Suggestions for a Maglite 2AA LED mod and Maglite 4D LED mod?

U

user1016

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Hello to all of CPF =)

Two years ago when I decided to get into flashlights, I bought my first Maglite AA.

I made two decisions I regret. The first was foolishly picking a "Camofluage" pattern instead of pure black or any colour. Since that day, all the paint has scratched off and some remains in the grooves of the grip (which looks quite silly).

The other is that I purchased a Nite-Ize 3 x LED mod and tailcap switch for it.

shop4torches_maglite_nite-ize_led_upgrade_tailcap_mini_aa_torch.jpg


Whilst the tailcap switch seemed like a good addition, the LED mod was nothing special. It removed the ability to focus and the throw on the light was nowhere near that of what the original incan bulb would do.

Another problem is that in recent times, the light has been flickering like MAD, sometimes it will not even function or turn on unless I give my Maglite a slap (or even a solid smack) and it will flicker on and off randomly.

Is my maglite repairable and if so, what is a good mod I can get for it?

I was thinking even a Mag Instrument factory standard LED, can anyone let me know if they are any good or not, otherwise, is there any good drop-in mods I could try out? I had also at the time purchased a "1 watt LED dropin" from Nite Ize for my Maglite 4D and in my honest opinion, it was pretty rubbish, and the flood mode was completely useless. I sold it and replaced it with a 3 Watt Maglite factory LED which seems to do a good enough job for me now.

I was recommended a Pelican Big-D drop in mod for the 4D, would this be a suitable replacement for the Maglite stock LED (I'm looking for something a bit brighter but with a good runtime as well).

As for the Mini, something that has a good runtime, won't cause flickering like the Nite-Ize did, and has a reasonably good lumen count. I'm not expecting 400 lumens or anything ridiclous X) but a little boost would certainly rock.

I was reading a story on the Mag-Lite website:

QUOTE:

[FONT=arial,helvetica]A quick story, on Sept 11, 2001, me and 35 of my fellow workers were working 6 levels under the World Trade Center in NYC. At approximately 8:55 AM that morning we were given a heads up that a plane had crashed into the adjacent North Tower (we had been previously involved in the 1993 bomb blast). We ran 7 stories up the fire exit to the street level and escaped with our lives. We were unaware that one of our coworkers was left in the bathroom. The lights went out. Totally black 7 stories underground, except for his Mag-Lite® The technician who has bad eyesight and bad hearing made his way up the stairs and out of the building as the second plane hit the south side of the south tower, directly above the fire exit. He barely made it across the street as the building began to collapse, steel, glass, people, raining down on him. Without his Mag-Lite® he would have been buried alive. Thank You. New York, NY

/QUOTE

[/FONT]This is my inspiration for wanting a good reliable light for my friends and family, and that is because I would not be able to live with myself if any were ever in a similar situation (even something simple and more likely to occur such as an arc flash causing power-failure in an underground complex). I'd feel awful if any of them had been using a dodgy Nite-Ize mod that puts out a dim white green light that would not penetrate the smoke, or worse, a dodgy Mini Maglite that doesn't even turn on.
 
Check to see if the problem happens with both the original incan and LED to rule out a problem with the LED. If the light is flickering even with the incan, take the light apart and clean the metal contacts. Remove the piece that says DO NOT REMOVE. The other end of the switch will fall out the back, so be careful and don't let it fall as there is a small metal piece resting in it. Clean the metal contacts with a pencil eraser and see if that helps. To reinsert the switch, push the bottom half up with 2AA, and snap the DO NOT REMOVE piece back onto it. Here's some info from Mag:

http://www.maglite.com/pdf/CustServ/AA_AAA_switch_repair_8_0410212004735472.pdf

Maglite does not make a LED upgrade for the 2AA, but I would recommend that you take a look at the multi-mode 2AA LED. Don't know what the pricing is like in Australia, but it might be cheaper to get a new one than upgrade the old one. The best upgrade for the 2AA would be the TerraLUX TLE-5EX, but it's a bit costly.

http://www.terraluxcorp.com/terralux/Products/Portable/Upgrades/TLE5EX/tabid/82/Default.aspx
 
Check to see if the problem happens with both the original incan and LED to rule out a problem with the LED. If the light is flickering even with the incan, take the light apart and clean the metal contacts. Remove the piece that says DO NOT REMOVE. The other end of the switch will fall out the back, so be careful and don't let it fall as there is a small metal piece resting in it. Clean the metal contacts with a pencil eraser and see if that helps. To reinsert the switch, push the bottom half up with 2AA, and snap the DO NOT REMOVE piece back onto it. Here's some info from Mag:

http://www.maglite.com/pdf/CustServ/AA_AAA_switch_repair_8_0410212004735472.pdf

Maglite does not make a LED upgrade for the 2AA, but I would recommend that you take a look at the multi-mode 2AA LED. Don't know what the pricing is like in Australia, but it might be cheaper to get a new one than upgrade the old one. The best upgrade for the 2AA would be the TerraLUX TLE-5EX, but it's a bit costly.

http://www.terraluxcorp.com/terralux/Products/Portable/Upgrades/TLE5EX/tabid/82/Default.aspx

Wicked stuff. The Terralux 140 lumen one looks great, where can I get it? (I found some on ebay but the seller does not offer international shipping).
 
Don't know about that...being in Australia does make it a bit more difficult... :thinking:

True, although I don't like to miss out much (we don't have Mega Gulps, Pop Tarts, Taco Bell, Butterfingers, etc) so I'm usually happy to pay $$$ to get stuff shipped over here, even though it's a LONG way across the pond.

I pay $4 per Butterfinger bar, and about $14 for a box of Pop tarts here!
 
Wicked stuff. The Terralux 140 lumen one looks great, where can I get it?

I have the TLE-5EX in my 2 AA Mini-Maglite and though it is the best of all the drop in LED upgrades for the 2 AA Mini-Maglite, it doesn't come anywhere near the performance of just about any modern day 2 AA light like the Fenix LD20, Quark AA^2, Nitecore D20, etcetera. It also doesn't come anywhere near Terralux's 140 lumen factory rating. Check out Bigchelis' post on his light measurements with a 10.5 inch sphere in this forum for his measurements of my TLE-5EX equipped Mini-Maglite. They are nowhere near 140 lumens...not even close.

It's a good drop in compared to the others from Nite-Ize and other manufacturers, but don't expect blinding performance from it. It is certainly leaps and bounds better than the stock incandescent Mini-Maglite bulb.
 
I would suspect that the flickering that you are experiencing is due to the design of MagLite's switching mechanism in their Mini-MagLite designs. Even the latest Mini-MagLED has this problem as it uses basically the same switch design. Try cleaning it like Robin24K says.

I have the Nite-Ize 3-LED drop-in on one of my Mini-MagLites and I have the Nite-Ize 1-watt drop-in on my daughter's Mini-MagLite. I also have the current Mini-MagLED with the multiple modes built in as well as a Mini-MagLED with the LED module from the 2D MagLED. They're all useful in their own ways. I like the 3-LED one for its flood light and I like the MMLED due to its throw (yes, complete opposites but I use them for different purposes). My MMLED with the 2D module is a really nice, bright light. Though it doesn't compare to a Fenix or Quark it didn't cost as much, neither.

As far as what would be a good drop-in for your particular Mini-MagLite, what do you intend to use it for? For indoor use I really like the 3-LED drop-in. For outdoors I'd get a bigger light.

For your 4D MagLED, if you are handy with a soldering iron, you can always try swapping the emitter with something brighter like a Seoul P4 U-bin. A U2-bin or U3-bin would be brighter still. You might even be able to put a Cree XP-G R5 on there for even more light and the best part is that the brighter emitters should not reduce the run times from your batteries from what you are used to now. There are other alternatives to this like the Malkoff modules but these cost quite a bit more money than this simple emitter swap.
 
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