Drop-in Mag 3d bulbs

[Daravon]

Some months/years ago I was a pizza guy and needed a long-throw+weaponable flashlight in addition to the surefire. At the time, there was a hot mod I read about on this forum where someone found a LED that you could affix to a disassembled maglight bulb with epoxy, and drop it right in, the resistance of the flashlight providing the right current limiting. The limitation was it would burn out if used for more than a few seconds at a time. I artfully disassembled a stock maglight bulb and installed the LED module with JB weld and copper wire, so that it would screw right in.

This was fine and I used the light a lot for many months, but eventually the LED did burn out, just the other day, and I don't know what kind it was. I think I've seen mag drop-in LED bulbs, but I'm not sure they are very bright...my suspicion is they are not because retail products have to be idiot proof and I'm pretty sure my modded light would have melted the reflector even if the LED didn't burn out. So I'm not sure if OTC drop-in bulbs are as bright. The modded mag was brilliantly bright in its day, and it was my brightest light, so I need to return it to its former glory.I would like to either find out what LED I need to repeat the mod, or find out what other Mag 3D mods are out there.

 

[fivemega]

Your LED burnet out because of excessive heat and or overvoltage since you didn't have any heat sink or current regulator.
There are many different kind of affordable drop in you can find in market.

 

[Daravon]

Your LED burnet out because of excessive heat and or overvoltage since you didn't have any heat sink or current regulator.

I know. But it lasted quite a long time and if I had it to do over again I would, because the LED modules were cheap and it lasted a fairly long time.

 

[M@elstrom]

The quick & dirty OTC Mag mod would be either the TerraLux TLE-6EX around 140Lm (peak) OR preferably a Malkoff Devices drop in wickedly bright but more expensive than the TerraLux offering (but worth it IMHO), should you not wish to retain the focusability of the M@g Terralux also retail a triple LED emitter drop in which IIRC is purportedly around 300Lm, for comparison the stock 3D M@g was about 80Lm (with new Alkies) :thumbsup:

Moving into pure modding territory a SSC P7 mod will yield between 700~900Lm (depending on power source & LED bin specifications)

 

[Drewfus2101]

Malkoff is the best. If you thought it was bright before, you will be blown away.

 

[HarryN]

You can do the same thing again, just slightly better.

Use a Lumileds K2 as it is pretty forgiving. Try to mount the LED heat base on something conductive (like aluminum or copper) that is touching the walls of the light. It is not a "heat sink" but a "heat spreader". You are spreading the heat to the walls of the light and into your hand, which is ideal.

Add a 1 - 2 ohm resistor and you can run it non stop until the batteries are dead.

It is ok (but not ideal) to have the (-) / ground of the flashlight also grounded to the heat sink in this kind of setup. If you have a fancier driver, then it needs to be isolated.

 

[Daravon]

I had wanted to mod a normal maglight bulb with an LED like I did before, completely unmodding the light itself. The other mod was also cheap, but then it burnt out too. But considering the light is practically worthless in stock form, I'm looking at the mods where people cut the forward bit off the switch assembly, cut the cam off the reflector, and install a heatsink and LED. I think these mods might be cheap enough for me since the $60 drop-ins are too expensive. Some of the heatsink-and-reflector-chopping mods seem to run without any driver circuitry other than maybe a resistor. I'm interested in these for simplicity so all I need is

A heatsink
An appropriate LED module to work direct or with resistance added
I can get resistors at work

Although modders seem to list the LED they use, it's usually some technical number like 'XPZ bin 37 luxeon gnarLED' and I don't know what it means or where to buy them.

It is ok (but not ideal) to have the (-) / ground of the flashlight also grounded to the heat sink in this kind of setup. If you have a fancier driver, then it needs to be isolated.

Why is this? What polarity of LED modules is usually electrically connected to the heatsink, if any? It would seem like it would either work, or it wouldn't.

 

[HarryN]

It takes a bit of reading to figure it all out. The details of it all can be easily found in the Lumileds data sheets here:

http://www.philipslumileds.com/products/luxeon/luxeonK2

This includes all of the info on "bins" for the LEDs, why they have to be grounded / not grounded certain ways, etc.

BTW, there are several good suppliers / brands of power LEDs out there, I happen to understand the Lumileds ones better so that is what I talk to. There are plenty of Cree and SS fans out there as well. When I did my testing, the improvements were not enough for me to bother with - sort of an Intel vs AMD thing - they both work

 

[Daravon]

Ok...I didn't even know if Cree vs Lumileds vs SS were brands, or types of LED, or what.

 

[concept0]

Is anyone making a drop-in MC-E?

 

[Gunner12]

Check this thread for Maglite drop-in/mods.
The Welcome Mat has a good amount of general Info.

Cree is a LED company, there XR-E model LEDs are most used around here. The MC-E model is essentially 4 XR-E dies together in one package
SS usually stands Seoul Semiconductor, which also makes LED. They get their LED dies from Cree and make their own phosphor. The most common LED from them used here is the P4. Their P7 is essentially 4 P4s in one package.
Luxeon is another LED company. They aren't at the top efficiency wise but they do have two current gen LEDs. The Rebel and the TFFC K2s.

Is anyone making a drop-in MC-E?

It'll have to have a decent sized heatsink.

 

[Daravon]

Thank you, that cleared up a lot of forum-jargon for me.

I actually epoxy'd my remaining Edison that I used before, complete with star-washer, right onto the bulb-tower, retaining its springyness. With the bottom of the reflector cut off and sanded, the LED die ends up right where it needs to be to be focused for maximum throw and a nice tight beam. This makes me happy, but I measured 1200mA though, which is more than the LED can take according to dealextreme, but it still does not get very hot at all during typical use, so I think I'm just going to leave it. If/when it burns out, I will go for a more pro mag mod with heatsink and driving circuitry.