coverting the old maglites to Luxeon bulbs

[hairydogs]

i am considering replacing the old bulbs in the old flashlight - 6D and 6C - with the new Luxeon Star.

I hate doing all the soldering work myself. Is there any off the shelf replacement kit in the market? I mean including the dc to dc convertors and resistors? I forgot all the physics stuff I learn in the high school so I pretend I do not understand the I, V and A.

I really need a off the shelf stuff and pop it into the magnites and other old flashlights and also some minimag.

 

[Spork]

I'm waiting on the luxeon star to convert my 3 cell mag-lite. I know very little about electronics but I think most luxeon mods are driven with 3 cells. I plan on just using a simple resistor. ledcorp sells a 2 and 3 cell luxeon replacement i think but its not as bright as it could be. moding the maglite doesn't look to difficult. It looks like I wasted money on my lightwave 4000 cause I will have a nice mag-lite with a luxeon. This will probably replace most my other flashlights. A very nice lighting tool and a self defense club if need be.

 

[hairydogs]

what would the running time of using a 6D and 6C magnites?

How bright would it be? can it be overdriven?

 

[hairydogs]

what would the running time of using a 6D and 6C magnites?

How bright would it be? can it be overdriven?

 

[Klaus]

Hairydog,

using a 6cell maglite you have too high voltage and wouldl need to use a pretty high value resistor to drop enough voltage - as most people used 3 cells for the luxeon mods you might also use 2 luxeons in series for the 6 cells - this wouldl make sense but would need more mechanical work - normally one luxeon and 3 cells is a good fit.

For runtime considerations look up the data in the other threads where 3 D cells where driving one luxeon for a couple of days.

So using 2 luxeons with 6 cells wouldl be the same - using 1 luxeon with higher value resistors would last even longer but be less efficient.

Klaus

 

[Klaus]

Or wait for the new 5W Luxeon which needs double the current LS-ses voltage.

Klaus

 

[hairydogs]

when would be the 5W Luxeon star be available? what is the running time and the lumen value? Ane what voltage?

Could I assume it is suitable for a six cell magnite?

Moreover, I hate mechanical work and I do not have time for one.

 

[Klaus]

No idea on the 5W - look up the thread called "high power LED" from the other day where Brock posted a link to a PDF file - thats pretty much all I know off too.

Runtime / lumen - do the math - 700ma at 6.x V using whatever cells you plan to use ...

Using 7000ma D NiMhs this could be approx 10 hours at 120 lumens .......

Klaus

 

[dat2zip]

I just got a National Step Down DC/DC converter Eval board that looks like it will fit in the head of the D style Maglights and can drive an LS with high efficiencies.

Cross posted in electrics section and copied here:

LM2653 1.5A step down converter eval board. Since I haven't ordered the LT1512 yet, I saw this one mentioned somewhere and took a quick peek. It looke very interesting for a step down only flashlight mod like the 5D or 6D maglight and one LS. I fired this up today and with a RED LS on it I'm getting 2.478V and .264A output. The Eval board comes configured for 2.5V output so the red LED is not quite fully driven (~2.6V = .35) for this particular LED.

The cool news is I measured 93% efficiency with +/- ?? since the these are new 0.1 ohm resistors for measuring the input/output current and I don't know the tolerance on them.

The spec sheet shows 95% efficiency up to .5A or so. Drops to 90% efficiency at 1.5A output. This converter could drive the next generation 5W LS in a 5/6D Maglight conversion.

This eval board if trimmed down looks like it could slide down inside the bulb area on the D style Maglights.

They are $24.90 from National in case anyone is interested.

================

To put this in the Maglight, one would need to remove the connection posts and also trim the one side down to make it fit in the Maglight. R1 or R2 would need to be adjusted to increase the output voltage to raise the current to the LS. This will overdrive one LS very efficiently.

With 6 Volts in the input current is a mere .105A.

According to the Duracell data sheet for a MX1300 battery (D cell) one could expect 100 service hours at this current draw.

For an over driven example (3.6V = .6A).
This is 2.16 Watts. Input power would be 2.4W assuming 90% efficiency. Even for this example the Duracell data sheet shows a good 25 hours of service before the batteries poop out.

 

[Klaus]

dat2zip - the newe 5W luxeon will need double voltage at double draw compared to the current one

Klaus

 

[dat2zip]

Based upon what I've read hear and elsewhere the new 5W Luxeon LED will be 4 1.25W die to make the 5W version. That and the fact that they need 1.4A would be 4 dies in parallel (.35 * 4). Maybe in a month or so we will find out more exactly what the new 5W models will be. If they are in parallel, then, this converter will do the trick. If the LS is twice the voltage then this DC/DC will only go to 5V output??? max. I need to double check the data sheet.

I changed R1 & R2 to put out 3.3 Volts. The particular white LS I hooked up was drawing 665mA @ 3.3 Volts and with the input at 8.94 Volts the input current was .265 or 92.6% efficient.

 

[Klaus]

dat2zip,

brock posted a PDF in another thread named new high power LED or so - in which the data showed a 2+2 config of the dyes - 700ma at 6.xx V.

Klaus

 

[hairydogs]

Klaus

Are u talking about a 120 lumen from a LED cell with a 100 + hours runtime?

If this is the case, I shall grap one immediately. It simply replaces the everyday use flashlight with this intensity and run time.