Maglite P7 with 2*18650

[oldspice10]

Hi, I am making a new 2D P7 maglite for my father, and would like to use the DX sku: 20330 driver, as it is single mode, and pretty cheap. I ordered 2 of them, my question is (a noob question at that) what should I solder the maglite switch leads to? is the outer gold contact ring the (-), and the inner gold contact the (+)? Will be able to use the original maglite switch with this driver? Making a momentary switch is not something I would like to do again!
Thanks for the help!

 

[^Gurthang]

Welcome to CPF.

If you do a quick search in this forum you'll find LOTS of M@G builds that will probably answer any question you have and others that may not have occured to you yet.

Driver connection: yes outer ring is - [neg], inner ring is + [pos]

Switch: yes you can use the original switch, again look through the many M@G posts and you'll see how to mod it and wire it.

Good luck.

 

[oldspice10]

Thanks for the quick response! I have looked through most of the threads, but I cant find a picture of the driver wired up. I soldered the LED (+) to the matching LED (+) spot on the driver board, and same with the negative. But then I connect a battery source to the gold contacts on the back, and I get nothing from the LED. if I connect an 18650 direct to the LED it functions fine, but I feel like something on the driver is not right. I tried both drivers, and it is the same. Im missing something important here. Try as I might, electronics are very difficult for me to understand, Im a pilot: I like simple.

Sorry for the terrible solder, I was doing it quick just to do it outside of the mag body before making it all pretty!

 

[alpg88]

i used these drivers before, idk why you have problems with it, it is all straightforward, outer ring - inner circle +. led wires are marked, looks like you got it right

 

[oldspice10]

:scowl: Thats what I was thinking!! How can I be screwing this up! I am using 3000Mah 18650's ( http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26249 ). I just don't see what could be wrong here. Could my P7 be fried? it works if i connect it directly to a battery, so I dont know what the deal is... PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[alpg88]

starnge, if p7 works in dd that it deffinatly not fried.
make sure you got polarity of the led\driver right , other than that the only thing i can think of is fried driver

 

[oldspice10]

GOT IT!! when I was testing it out of the torch body, I was using one cell, which I dont think was enough voltage, so I tried with 2 16340's and it worked, then I put it in the Mag body, and it was super dim, well the screw on the switch that completes the circuit on the neg side with the body was not in foll contact with the body wall, so I adjusted it and viola! P7 delight! thanks for your help! boy I feel stupid!!

 

[Lumencraft (Matt)]

Great. Glad this worked out for you.