Metal Gear Modding (Update! new pics!) More!

Hello all!

I have a Dorcy Metal Gear,
I stuffed two cr123's in it tonite:twothumbs

Quite a difference!

Question is this...Remember the Terra destroyer on Led Museum's webpage?
That thing is a beast.
That is sort of what I have in mind.
I want to buy a Cyan LuxIII OR V
Will these light take two cr123's direct drive if I disable the resistor?

Thanks for an awesome forum guys!:thanks:

Re: Metal Gear Modding

hmmmmmmmm.
A 4 watt resistor?
ughhh?

The light will be based on a Cyan LuxV with a max forward voltage of 8.31v
If I direct drive from 2 cr123's which are at 3 volts each....the min MFV on the LuxV is 5.43v...should work ok...but I gotta be missing something.

I am a noob at all this, any help would be great!

Again my goal here is take a LuxV or III and drive the holy hell out of it, without killing it, dont really care about runtime.

Oh, and what will say a 700Ma puck do for me?

Re: Metal Gear Modding

I say try a red-orange luxeon III. 190 lumens at 3 watts! I think it the input voltage is around 3 volts, but thats about all I know about it.

Good luck

Re: Metal Gear Modding

offroadcmpr said:

I say try a red-orange luxeon III. 190 lumens at 3 watts! I think it the input voltage is around 3 volts, but thats about all I know about it.

Good luck

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I just bought a couple oh Cyan Lux III
I will keep my eyes open for a red-orange :thanks:

Re: Metal Gear Modding

bikeg said:

Hello all!

I have a Dorcy Metal Gear,
I stuffed two cr123's in it tonite:twothumbs

How did you do it? C'mon share!!

Click to expand...

Re: Metal Gear Modding

Walt175 said:

bikeg said:

Hello all!

I have a Dorcy Metal Gear,
I stuffed two cr123's in it tonite:twothumbs

How did you do it? C'mon share!!

Click to expand...

Well, I took two cr123's and taped the together with electrical tape, kept wrapping it in tape until it met the inside diameter of the the body, nice snug fit!
Second thing I did to make it work, if you take off the tail cap, you will see the spring and a hex like plastic retainer, unscrew the black retainer, take the black hex shape retainer and the spring, set em aside. all that should be left in the tail cap is the rubber clickie button and the white plastic and metal contact piece, screw the tail cap back on as is, works like a champ!

I was very happy about the large increase of output that puppy gives, even with the resistor still intact!
I can hit 50-70 foot high treetops with a nice white spot and see good detail on branches etcetc.

But, it has got be beating the heck out of that resistor.

Click to expand...

Re: Metal Gear Modding

I have a couple of Cyan LUX III'S coming for this, with the right electronics I am sure to scare the bejesus out of my already "where the heck is that light coming from" nieghbors :devil:

Since this is my first true CPF aided Full blown mod, I gotta name this light!

Hmmm, Dorcy destroyer?
Any ideas on a name?

Re: Metal Gear Modding

I've done Metal Gears or Elements with Cyan, blue, green and Red/Orange Lux IIIs. Personally, I'd skip the 2x123. I'd get a rechageable LiON to use. The 18650 will fit if you mod the plastic resistor housing or AW has a cell sized to replace the 3xAAA carrier. I think it's like 18490 or something like that.

If you want max brightness from a Lux III, direct driving a red/orange star on a LiON will pretty much give it to you.

Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT shine it directly into your eyes.

I've never played with any of the colored Lux Vs, but to my eyes, the T3JG green Lux IIIs are very impressive... more so in my opinion than any of the cyan Lux IIIs I've tried... As far as brightness goes. Now, there are many fans of cyan lights out there...

IsascHayes?

Re: Metal Gear Modding

cratz2 said:

I've done Metal Gears or Elements with Cyan, blue, green and Red/Orange Lux IIIs. Personally, I'd skip the 2x123. I'd get a rechageable LiON to use. The 18650 will fit if you mod the plastic resistor housing or AW has a cell sized to replace the 3xAAA carrier. I think it's like 18490 or something like that.

If you want max brightness from a Lux III, direct driving a red/orange star on a LiON will pretty much give it to you.

Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT shine it directly into your eyes.

I've never played with any of the colored Lux Vs, but to my eyes, the T3JG green Lux IIIs are very impressive... more so in my opinion than any of the cyan Lux IIIs I've tried... As far as brightness goes. Now, there are many fans of cyan lights out there...

IsascHayes?

Click to expand...

:thanks:

I will run down to the batt shop here in a while!
Will have to try the green ones!
:huh:

Re: Metal Gear Modding

update:

just snipped off resistor, soldered a jumper and......:devil:

Added some thermal compound as Dorcy did not have any under the star

It is direct driving off of 2 cr123's

and the light is flippin screaming!
It cant last long like this...Im only leaving it on for a few seconds at a time, but until my Lux III'S get here, im happy!

Re: Metal Gear Modding

ok

Sorry if it seems im keep posting more to this.

The luxeon I is dead, it was my sacrificial lamb,this one was my learning light and driving two cr123's into a lux one was fun, but ohh my....there was frickin smoke coming out of the light:devil::devil::devil:

Yup, you all got me hooked!
Closet flashaholic no more!

Re: Metal Gear Modding

the MG only has a resistor. By using 2 123s you are severly overdriving the luxeon at 6 volts. Expect it to go dim and/or let out magic smoke soon.

Re: Metal Gear Modding

Yeah, 6V is just too much...

For a bit of added brightness with the Lux I (I mean, before you killed it, that is) is just to remove and bypass the resistor and run it on 3 alkaline cells. Runtime will drop, but brightness will increase. I ran the first Metal Gear that I modded direct without the resistor for many hours and that Lux still works.

Re: Metal Gear Modding

could we seesome beamshots....maybe in comparison to an L1P or 6 cell mag,.....something of that nature

Re: Metal Gear Modding

Danny62381 said:

could we seesome beamshots....maybe in comparison to an L1P or 6 cell mag,.....something of that nature

Click to expand...

Dont think we will get a beam shot,I think he said he smoke checked it,lol:rock: Glad I read on,before I went and did the same thing,rofl

Re: Metal Gear Modding

Russell52 said:

Dont think we will get a beam shot,I think he said he smoke checked it,lol:rock: Glad I read on,before I went and did the same thing,rofl

Click to expand...

Lol..

It still works...after it smokes and cools down :rock: kinda of ringy due to being so overdriven.
I did do some beam shots with it against a 4D/5C Xenon mag, a Inova X5T, a Inova radiant 2aa and the Sears Triple aaa 1w, The pictures came out horrible but I will say this...It flat out destroyed all the lights....The Mag put up a valiant effort and at 1 yard the Dorcy flat out crushed all of them, 3 yards it still one but the mag was getting close, at 6 yards the mag Prevailed... :huh:

Early next week I should have the two LUX III'S in cyan, I will direct drive it again, but this time I will use a cr123 with some kind of dummy cell in the same size or a 18650....of which my local battery shop was clueless about.
And gave me stern warnings about battery explosions :rock:

So here is my plan, the black one I have right know serves as my learning/test bed light, A unmolested silver one is on standby.
Blackone will be direct drive, silver one will be regulated.

The Radiosh@ck thermal putty/heatsink grease I used in between the star and the sink...well..that is what was smoking, I will hit up my homies at the PC store and get some Artic fox.

Next after these is a LUX V :naughty:

Re: Metal Gear Modding

:lolsign: Just shows how jenky RS thermal compound is
Good luck,keep us updated,So that I can mod mine

Re: Metal Gear Modding

Russell52 said:

:lolsign: Just shows how jenky RS thermal compound is
Good luck,keep us updated,So that I can mod mine

Click to expand...

Thanks!
You bet I will!
When it is done I will start a new thread for it, dubbed the Destroyer...Or dorstroyer...er....dorcstructer? :thanks:

Re: Metal Gear Modding

If I were to buy a Metal gear, and stick two cr123's in it, and NOT do anything to the resistor, would it be able to hold up/would it still be somewhat dependable>? Seems like a great, glove box light! Could you put in a diffrent risistor maybe?

Re: Metal Gear Modding

It's a great light. I haven't sat down and modded my second one, mainly because I didn't yet order a new reflector...

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=96705

The first mod is in the above thread. I may wait on the second mod just so I can see what the new K2 emitter I've got ordered could do... 2xCR123 really makes this light work well.