What\'s the brightest possible Minimag mod?
After following the USL and Mag85 sagas I thought I'd throw this out as a challenge. How bright a light can you make out of a standard 2AA Minimag host? It can be LED or incandescent. You can use whatever you want for batteries. You can mod the body and internal parts in any way you want but the end result has to still be basically recognizeable as a Minimag (it doesn't have to look unmodified) and can't be much larger than a stock Minimag (e.g. you can add something like a Kroll switch if you want, but don't add six D cells).
Operating constraints: the light must not self-destruct (such as by melting internal parts) if you leave it on too long. And, you must be able to get at least 7 minutes of continuous runtime before noticable dimming sets in (matching the runtime of the USL) for the "impractical" category. Another "practical" category should have 30 minutes minimum continuous runtime before noticable dimming (this begins to be useful as an EDC).
One obvious approach: somehow modify the bulb holder to take a Stinger/Strion bulb and use three CBP 2/3AA 750 mAH cells. You can take care of lens heating issues with Borofloat, but will the internal plastic parts survive? Also, that bulb is bigger than a standard Minimag bulb so the reflector might not focus it very well (especially since you'd have to drill out the reflector to make the hole bigger).
Another idea is use the tiny bi-pin lamp from a PT Rage, with four 1/2AA NiMH cells. That's easiest if you can get the lamps some way other than unsoldering them from Rage assemblies, since the lamp leads in the assemblies have been cut very short, so you'd have to attach new leads.
After following the USL and Mag85 sagas I thought I'd throw this out as a challenge. How bright a light can you make out of a standard 2AA Minimag host? It can be LED or incandescent. You can use whatever you want for batteries. You can mod the body and internal parts in any way you want but the end result has to still be basically recognizeable as a Minimag (it doesn't have to look unmodified) and can't be much larger than a stock Minimag (e.g. you can add something like a Kroll switch if you want, but don't add six D cells).
Operating constraints: the light must not self-destruct (such as by melting internal parts) if you leave it on too long. And, you must be able to get at least 7 minutes of continuous runtime before noticable dimming sets in (matching the runtime of the USL) for the "impractical" category. Another "practical" category should have 30 minutes minimum continuous runtime before noticable dimming (this begins to be useful as an EDC).
One obvious approach: somehow modify the bulb holder to take a Stinger/Strion bulb and use three CBP 2/3AA 750 mAH cells. You can take care of lens heating issues with Borofloat, but will the internal plastic parts survive? Also, that bulb is bigger than a standard Minimag bulb so the reflector might not focus it very well (especially since you'd have to drill out the reflector to make the hole bigger).
Another idea is use the tiny bi-pin lamp from a PT Rage, with four 1/2AA NiMH cells. That's easiest if you can get the lamps some way other than unsoldering them from Rage assemblies, since the lamp leads in the assemblies have been cut very short, so you'd have to attach new leads.
