I need help with a stupid bet I made

AlexSchira and me are pretty good friends, In any even he bought a surefire E2e and plans to get a LED for it, thats gunna shine at 65 lumes.

I made the mistake of saying a mini mag AA could outshine it for half the cost...well he took me up on this and I agreed

Someone needs to help me get a standard Mini mag up to 65-70 lumes for preferably an hour. I am willing to spend upto 100 bucks and I really dont care what I have to do as long as its not REALLY hard. I was thing a sandwich shoppe of some sort.

Thanks

Could be a real iffy bet. He's probably getting a KL4 head for his E2. They are about 65 lumens.

The best drop-in that I know of is the MadMax Plus from the Shoppe. It is about $60 and I do not think it it will get near 65 lumens in a 2AA MM. They also have the BadBoy which is brighter, but I do not know the cost or if they have them ready made as drop-ins for the MM.

Either way you end up with one really expensive MM. If you don't have any way to measure light output, the MadMax with reflector might get you by.

Good Luck
Mark

Well I got the best conversion piece offered from Pocketlights.com for the AA maglite. It produces 50+ lumens for a substancial amount of time (8.5 hours approx.). My suggestion is to see if you can get that kit and significantly overdrive it or possibly even look into the type of led used in the gladius and somehow work it into the mag. Or buy the kit for a larger mag and fit it into the AA.

If it doesn't have to be strictly LED, why not use the mag kit avail here that uses an incan bulb and produces well over 100 lumens?? check the for sale or group buy area i think.

-Dustin

both the Madmax Plus wide open and the Nexgen 750 mA sandwich drive a Luxeon 3 at spec, so they will surely make 65 Lumens. Price is 60,-- and 50,--and they will have a runtime of at least bit more than 1 hour
BUT they are rated for intermittet use (if I remember correctly). There is simply not enough heatsink material.

PS. just checked the site, the MM WO has U-bins installed, rated for 87 - 113 Lumen. WOW. Even the cheaper T-bins are 67 - 87.
Just be sure what beam You want. Similar to the usual SureFire medium flood (then Fraen oder NX05 optics) or a thrower (reflector).
In the woods the effect of the optics is marvellous (within a range of 15-20 meters) especially if someone there wields a normal incand.

I have three (3) of the Bad Boy NexGen750mA TW0J Lux.III and that's pretty bright and can stand its own next to my SureFire E2e but that's not LED! Don't know how it'll fair against what you're intending it for though. There's is one that'll output it since it's about 200 Lumens or something like that and that's the MiniMag Hotwire Kit started by AuroraLite found in the Group Buys and Passaround forum. Check it out here!

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/91851

If you go with a drop-in sandwich kit from The Sandwich Shoppe, use the replacement aluminum McR-18 reflector for better lighting performance or the 17mm IMS ones. The NX05 types just doesn't cut if for me. That's just my opinion. Or you can go with a bored head for the 20mm IMS or McR-XX types.

If anyone has links to place where I can buy these items that would be helpful.

The light doesnt have to be strictly LED.

Thanks again.

I had some really crazy ideas on how to get a LED kit for a C mag into a MM but I think most are unrealistic because the involve making the head of a C mag fit a AA.

PS The light will surely be up there with the most expencive mags. I am thinking I may sell it after the contest. maybe not though I dont know.

Here' the link to The Sandwich Shoppe and the link to AuroraLite I posted earlier above.

http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/index.php

there's no way a MM is 65 lms
My NG500 is dimmer than my U2. (on which level is the U2 similar to the L4, I can compare and let you guys know)

- Triple Lux3 emitters with low Vf (H or lower as in TW0H) driven in series with a from a pair of 3.6v 14500 Lithium cells with a Badboy
(you need that low Vf because the badboy has 10v as its upper output limit)
> This wont get you a long runtime but you will propably outshine him and it would be a extreamly cool mod, though you will need to pot the emitters in with thermal paste to get enough cooling and wou wont get any place for a optic of any kind (maybe a UCL or the original lens but thats it), use kroll tailcap switch and remove the bulb holder part in the minimag will help you a bit

- Drive a High flux LuxV from a pair of 3.6v Litium 14500 cells in DD or resitored, should get you over 100 lumens if you do it right and get good cells.
> you get much light with not so much work, tough you need to find the right resistor value to get as much light as possible without getting to much heat

Rocka89 said:

AlexSchira and me are pretty good friends, In any even he bought a surefire E2e and plans to get a LED for it, thats gunna shine at 65 lumes.

I made the mistake of saying a mini mag AA could outshine it for half the cost...well he took me up on this and I agreed

Someone needs to help me get a standard Mini mag up to 65-70 lumes for preferably an hour. I am willing to spend upto 100 bucks and I really dont care what I have to do as long as its not REALLY hard. I was thing a sandwich shoppe of some sort.

Thanks

Click to expand...

"outshine" as in total output or further throw? You know how sometimes a 'flood type' light looks weaker than a super thrower, especially if you are comparing it outdoors with some ambient light. Also, the glaring hotspot from a thrower makes it look brighter.

If he's going KL1, you might end up with that scenario that "his is brighter than yours".

Wonder if you can get a Ledean minimag with 20mm reflector and drop in a good pill and run on a 14500. Think that will be just about $100. Not sure whether that can keep up with a KL1 though?? Anyone know?

LEDcandle said:

"outshine" as in total output or further throw? You know how sometimes a 'flood type' light looks weaker than a super thrower, especially if you are comparing it outdoors with some ambient light. Also, the glaring hotspot from a thrower makes it look brighter.

If he's going KL1, you might end up with that scenario that "his is brighter than yours".

Wonder if you can get a Ledean minimag with 20mm reflector and drop in a good pill and run on a 14500. Think that will be just about $100. Not sure whether that can keep up with a KL1 though?? Anyone know?

Click to expand...

I am assuming its going to be further throw because thats what he was saying was so great about surefires. That and they can pratically be ran over by a tank.

I prolly shouldnt say this and I should just google the stuff you guys said and find out what to do on my owns but...I have no clue what a good pill and 14500 is...I am unenlightened you know...

PS. no offence to anyone about this but I was just looking at the surefire site and reading there storys...some of them are like "I droped my surefire in wet cement, after 10years I droped a nuke on my driveway where the surefire was lost. after the radiation had stoped I found it and picked it up STILL WORKED!

Heh... sorry about all the terms...

Here's a thread on the single AA Ledean minimag :-

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/81679

It's cut down so it'll be even more impressive (smaller than the e2e I believe).BUT I can't guarantee if it'll outblast a KL1. Need others to verify. The 20mm reflector will definitely help with the throw.

a 14500 is a Lithium Ion (rechargeable) AA size putting out around 3.7v. (normal non-rechargeable lithiums put out 3v). I meant sandwich instead of pill... its a drop-in Luxeon + convertor board (that provides regulation) for your minimag (also called sammie or sammich).

Here's a direct link to the sandwich shoppe page :-

http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/index.php?cPath=22

Ledean Minimag - $36
Sandwich - $50-60
14500 batt - $9
Charger - $10

Total ard $100.

There's another cut down full-sized mag somewhere.. I'll look for it.. it isn't really a minimag, but it'll be good for laughs when you whip that out...
Here it is : https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/101320&highlight=noc
The NOC (no C) mag! It'll definitely throw!!

Thanks, that was A ton of help. lol I can throw the No c mag. but can it throw? it be funny if you made a light with NO space for battery that actually lit up.

Just out of curousity why have it cut down to 1 AA would 2 AA not be brighter?

Yes, I'm getting the KL4, though I'm not sure how good a thrower it is. May just strip down to Incan if it means a bit more throw.

Rocka89 said:

Thanks, that was A ton of help. lol I can throw the No c mag. but can it throw? it be funny if you made a light with NO space for battery that actually lit up.

Just out of curousity why have it cut down to 1 AA would 2 AA not be brighter?

Click to expand...

A lot of guys were running the Minimag with one 14500 LiON cell and a dummy cell so the area taken up by the dummy cell was just wasted length/space/weight. Also, the Ledean cut down mags have the head bored so they can accept the IMS 20mm reflector which gives much better throw than the stock mag reflector.

I'm not really a bettin' man, but I would think that the Madmax Plus with the UX1K emitter with a 20mm reflector and a UCL lens would beat the KL1 in throw. And it would own in for total output. Personally, I'd go for the full size 2xAA Minimag and run it with two NiMH cells.

KL1 throws further than KL4.. according to reviews, slightly further than the incan too, but close.

Rocka89, you don't HAVE to cut it down, it just happens I rembr this setup had the 20mm reflector installed. You can get a stock mini-mag and get the 20mm fitted in with some boring (I think) and stuff too, but it's more troublesome.

If there is a convertor, it doesn't matter if you use more batteries (within convertor spec). The current is regulated. Only runtime is extended. If it's direct driven (no convertor), 2 lithium-ions is too much for most luxeons out there. 1 is usally just nice for the luxeons ppl often use.

I believe the NOC mag is using a smaller batt (using 123a, but its not a C, so its a no C! Of coz it can throw; its a standard mag 50mm head. The mag head is well-known for throwing really far.

The KL4 is excellent for a flood light... one of the very best out there. But it is not impressive for throw. A stock Minimag with fresh cells is better. The stock incand bulb for the E2E is the way to go for best throw thought the current KL1 head has a little better throw than the incand.

I still think the U-bin in the 20mm reflector will win the battle of throw.

Ironic thing is, this bet began because Rock dislikes Surefires due to their pricing. The argument was, I paid for Surefire technology, when I could have made my own for a lower price.
...While he's learning how to mod his currently incapicated Mini Mag, I'm looking into which LED would throw farther.
This is kinda' like Rocky 4, really. I'm the blonde guy. And Rock is...okay, do I really have to keep the joke going? It's All-American boy with a garage full of tools, a broken eight dollar maglite, and a heart of gold, versus a tech junkie with a Surefire.

Actually, for best throw with a minimag, I think would be to take the Minimag, get a UX1L built in a C head then use the Minimag to C Mag adapter and run it direct on a single 14500 cell. This will give you the outstandingly good throwing Mag C head on the Minimag body 100+ Lumens and GREAT throw! It will destroy any production E-series mod, without a doubt.

Then Alex can issue a "let the truck roll over your light" challenge and he'd prob win