go. I've made a few of these for friends and family using an XM-L and the 2.8A AMC 7135-based driver as sold by Illumination Supply or Shiningbeam and you'll get about 550-600 OTF lumens from that light on commonly available D cells. I think you get slightly more output if you use NiMH D cells, though.
