MXDL 3W Pics

this light was pretty much free (i cant say no to that )

im pretty sure from this picture you can tell its not a Lumiled's LED but it pretends to be one! the ebay description does not specifically say its a Luxeon but does say "3 WATT"





the construction of the light is "ok" aluminum like a mini mag, the threads are good, the tail cap is easily threaded onto the back




i did notice the LED is a little off center from the reflector, but it doesnt really bother me, you can actually change the beam from focused to flood like a mini mag!



also like a mini mag you can use it like a candle



for the price its job function is pretty flexible like a mag, its a great light to leave in your glove box.

MXDL 3W AAA on the Left
Dorcy 3W AAA on the Right
the light i noticed flickers, anyone know why? i cleaned all the contacts on both the tail cap and the contact on the led but it still flickers

Try checking the battery casing. If theres ANY points of contact with the aluminum from the battery casing with the inner wall of the body, then it will ground. This was a major thing I had to check for with my MXDL. I could not for the life of me figure out why my light wasnt working. I thought maybe it was a bad contact with the tailcap or the inner bezel. But upon closer and detailed inspection, there was a corner peaice of the metal from the battery casing touching the inner wall of the light, causing it to ground. I had to take to needle nose pliers and bend it down slightly - problem was solved!

Though I would never specifically recommend one, that design MXDL isn't aweful... the other one with the more hexagonal or octagonal sections is worse in my experience.

On the flickering issue... does it tend to flicker more if you screw or unscrew the tailcap while it's on? If so, the spring could be doing something fishy. This used to be a problem with a number of lights that used cheap springs. One member modded an XNova for me then many months later, sent a little piece of plastic that was large enough to fit around the spring, but small enough that it would prevent the spring from ever contacting anything other than the battery.

I've also had two different 3xAAA lights (though not MXDLs specifically) that had the same issue and was cured similarly.

Skyclad01 said:

Try checking the battery casing. If theres ANY points of contact with the aluminum from the battery casing with the inner wall of the body, then it will ground. This was a major thing I had to check for with my MXDL. I could not for the life of me figure out why my light wasnt working. I thought maybe it was a bad contact with the tailcap or the inner bezel. But upon closer and detailed inspection, there was a corner peaice of the metal from the battery casing touching the inner wall of the light, causing it to ground. I had to take to needle nose pliers and bend it down slightly - problem was solved!

Click to expand...

AH HA! i fixed it!, you can see in 1 of the pictures solder touches one of the screws that attach the PCB to the peice of aluminum, i basically soldered the hell out of it so theres a bigger glob, the solder fused to the screw too so there is way better contact, no more flickering!

Is the LED just screwed on? Could I just screw on a real Luxeon? Is regulated at all or direct drive?

BatteryCharger said:

Is the LED just screwed on? Could I just screw on a real Luxeon? Is regulated at all or direct drive?

Click to expand...

looks like direct drive, the led itself is soldered onto a PCB, and the PCB is screwed onto an aluminum heatsink. im pretty sure you can just unsolder the chinese led and solder in a real luxeon.

as for my original statement, i take it back, the off center led does bother me, now its dark out i can see a yellow spot thats a little off center to the hotspot. looks like a tumor, that really bothers me lol