LEDs for Mini Mag

[Northernflame]

Hi.

I'd recomend the terralux ministar (unless you want colour other than bright white).

http://www.luxeonstar.com/

It should be noted that I too had minimaglites (AA) that ate batteries and bulbs (krypton) continiously.

I contacted maglite...

As per Maglites sugestion I replaced the bulb sockets with the new verions. Problems solved, also the reflectors/colimnators in the old version maglites are longer/taller than the new ones.

As with the opalec LED minimag conversion as well it states that the new recent modele of maglite is required. The old modele seems to missing some holes. The holes are two slots on either side of the bulb mount. To which the Opalec led bulb sits into.

http://www.opalec.com/

http://www.kidenergy.com/21-0100.html

Since the AA and AAA mini maglites are so small a proper driver circuit is recomended.

Obviously the Opalec would have a longer battery life.

However my luxeon ministar conversion last 8-9 hours form a fresh set of battereis.

Now if you take a 2AA luxeon flashlight such as the streamlight luxeon Jr. It's basicaly direct driven as the batteries only last one hour.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I hope this helps.

yt

NF

 

[voodoogreg]

I like the terrralux ministar2. bright good up close and better throw then multi led drop in's. the beam is not the greated as far as some ring's, artifact's, but it make's for a more versatile light that will still focus/flood. VDG

 

[Longbow]

jbfla above gave some very good advise! The Gerber Trio is definitely the way to go!

 

[radellaf]

The SMD+ I got about a week ago is either horribly inefficient, or providing around 600mA to the 1W LD luxeon (violet tinted white) when running off NiMH. I(in)=~1.9A. It does heat sink well to the light, as the whole flashlight gets warm. I monitored temps up to about 125(F) with a digital oven thermometer. [edit: bit is half that heat coming from the converter?]

I would like a 3W, or a 1W HD mod since the white is purer from those, but AFAICT none really work well with the MiniMag's switching. Lambda's said a HD wouldn't work w/o custom reflector work on the pill, and the MiniPro will be nice (for NiMH) but is unobtanium at present. I have some Fraen, though, and the picture of the SMD+ showed a HD, so I am a bit disappointed.

The pill is BRIGHT, but a better power-budget-bargain is an old adjustable MadMax, though I think the MM and BB are recommended for Brinkmann Legend lights more than the MiniMag.

[edit: further disappointed...or maybe I should just have done more research...looks like the lambda SMD+ is marginally brigher than a MM, and draws 3x the (600mA) current. MM is I think a Q3J, dunno about the lambda.]

Any comments on how the Opalec compares to the TerraLux 4-LED mod? No red batt-low indicator on the TerraLux. Isn't the Luxeon TerraLux overdriving the luxeon, given that there's no heat sink? Thought I heard that but dunno if they lowered the drive level after initial release.

 

[radellaf]

Well, the MadMax lite with a HD and Fraen is on sale for $30 ($2.60 shipping) at the Sandwich shoppe so I went ahead and ordered one. That's, I think, what I was after in the first place so the SMD+'ll go on B/S/T soon.

 

[Northernflame]

Concerning your luxeon overdriving comment.

Obviously the terralux is not being over driven. For the simple fact that one can get approx 8 hours of light from fresh batteries.

The streamlight Jr is direct driven and only last 1 hour on
the same amount of fresh batteries with the same bulb.

However the Streamlight Jr is dangerously bright. The Jr's claimed luxeon bulb life is also rated lower than the terralux's .

If you use rechargable batteries then the Streamlight Jr might make a little bit of sense.

Now if streamlight added a two or three mode to it's Jr like it's lux3aa and tt-3aa cousins then you'd have a very good competition to the AA mini maglite wiht or without the terralux (not including Xenon bulbs).

Thanks for the Chat

yt

NF.

 

[radellaf]

>Obviously the terralux is not being over driven.
> For the simple fact that one can get approx
> 8 hours of light from fresh batteries.

Putting the current draw in the neighborhood of 300mA, which puts the lux If=~200mA, which seems a bit much for not having any heatsink. But, sounds like it isn't a problem in practice.