mag85 help

[exodus125]

I was getting ready to order some stuff from kaidomain. I initially wanted an aluminum reflector to run a 2d ROP. Thing is, I have a spare 3d mag I am not doing anything with and a bunch of eneloops.

So now I want to try to make a mag85. I am planning on getting a g4 bi pin socket from kaidomain. They sell a bulb (KD880U) which has the following specs: [email protected]

will this be ok to run on 9AA eneloops or will the light be a lot dimmer than running it on a welch allen 1185 bulb?

the 5 pack bulbs are priced well, but I just don't want to order it if its not going to be over driven to produce the high lumens.

Should I just pick up the gr pi bin socket and look for another g4 bulb? if so what bulb other than the welch 1185 would you recommend, maybe something a little less expensive. I know the mag85 specifically calls for a welch 1185, but looking for other options to run on 9aa eneloops.

EDIT: also, do they make g4 bulbs that would run good on a 6AA ROP type setup? Just wondering if there is a good g4 alternative to a pelican big D

 

[gswitter]

also, do they make g4 bulbs that would run good on a 6AA ROP type setup? Just wondering if there is a good g4 alternative to a pelican big D

Yes, quite a few - WA 1111 and Philips 5761 to name a couple.

See this thread for lots of good info.

 

[exodus125]

I was also looking at these from kaidomain:

6V 20W G4 Incan Bulb SKU: S003482

the problem is that only the sold out bulbs from kaidomain were tested in that destructive test.

 

[Benson]

Two threads you need to answer these sort of questions:

• Silverfox's NiMH Battery Shoot Out
• LuxLuthor's Destructive Incan Bulb Tests

Thanks to their efforts in testing, you can get actual numbers on the batteries and bulbs you plan to use, so the only thing left to guesswork (or to your own testing...) is the resistance of the light itself.

So now I want to try to make a mag85. I am planning on getting a g4 bi pin socket from kaidomain. They sell a bulb (KD880U) which has the following specs: [email protected]

will this be ok to run on 9AA eneloops or will the light be a lot dimmer than running it on a welch allen 1185 bulb?

It'll be a lot dimmer.

the 5 pack bulbs are priced well, but I just don't want to order it if its not going to be over driven to produce the high lumens.

Seems you might be confusing a couple concepts here. Overdrive doesn't have much to do with lumens when comparing different bulbs -- I can badly underdrive a 400W bulb and be way brighter (more lumens) than a Mag85. Overdrive, or more accurately, simply hard-driving, improves the efficiency and whiteness, at the cost of bulb life. (The reason overdrive doesn't exactly match is that different bulbs have different efficiency-whiteness vs. life tradeoffs built into their nominal ratings. A bulb rated for 50 hours of life is already driven hard, and will be more efficient than a mildly overdriven 5000-hour bulb.)

Now the 1185 is rated at 9.6V, 30W, and 9 eneloops will hold up to 10.3V under that load, so it might run 33W or so. And the 1185 is rated 50h at 9.6V, so it's being driven pretty hard.

The other bulb is rated 12.5V, 1.3A, so that's 16W at spec. Your eneloops will hold up to 11.2ish V under the lighter current draw, so maybe 14W. If it had the same efficiency as the 1185, it'd be about 40% of the brightness. I don't know how many hours that's rated for, so I can't make a guess at how hard it's driven, but unless it was rated at something like 10 hours, it's gonna be milder than the 1185, so it's less lm/W -- less than 40%. I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of a ROP low, or maybe a little brighter.

Should I just pick up the gr pi bin socket and look for another g4 bulb? if so what bulb other than the welch 1185 would you recommend, maybe something a little less expensive. I know the mag85 specifically calls for a welch 1185, but looking for other options to run on 9aa eneloops.

Don't know of any right off -- it's only $10, and you get to run maybe 10 sets of rechargeable batteries through it, so it's still less per hour than those guys that run Lithium batteries spend! :nana: Basically, if you pick 12V bulbs (which are the most prevalent option near your battery's 10.8V), you're going to wind up driving it mildly, and having to dump substantially more power through it to get the same output, and it'll be yellower to boot. There is one other WA option that's pretty good, the 1166 -- it's rated at 11.6V, 23W, but because it has a smaller filament (so it focuses better), it generally gets about the same beam brightness as the 1185, and longer runtimes. Not sure if it's any cheaper though.

EDIT: also, do they make g4 bulbs that would run good on a 6AA ROP type setup? Just wondering if there is a good g4 alternative to a pelican big D

The Phillips 5761 is pretty good (it's pretty much equivalent output to the Mag85, but in a 2C or 2D body), but its 5A draw is getting a little tough for Eneloops. The WA 1111 would be OK, and the WA 1160 would be great if it didn't :poof:, but I believe you'd need a soft-start.

And there's others, basically look for other 6V bulbs of comparable wattage, and reasonable rated life.

 

[exodus125]

wow thanks for the thoroughness :twothumbs

 

[exodus125]

so ingesting what you just stated, I should probably stick to the big d for the 2D ROP using 6aa and the welch 1185 to run the mag85. Since the welch is a g4, I will just pick up the adapter on kaidomain and get the bulb somewhere else.

 

[mdocod]

In my experience the KD bi-pin adapters are sort of finiki but can be made to work... If you're willing to spring for an FM bi-pin adapter that is probably the better choice, and be supporting one of our resident modders :)

The 1185 is probably going to be your best bet, there aren't a lot of bulbs out there that run on 9AA cells properly.

bulbconnection carries the 1185 and many other bulbs that have been mentioned here.

-Eric