Turbo_E
Enlightened
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2005
- Messages
- 322
Pretty simple.
1. Take your Maglite Solitaire apart, the head, reflector and take the bulb and battery out.The reflector will take a bit of doing as you need to pry it out from the back. there are little tabs which hold it in on the outer edge so you'll have to pry them inwards with a sharp pick or similar tool. dont worry if they break.
2. get a nice bright 5mm LED of your choice. I used a 20,000 MCD one. Poke it into where the old bulb goes.
3. grind out the bulb hole in the reflector to fit the 5mm LED. Don't make it too big it should be SNUG. I also added some epoxy glue to the rear of the relfector to beef it up and avoid cracking the thin reflector.
4. get a 12V A23 battery or similar. Make a dummy spacer with a resistor. I used a 470 ohm -1/4 W resistor (100 ohm is also safe, but your battery and LED will die faster i imagine, although mine hasn't). Take a short length of non conductive material say a bit of dowel wood or a pencil (anything that will easily fit (and drop back out)into the Solitaire body)and cut a short length off, about 1/2".
test fit it in the Solitaire the battery or spacer should NOT rattle around but not be super tight. leave enough room for the spring on the endcap. take the resistor and tape it along the length of the spacer(pencil). now take the resistor leads and bend them into a spiral @ each end of the spacer and glue them down and let dry. grind off any excess glue on the spiral so it makes good contact.
EDIT: I used a bit of dowel wood and cut a groove lengthwise in it and recessed the resistor into it so my "spacer" would fit better. I have also used epoxy glue as a fixing agent and insulator.
5. put it all back together and now you have a much brighter and longer lasting light!
note: the focus option may not work if you break off the tabs holding in the reflector and if it doesnt light, remove the LED and switch holes.
1. Take your Maglite Solitaire apart, the head, reflector and take the bulb and battery out.The reflector will take a bit of doing as you need to pry it out from the back. there are little tabs which hold it in on the outer edge so you'll have to pry them inwards with a sharp pick or similar tool. dont worry if they break.
2. get a nice bright 5mm LED of your choice. I used a 20,000 MCD one. Poke it into where the old bulb goes.
3. grind out the bulb hole in the reflector to fit the 5mm LED. Don't make it too big it should be SNUG. I also added some epoxy glue to the rear of the relfector to beef it up and avoid cracking the thin reflector.
4. get a 12V A23 battery or similar. Make a dummy spacer with a resistor. I used a 470 ohm -1/4 W resistor (100 ohm is also safe, but your battery and LED will die faster i imagine, although mine hasn't). Take a short length of non conductive material say a bit of dowel wood or a pencil (anything that will easily fit (and drop back out)into the Solitaire body)and cut a short length off, about 1/2".
test fit it in the Solitaire the battery or spacer should NOT rattle around but not be super tight. leave enough room for the spring on the endcap. take the resistor and tape it along the length of the spacer(pencil). now take the resistor leads and bend them into a spiral @ each end of the spacer and glue them down and let dry. grind off any excess glue on the spiral so it makes good contact.
EDIT: I used a bit of dowel wood and cut a groove lengthwise in it and recessed the resistor into it so my "spacer" would fit better. I have also used epoxy glue as a fixing agent and insulator.
5. put it all back together and now you have a much brighter and longer lasting light!
note: the focus option may not work if you break off the tabs holding in the reflector and if it doesnt light, remove the LED and switch holes.
