How To Mod a Maglite P7 - 38 PICS

[shdwkeeper]

I thought I would put together an updated or a NEW, How To for Maglites Mods. When I was trying to do my first Mod I had to look through multiple articles and posts just to get everything together and then it was trial and error mode. Well so here it goes, this will be my first tutorial on this.

To get started here are some of the parts you are going to need:

Here are the parts I used for this Direct Drive mod:

-3D Maglite
-SSC P7 DSWOI or DSWOJ Bin - I have some of these left or check with PhotonFanatic's stock as well.
-P7 SSC HAIII Heatsink
-Alumina Adhesive - PhotonFanatic or local electronic store
-Artic Compound - PhotonFanatic or local electronic store
-22 or 24 Gauge Teflon Wire - look on Ebay since Mudman is out of 24 Gauge.
-UCL Lens - 52.1mm x 1.90mm

The first thing I did was lay out the heatsinks, LEDS, aluminium foil, Alumina Adhesive, rubbing alcohol, Q-tips, as shown in the picture above.

I then cleaned all the heatsinks contact points and bottom of the LEDs, with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol so the adhesive would get a good bond as shown below.

and the bottom of the LEDs

Now before you epoxy this LED to your heatsink you probably want to cut the tabs a little bit off of the LED. Here is a before photo:

and after cutting the tabs with some small cutters

Cutting these tabs allows you to have a tighter fit with the reflector, it also looks cleaner when you solder the wires to the LED.

Now is the time to mix equal parts of the Alumina epoxy, which I do on aluminum foil.

Once the mixing is done spread a very thin coat of epoxy on top of the heatsink, enough to cover the bottom of the led. You DO NOT want too much here, because you don't want the epoxy OOZING out and making contact with your LED tabs and heatsink. Once you have the thin coat of epoxy down, its time to place your LED on the heatsink/epoxy and give it a little bit of downward pressure to make a good seal. I try and line the LED tabs up with the holes in the heatsink as shown below. This gets you in good position to solder the wires to the LED.

Let the LED sit for an hour on top of the heatsink so it dries firmly. That finished up this part.


Now its time to take apart the Maglite. Here are the tools to get started.
Mini Screwdriver and a 5/64" allen wrench

Take apart the Maglite as shown below and set off to the side.

Use the Mini-flathead screwdriver to remove the rubber cover

Now take the 5/64" allen wrench, insert it into the switch hole and loosen the screw till the switch becomes loose, then slide the switch out the bottom of the Mag tube.

Use the same allen wrench to unscrew the bulb from the switch and set these parts (not sure what you can do with these, backup parts for something else) aside as shown.

Now its time to remove the actual switch from the switch housing so we can modify the housing. Pop the switch and Negative contact out, with a small screw driver.

Now, this is where the fun begins. I use a dremel to cut the housing, some people actually use a lathe which looks nicer. But, no one is going to see this housing once its inside the the Mag tube.

Now, we need to do the same thing with the stock reflector.

Once all the dremel work is done, its time to break out the soldering iron and get ready to wire the light together. Get your 24 gauge Teflon wire out and cut 2 lengths. The Positive side (Red in my pictures) about 5 inches, and the Negative side (Black in my pictures) about 4 inches. You can trim these to the right lengths once you put the switch back into the Mag tube.

Once you put the switch back into the new Modified housing, bend down the Negative strip as far as it will go. The positive contact is in the middle of the switch. I also pre-tin everything with solder so it makes connecting the wires easier when that time comes. Use flux if you have it, it makes soldering much cleaner and easier.

Now solder the two wires to the switch contacts. Once that is done, put the switch back into the Maglite tube and secure it with the 5/64" Allen wrench.

Now the part you have been waiting for. Solder the Positive wire "RED" to the "+" LED tab and the Negative wire "BLACK" to the "-" LED tab. How do you tell the difference between the Positive and Negative LED tab? The Negative side has a little hole in the top of the tab if you are looking down on it (See Picture #7 above)

Once all the wires are secured to the LED, its time for a quick test. Add your batteries into the Maglite and power it on for 2-3 secs by pushing on the switch. Once you have light, its time to put the Mag back together.

Before putting the heatsink and light back into the Mag body, make sure you add an even layer of thermal compound around the heatsink, so it transfers the heat evenly back to the Mag body.

Now push the heatsink back into the Mag body, some Mag bodies will be a very tight fit. In this case I use a 1 inch PVC pipe and place it over the LED and tape it lightly with a hammer to get the heatsink flush into the Mag body. Once the heatsink is down you will probably need to cleanup some of the Thermal compound.

Cleaned up from the above picture.

Now put all the Mag parts back together. I took out the stock lens and replaced it with a UCL lens.

Now put the switch rubber cover back on, add the batteries and tailcap.

Your Done........ Now light up the neighboorhood.

I hope this tutorial helps anyone out there, that is trying to build their first Mag Mod.

Cheers...

 

[1anrm]

Re: How To Mod a Maglite P7

thanks for this. Have a good trip!

 

[tabetha]

Re: How To Mod a Maglite P7

Good info there, still not dared do my first one!!
tabetha

 

[DM51]

Re: How To Mod a Maglite P7

This is a very useful thread. I'm moving it to H&M where it belongs.

 

[p moore]

Re: How To Mod a Maglite P7

Well....It's been a week

 

[shdwkeeper]

Its done, take a look.

 

[tabetha]

Thanks for the update piccies, very good of you to take the time to load these.
I will most likely do one of these first using your excellent tutorial, so long as I can hide "another bloody torch" from the gf, she's going a bit mental about them all over the place, I said I'm an anorak what do you expect, then we had power cuts 3 days running, she didn't moan then!!
tabetha

 

[shdwkeeper]

Glad you like it. Its a little picture heavy but pics are nice.

 

[Lightcrazycanuck]

An awsome job Shdwkeeper.Always wanted to try something like this but I needed a step by step guide to try it.And now you have done that.THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!:twothumbs:twothumbs

I'm going to give this a try.Wish me LUCK.LOL!!!!!!!!!

lovecpflovecpflovecpflovecpflovecpflovecpflovecpf

 

[CBR-runner]

Man you beat me too it. I was going to make the same post. I have built 3 SSC P7 2D mag's with the buck converter that Dr. Wichtel makes, and the 8x AA to 2D converter form the Sandwich Shoppe.

The run times are great and man are they bright. :huh:

 

[shdwkeeper]

Yes they are extremely bright.

Man you beat me too it. I was going to make the same post. I have built 3 SSC P7 2D mag's with the buck converter that Dr. Wichtel makes, and the 8x AA to 2D converter form the Sandwich Shoppe.

The run times are great and man are they bright. :huh:

 

[dirtech]

thank you for this thread. clarified some things for me. I'm going to be using a warm tinted MCE. If I go direct drive, can anyone tell me my battery options with a 2 D mag. I'm really confused about this and I may just get a cheap driver from KD or DX and accept the crap blinky modes. Ideally, I would use that remora board from the sandwich shoppe and get three modes in direct drive, but I've no clue what batteries to use. I understand that the MCE has around 3.3 Vf at 2.8amps? does that mean I'm looking at one lithium ion battery to power it in parallel? I'm hoping to use AA's or 2 18650's for some battery commonality.

Sorry for the incoherent babbling.

 

[shdwkeeper]

For a 2D direct drive I would go with 3 C 5500 mAh batteries, you need to modify the tailcap and you would also need a battery adapter to hold the C batteries in place inside the D tube.

If I go direct drive, can anyone tell me my battery options with a 2 D mag.

Sorry for the incoherent babbling.

 

[sadtimes]

Todd,
Awesome post, cleared up a few questions that I had. Just got my heatsinks in today so tomorrow I will be mod'n away...

And to whomever said that it was picture heavy, there is no such thing when it comes to tutorials... Thanks for all the time it took Todd!

 

[shdwkeeper]

drmalenko:

Good for you, I hope this tutorial helps you when you start your project. Keep us posted.

 

[dirtech]

For a 2D direct drive I would go with 3 C 5500 mAh batteries, you need to modify the tailcap and you would also need a battery adapter to hold the C batteries in place inside the D tube.

Are you talking nimh batteries. If so, is this wired 4p.

thanks and I may just do this. I like the idea of having a light with common batteries. Do you have any experience or ideas on how this would work with D alkalines in a pinch?

 

[shdwkeeper]

Yes, NIMH batteries. Alkalines work as well just not as bright, once the alkalines get a load put onto them they drop in voltage. But, when I say not as bright, I mean as the NIMH, the flashlight is still extremely bright.

Are you talking nimh batteries. If so, is this wired 4p.

thanks and I may just do this. I like the idea of having a light with common batteries. Do you have any experience or ideas on how this would work with D alkalines in a pinch?

 

[Dark Laser]

Well, the possibility of using Alkalines makes the Mag very versatile :twothumbs

But would a MC-E survive the direct-drive? Perhaps by 3 C-size rechargeables, to keep the current down? I'd much more like a warm-white MC-E (since I got my Fenix TK20, I changed my opinion about my favourite color temperature ). Do you think a MC-E-star would work, too (with the reflector being cut down a bit more)?

I haven't bought a new light for a long time...nearly 9 months - so I thougt about getting a 3C with MC-E...or if not, a 4D (color: copper, cost: only 28 € :naughty:) - or a 2C...or...or

 

[Justin Case]

In a direct 2D Mag with 2xD NiMH or alkalines, you won't get any appreciable output from either a 4P MC-E or a P7. The nominal 2.4V from your batteries is too low. The datasheet for the P7, for example, shows that forward current goes to zero at a forward voltage of about 2.5V. Now this is no doubt average/typical behavior, so your specific P7 might produce something when driven at 2.4V but it won't be much. You'll find the same result with the MC-E.

If you want to direct drive a P7, you probably should select the J voltage bin emitter to best match the input voltage from your 3xC NiMH. If you direct drive a 4P MC-E, the spec is Vf=3.4V at 2.8A drive current (700mA per core). So you'll face potentially the same issue as for an I voltage bin P7 of briefly overdriving the LED initially when the cells are hot off the charger, and maybe somewhat overdriving the MC-E at steady state. If that concerns you, the inexpensive solution is to build an 8xAMC7135, two-board sandwich driver, as shown by Netkidz, StefanFS, and others on CPF (or buy a ready-made one from sources like Kaidomain). I would de-solder and remove the diodes from the AMC-based boards, and short those connections with a wire or a solder bridge to ensure running in regulation. I also would actually suggest that the optimum configuration is 3xD NiMH if you use this AMC-based sandwich driver. 3xC NiMH IMO is marginal for using an 8xAMC7135 sandwich driver, even for a relatively low Vf quad-die emitter like an I voltage bin P7.

You could also direct drive the low Vf LEDs using 3xalkalines. The voltage sag should be more than enough to avoid any overdriving issues. If anything, you'll underdrive the P7 or 4P MC-E although you'll still get plenty of lumens out.

 

[Ny0ng1]

thanks for the tutorial! very helpful indeed.

so this mod will accept all these kind of battery configuration: alkalines, carbon zinc, nimh, nicd right?
thinking to do the same to my parents Mag 3D

Eric