Make maglite 2D shine like 6D without any upgrades
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knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
Yep, or 5D bulb.. but I don't think your brightness, or beam quality, will be that much better than a stock 2D.
Try it let's know..
Try it let's know..
7D Maglite in a smaller package
One of the nicer (in my opinion) facets of using higher voltage lights is the fatter, more solid hotspot - which unless you are spotting at a distance is more useful in lighting things up. This is caused by the longer length of wire actually burning. So as an experiment I got my Mag 3D (which...
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knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
I owned a 6D incan. All I remember is it ate up cells fast, and not that much (if any) brightness than a 2 cell.
$70... Before I'd go that route I'd buy a Malkoff drop-in
Sorry, I don't get that. I've never seen a 6D over $45 or so. And my 4D's are WAY brighter than my 2D's. The 6D is a 9 volt light, so even more power.
knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
I was referring to 70 bones for two D lions, not ML..
My 6D maybe started out brighter, but would suck dry alkaleaks so quickly it always seemed dimmer. This was back around 80's so my recollection could be foggy. I do remember the 6D length and weight working to my advantage more than once. Brightness was not an important factor all the time
6 cell bulb is significantly brighter then 2 cell, at least the modern bi-pins. I did the same with a 2c & 26500s. So yes, it does work.
What's mscp?
Thanks
That is certainly a possibility - although one thing I have never understood is that while the 6D generates much more than 3x the lumen output of 2D the claimed runtime is actually a bit higher (11 vs 8.5 hours) on alkalines in both cases.
My impression was that the 6D bulb would need to draw roughly 6x the power in order to produce 6x the light output (although maybe it ran the filament a bit hotter and more efficiently) but if voltage was only 3x then current would need to increase as well.
Current production incandescent Maglites seem to be 27/45/98/151/178 lumens respectively for 2/3/4/5/6D. A couple of 6D bulbs just arrived so I'm going to be trying those in a 2D along with 6 AA Eneloops in both cheapo and FM battery holders and will try to report back. It's possible that the 6D bulb current draw is sufficiently low that you could use 6 AA alkalines in cheap 3AA series holders.
I also ordered a 6D incandescent to play with, but I'm going to have a tough time convincing myself to put alkaline cells in it, particularly since I already have NiMH D's but am out of alkaline D's and am reluctant to buy any more after all the leaks I have experienced.
If your recollection of the 80's is not at least a bit foggy then you weren't doing it right
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idleprocess
Flashaholic
Had some ... rust ... stains on one end along with some abrasion marks perhaps?
Maglite used different types of bulbs over the years. The early bulbs were vacuum type and were fairly dim, later much brighter krypton was offered as a upgrade. Eventually the kryptons were made standard and brighter/whiter xenon PR bulbs were offered as upgrades (these were the best Mag bulbs in my opinion). Finally Mag switched to xenon bi-pin bulbs which use a special adapter.
knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
I just threw out (into recycling) two packages of D cells. Duracell still sealed, good dates, all four batteries showing signs of leakage.
I was recommended Rayovac from a reliable source. Bought a package of C cells (Fresh dates, decently priced $7.00 8pk at Depot) Made in USA. "They don't leak" at least not as much, yet..
Perhaps I'm reverting to my 80's, but I like the heft of 3x C's in hand..
Idle, that D cell barrel also had a couple teeth marks, use to let my pit bull chew on it to calm him down.
I was recommended Rayovac from a reliable source. Bought a package of C cells (Fresh dates, decently priced $7.00 8pk at Depot) Made in USA. "They don't leak" at least not as much, yet..
Perhaps I'm reverting to my 80's, but I like the heft of 3x C's in hand..
Idle, that D cell barrel also had a couple teeth marks, use to let my pit bull chew on it to calm him down.
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knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
This 5 cell bulb came in a flashlight, and it appears potted. No other markings besides "5 cell" I'd like to get more, can anyone ID ?
I have a few ML bi-pin with ceramic adapters. They work okay, tho nothing to write home about.
OK, I just gave the 6 cell MagnumStar II bulb a quick test in a 2D ROP low with FM OP reflector and 2 3xAA serial battery holders.
I removed the ROP low bulb and installed the 6 cell Mag bulb, but kept the camless aluminum reflector. Nice and bright (although much less than the WA1111 in my other 2D), definitely something I could use whereas a stock 2D incandescent was not.
The camless aluminum reflector works by moving the head in and out on the threads, and I was not able to reach focus without unscrewing the head enough to expose the O-ring. Replacing the camless aluminum reflector with the stock plastic cammed reflector gave a nice sharp focus and usual "zoom" operation.
So... other than the bulb, the only changes relative to stock were the battery holders and AA Eneloop NiMH cells. Here are the holders I used - a buck a piece (CDN) in a bag of 10:
I had what I believe to be a stock MagCharger bulb sitting around so tried inserting that into the bi-pin socket that came with the 6 cell MagnumStar II, but the pins were too wide to go into the holes. It might have been a WA1160 but I don't think so.
My guess is that the 5 cell (as @knucklegary suggested) would be even better than the 6 cell bulb, albeit with a shorter life, but I don't have any to test with.
You could get started with alkaline AA's but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a bunch of them sitting around already. I remember reading somewhere that the 6 cell Maglite bulb draws 800-900 mA, which is high enough that you're going to get less than half of the normal capacity of the cell (where "normal" implies 100mA load current or less).
(note that you will probably get more than half of the AH but less than half of the useful WH because the voltage drops more as well)
EDIT - removed comment about AA eneloops possibly delivering higher voltage and hence more output than D alkalines... doesn't seem to be supported by available information.
I was sufficiently happy with the 6-cell-bulb-in-a-2-cell setup that I moved it over to my 2C Maglite, with a couple of 18500 AW Li-ion cells providing the power... so I guess you can conclude I think this is a decent setup. I guess I might have to go looking for 5 cell bulbs after all.
I removed the ROP low bulb and installed the 6 cell Mag bulb, but kept the camless aluminum reflector. Nice and bright (although much less than the WA1111 in my other 2D), definitely something I could use whereas a stock 2D incandescent was not.
The camless aluminum reflector works by moving the head in and out on the threads, and I was not able to reach focus without unscrewing the head enough to expose the O-ring. Replacing the camless aluminum reflector with the stock plastic cammed reflector gave a nice sharp focus and usual "zoom" operation.
So... other than the bulb, the only changes relative to stock were the battery holders and AA Eneloop NiMH cells. Here are the holders I used - a buck a piece (CDN) in a bag of 10:
I had what I believe to be a stock MagCharger bulb sitting around so tried inserting that into the bi-pin socket that came with the 6 cell MagnumStar II, but the pins were too wide to go into the holes. It might have been a WA1160 but I don't think so.
My guess is that the 5 cell (as @knucklegary suggested) would be even better than the 6 cell bulb, albeit with a shorter life, but I don't have any to test with.
You could get started with alkaline AA's but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a bunch of them sitting around already. I remember reading somewhere that the 6 cell Maglite bulb draws 800-900 mA, which is high enough that you're going to get less than half of the normal capacity of the cell (where "normal" implies 100mA load current or less).
(note that you will probably get more than half of the AH but less than half of the useful WH because the voltage drops more as well)
EDIT - removed comment about AA eneloops possibly delivering higher voltage and hence more output than D alkalines... doesn't seem to be supported by available information.
I was sufficiently happy with the 6-cell-bulb-in-a-2-cell setup that I moved it over to my 2C Maglite, with a couple of 18500 AW Li-ion cells providing the power... so I guess you can conclude I think this is a decent setup. I guess I might have to go looking for 5 cell bulbs after all.
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knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
I don't know what mfgr made the 5c bulb posted. Hoping someone will chime in.
