Budget Mini Maglight Mods?

[llmercll]

I found a couple mini maglight 2AA's in the closet the other day and began playing with them. They are built extremely well (dry, but I plan on putting a little auto grease on the threads) but the output is (expectedly) terrible compared to my cree lights, even with a new bulb.

I'm wondering if there any budget friendly mods out there I can do to use the maglight body with an LED. Would something like this work well?

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/14000mcd-10packs-white-5mm-led-1105

thanks!

 

[Chrontius]

The "World's Cheapest Mule" mod is a good close-range light. It takes a Terralux minimag dropin, a Nite Ize 3-led dropin (or specifically the reflector from it) and a tailcap switch (perhaps the Kroll switch? The Terralux dropin includes one, though). Put the terralux dropin in, followed by the Nite Ize shallow reflector, and then tighten down the head. It won't be able to switch off this way though, so that's what you need the tailcap switch for. Net result is about a 120°-150° flood, excellent as a worklight with a range of about ten feet.

That particular LED will put out about six lumens on alkaline batteries - you're going to want something with a bit more grunt.

 

[llmercll]

That looks great but is much more than I was hoping to spend. The Terralux dropin is almost as much as a solarforce l2 =p

Perhaps there is no "cheap" LED option for these lights? Maybe a krypton or Xenon would work better? My current bulb is VERY yellow, and don't believe it's krypton or Xenon.

thanks!

 

[gunga]

Smj drop in from the sandwich shoppe us around 10. A bare smj and drilled out reflector will be around 5, but cannot be run on nimh. I'm also looking to do some low cost mods as I have about 5 minimags to work with!

 

[Chrontius]

Brinkmann makes a high-pressure-xenon bulb (for the Nexstar 2AA) which is a dropin replacement for the Mini-Mag. With a couple Energizer lithium AAs or nickel-zinc rechargeables, that should be downright startling compared to a stock minimag, though still in the same league. They're not supposed to last terribly long on lithium batteries, though.

 

[llmercll]

http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?products_id=754

is this what you were referring to? How come it won't run on NiMH?

these both look like nice options, will they significantly outshine the minimag? is one known to be brighter than another?

thanks a lot!

 

[RepProdigious]

Find yourself a used banged up low voltage Quark head, its got all the parts you need and goes in the minimag with some tinkering!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALt26YAZFw

If i can do this anyone can!

 

[llmercll]

hey that light looks awesome!

But where the hell am I going to find a banged up quark head? lol

thanks!

 

[RepProdigious]

cpfmp?

 

[llmercll]

thanks for the tip, I'll look into it 🙂

I'm guessing the led bulbs in the above posts wont come anywhere close to the power of the quark head =p

 

[RepProdigious]

Nope, quark is pretty bright for its size.... and the moonlight is brilliant also.

 

[glockxj]

do you have a write up on putting the quark guts in a minimag?

 

[gunga]

The cut down SMJ led requires a voltage above vF to run. You can run on nimh, but it will be very dim. The smj drop in with refelctor kit, around $8-10 depending on quantity purchased, is a good, long running option thatis decently bright (10-15 lumens?). RUns for at least 12-20 hours depending on battery type I believe.

 

[Forward_clicky]

The "World's Cheapest Mule" mod is a good close-range light. It takes a Terralux minimag dropin, a Nite Ize 3-led dropin (or specifically the reflector from it) and a tailcap switch (perhaps the Kroll switch? The Terralux dropin includes one, though). Put the terralux dropin in, followed by the Nite Ize shallow reflector, and then tighten down the head. It won't be able to switch off this way though, so that's what you need the tailcap switch for. Net result is about a 120°-150° flood, excellent as a worklight with a range of about ten feet.

That particular LED will put out about six lumens on alkaline batteries - you're going to want something with a bit more grunt.

I did this with mine and was expecting a bit more output.
Was an easy install but meh on the results.
I am currently using alkalines to run it though.

 

[Stephen Wallace]

I prefer the Nite-Ize 1 watt LED upgrade over their three LED drop-in, and prefer it over the similar Terralux drop-in for that matter.