ElectronGuru
Flashaholic
I stumbled into a solution to something that's bugged me for years. I haven't seen this before, so I thought I'd share. Note: this is for particularly patient perfectionists. All photos are 2007 Maglite 2C's.
Result
Perfect focus every time with maximum throw and no doughnut hole (using stock components)
Story
I was testing a pair of maglite's while working on an unrelated project, and noticed that they had different beam patterns, despite both heads being equally tight. I thought this was factory configured and having just taken them apart, assumed that I must have messed something up when putting them back together. But after swapping components and eliminating every other variable, it became clear that the starting point on the cam system is set more or less randomly every time the head is put together.
Background
The Maglite cam system works by pushing on the brass colored pin, shown here at 1 o'clock.
As the tail of the blue reflector spins against the pin, it pushes down on it, forcing the spring loaded light bulb in and out of the reflector. This changes the elevation of the bulb, which in turn changes the beam pattern/focus of the light.
Problem
Most of the time, I want the light to be on maximum sharp focus. But this setting exists in only two narrow places on the cam. Finding them requires searching for the correct result, with little way to predict which way the bulb will go (up or down, more info below) with the next twist. Making matters worse, there's nothing to announce the magic point (from a UI standpoint) and you often must go back and forth several times to find it.
Goal
Calibrate the starting position of the cam inside the head, relative to the brass pin inside the body, making it easy to retain and repeat. For even more control, select which of the two ideal starting points gives you the better initial wide focus.
Technique
1a) install the lens and bulb you want to calibrate for
1b) changing the lens thickness or bulb height will move the sweet spot
2) ignoring focus, tighten everything down to the snugness (torque) you want to keep/repeat
3a) the pin we are calibrating to is behind the switch, on the inside
3b) attach a post-it to indicate on the head where the switch (and pin) are on the body
3c) make sure the paper extends past the bottom of the head.
4a) unscrew and remove the head from the tube
4b) remove the bezel, lens, and reflector
4c) with a metal tool, scratch a mark on the inside of the small end, relative to the post-it
4d) this is the [important] point where the head stops turning, relative to the pin
5a) remove the post-it
5b) reassemble the entire head
6a) loosen (don't remove) the bezel from the rest of the head
6b) inside, rotate the reflector to the desired position*
6c) tighten the bezel onto the head**
7a) put the head back on the tube and tighten with the same torque as step 2
8a) test for desired beam pattern
8b) if not right, remove the head and return to step 6a***
8c) take your time with this and when you're ready, move to step 9a
9a) mark the inside of the reflector with a sharpie so as to match the 4c mark
9b) marks on the bottom edge are quickly worn away by the brass pin
9c) if the tallest point on (apex of) the reflector is 12, my favorite setting is about 10 o'clock
9d) for the stock lens and 6D bulb I use, this starts at the tightest focus with full flood only a quarter-turn away.
10) enjoy!
11) next time you remove the bezel, just line up the two marks, brace the reflector, and tighten
12) For multiple configurations or calibrations on the same light, use a different color sharpie for each
Notes
* Finding the desired position can take many on/offs of the head and loosenings/tightenings of the bezel. Keep in mind that there are two sweet spots, left or right of the apex. Left of apex means going downhill when first loosing the head, Right means going uphill. Down = bulb lower in the reflector, Up = bulb higher in the reflector. Since my sweet spot (10 o'clock) is already low in the reflector, I chose to go up rather than going the rest of the way down first.
** the import part when both loosening and tightening the bezel, is to brace the reflector from spinning (inside and relative to the head) with one hand while turning the bezel with the other. For example, put a finger inside the reflector's tube and bend your finger enough to brace against it.
*** in my testing, the reflector has more of a tendency to move (miscalibrate) when loosening the bezel than when tightening it.
Result
Perfect focus every time with maximum throw and no doughnut hole (using stock components)
click to enlarge
(view of bulb position with 10 o'clock calibration)
(view of bulb position with 10 o'clock calibration)
Story
I was testing a pair of maglite's while working on an unrelated project, and noticed that they had different beam patterns, despite both heads being equally tight. I thought this was factory configured and having just taken them apart, assumed that I must have messed something up when putting them back together. But after swapping components and eliminating every other variable, it became clear that the starting point on the cam system is set more or less randomly every time the head is put together.
Background
The Maglite cam system works by pushing on the brass colored pin, shown here at 1 o'clock.
click to enlarge
As the tail of the blue reflector spins against the pin, it pushes down on it, forcing the spring loaded light bulb in and out of the reflector. This changes the elevation of the bulb, which in turn changes the beam pattern/focus of the light.
Problem
Most of the time, I want the light to be on maximum sharp focus. But this setting exists in only two narrow places on the cam. Finding them requires searching for the correct result, with little way to predict which way the bulb will go (up or down, more info below) with the next twist. Making matters worse, there's nothing to announce the magic point (from a UI standpoint) and you often must go back and forth several times to find it.
Goal
Calibrate the starting position of the cam inside the head, relative to the brass pin inside the body, making it easy to retain and repeat. For even more control, select which of the two ideal starting points gives you the better initial wide focus.
Technique
1a) install the lens and bulb you want to calibrate for
1b) changing the lens thickness or bulb height will move the sweet spot
2) ignoring focus, tighten everything down to the snugness (torque) you want to keep/repeat
click to enlarge
3a) the pin we are calibrating to is behind the switch, on the inside
3b) attach a post-it to indicate on the head where the switch (and pin) are on the body
3c) make sure the paper extends past the bottom of the head.
click to enlarge
4a) unscrew and remove the head from the tube
4b) remove the bezel, lens, and reflector
4c) with a metal tool, scratch a mark on the inside of the small end, relative to the post-it
4d) this is the [important] point where the head stops turning, relative to the pin
click to enlarge
5a) remove the post-it
5b) reassemble the entire head
click to enlarge
6a) loosen (don't remove) the bezel from the rest of the head
6b) inside, rotate the reflector to the desired position*
6c) tighten the bezel onto the head**
7a) put the head back on the tube and tighten with the same torque as step 2
8a) test for desired beam pattern
8b) if not right, remove the head and return to step 6a***
8c) take your time with this and when you're ready, move to step 9a
9a) mark the inside of the reflector with a sharpie so as to match the 4c mark
9b) marks on the bottom edge are quickly worn away by the brass pin
9c) if the tallest point on (apex of) the reflector is 12, my favorite setting is about 10 o'clock
9d) for the stock lens and 6D bulb I use, this starts at the tightest focus with full flood only a quarter-turn away.
click to enlarge
10) enjoy!
11) next time you remove the bezel, just line up the two marks, brace the reflector, and tighten
12) For multiple configurations or calibrations on the same light, use a different color sharpie for each
Notes
* Finding the desired position can take many on/offs of the head and loosenings/tightenings of the bezel. Keep in mind that there are two sweet spots, left or right of the apex. Left of apex means going downhill when first loosing the head, Right means going uphill. Down = bulb lower in the reflector, Up = bulb higher in the reflector. Since my sweet spot (10 o'clock) is already low in the reflector, I chose to go up rather than going the rest of the way down first.
** the import part when both loosening and tightening the bezel, is to brace the reflector from spinning (inside and relative to the head) with one hand while turning the bezel with the other. For example, put a finger inside the reflector's tube and bend your finger enough to brace against it.
*** in my testing, the reflector has more of a tendency to move (miscalibrate) when loosening the bezel than when tightening it.
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