Maglite mod ideas?

[Mr.T]

Hey everyone. Im intrested in converting a 2 cell D maglite to have 3 led stars. I would like it to be rechargeable if it can be while being as bright as possible. What kinds of leds? Converter boards? Batteries? Im new to light modding so any input would be great
Thanks, Todd

 

[Dustin Liu]

:touche::touche::lolsign::lolsign::goodjob::goodjob::laughing::laughing:

 

[TORCH_BOY]

Welcome to CPF, Have you tried Miller Mods, he custom makes the whole light for you,
I have one of these and its one of my favorites

 

[Gunner12]

For LED's I'll go for the Cree or Seoul because of their efficiency (About twice as efficient as the Luxeon). But if you want guaranteed tint, go for the Luxeon. Go to the SandwichShoppe, there are lots of parts that you can find there.

That's all advice as I can give since I haven't modified a single light yet.

Good Luck with your mod

 

[Long John]

Hello Mr.T and welcome to CPF

Since there exists a lot of possibilitys, you have to ask more specificly. What batts. do you want to use? Single level? Multi level?

Take a search about "Trilux" and "Quadlux" to get some ideas.

Best regards

____
Tom

 

[.308]

Hi Mr. T,
Welcome to CPF.

With a 2D Mag you have lots of battery options. I would probably go with 2 li-ions rechargables or a AA battery holder with 6 or 8 AA Nimh's.

The battery option will determine whether you need to "boost" the input voltage or reduce it "buck". With 3 led's in a 2D you'll probably need to boost it.

I would go with a modamag heatsink for (3)stars available from the sandwich shoppe , (3) Seoul P4 stars available soon from CPF member Photonfanatic, (2) 18650 li-ions with charger from CPF member AW and 2 extra 18650's for spares. For a driver I would pick either the Shark from the Shoppe or the Fatman from Taskled. The maxflex from Taskled would be the ultimate but is currently not available. I would get the McR-20 Seoul reflectors from the shoppe and a UCL lens from flashlightlens.com It would be a very nice, very bright light. Wire the stars in series. Lots of info on these builds should be available. I think the Vf of the leds will be high enough that the (2) 18650's will be lower than the combined Vf of the led's by at least 1v

I have built several tri-luxes and they are my favorite lights

Hope this makes sense I've got to go read books to my son. Its bedtime.


Good Luck
Chris
.308

 

[PhotonAddict]

Some good advice given here already. As you probably figured out by now there are several ways of doing this - it all depends on your preference.

Another option is to get the proper heatsink, LEDs and reflectors, wire them in parallel and use 3 NiMH C-cells. You will need to modify your tailcap but it's not too complicated (remove the anodizing from the inside, trim the spring so that it fits into the smaller cavity). You will also need to sleeve the battery tube with something to prevent the batteries from rattling around (hose, rolled up paper, old mouse pad, etc). The output isn't regulated but with NiMHs it's flatter than alkalines (it would not be very bright with alkalines anyway) but it's simple and sometimes simple is good.

Having said that, I love my tri-lux with Shark converter and 6NiMH batteries. If I were building one now I would definitely consider the Seoul P4 LEDs or Crees as others here have suggested. If you get urge to go one step further, you can re-wire the LEDs in series and use a converter as others have suggested. Drivers like the Shark or Fatman will also allow you to fit a potentiometer so that you can adjust the brightness which really increases the usefullness of the light.

If you have any other questions, just ask were all here to have fun and share in this hobby.
Oh, and welcome to CPF and the joys of modding - and hold on to your wallet.