This post was returned to the thread on 2/8/06.
Bottom Line:
This mod allows one to use any high performance, high output G4 bi-pin bulb in a regular Maglite flashlight. With this mod, the entire array of superbulbs from Welch-Allyn can be used in any Mag C or D body.
The Story:
Typically, the easiest route to incandescent or hot wire modding has been to run readily available bulbs such as the Mag KryptonStars and RadioShack KPR112 at overdrive. The PR cup base is an industry standard and one can easily find a massive variety of bulbs in voltages from 2.4V up to 18V. This provides for direct drop-in and instant gratification. However, while this base is ubiquitous, there are very few high performance bulbs in this format.
Over the last two years, there has been steadily increasing interest in the use of superbulbs. Most notably, the bulbs from Carley Lamps and Welch Allyn Lamps have been the ones of choice. In terms of performance, the Welch Allyn line provides arguably a greater range but definitively the higher performing options. Carley typically keeps current demands below 2A while Welch Allyn provide bulbs of up to 3.85A. However, while Carley can provide their bulbs potted in PR bases in addition the bare pin state, Welch Allyn do not pot their bare pin bulbs. The typical route to obtaining the compelling WA bulbs has been to purchase them and then send them to Carley for potting. This is a process, that due to minimum order requirements, has often required the vehicle of the Group Buy to make happen. Not only is this a complicated process, but it can take a great amount of time and effort to track the group buy. The most recent buys have easily run into the thousands of dollars parts and have stretched out months in duration from order to fulfillment.
During this time, modders have tried to make their own bi-pin to PR base adapters. I. myself, have built these devices out of pin sockets, scavenged PR bases and JB-Weld. These results have been acceptable but their manufacture is time intensive, difficult and just a regular pain in the butt.
The MagCharger is a unique platform in that unlike the vast majority of lights out there, it accepts bulbs in the G4 bi-pin format. However, the MC is expensive coming in at around $90-110 dollars for a complete setup versus as low as $16 for the "regular" Mags. For some time, I had thought about somehow converting parts of the MC innards into a drop-in for regular Mags. Sharing some of my thoughts with Bill Waites, he arranged to have a switch core sent to me. Jim Sexton also took a look at the core to assess the possibility of making ceramic components to replace the pin slug. In the end, it took Hook'd on Photons to finally kick me into gear and propose extracting the only essential part of the MagCharger and implanting it into a Mag. And that brings us to the current state of affairs.
Here is what is known:
1. The MagCharger pin slug itself will fit into the bulb receiver in a regular Mag. However, without a PR flange to hold it in place, it would fall right out the front of the pedestal. The pin slug is the plastic cylinder that encases the two pin sockets and the contacts to the switch core.
2. The entire MC slug and surrounding heavy metal collar can be swapped out for the analogous units in the regular Mag. The result is a hybrid Maglite that can now accept bi-pin bulbs.
3. The pins of the Welch Allyn bulbs are slightly on the long side. This results in the pins bottoming out inside the pin receivers before the bulb can seat as far down as it ultimately can. This results in the placement of the filament that is just on the edge of being able to focus optimally. This situation can be easily remedied though. You simply need to snip off 2mm from the ends of the pins. This allows the bulb to seat fully and enables the entire range of focusing. If you can focus without trimming, do so. You'll find out why below.
4. While I have test fit the slug and metal sleeve successfully in four different Mags (D and C), there may be some revisions that may have some interference issues. Mag has been known to slipstream minor changes into their design but since compatibility and consistency seem to be high, these cases are probably rare. But attempt to use this mod at your own risk.
Here are some pictures:
Comparison of the MagCharger and MagD switch bodies. You'll see that in this photo, the filament is noticeably higher for the bulb in the MC switch than in the MagD. This is remedied by snipping the pins as I described above. You can also see that there is almost nothing in common between the two switch bodies. They are completely and unmodifiably non-interchangeable. The cam follower bolts, inner spring and bulb receptacle/slug are interchangeable however and this is all we care about.
Pin receiver slug installed in the Mag switch section. You can see that this is a D-body from the threading on the front of the tube. But wait, it now takes bi-pins instead of PR bases. Yep, this is the world's first bi-pin MagD made with all native MagLite parts. I call this mod the MagXXBP, where XX is a bulb code. So, using the WA01185 in this setup, the whole light would be called the Mag85BP.
Here is the light fully built up with bulb and battery. The bulb is the WA01274 and the battery pack consists of 6 x 4Ah 1/2D nimh cells in a 3.75D body. The body tube extender at the back is courtesy of supermodder Fivemega. This is the Mag74Bp and it will make over 500 lumens for almost 90 minutes.
Here is a pair of photos showing the effect of trimming the bulb pins. The bulb in this example is the stock MC bulb but that's ok because I'm just about 100% certain that they are made by WA. In any case, I also trimmed a WA01274 and the effect is the same. You can see that the bulb drops down about 1.5mm, just enough to provide the full range of focus. The downside, though, is that the hot glass of the bulb is now right on the slug. The potential for thermal damage is heightened. This risk must be understood by all. This means that thermal damage to the slug could happen more rapidly than if the same bulb were used in the MagCharger. My advice is if you can get acceptable focus without trimming the pins, don't trim.
Well, that is all for now. This is not a guide as to how to do the mod yourself. It's easy and instructions and expertise abound for how to take out and take apart the Mag switch section. I will probably come back and post directions pertaining to the most relevant steps...but it's really that easy. Oh, one more thing. I tested this with Otokoyama's Perfect Mag Reflector (PMR) and it works, well, perfectly.
Enjoy!
Wilkey
Bottom Line:
This mod allows one to use any high performance, high output G4 bi-pin bulb in a regular Maglite flashlight. With this mod, the entire array of superbulbs from Welch-Allyn can be used in any Mag C or D body.
The Story:
Typically, the easiest route to incandescent or hot wire modding has been to run readily available bulbs such as the Mag KryptonStars and RadioShack KPR112 at overdrive. The PR cup base is an industry standard and one can easily find a massive variety of bulbs in voltages from 2.4V up to 18V. This provides for direct drop-in and instant gratification. However, while this base is ubiquitous, there are very few high performance bulbs in this format.
Over the last two years, there has been steadily increasing interest in the use of superbulbs. Most notably, the bulbs from Carley Lamps and Welch Allyn Lamps have been the ones of choice. In terms of performance, the Welch Allyn line provides arguably a greater range but definitively the higher performing options. Carley typically keeps current demands below 2A while Welch Allyn provide bulbs of up to 3.85A. However, while Carley can provide their bulbs potted in PR bases in addition the bare pin state, Welch Allyn do not pot their bare pin bulbs. The typical route to obtaining the compelling WA bulbs has been to purchase them and then send them to Carley for potting. This is a process, that due to minimum order requirements, has often required the vehicle of the Group Buy to make happen. Not only is this a complicated process, but it can take a great amount of time and effort to track the group buy. The most recent buys have easily run into the thousands of dollars parts and have stretched out months in duration from order to fulfillment.
During this time, modders have tried to make their own bi-pin to PR base adapters. I. myself, have built these devices out of pin sockets, scavenged PR bases and JB-Weld. These results have been acceptable but their manufacture is time intensive, difficult and just a regular pain in the butt.
The MagCharger is a unique platform in that unlike the vast majority of lights out there, it accepts bulbs in the G4 bi-pin format. However, the MC is expensive coming in at around $90-110 dollars for a complete setup versus as low as $16 for the "regular" Mags. For some time, I had thought about somehow converting parts of the MC innards into a drop-in for regular Mags. Sharing some of my thoughts with Bill Waites, he arranged to have a switch core sent to me. Jim Sexton also took a look at the core to assess the possibility of making ceramic components to replace the pin slug. In the end, it took Hook'd on Photons to finally kick me into gear and propose extracting the only essential part of the MagCharger and implanting it into a Mag. And that brings us to the current state of affairs.
Here is what is known:
1. The MagCharger pin slug itself will fit into the bulb receiver in a regular Mag. However, without a PR flange to hold it in place, it would fall right out the front of the pedestal. The pin slug is the plastic cylinder that encases the two pin sockets and the contacts to the switch core.
2. The entire MC slug and surrounding heavy metal collar can be swapped out for the analogous units in the regular Mag. The result is a hybrid Maglite that can now accept bi-pin bulbs.
3. The pins of the Welch Allyn bulbs are slightly on the long side. This results in the pins bottoming out inside the pin receivers before the bulb can seat as far down as it ultimately can. This results in the placement of the filament that is just on the edge of being able to focus optimally. This situation can be easily remedied though. You simply need to snip off 2mm from the ends of the pins. This allows the bulb to seat fully and enables the entire range of focusing. If you can focus without trimming, do so. You'll find out why below.
4. While I have test fit the slug and metal sleeve successfully in four different Mags (D and C), there may be some revisions that may have some interference issues. Mag has been known to slipstream minor changes into their design but since compatibility and consistency seem to be high, these cases are probably rare. But attempt to use this mod at your own risk.
Here are some pictures:
Comparison of the MagCharger and MagD switch bodies. You'll see that in this photo, the filament is noticeably higher for the bulb in the MC switch than in the MagD. This is remedied by snipping the pins as I described above. You can also see that there is almost nothing in common between the two switch bodies. They are completely and unmodifiably non-interchangeable. The cam follower bolts, inner spring and bulb receptacle/slug are interchangeable however and this is all we care about.
Pin receiver slug installed in the Mag switch section. You can see that this is a D-body from the threading on the front of the tube. But wait, it now takes bi-pins instead of PR bases. Yep, this is the world's first bi-pin MagD made with all native MagLite parts. I call this mod the MagXXBP, where XX is a bulb code. So, using the WA01185 in this setup, the whole light would be called the Mag85BP.
Here is the light fully built up with bulb and battery. The bulb is the WA01274 and the battery pack consists of 6 x 4Ah 1/2D nimh cells in a 3.75D body. The body tube extender at the back is courtesy of supermodder Fivemega. This is the Mag74Bp and it will make over 500 lumens for almost 90 minutes.
Here is a pair of photos showing the effect of trimming the bulb pins. The bulb in this example is the stock MC bulb but that's ok because I'm just about 100% certain that they are made by WA. In any case, I also trimmed a WA01274 and the effect is the same. You can see that the bulb drops down about 1.5mm, just enough to provide the full range of focus. The downside, though, is that the hot glass of the bulb is now right on the slug. The potential for thermal damage is heightened. This risk must be understood by all. This means that thermal damage to the slug could happen more rapidly than if the same bulb were used in the MagCharger. My advice is if you can get acceptable focus without trimming the pins, don't trim.
Well, that is all for now. This is not a guide as to how to do the mod yourself. It's easy and instructions and expertise abound for how to take out and take apart the Mag switch section. I will probably come back and post directions pertaining to the most relevant steps...but it's really that easy. Oh, one more thing. I tested this with Otokoyama's Perfect Mag Reflector (PMR) and it works, well, perfectly.
Enjoy!
Wilkey
Last edited:
