Modified MagLED drop-in with SSC 'T' bin. WOW!

[davenlei]

I upgraded my 3D mag with a MagLED drop in about a month ago and thought, WOW! That is much brighter than the stock MAG.
I recently ordered and received my SSC P4 'T' bin emitter today from DealExtreme and popped it onto the MagLED drop in unit (after removing the Lux emitter) and WOW! It is brighter yet. It is a throw monster now and is absolutely the brightest light I have by far. When focused to a spot, the spot beam is very, very intense with good spill still.
The jump in brightness between the stock MagLED and the SSC modded MagLED feels like a similar jump in brightness from the stock Mag to the MagLED upgrade.

Does anyone have any ideas on what the lumens might be?

 

[Blindasabat]

Your Lumens depends on what the voltage and Amps are. I don't know exactly what the Terralux or MagLED drive at, but I think the Terralux tend to drive at 700-850mAmps, MagLED at ~450mA (to start) and appropriate voltage (~3.3-3.5V), so you are probably getting ~100 lumens out the front.

 

[davenlei]

I am not running the Terralux drop in. I am using the Mag brand drop in and modified it with the SSC P4. I used AS for the thermal compound and it is definetly transferring the heat to the pill body and screw down ring, etc.

When I tested the voltage the drop in was putting out, it was at 3.6v. How do I test the mAmperage?

A couple of things I noticed about the light output now is that the spill beam seems a bit smoother (but has a brighter ring around the spot) and I can get the hot spot much tighter and it is much brighter than the stock MagLED drop in.
I am very happy with this mod. I like my bulky 3D Mag again.

 

[macforsale]

*

 

[Lobo]

I upgraded my 3D mag with a MagLED drop in about a month ago and thought, WOW! That is much brighter than the stock MAG.
I recently ordered and received my SSC P4 'T' bin emitter today from DealExtreme and popped it onto the MagLED drop in unit (after removing the Lux emitter) and WOW! It is brighter yet. It is a throw monster now and is absolutely the brightest light I have by far. When focused to a spot, the spot beam is very, very intense with good spill still.
The jump in brightness between the stock MagLED and the SSC modded MagLED feels like a similar jump in brightness from the stock Mag to the MagLED upgrade.

Does anyone have any ideas on what the lumens might be?

Wow, that sounds like a sweet mod. Was it easy? I have none what so ever experience in modding, but I am tempted to try this on my 2D Magled drop in(if that is possible). How hard would you say it was? And what tools are required?

 

[eebowler]

Lobo: Newbie did a technical review of the Mag LED dropins HERE and he took it apart also. The first page should give you an idea of how easy it would be to do the mod.

 

[Lobo]

eebowler.

Wow, that was a monster post, really informative! I'll have to check it out closer later. Thanks for the link.

 

[davenlei]

Macforsale,

Thanks for the info. I will try it out.


Lobo,

For me it was very easy but I am used to working with circuits/soldering, etc. so it was no big deal at all. It took me about 15 minutes to tear everything apart and put it back together.
For someone who is not used to working with a soldering iron, I would rate it as moderate in difficulty since you have to solder the LED tabs to the new tabs you create for the connection to the MagLED unit after you mount the LED into the MagLED pad with thermal paste.

Now I have to decide what I want to do with the old Lux LED I removed. Let me see what I can put it in.....

 

[Newuser01]

Obligatory beam shots please!
Better between original 3Cell dropin VS 3Cell drop in MOD.
Pictures of the actual MOD. Will you be offering them for sale? may be?
You were able to do this without cutting up the casing? Just remove the led slug and put on the new ?

Forgive me if thats stupid question alas I'm not modder yet!!

Regards.

 

[2xTrinity]

I tihnk I'm going to give this mod a shot. Recently my 2D Mag has been sitting essentailly unused now that I have all these Cree and Seoul "pocket rockets" that I've modified -- the bulky 2D light only has a razor thin edge in throw now thanks to the inefficiency of the Luxeon.

I just ordered a set of U-Bin LEDs from DX (just posted within the last couple hours), and when they arrive, I think I'll try out this mod.

 

[Mr_Light]

One detail about this mod that I haven't seen mentioned in any thread I have seen is that the LUX on the Drop-in is only held on with thermal epoxy. The leads on the emitter are just inserted into spring loaded slots on the drop-in(no soldering!). Just pry the Lux emitter off (breaking the epoxy bond) scrape off the rest of the epoxy, extend the legs on the new emitter (smilar to the LUX you just removed), put a dab of thermal epoxy under the new emitter and insert the legs into the slots on either side of the drop-in. Be sure you have the polarity right before you do your glueing!

 

[davenlei]

YEs, Mr. Light. That is exactly what I did. The Lux LED came out really easy once I broke the bond of the thermal compound. I just took a razors edge (not shaving razor), and pried it in between the bottom of the emitter base and the metal module and it popped right up.

It was a little interesting to see that the thermal paste under the emitter was browned as if it was burnt a little.


Newuser1,

Unfortunately I did not take any before shots. Sorry, I was a little short on time and wanted to get this done while my 3 year old son was distracted by some games. I can take a comparison shot between the modded Mag and my modded Elly with the cree? Will that help?

I don't think I will be doing this as something to sell because of my extreme lack of time (have a 3 year old), and the fact that it is actually a pretty easy mod if you have any experience with a sodering gun.
I can take a picture of the actual modded unit and post it since you asked. I will try to get time tonight.
In regards to your question about the mod. I did not cut up the slug at all. The LED popped right out and nothing was damaged in the process. This is completely reversible.
One item of caution if you are going to do this mod is to make sure you mark the side of the LED 'AND' the side of the slug which is negative (or positive), so you can put in the new LED properly (or reverse the mod).

By the way, I just ordered the 'U' bin LED from DX as well and will be doing this mod again to put that LED into the 3D Mag and will move the 'T' bin to a 3AAA miniMag I have.

Maybe at that point I can put the original Lux in and take comparison shots.

By the way, this MagLED drop in still suffers from the dropped output when the slug heats up like the stock one does. I did notice a drop off in brightness when it was on for several minutes. I would say the light output of the SSC unit after the dimming was around the light output of the stock MagLED when it is at full power. That is just my eyeball opinion.