Instructions for 7 LED MiniMag Conversion

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**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
A lot of people mailed me because of the 7 LED MiniMag conversion, so I decided to publish them in the forum:

Ok, here are the instructions:

I hope you have seen the photos I took (http://photos.yahoo.com/magphotos2002).

Ok, at first, you have to plot the parts you want to make out of PCboard material(1.5mm) on paper, so you can glue them to the material and cut them out.

1. A ring to make a spacer between the head of the mag and the ring, that holds the lens: outer diameter: 23mm, inner diameter 19mm.(instead of the original reflector)

2. The board, which will hold your LEDs: diameter 18mm

3. the disk which will be glued into the windings of the head to switch off the maglite as the reflector is removed, which usually pushes down the black plastic part when switching off. Diameter 16mm, with a 5mm hole in it.

So, now make the LED board:

1. You have to place 7 Leds on this board. Draw this on paper, so you can use this as a drilling aid when glued to the board.
One LED is in the middle. The other 6 are placed around (one LED has 5mm diameter...). The pins of the outer LEDs have to be directed in the way they look like a star: The axis between the 2 pins of a led points outwards like a radius. Hmm, everything clear? I will attach a drawing...

2. Ok, drill these 14 holes in the board. Now put a engraver(?right word?) into your Minidrill and engrave the spaces between the lines in a way all 7 pins of the LEDs are connected together, and the other 7 are also. See drawing for details.

3. Now solder in the LEDs taking care, everyone has the right polarity (all anodes should be connected, also all cathodes..). You will have to sand the little squares at the pins of the LEDs off to make them fit in.

4. Now the pins of the 6 outer LEDs are cut down to the soldering tin. The pins of the cental LED are trimmed to fit into the 2 holes the lamp was originally put in. Takes a little expeimenting, try not to cut too much, as you would have to add a new center LED then
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Now sand the outer parts of the board a little bit to get the copper off the edges to prevent shorting them by the aluminium of the mag head.

Ok, LED board completed...
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Now glue the "switch" into the head:

screw the body into the head of the mag a little. Now place the disk with the 5mm hole in there on top of the black plastic part. it should sit on it plain. Now screw in the body a little more, until the disk is about 3mm under its desired position. Place some(!) 5min-epoxy-gle onto the edegs of the disk and onto the windings(?right word?) of the head. Now screw in the body, until it has pushed the disk to its final position.

When the glue is hardened (after a few hours..) then screw out the body and place a LITTLE(!) bit of glue onto the removable black plastic part and screw it in again. So the black plastic is glued against the disk and cannot rotate against the head when the lamp is switched on/off. This would perhaps cause the pins of your LED board to twist
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Ok, now you got it. Screw the head on the body and insert the LED board. If it doesnt light when turned on, you have to switch polarity of the LED board by taking it out and inserting it again in the other direction. Now it should function...

Place the PC ring between head and lens and screw on the lens holder.


Ok, done...!

For the batteries: Either use 2 Energizer Lithium AAs or better 3 N cells and a conducting spacer on the bottom (all taped with clear plastic film a few times because of the smaller diameter of these cells.)


Have fun. If you have some additional questions ore something in my text is not clear (like in my brain sometimess...
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) please email me. Email me also when you have success, please!

I added the image of the LED board at http://photos.yahoo.com/magphotos2002 on the second page (image17).
 
Phantomas2002
Hey thanks, that worked out lots easier than i thought it would, i didnt even use a pc board, i just melded together a cluster using its leads.
glad you posted this
 
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