Making a Bright LED light

lingpau · Feb 1, 2004

I want to convert either a 3D Mag light or a 6AA Energizer double barrel light to a LED light. Which conversion would be easiest? Which would give me the the most light or run time? Where would I get the LED(I want a bright white one) and other material needed to do this? Does anyone out in CPF have the stuff to do this conversion? I don't want to spend a small fortune to do this project. I have limited electronic skills and even less equipment for this project. Thanks for any help or advice anyone can give me. Ken

paulr · Feb 1, 2004

The easiest conversion for the 3D Mag is the Everled:

http://www.leddynamics.com/EverLED/

It's just a replacement bulb that you drop into the Mag instead of the regular bulb. It has good and bad points. There are a bunch of threads about it on CPF that you can find.

There are better and fancier conversions you can do, but at some point you have to ask yourself whether it's worth your effort to improve those junky lights, instead of just getting a good light. You might look at a Blaster 1R (3 watt version maybe) or Blaster 5 from www.elektrolumens.com instead of messing with that Mag.

AilSnail · Feb 1, 2004

I hear a 3d mag equipped with a (20dollar?) hotlips heatsink from hotbeam, and a 3w luxeon (15dollar?) from theledguy.com, makes a decent light.
Personally I think the mag is quite well constructed, and the reflector is first class. Quite worth the effort of modding. There are usually several in CPF chat who have done it if you need instructions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif .

TORCH_BOY · Feb 1, 2004

Sounds like a wicked mod
the lux-111's work very well.

red_robby · Feb 1, 2004

lingpau,
you're going to get some irate people when you say "Mag" on these forums, there are a few reasons for that...
I for one am not too impressed with the ARC law suite, BUT their lights are tough and very affordable. with that said,
the 3D Mag is a great choice, if you do a search you'll find quite a few ideas.
D cells should last a pretty long time with a LS3 so don't worry about run time too much, but remember to go with a good heat sink!

lingpau · Feb 1, 2004

Thanks for the help. I am new at this hobby and value the expertise of all that answered my questions. I have a lot to consider, and it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Maybe it will not cost much more to just buy a Blaster and not worry about the results of my modifications !!