bump in the night mag mod?

[Jarl]

I'm looking to do my first mag mod; something for a bump in the night situation, and just plain showing off, so as bright as possible though still simpleish. No more than 10 minutes runtime is required, and as long as the charger is fairly cheap, any rechargeables are fine (and preferred for guilt free lumens- yes, I'm cool using lithiums), but primaries are fine too- after the first few days of "nah, check this out!" it won't really be used extensively. Something that'll turn on in about a second is important- I don't want to be waiting 20 seconds for the bulb to settle before I get to full power. I've seen a few sweet ideas on here (623 comes to mind!), but I'm not sure how tricky/complex any of them would be.

I'm handy with a soldering iron, etc, and have no parts at the moment. Budget after buying the mag would be about £50 ($100), though money is tight and less is a lot better.

 

[RoyJ]

As fun as a 623 might be, I doubt it'll be a good "bump in the night" light. You're just likely to blind yourself as anyone else, making you unable to take action even if there is danger.

An M3/M6 would be cool if you have money to burn. If not, there's nothing wrong with a ROP or Mag85 with Eneloops. You can charge it up once every couple months and forget about it the rest of the time.

Also, you'd be very hard pressed to build a 623 for $100.

 

[jufam44]

I'd second the Mag85 Mod, as the 1185 bulb puts out tons of lumens out the front, and you'll get a semi-decent runtime (using a 3D body and 9AA-2D Battery Holder). For 50 pounds, however, You'll be hard pressed to find anything particularly bright. I'd recommend (if possible) expanding your budget , then you'll get a great light. You could look at a surefire 6P with a Q5 Dropin for about 225 lumens...

 

[Gunner12]

Probably a ROP or a Mag85. Or something prebuilt like the WF-500(decent, but not the best).

What's you price range? (including the maglite's price)

 

[October_V]

For about $150.00 I just completed my first build, a USL.
3D Mag, Osram 64625, and 3 emoli cells with 12.5V fresh off the charger.
I figure it's in the 4000 Lumen range; but I am a complete newbie.

For a bump in the night in the house, way too bright, for a camp light, outdoors you'd be fine.

 

[2xTrinity]

I'd second the Mag85 Mod, as the 1185 bulb puts out tons of lumens out the front, and you'll get a semi-decent runtime (using a 3D body and 9AA-2D Battery Holder). For 50 pounds, however, You'll be hard pressed to find anything particularly bright. I'd recommend (if possible) expanding your budget , then you'll get a great light. You could look at a surefire 6P with a Q5 Dropin for about 225 lumens...

It is possible, but instead of the NiMH with adapters you'll need to settle for LiIon cells that are higher capacity, smaller, lighter weight, and cheaper

3C Maglite -- $15 (in USA, probably 3x that in UK unfortunately)
2x 26650 A123 Cells -- $26
Kiu high-temp bulb socket -- $12
Kaidomain MOP reflector -- $15
Dealextreme 52mm glass window - $1.30
2x Philips 5761 lamps -- $10

That's about $80 for everything: lamps, batteries, and host included.

The only problem, with the A123 cells is that I don't know of an elegant charging solution. I know a lot of RC guys simply charge them with CC/CV bench power supplies. Another option for a similar price is to get Emoli Cells, same size, but standard LiIon voltage. Getting either A123 or Emolis into the UK may be a problem though.

Another option is the Kaidomain 5Ah protected D-Cells ($22/ea), in a 2D. Those would offer over an hour runtime for ROP, just under an hour for 5761 (I can tell you from experience the light will be way too hot to handle LONG before then...). The only thing I'd be wary of is that the 2D "packs" Kai was selling had short-circuit protection that was too sensitive. The inrush current on the bulb was enough to trip it. Hopefully the new individual cells are better, but I'd wait until someone on CPF evaluates them first.

 

[Jarl]

The WF-500 sems ok, but I don't like the bulb assembly- people have reported them failing quite early on, as well as dimming quickly due to tungsten buildup. Pity, it seemed fairly good.

As for something around the 225 lumen range, I already have my fenix l2d for that- i'm looking for something beefier, as well as brighter. A ROP wouldn't be so bad (and seems a nice beginner mod), but I was wondering if there was something easy and brighter.

 

[Jay T]

Have you seen this prebuilt light for sale?

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=188534

You would need to add batteries and a charger.

 

[Nulllogik]

I like my WF-500. It is very close to my ROP if not brighter.

I use the Lumens Factory LA and AW protected 18650s, which is brighter than the stock ultrafire bulb/batteries.

 

[Tuck]

My bump in the night light is a Magcharger with Philips 5761 bulb. Very bright and the only mod is swapping out the bulb. I have it mounted in its charger on the wall next to my bed so it is always ready.

Tuck

 

[Jarl]

@ tuck: A mag charger would be fairly expensive in the UK, which rules it out, unfortunately.

@ jay: That's more than i'm willing to spend (currently! )

@ nulll: When you say ROP, is that ROP hi or low?

What's the performance like with the lumens factory LA (I assume you mean this)? Spending pretty much the cost of the light on a bulb seems a wee bit odd to me, especially if I'm likely to be hitting someone with it (the only experience of incans I have is MM's, where dropping them breaks the filament... I'm assuming it's still the same?) Since it's so cheap, I'm quite tempted to buy one with 2 or 3 spare bulbs, and get a couple of 18650's from AW with my 10440's. I can always use the 18650's with something else if it doesn't work out. With the option of a better LA, this sounds to be the best light currently.

Thanks for spending the time to acquaint an LED guy to decent incans, everyone

 

[Nulllogik]

...

@ nulll: When you say ROP, is that ROP hi or low?

What's the performance like with the lumens factory LA (I assume you mean this)? Spending pretty much the cost of the light on a bulb seems a wee bit odd to me, especially if I'm likely to be hitting someone with it (the only experience of incans I have is MM's, where dropping them breaks the filament... I'm assuming it's still the same?) Since it's so cheap, I'm quite tempted to buy one with 2 or 3 spare bulbs, and get a couple of 18650's from AW with my 10440's. I can always use the 18650's with something else if it doesn't work out. With the option of a better LA, this sounds to be the best light currently.

Thanks for spending the time to acquaint an LED guy to decent incans, everyone

Its the ROP High (6D and 2D) and i have the KD SMO, KD MOP, and the FM MOP reflectors.

I havent tried the low bulbs yet.

And yes, that is the correct LA. Its draw is a little much for the Ultrafire protected batteries (went into protection).

And at $4.87, a replacement ultrafire bulb (from DX) isnt that bad...

I use SKU: 1251 as my charger.

But i would also try to get a ROP eventually.

 

[JasonH]

I'd say go with a mag85 or a ROP-hi/low. They may only be a 1/4 of the output of the 623 (torch) but still if you use it at night and shine it in someones eyes, they wont be seeing for quite a while. Plus you get around 50min of runtime depending on the batteries you use. Hours if you go 6d club sized .

I just built a ROP hi/low for:
From FM:
MOP reflector $25
ROP hi/low bulbs $10
6aa-2d adapter for $37 (another person on here sells ones that work as well, but they dont look as nice imo . They sell for $20)


And since i dont like charging batteries off a car while im camping, i bought 3 sets of batteries for it.

Also if you like using packs of batteries instead, luxluthor makes battery packs for a relatively cheap price. But I prefer being able to change out bad cells or have more readily for camping.

 

[Jarl]

I was planning on using sku 936 as my charger, but the 1251 persuaded me with it's dual channels. The replacement bulbs are fairly cheap as you pointed out, though i'm not sure how many to get! Probably 2? If I get bad performance from them, I'll splash my cash on a lumen factory LA. Was thinking of getting the LED drop-in, but I it'd probably be a bit OTT, as this is the only incan I'll own for a while (until I get an excuse to build something really silly, basically).

Thanks again, guys

 

[LumenHound]

If a hotwire is your thing than you may want to add the Modamag M2 reflector to your wish list. They are a deeper porabala than the others and it could be what you are looking for beam-wise.
They show up on the CPF Marketplace once in a long while.
Just a thought.

Good luck with your build.

 

[RoyJ]

The WF-500 sems ok, but I don't like the bulb assembly- people have reported them failing quite early on, as well as dimming quickly due to tungsten buildup. Pity, it seemed fairly good.

You can always go for the new WF-600 (I think that's what it's called), which is a little bit more expensive, but already has a phillips halogen bulb in it that should resist tungsten loss much better than the stock xenon.

 

[Jarl]

Hmm, there are two 600's, and I've had a look at both of them. For me there's too much uncertainty as to what will fit and what won't, and if a bulb goes, what it can be replaced with. The last thing I want is a useless, $30 18650 holder. Will go for the 500, and if 3 bulbs go, I'll dig deep for a couple of the LF ones.

 

[RoyJ]

Hmm, there are two 600's, and I've had a look at both of them. For me there's too much uncertainty as to what will fit and what won't, and if a bulb goes, what it can be replaced with. The last thing I want is a useless, $30 18650 holder. Will go for the 500, and if 3 bulbs go, I'll dig deep for a couple of the LF ones.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.9428

This is the one. Lighthound carries the replacement bulb for $15.99. But the bulb is not overdriven that hard on two 18650s (7.4V for a 2000 hr, 6.0V bulb), and should last atleast 50 - 100 hrs.

Highly recommended for only $30, and may be more reliable than a home built light. My first Mag build with the KD bi-pin holder didn't work 1/2 the time.

I wonder if it's even possible to put the bulb into the holder yourself?

http://www.topbulb.com/find/Product_Description.asp_Q_intProductID_E_46107
I'm not too sure,