I was bored.

[Xtremespeed]

This is not a complicated mod and probably won't impress anyone, but I like it so I thought I'd share.

I acquired an incan 3D Mag when I helped some family members clean out a house for an estate sale.
I brought it home, only for it to sit in the original package on my shelf. Not much use for it with all the other lights I have.
I looked into buying some parts to mod the light about a week ago, but I wasn't able to get exactly what I wanted, so I
decided to hold off, and then I started thinking. I know, I know. Dangerous.:D Anyways, I have had a Dereelight every since
they built the DBS. I originally purchased it with 2 reflectors and 2 pills. A smooth reflector with an xre r2 and an op reflector
with an mce. I like the mce but always preferred the xre because of the throw, so the mce and op reflector have just lived in
the box, and I thought they might be nice in the 3D Mag if I could make them work. I only had to cut the tower down on the
switch for the reflector and pill to fit. I did use an o-ring to help keep it centered in the bezel as the Dereelight reflector has a
slightly smaller diameter than the mag reflector. I bought 2 Trustfire 6000mah 32650's and made a dummy battery using a piece
of 1" pvc pipe, a couple copper plugs and a spring. The Trustfires are a little longer than a D cell, so I made the dummy battery
shorter, so I wouldn't need to modify the spring in the tail cap. I put the dummy between the Trustfires to maintain a good
balanced feel, and everything works like a charm. The Mag is much more useful with the increased lumens over the incan and
now the Dereelight parts will get used. I should get some really great runtimes as well with the 6000mah 32650's.

 

[HarryN]

That is a nice improvement for the old classic. It is always fun to give new life to a light. I like your battery spacer, nice idea. It is great to see hobby projects posted that are accessible to a large audience.

 

[FlashDev]

Some time back, I got one of those silvery-gray 3D maglites and stripped the anodized finish and then re-anodized it to a Barbie pink to use as the basis for a gift for my daughter. I want the light to be super bright, but most of the driver/LED combos I've come up with eat alkaline batteries quickly so I was trying to figure out a way to make a 3D light switchable between protected xx650s and D cells.

That PVC and copper fitting spacer is perfect, what is the source for that spring? Also, are those Trustfire 6500mah batteries protected, if so do you remember their overall length? That's definitely a clever mod that's within the grasp of practically anyone; nice work.

 

[HarryN]

FlashDev - There are quite a range of battery options in between Li D size cells and alkaline Ds. I am sure your daughter is quite capable, but my experience with family members is that it takes someone a bit fanatical to really properly treat Li rechargeable cells as safely as I like.

My suggestions instead is to consider setting up the light with NiMH or NiCd D cells for rechargeable use, or switch to AAs and adapters. The nice thing about AAs, is that you can readily obtain quite good ones in both rechargeable and primary versions, such as the energizer Li type. The better AAs hold more energy than the alkaline D cells, just due to market forces.

 

[FlashDev]

HarryN: NiMH AAs in adapters might be a good compromise. My daughter is working on her master's right now and she's been using and charging her own sets of AA NiCds since she was very young. (In her Teddy Ruxpin-like, Big Bird reading "companion"!) As a result, she's pretty good at battery management. Still, that's an excellent point about the fanaticism required to safely deal with lithium batteries. I think that we tend to gradually begin to assume that everyone, that is, "normal" people, share our obsessive behavioral tendencies when it comes to dealing with their batteries and lights.

That's also a good point about the capacity of AA cells. I've been noticing that it is more and more difficult to get "real" D cells in, say NiMH; they all seem to be AAs in a D (or C) shell. In fact, they just look like Ds and Cs! I know that there are some very high capacity ones available, but pretty much only online or mail-order.

What I had in mind was a light that would be extremely bright, but with the flexibility to use "off the shelf" batteries in case of emergency. I think that 6x or 9x AA cells may be just right - rechargeable for student budget constraints while still being easy to feed.

Now I've got to find the perfect driver and emitter... again! :-)

Thanks for the suggestion, great idea!

 

[jorn]

How is the heatsinking on this mod?

 

[Xtremespeed]

Some time back, I got one of those silvery-gray 3D maglites and stripped the anodized finish and then re-anodized it to a Barbie pink to use as the basis for a gift for my daughter. I want the light to be super bright, but most of the driver/LED combos I've come up with eat alkaline batteries quickly so I was trying to figure out a way to make a 3D light switchable between protected xx650s and D cells.

That PVC and copper fitting spacer is perfect, what is the source for that spring? Also, are those Trustfire 6500mah batteries protected, if so do you remember their overall length? That's definitely a clever mod that's within the grasp of practically anyone; nice work.

Sorry it took so long to reply. Just found your post.
The spring I just had laying around but they sell them at Lowes and Home Depot. The Trust fire cells are protected and measure 66.16mm.

The heatsink is brass and comes assembled as a pill from Dereelight.

Thanks for the nice comments. It was a simple build but really gives the 3D mag a nice upgrade and allows me to get some use out of that extra pill and reflector.