cratz2
Flashlight Enthusiast
Nothing fancy, but very usable. I had been using Snow 29 or Nichia CS LEDs in Minimag clones running on a 14500 LiON cell for a while and was quite impressed so when I read Led Zeppelin's thread on doing an MJLED in a Solitaire, I was inspired.
Pretty simple mod really, just assemble a Solitaire, a LiON 10440 (AAA-sized) cell and a Nichia CS LED. (I originally was planning on using one of the Peak Snow 29 LEDs but they are slightly larger and would require more work so I went with the brighter CS.)
The hardest part by far is removing the reflector from the head of the Solitaire. Man! I actually gave up but then decided to give it another go. Finally got it out after saying a number of very bad words. After it's removed, you need to enlargen the opening for the 5mm LED (vs the approx existing 3mm hole). I used a combination of a knife sort of scraping around from the back and a pointed diamond knife sharpening tool. Just take your time because you need to maintain adequate pressure against the LED to turn the light off and on.
Lastly, I've been sanding LEDs down lately. It trades away some throw and probably some brightness, but it leaves you with a HUGE hotspot... Actually, it's pretty much ALL hotspot. On Minimags and clones, I usually sputter the reflector as well further smoothing the beam but with the little Solitaire reflector, I decided to pass on that step... for now.
The end result? This is compared to an 2xAA Minimag with fresh alkaline cells. The very center of the Minimag is maybe 20% or 30% brighter, but as you can see, the Solitaire is putting out quite a bit more total light and the usable hotspot is radically larger with the sanded CS LED.
The tint of the middle of the beam is about accurate on my calibrated monitor but there isn't really the sunburst of white to blue how it looks here... it pretty much all looks like the center of the hotspot, color-wise.
And here's a relative closeup of what the sanded LED looks like in the Solitaire.
Overall, I'm quite happy. I'd like to do the same thing with a Snow 29 LED for better color and better runtime (as the Snow LEDs pull less current from the LiON cells than the CS LEDs do) but it will be quite a bit more work making it fit the hole in the reflector.
Again, not the brightest or most impressive light in the world, actually, I'm pretty sure this is my dimmest mod to date, but for around the house or even light duty outdoor work, it's bright enough. It's certainly brighter than my brightest Infinty Ultra which most people consider a very usable light.
Pretty simple mod really, just assemble a Solitaire, a LiON 10440 (AAA-sized) cell and a Nichia CS LED. (I originally was planning on using one of the Peak Snow 29 LEDs but they are slightly larger and would require more work so I went with the brighter CS.)
The hardest part by far is removing the reflector from the head of the Solitaire. Man! I actually gave up but then decided to give it another go. Finally got it out after saying a number of very bad words. After it's removed, you need to enlargen the opening for the 5mm LED (vs the approx existing 3mm hole). I used a combination of a knife sort of scraping around from the back and a pointed diamond knife sharpening tool. Just take your time because you need to maintain adequate pressure against the LED to turn the light off and on.
Lastly, I've been sanding LEDs down lately. It trades away some throw and probably some brightness, but it leaves you with a HUGE hotspot... Actually, it's pretty much ALL hotspot. On Minimags and clones, I usually sputter the reflector as well further smoothing the beam but with the little Solitaire reflector, I decided to pass on that step... for now.
The end result? This is compared to an 2xAA Minimag with fresh alkaline cells. The very center of the Minimag is maybe 20% or 30% brighter, but as you can see, the Solitaire is putting out quite a bit more total light and the usable hotspot is radically larger with the sanded CS LED.
The tint of the middle of the beam is about accurate on my calibrated monitor but there isn't really the sunburst of white to blue how it looks here... it pretty much all looks like the center of the hotspot, color-wise.
And here's a relative closeup of what the sanded LED looks like in the Solitaire.
Overall, I'm quite happy. I'd like to do the same thing with a Snow 29 LED for better color and better runtime (as the Snow LEDs pull less current from the LiON cells than the CS LEDs do) but it will be quite a bit more work making it fit the hole in the reflector.
Again, not the brightest or most impressive light in the world, actually, I'm pretty sure this is my dimmest mod to date, but for around the house or even light duty outdoor work, it's bright enough. It's certainly brighter than my brightest Infinty Ultra which most people consider a very usable light.