Newbie.. and Hello from Iowa

[IowaWalker]

Merry Christmas...

I am new here, I found this site from a posting at defensive carry, www.defensivecarry.com I am a member there. I have always had a love for guns, knives, and FLASHFIGHTS!! Two years ago for Christmas my X buought me 4 flashlights.. although the most expensive was a Coast, the one with the 5 white LEDs and the 1 red LED, I still have that light and use it at work. Two weeks ago I came to the dark side and bought my first SureFire, a 6P LED... there is no going back now. I have been doing some reading about flashlights and happened upon Black Bear Flashlights, www.blackbearflashlights.com I saw that all of his flashlights were made from the bodies of Mag-Lites.... What? Mag-Lite bodies could be turned into new flashlights? My tinkering side came to life and I started searching, well a link on defensive carry led me here. Now I am looking to start doing some mods on Mag-Lites to see what I can come up with.. I have a strong electrical and mechanical background, I am not afraid to try something, and I can read schematics, and circuit diagrams... so... as long as my buget will hold up I am going to have fun, but I am going to be asking a lot of questions!!!

Thanks for listening!!

 

[GBone]

Welcome to CPF!!!

Sounds like you are going to have all kinds of fun hanging around here... and spend lots of money too!

You will also find some amazing Mag mods here, including HIDs and other crazy upgrades!

Merry Christmas and have fun! :wave:

 

[ltiu]

You want the:

ROP (Roar Of the Pelican)
and
Mag85

 

[bxstylez]

start by checking out all the links in the following page.....

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=140021

.

 

[Tempest UK]

:welcome:

Enjoy your stay

Regards,
Tempest

 

[socom1970]

Welcome to CPF!!! It is good to see fellow CPF'ers in IA. I'm in the Quad cities. Where are you in IA? I have a few incans(SF M6, M4, M3, 9P w/ KT turbohead, etc...), but I have seen the blackbear flashlight site also. I would love to have a 1000+ lumen incan. :thumbsup:

 

[Gunner12]

:welcome:

Dereelight DBS, 150+ meter throw form a single LED, Fenix L0D-CE Q4, more output then a 4D maglite. Oh how much technology has improved.

Welcome to Hotel California... Watch out for you wallet.

Maglites are the basis of many mods. From simple drop-ins to 100 watt incandescent or 7 high power LED mods.

ROP thread, Mag85 thread

Also check the Modding section.

 

[IowaWalker]

socom1970, I am in the Des Moines area, but I come over to the Quad Cities all the time, I have family on the IL side of the river.
I am interested in LED mods more than incan mods, mostly due to the electronics involved, and I like the quality of LED light, and the battery time over the incan time, but can I do 200 to 300 lumens in LED and get a decent throw? I do have a question already, and maybe I need to ask it in the mods section and not here, I have noticed that is some of the LED mods they use a glow-in-the-dark powder in the epoxy to hold the LED in place in the heat sink.. what purpose does this serve? What is the current limit in lumens in a single LED?

So much information on this site, it will take me a long time to learn it all... I am going to have to find a part-time job to feed my habit.

 

[jugg2]

:welcome:

 

[rtt]

:welcome: Stay awhile!

 

[Dances with Flashlight]

Welcome to the CPF. Be sure to check out the LED Museum.
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/

 

[Gunner12]

Thermal Epoxy/glue is usually uses to secure the LEDs on the heatsinks for heat transferring purposes. Some people add glow epoxy/tape for the looks, easier to locate the light at night or other uses. Glow epoxy isn't used to secure LEDs.

200 lumens is easy for some newer LEDs and 300 is reachable when you overdrive the LED. Two LEDs can hit 500 if drive correctly(Just above specs).

 

[IowaWalker]

Hey Gunner, thank you for the information. I did not know if the glow epoxy had any technical purpose... I could not think of any, but I am a newbie.. so thank you for filling in that blank for me.
Dances with Flashlight, thank you for the link to the musuem, lots of information there!!!
Thank you for all the other welcomes!! Looks like a great site!!

Walker

 

[IowaWalker]

Delete Post

 

[SafetyBob]

Welcome to the forum IowaWalker, most of my family is around the Manchester area with everyone else half way between Chicago and the Quad Cities so I know your stomping grounds well!!

If you are more interested in LED mods than the incandescent mods, then go to the Homemade and Custom Flashlights forum and do a search for tri-cree or quad cree mod. There are some great posts and tutorials that will give you a great idea as to what is needed.

I would recommend for your first mod or two you purchase a heatsink, then figure out whether you want a nice control board or a resistor to limit the current to the led. That and some quick solder work and using your scissors to cut the reflector down......done.

Bob E.

 

[socom1970]

...but can I do 200 to 300 lumens in LED and get a decent throw? I do have a question already, and maybe I need to ask it in the mods section and not here, I have noticed that is some of the LED mods they use a glow-in-the-dark powder in the epoxy to hold the LED in place in the heat sink.. what purpose does this serve? What is the current limit in lumens in a single LED?

.

Top end lumens for a single led is about 200 led lumens(not out-the-front lumens, which accounts for losses), AFAIK. You will see that with higher bin Cree Q5's, SSC's, possibly Luxeon K2's, etc.

Glow stuff is to find the light in the dark, at least until the glow dims down. Mainly the cool factor as there are different glow colors to choose from.

Current limits of led's, AFAIK, are around 1,000mAh per led.

There are CPF'ers here far more qualified to answer your q's, but I believe these answers are correct.

Welcome to CPF!!! :thumbsup:

 

[BSCOTT1504]

:welcome: Enjoy your stay here!!

 

[Terry M]

Always good to have another Iowan around. I'm in the DSM area too.

 

[IowaWalker]

Thanks for all the reply's!! Bob I am going to do your second suggestion for my first mod... buy a heat sink and use a board to regulate the current to the led. I checked prices around town today on m@g-lites, Home Deopt blew the pants off of everyone and that was before the 20% sale they were having on them!

Mini 7.59
2C 11.98
2D 13.46
4D 15.99
3D + Mini 19.97

Sale (20% off) runs through next week, above prices are before 20% off.

I will buy a few lights to have on hand this week, and figure out the most reliable place to buy parts online, without a huge wait time.

Are mini mods even worth fooling with anymore, from looking around looks like you can buy stock mods that do pretty good on the minis.

Terry, good to know I am not the only central Iowan here!!! I hope you are enjoying all of this snow!!!