My Mag85 sucks, am I an idiot????

[JRS7]

How much should my Mag85 be brighter than my G&P Scorpion? A little bit or a lot?

Got all my Mag85 parts yesterday, and tossed it together. I was expecting to be blown away, and I was totally disgusted. My G&P Scorpion blows it away....Scorpion has a nice white beam, the Mag85 is yellow and doesn't even look as bright! Am I an idiot, or isn't the Mag85 supposed to be MUCH brighter than the Scorpion?

I'm using a 3 D mag with a MOP reflector, 3 battery holders (3AA to D, only ones I could find), FM's ceramic socket, some Duracell 2650's (Actually 8 Duracell 2650's and one Energizer 2300, was one short on the Duracells...)

Surely the batterys don't make that much of a difference, do they?

Didn't realize that I needed shims to focus the beam, but in the mean time I tossed a couple of washers on top of the socket, and can get it fairly well focused for the time being.

Heck, the beam on my Princeton Tech Surge looks better than the Mag85.....

How should it compare with the Scorpion, anybody have both? I was expecting much more, anybody have any ideas what's up?

 

[leeleefocus]

You've got yourself a pretty crappy mag 85 there looking at the parts that you have used especially the batteries and the battery holders. I've not used the duracells but i have read peoples posts that have used them in a mag 85 and they have said that there are better cells to use. Also you've got alot of resistance with the battery holders. You need to get yourself a fivemega or a modamag holder or get a battery pack made up. The resistance fixes to the tail spring and the spring in the switch are worth doing aswell.

 

[65535]

Check the energizers temp it could be pracitcally metling

 

[Timson]

Sound's live you have a helluva a lot of resistance in there. :thumbsdow

You really need to ditch those battery carriers for a decent Fivemega one.

Do the switch resistance fix mod...and the tailcap resistance fix too.

As a temporary measure you could try soldering up all the riveted contact points in your 3AA to D battery carriers...This could help drop some resistance.

Check that you don't have one or two lazy cells in the mix....or worse still...having put one in - reverse polarity !

Try measuring current draw. A healthy Mag 85 will be pulling around 3.4A

Mine is at 3.15A - My cells aren't up to the job !

Cheapest and best option if you aren't in the market for a tri-bored body is to get CBP 1650's which will do the job admirably....That's my plan anyway.

Your Mag85 ought to be at least double the output of the G&P (Although your eye won't perceive twice the brightness) ...It ought to be as white as an incan can be!


Good luck,


Tim.

 

[MikeSalt]

Just my two pence. Are the 3AA to D battery holders wired in series or parallel? If parallel, which I suspect, then it is possible that you are only getting 1.5volts out of a battery holder rather than the 4.5volts you are supposed to. You need ones which are wired in SERIES, like the FiveMega one. This will give you the desired output, if I have understood this correctly.

 

[glockboy]

You need FiveMega 3AA to D batteries holder and CBP 1650 AA batteries to run the M@g85.

 

[Pokerstud]

Your not an idiot at all, just uninformed. The way you stated you built your Mag85, I am not surprised the scorpion is blowing it away. Please take the advice of the above posts, and you will see the difference, then you will throw your scorpion in the drawer and forget about it.

1) switch mod for resistance
2) FM 9AA to 3D battery adapter
3) KIU high temp socket
4) Sanyo 2700 mAH batteries
5) UCL or borofloat lens
6) reflector of choice, correct shims for camless focusing
7) Welch Allyn bi-pin 1185 bulb ( of course you have this )

This will get you around 1238 lumens

This is not a must do, just adds that little extra touch:
Fivemega will eventually come out with a second run of his 2" deep Mag reflectors, I suggest getting one to really enhance focusability and throw.



EDIT: on #7 I had accidentially said potted instead of bi-pin, I sure as hell didn't mean to confuse anyone, sorry.

 

[3rd_shift]

I have one with 8 Rayovac 1800 nimhs in a handy 2D body that seems to do ok, but not great.
It's pulling about 3 amps from those.
I was aiming for bright, but reliable from a light I could take to work when I worked security.
With a nineth battery, it should be doing much better with a good setup.

 

[InFlux]

<snip>... some Duracell 2650's (Actually 8 Duracell 2650's and one Energizer 2300, was one short on the Duracells...)

Surely the batterys don't make that much of a difference, do they? <snip/>

It's also a bad idea to mix battery brand and capacity.

 

[JimmyM]

1) switch mod for resistance
2) FM 9AA to 3D battery adapter
3) KIU high temp socket
4) Sanyo 2700 mAH batteries
5) UCL or borofloat lens
6) reflector of choice, correct shims for camless focusing
7) Welch Allyn potted 1185 bulb ( of course you have this )

#3 conflicts with #7
Good call on the KIU, of course. But, he'll have to use the bi-pin 1185s. Better, cheaper, anyway.

I'm a big fan of the fixed Mag switch. I pulled the switch from one of Mad_Maxabeam's lights. Once I saw exactly how it was done, I had seen the light (pun intended)

 

[SilverFox]

Those of you that are using the CBP 1650 cells should be aware that the new Titanium Power Max 1800 cells actually work better. On top of that, they have a nipple which allows them to be charged in a charger without having to use magnets, and they don't leak, or lose voltage retention under load after 10 cycles.

Check out the NiMh Shoot Out thread for details.

A word of caution: The higher voltage under load could increase your chance of instaflashing a lamp, but it sure makes for a nice bright white beam...

Tom

 

[JRS7]

Actually, the battery holders are wired in Series like their supposed to be....

I realized when I did this that they would not work as well as the 9aa to D holders, but no one on earth has any for sale right now. I just didn't expect that they would put out half as much light....Others seem to be useing them with pretty good results.

 

[wasBlinded]

You also need to be certain that one or more of your cells is not bad. Many of the high capacity NiMh cells are developing very rapid self-discharge, on the order of a week or two to depletion. I could not figure out why my Mag85 was yellow and dim despite all the best quality parts and having charged my pack only a week or two before. It turned out that a couple of the Energizer 2500 cells were crapping out and no longer up to the task. Its loaded now with Ray-O-Vac Hybrid low self-discharge cells, and is working great.


Good Luck!

 

[Trashman]

It's been said that the batteries of capacities over 2300mah don't do as well with a high amp draw as those below (2300mah and below). (NiMH)

 

[65535]

Depends GP have the best NIMh batteries imho, sanyos are pretty darn god too but mostly the subC';s take the high current cake. Hundreds of amps no sweat.

 

[Effulgence]

Too many cells to charge... I've read of some people with Mag85's using 3 18650's with PVC to reduce rattling in the body; seems to have the same effect, if not better, than 9 NiMHs. Less cells to charge and deal with, as I'm trying to get all my lights to start using 18650s.

AW is having that feeler on protected C cell Li-Ions, does anyone know if the Mag85 can handle this setup?

 

[JRS7]

Check that you don't have one or two lazy cells in the mix....or worse still...having put one in - reverse polarity !

Try measuring current draw. A healthy Mag 85 will be pulling around 3.4A

Mine is at 3.15A - My cells aren't up to the job !

How do you check the current draw? I understand checking the voltage on the battery packs with a multimeter, but don't know how to check the current draw....

 

[tebore]

How do you check the current draw? I understand checking the voltage on the battery packs with a multimeter, but don't know how to check the current draw....

Easiest thing would be to take the tail cap off and use a multimeter to complete the circuit.

 

[JRS7]

Easiest thing would be to take the tail cap off and use a multimeter to complete the circuit.

Ok, first time I've every used a Multimeter, am I doing it right to check current draw???? (I'm assuming I'm not because the numbers are not anywhere close to 3.5)

I pulled the tailcap and touched the Red lead to the bottom battery holder, touched the Black lead to the Mag case, and boom the light comes on. Have the meter set on 10A...(with a - above the ...), the Red lead is plugged into the hole that says 10A DC. The Black lead is in the one that says Com. Is this correct? If so, it's messed up, because the reading on the screen is 1.26

I'm guessing that I'm not using the meter right, because I can pull the batteries out and hook them all together on the table (No resistance whatsoever!), and run a wire from the bulb to the top battery, then touch the Red lead to the other side of the bulb, and the black lead to the bottom battery, and I still get 1.29 on the screen.

So I'm assuming I'm not reading it right?

(Even tried the same thing with some Alkaline batterys, same readings.)

Like I said, I've never even used a Multimeter before, so any help is highly appreciated.....

 

[tebore]

Well you're getting a sickly yellow light so you're probably not using it wrong. So your batteries are not up to snuff. Try getting some CBP1650 or Titanium 1800s or Eneloops.