P9 and Mag 2C mods

[wachtelhund]

Hello,
Allow me to intorduce myself, I'm Dave. Yesterday, I was reading about Borealis and Black Bear flashlites and inturn found this Forum and registered. I was fasinated with the subject of building better flashlites. I'm a hunter in North East WI and I have built my own trail cameras, hacking digital cameras; built my own wireless varmint caller and several duck boats. As a hunter I always have need for good flashlites. I breed and train gundogs, one of the specialities that I train them for is tracking wounded deer. Each fall and winter I track and find a number of deer for people who would not have found them with out my dogs. Since most tracking is done at night I have been carrying small 1 and 3 watt LED flashlites operated off 3AA, because of the bright white light and long burn time. (On more than one occassion I was stuck in the woods and swamps in the middle of the night, having no idea where I was, with several burned out incandecant flashlites. We would have to build a fire and wait until morning.)
I also hunt and call varmints at night and use a surefire P9 with a pressure swtich mounted to my gun (legal in WI for point of kill). Yesterday I read just about all the mod posts, I could not leave my computer.
So for my first question concerning my surefire P9 (P6 with an extension), I have ordered off Ebay a Solarforce 300 lumen Cree R2 Led for my P9. I also read yesterday about an XPG performance head sold buy Cabelas being added to a P6. Can this head be used with the Solarforce 300 lumen Cree R2 Led??
Also can you point me to any theads for a Mag 2C mod to high output LED. I need high output with long burm time for tracking.

dave
www.wachtelhund.us
www.deutscherwachtelhund.org

 

[allburger]

The Cabela's XPG will not work with that LED drop in. What you bought was similar to the incandescent lamp assembly in your 9p right now. The Cabela's XPG is actually a head swap that includes an incandescent bulb and reflector built into the head. It is a great unit, I actually did a write up on the XPG that you may have ready.

As far as a 2C Mag Mod goes, you have many options. The first would be to simply purchase an LED drop in for it, your other option is to purchase a custom heatsink, emitter, and driver and solder your own. ( I have done this, it isn't that hard.) Take a look around the threads and have a look at the builds that people do and offer pictures of every step. That was one thing that gave me the confidence to try these.

 

[Hamster]

My favourite is the 3D mag with a P7 emiiter.
You only need to buy the heatsink, wires,thermal expoxy/adhesive and the emitter. With 3 NiMhD batteries, you get a 3 hour runtime with no inefficient, complex etectronics. This simple mag mod is a rugged, reliable workhorse that really kicks out the lumens.
The other use of this practical light is one hell of an electric candle for emergency or area lighting.
The new, Low Self Discharge (LSD) D cell batteries now have a 10 Ah capacity that retain 75% of their capacity after a year on the shelf.

All of this for a total cost of less than $60 plus batteries and charger.

 

[wachtelhund]

The Cabela's XPG will not work with that LED drop in. What you bought was similar to the incandescent lamp assembly in your 9p right now. The Cabela's XPG is actually a head swap that includes an incandescent bulb and reflector built into the head. It is a great unit, I actually did a write up on the XPG that you may have ready.
quote]

allburger, Thanks for the info, this is all new to me, especially the terminology.

Dave

 

[wachtelhund]

My favourite is the 3D mag with a P7 emiiter.
You only need to buy the heatsink, wires,thermal expoxy/adhesive and the emitter. With 3 NiMhD batteries, you get a 3 hour runtime with no inefficient, complex etectronics. This simple mag mod is a rugged, reliable workhorse that really kicks out the lumens.
The other use of this practical light is one hell of an electric candle for emergency or area lighting.
The new, Low Self Discharge (LSD) D cell batteries now have a 10 Ah capacity that retain 75% of their capacity after a year on the shelf.

All of this for a total cost of less than $60 plus batteries and charger.

Hamster, Thanks for the response. I do have a 3 D mag lite which I will also mod. Having given this more thought and reading more, I'm interested in the C cell mag lite mod for night hunting and mounting on a gun. I normally use red filters which cut down on the out going light, so the more lumens the better. Plus after reading a post about Aspherical lens that blew me away. How do I put a red filter over the Aspherical lens? I just might have to upgrade to a 3 C cell Mag lite, and P7 mod.

 

[Hamster]

I am very interested in your use of a red filter.
I had thought of buying camera filters after I bought a 52mm - 55mm camera lense adapter for one of my P7 maglites. Now, I can buy all sorts of cheap camera filters to fit my mag mods.
What use does the red filter have? To simply cut down on the outgoing light does not seem to be a good thing. A lower power will do that..
Does the red preserve night vision?
These filters are so cheap, I guess I will have to buy a collection and find out for myself.

 

[Cydonia]

If you need large amounts of pure red light try one of the high power Cree or Luxeon red LED's. It will run direct (slight overdrive) from 2NiMh cells in the 2C Maglite. Something in the order of 150 lumens of pure red light. From what I read I don't think you need so much red light - so I'm just throwing it out as another option you may not have heard about.

 

[wachtelhund]

I am very interested in your use of a red filter.
I had thought of buying camera filters after I bought a 52mm - 55mm camera lense adapter for one of my P7 maglites. Now, I can buy all sorts of cheap camera filters to fit my mag mods.
What use does the red filter have? To simply cut down on the outgoing light does not seem to be a good thing. A lower power will do that..
Does the red preserve night vision?
These filters are so cheap, I guess I will have to buy a collection and find out for myself.

Animals are not affected by red light at night and it preserves night vision.

 

[wachtelhund]

If you need large amounts of pure red light try one of the high power Cree or Luxeon red LED's. It will run direct (slight overdrive) from 2NiMh cells in the 2C Maglite. Something in the order of 150 lumens of pure red light. From what I read I don't think you need so much red light - so I'm just throwing it out as another option you may not have heard about.

This may be a better option than a high lume lite with a re filter over it. Wonder what a Aspherical lens would do on this set up? I would like to reach out about 300 feet.

 

[gswitter]

You might want to consider the red TerraLux screw-in. It's surprisingly bright, and with a stock Mag reflector, it throws very well. I tried a KD aspherical lens on top of it, and it really didn't add anything. Maybe opt for UCL lens instead to squeeze the last few photons out.

 

[wachtelhund]

You might want to consider the red TerraLux screw-in. It's surprisingly bright, and with a stock Mag reflector, it throws very well. I tried a KD aspherical lens on top of it, and it really didn't add anything. Maybe opt for UCL lens instead to squeeze the last few photons out.

Okay, I'm new to all this lite moding, so please excuse all my questions! The red TerraLux screw-in is for a 3 to 6 C or D cell mag lite. I take it that the greater the cells i.e. higher voltage the brighter it will be? So could I stick this in a 2C maglite and run it off 3 sleeved CR-123 3 volt batteries, since 6 C or D cells would also be 9 volts. Or is there some type of limitor built into the TerraLux screw-in module which limits the voltage to 4.5 volts?

 

[M@elstrom]

You could opt for a dual protected Lithium Ion (rechargeable lithium battery) solution, 2 cells would generate 7.2~8.4v easiest solution would be 2 x 'C' Li-Ion cells though you may need to modify the M@G 2c's tailcap and/or spring :thumbsup:


Specification
3.7~4.2v (3.7v nominal)
3.3Ah (3300mAh) cells
255mm(W) * 535mm(L)

since 6 C or D cells would also be 9 volts. Or is there some type of limitor built into the TerraLux screw-in module which limits the voltage to 4.5 volts?

You're correct in your assumption, the Terralux modules do have a basic voltage limiting circuit to couple them with the particular P4 emitter Vf (forward voltage)

 

[wachtelhund]

You could opt for a dual protected Lithium Ion (rechargeable lithium battery) solution, 2 cells would generate 7.2~8.4v easiest solution would be 2 x 'C' Li-Ion cells though you may need to modify the M@G 2c's tailcap and/or spring :thumbsup:
Specification
3.7~4.2v (3.7v nominal)
3.3Ah (3300mAh) cells
255mm(W) * 535mm(L)

You're correct in your assumption, the Terralux modules do have a basic voltage limiting circuit to couple them with the particular P4 emitter Vf (forward voltage)

Okay Now I'm getting the idea, I googled the Terra Lux 3 watt LED. It operates around 4.5 volts. I also Googled C Li-Ion batteris, expexsive. So I could run the TerraLux screw-in in a 2C Mag lite with two sleeved C-123s and a dummy to take up the space.

 

[gswitter]

Okay, I'm new to all this lite moding, so please excuse all my questions! The red TerraLux screw-in is for a 3 to 6 C or D cell mag lite. I take it that the greater the cells i.e. higher voltage the brighter it will be?

Possibly, but probably not. It depends on the driver. Most likely it's just a simple buck circuit (voltage/current limiter) that requires at least three cells to operate. I've tried powering it with 3x, 4x and 6x AA NiMH rechargeable cells and my eyes don't notice any difference in output.

So could I stick this in a 2C maglite and run it off 3 sleeved CR-123 3 volt batteries, since 6 C or D cells would also be 9 volts.

Should be fine. There are rechargeable options that will give you even better runtime. Those "C" Li-ions are very nice, but indeed expensive (and currently sold out). Read up on protected Li-ions (plenty of info here), and if you want to go that route, consider a pair of 18650's using this tail cap