Upgrading my lights

[chas9rr]

Hello guys. Here we go, first post, long time lurker.:wave:
I curently have a few lights, a surefire e2e, three 3d mags and about a half dozen mini mags. First thing I want to do is make two of the 3d mags into car lights. They wont see too much use so I was wanting to go with something like CR123a cells because of the good shelf life. Is there an inexpensive mod to accomodate this? The third mag will be used for night time walking the dog and a bedside emergency light. I am a sucker for throw so I will probably do a ROP or a mag85 down the road. Now my E2E is my pocket light for work, I love that thing! but i am getting a little bummed out feeding it batteries. I think a rechargeable soultion is in my very near future! (read rcr123 and a LF lamp) As for the mini mags, I have a nite ize drop in in one of them next to the bed, only about good enough to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

OK, that was kinda long winded, any ideas for the mags with cr123's would be great, or any other ideas at all!
Thanks
Charles

 

[Derek Dean]

Howdy chas9rr, and welcome to CPF,
Sorry, I don't have the info you are looking for, but I will do a little sniffing around and see if I can locate some CR123 to D cell adapters. However, probably more easily available would be 3xAA adapters, which you could load with primary lithium AA batteries for the long shelf life, or rechargeable Eneloop NiMh AA batteries, for both reasonably long shelf life, and a rechargeable solution.

I would think you would want those to be parallel adapters, so that each one would still be 1.5 volts, I'll look around for those.

There are far more knowledgeable Surefire folks here to answer those questions. I hope you enjoy your time here, lots of nice, but slightly obsessed souls. :laughing:

 

[Monocrom]

Welcome to CPF!

With regards to the E2e, if you don't mind a reduction in throw; consider getting a KL4 head for it. With that, you can turn your E2e into an L4. The light will give off a wall of very bright light. Since the KL4 is an LED, you'll get an hour of very bright light, followed by 4 hours of diminished light.

As far as the Mini-Mags go, Target sells the Nite-Ize 1 watt LED kit. Quite a bit brighter than the 3 LED kit they offer. The kit comes with an I.Q. tailcap switch with a variety of modes. It does however decrease light output by about 15%. The 1 watt I have in one of my Mini-Mags is coupled with the tailcap switch that came with my 3 LED kit from Nite-Ize.

 

[flashy bazook]

it's funny, we are in the same position (I too have 3xD Mags and the 2xAA Minimags) and have altered them with LEDs. Also I use them in the car for the same reason you mentioned - so we think alike as well!

What I did is I put in a Diamond drop-in LED module in the 3xD Mags. It's probably no longer the most up to date, it is based on the K2 Luxeon and LED technology keeps running ahead. Also the Mag can no longer focus.

Still, it gives a LOT of light and good runtime (much better than the original Mag).

I also dropped in the Opalec 3xLED module into the 2xAA Minimags. This is about a similar amount of light to the original Minimag but gets a lot of regulated runtime and has a red LED that comes on when the batteries are run down. No focus possible with these either. I use these in the back of the car for passengers (reading lights, no need to be very strong - in fact, too strong a light output would be contra-indicated).

I have one unchanged 3xD Mag and am waiting to see if the new REBEL 100 LEDs come out in a K2 package (which should happen) and a drop in module, and will upgrade when this becomes available.

If you need something quick, though, the K2 Diamond drop-in modules work very well. According to flashlight reviews, they give a throw of 100 and runtime of 24 hrs, and in fact that may be one of the cheapest ways to get such numbers (LED flashlights with that kind of throw tend to be much more expensive than the drop in module). The flashlight is of course heavier, but for an emergency car light that is used very rarely, personally I do not mind.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Like Bazook, I Diamond updated a bigger Mag (3C) a while back and couldn't be happier. I've been studying improvements, here are a few conclusions:

Batteries - If its going to be in the car, the cells will be long shelf life, low use, high run time, extreme temperature handling. The best chemistry for this is 1.5v Lithium (Energizer e2) - but as has been said, not available in D form. I don't know that I would trust adapters for a stand alone emergency light, so that leaves Alkaline. Change them out every fall and you should be okay. Get e2's for the MiniMags you dont' use often and Eneloops for the one's you do.

Upgrade Pluses - Thinking about it last week, Mags are the perfect upgrade platform. Few other makes/models (including Mags own LEDs) offer the ability to upgrade the bulbs every 2 years. Upgrade Minuses - Mags run on high at all times, upgraded or not. If you have a 100 lumens in your pocket, thats 100 lumens for taking a walk and 100 lumens to visit the bathroom.

Options - There is anticipation of upgrades going Rebel. These will have better color than current Cree based options, which are still awesome. There are lower cost options for both, but here are the top throwers:

150 lumens for 2-3 cell C and Ds
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-6exb.html

80+ lumens for 2 AAs
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-5k2.html

UCL Lenses
http://www.flashlightlens.com/item--UCL%AE-Lens--UCL_Lens.html

AA -> 22.6mm
C/D -> 52.1mm

 

[vic2367]

totally agree with electronguru,,,

 

[vic2367]

oh almost forgot,,,welcome to the forums

 

[bouncer]

As my pal Monocrom said for the surefire use the kl4 if you want that to stop eating batteries go to Lighthound and buy 2- 17670 lith-ion and a charger for them great lights I need to get lith-ions for mine I carry 2 l4'2 and an e1l eveyday and welcome to the most addictive hobby there is