Noob Question

[ChzSoda]

I've been crawling around the forums for a while, and I've just about worn out the search function, so please bear that in mind before flaming me with a "USE THE SEARCH, NOOB!!" lol.

I've sifted through a couple dozen threads about modding 2AA Maglites, but none of them seemed to match what I'm aiming at... Of course, I have a modest knowledge of electronics at best, so I could quite possibly have browsed right past what I'm looking for.

Anyhow, are there any reasonable ways of making a 2AA Maglite into a regulated LED light that runs on rechargeable NiMH's? I plan to work out some sort of "clicky" tail cap or mill in a switch, so the "twisty" function need not be a factor.

Thanks to anyone that can point me in the right direction.

 

[yellow]

check "sandwich shoppe" for available "Sandwiches", thats how we all started
(when it made sense, now there are lights available that cost less than sandwich + host + optics and still are much better than anything modded with sandwich, or made like it).

Another way is to look at how these sandwiches are built, and then get some driver, led, and optics and build one for Yourself.

--> again: makes no sense any more, imho

even if the end result comes out nice, there will be no multilevel
(and - again imho - today a led light that has not at least a low and a high output, is useless)


PS: the idea to put the driver into the end cap is a good one. Thus You maybe can give the led a heatsinking path that could be enough for medium currents

 

[Light Sabre]

I have the Terralux TLE-5 and the TLE-20 LED drop ins for minimags. They are regulated. They're ok, definately not the brightest, but work for me. NiteIze also makes a LED dropin, but I'm not familiar with that one. Both Terralux and NiteIze have tail cap switches and you can leave your minimag at the focus that you like. The o-ring that is provided still allows the focus to change easily, so I put in a bigger/thicker o-ring and that keeps the focus where you want it. You can still change the focus, but it's more difficult with the new o-ring.

There's the Terralux TLE-5EX that's a whole lot brighter than the others, but if I remember right it has some over heating problems.

Check out their websites or search on the part numbers and website names here on CPF. Interesting thing is that both companies are here in Boulder and from home I can walk to Terralux and from work I can walk to NiteIze.

 

[Gunner12]

Check this thread for drop-ins. There are also sandwiches and mods that aren't listed on there.

IMO buying a decent budget light would be better since it would be around the same price as the drop-in and the tailswitch combined.

:welcome:

 

[ChzSoda]

Does anyone honestly think that I came to CPF to save money? HA! You guys are hilarious
I already own, use, and love a couple Streamlights. However, before I found the light (pun intended) I had a bit of a Maglite problem. But ever since I got my first Streamlight, I've not been able to even bring myself to put batteries in the Mags, which is too bad because if nothing else they're at least sturdy.

Sooo, that brings us to the present, where I would like to swap out the guts in a small pile of 2AA's and make them a little more wallet friendly as far as battery consumption goes.

In my previous post I mentioned that I have a modest understanding of electronics... Take this to mean "just slightly more than absolutely nothing".

Essentially I'm looking for a bit of hand-holding in this adventure
The big thing I'm looking to do is get them to run decently on NiMH's. I know that they run at a lower voltage, and I don't know how this would affect any of the mods that are already out there.

 

[ChzSoda]

Bump? Is there a code word I forgot to mention?

 

[jankj]

Anyhow, are there any reasonable ways of making a 2AA Maglite into a regulated LED light that runs on rechargeable NiMH's? I plan to work out some sort of "clicky" tail cap or mill in a switch, so the "twisty" function need not be a factor.

Yes, there are several reasonable ways of making a 2AA maglite into a regulated LED lights that runs on rechargeable NiMHS.

In the previous posts, you were given directions to LED dropins for the minimag. All these work for NiHMs. All of them work BETTER with nihms than alkalines because nihms perform better in this kind of application. (Of course, the best 2AA flashlight batteres are low self discharge nihms. Sanyo eneloop springs to mind, but there are other brands as well).

There are also several tail clicky switches for the minimag. Some of these are made by the same companies that make LED replacement, but that's not important. As far as I know, all existing LED replacements are one unit that fits into the head - no electronics in the tail. So any minimag tail switch can be used with any kind of minimag LED - or with the stock bulb.


In my opinion, it makes sense to upgrade any minimag you have lying around into LED - they are robust and nice little buggers. I have some lying around. But it does not makes sense to put a lot of money or effort into upgrading. There are a lot of relatively inexpensive lights with OK quality that will outperform any 2*AA maglite LED replacements.