LEDcandle
Flashlight Enthusiast
10k lumens! "MagDDL150-Starglobe" 150w-20v 4D MagMod (pic intensive; updated shots)
After doing up a Polaris clone (50w MR16), I was looking for the next bulb to work on. Sticking to the same reason as to why I chose to do the Polaris (no need to find an alu reflector and mess with enlarging the hole for T3.5+ bulbs), I went in search for a bulb candidate.
I found the DDL bulb for projectors; 150w at 20v. That gave me an idea for a 4D Mag 150w light, which I now call the MagDDL150 or MagDDL "Starglobe". (Has someone else made a mod with this bulb yet?
Starglobe because the MR16 bulb lights up like a shining star when viewed from the back)
There was another bulb which was 150w 21v but that would be it out of range of a 4D mag 4bored. I could not find any lumen rating for the DDL, so it was a risk, but I was guessing at 150w, it should rock. (Some 250w bulbs are rated 900 lumens only while 100w ones like the 64625 go up to 3600)
So I went ahead and ordered a couple.
The plan was to run 4 x 4 NiMh, fresh from the charger at around 22.4v. I thought the NiMh's would hold 1.2v under load and give me 19.2v to drive the DDL, but apparently under load they only put out around 16.5v. Current is about 6.5 amps. Still, the bulb shone ferociously (more in the litebox shootout below). It's more of a flooder (beam angle unknown) though and I wonder if I can transplant it into a 10º MR16 reflector. Obviously, it's underdriven and is actually only doing 115w.
Some pics :-
DIY holder
Took me days to make it and small calculation errors and poor workmanship caused a lot of problems with short circuiting. After dealing with the issue, I got it to run. At the back of the holder is a copper disc that contacts the Mag spring. The batts are not all forward facing like Modamag's great holders. They run up-down-up-down-up via the copper pole in the centre that contacts the mag switch spring (which is beefed up with a blob of solder encompassing it).
No springs used in the batt holder. Nuts+Flat head screws with wires was used to make the connections. The pack is tightened by nuts at the top like awr's design, except I messed up one nut so it doesn't tighten that well.
Batts used are Supreme Power 2300 AA found at CBP, supposedly rated at 10 amps. They are flat top batts though, so I had to use magnets, which would add to the resistance. But the magnets help keep my flimsy batt pack 'glued' together nicely.
MagDDL parts
Problems Encountered
- A few machine shops I went to couldn't bore the mag for me as they didn't have the equipment, so I had to hand file it for hours and it's still not perfect.
- I had to strip all batts, and even with a thin masking tape, they were a little to thick for 4-across.
- I stripped the cells naked and sprayed them with pylox paint. They could fit with some squeeze now and at one point I was 95% done and everything was in place. But the light did not turn on and I had to disassemble it again. Apparently some problems with the switch area which I rectified.
- But putting the painted batts back into the tight mag body caused the paint to come off due to repeated abrasion, and there was a serious short that heated up the whole body. I panicked and and rushed to extract the switch and knock the batts out. By that time, a few of them were sizzling and some magnets even lost their magnetism!! (I guess 80ºc!!)
- I'm not sure what is the condition of the other batts, but I'm prob gonna replace them all soon. I'm just trying to assemble everything together again to fire it up to make sure everything works.
- The batts have been resprayed and the inside of the mag body has been sprayed too for extra insulation.
[size=+1]The Litebox Shootout[/size]
To get approx lumens from my litebox, the formula is output lux divide by 3.76. This was based on a Fenix L1P on new AA batt being assumed to be 25 lumens. I got an output of 94 from the Fenix. 94/3.76 = 25. So far it seems quite accurate, as I get close to rated figures for other lights like SF P60 (85 lumens), P90 (126) and P91 (199).
The 50w 12v mag when run on fresh batts is 16.6v without load and 14.4v under load (overdriven), which yields about 65w of power. Current is 4.5 amps.
The 50watter gets a max of 6000-7000 (1600-1800 lumens) output on my litebox at the beginning, and settles down around 4900 (with lens and bezel on). I've used it quite a lot intermittently, so for today's test, it's prob running on halfway or almost depleted batts.
Let's see : Without load, it's getting only 14.2v, and with load, prob 12ish. Batts are rewrapped Sanyo 2100s.
In the pic, its getting only 3650. That's around 970 lumens. It has no lens and bezel on even, so I guess the batts are really finishing soon. I removed the lens and bezel so that it is a more accurate comparison to the DDL bulb. (Since this is neither Bulb nor Torch lumens, can I call it Reflector lumens?)
But nvm, since I know the 50w makes about 4900 (1300 lumens), let's see how the DDL fares! (Just for ref, my Brightstar HID makes 5090 (1350 torch lumens).
Now for the DDL direct bulb comparo!
Let's see those batteries charging up and getting ready to go :-
Weighing in at :-
And the setup, using my first DDL bulb (I bought 2) :-
And fire up DDL1!
What?? Only 8000 odd output max? I had previously tested one of my DDL bulbs before and I got well over 10000. It must either be the bulb, problems with my batt pack since the last time or the batts failing to hold up after the mishap.
So I took the other DDL bulb and set it up :-
Yes!! This was the one I tested previously. Monstrous output! Such varying difference between bulbs from the same manufacturer. Previously I tried putting Alu foil behind to prevent stray lumens but the output figures remained almost the same, so I'm not going to try it this round.
edit : Just for comparo, here are the Brightstar 24w and Fenix :-
BS on original first round of batts, not 5090, as I stated earlier, but close at 4720, prob due to batts or setup variances.
Fenix on a brand new, 1.5v Duracell AA, having a slightly better day than previously.
Future plans
- Try other brand of DDL bulbs
- Try to transplant this bulb into a 10º MR16 reflector or other alu reflector
- Make a MagDDL 5D to achieve the full Volts?? Can't imagine the max power if it's already doing this well now! (Either DDL1 is a lemon or DDL2 is a superachiever)
Took a lot of time on this project and writeup. Hope you guys enjoyed it! I'm still having problems setting it up into the mag body but once I do, I'll update.
Update : More voltage added!
Decided to emulate a MagDDL 5D by adding batts. Went for 2 first :-
Then 4 which by estimation will run the bulb at full spec :-
Yikes!! It's a monster... a 5D solution will be spewing lumens. 133W of power (6.9A * 19.3V) spewing almost 6000 lumens. Wonder what if it's overdriven at 22-23v?? haha... 6D mag??
I won't be able to handbore a 5D/6D though cause my file doesn't reach deep enough even if I do it from top+bottom. The 4D is about the limit. Also, the thought of making another batt pack is...... demotivating. haha... but someday maybe!!
Update :-
Managed to squeeze in the batt pack and fire up the light!! Makes the 50watter look dim.
Can't really capture good shot with my mobile phone cam, but here's a side by side shot :- (3 notches underexposed with the mobile phone setting)
Didn't manage to get any beamshots (yet) and am trying the batt pack insertion/removal. The beam is not a perfect hotspot, and has slight 'holes' in them, but it throws pretty far. It is comparable to the 50w which is a 10º! But just bigger and brighter in every way, just not such a nice beam.
After doing up a Polaris clone (50w MR16), I was looking for the next bulb to work on. Sticking to the same reason as to why I chose to do the Polaris (no need to find an alu reflector and mess with enlarging the hole for T3.5+ bulbs), I went in search for a bulb candidate.
I found the DDL bulb for projectors; 150w at 20v. That gave me an idea for a 4D Mag 150w light, which I now call the MagDDL150 or MagDDL "Starglobe". (Has someone else made a mod with this bulb yet?
Starglobe because the MR16 bulb lights up like a shining star when viewed from the back)There was another bulb which was 150w 21v but that would be it out of range of a 4D mag 4bored. I could not find any lumen rating for the DDL, so it was a risk, but I was guessing at 150w, it should rock. (Some 250w bulbs are rated 900 lumens only while 100w ones like the 64625 go up to 3600)
So I went ahead and ordered a couple.
The plan was to run 4 x 4 NiMh, fresh from the charger at around 22.4v. I thought the NiMh's would hold 1.2v under load and give me 19.2v to drive the DDL, but apparently under load they only put out around 16.5v. Current is about 6.5 amps. Still, the bulb shone ferociously (more in the litebox shootout below). It's more of a flooder (beam angle unknown) though and I wonder if I can transplant it into a 10º MR16 reflector. Obviously, it's underdriven and is actually only doing 115w.
Some pics :-
DIY holder
Took me days to make it and small calculation errors and poor workmanship caused a lot of problems with short circuiting. After dealing with the issue, I got it to run. At the back of the holder is a copper disc that contacts the Mag spring. The batts are not all forward facing like Modamag's great holders. They run up-down-up-down-up via the copper pole in the centre that contacts the mag switch spring (which is beefed up with a blob of solder encompassing it).
No springs used in the batt holder. Nuts+Flat head screws with wires was used to make the connections. The pack is tightened by nuts at the top like awr's design, except I messed up one nut so it doesn't tighten that well.
Batts used are Supreme Power 2300 AA found at CBP, supposedly rated at 10 amps. They are flat top batts though, so I had to use magnets, which would add to the resistance. But the magnets help keep my flimsy batt pack 'glued' together nicely.
MagDDL parts
Problems Encountered
- A few machine shops I went to couldn't bore the mag for me as they didn't have the equipment, so I had to hand file it for hours and it's still not perfect.
- I had to strip all batts, and even with a thin masking tape, they were a little to thick for 4-across.
- I stripped the cells naked and sprayed them with pylox paint. They could fit with some squeeze now and at one point I was 95% done and everything was in place. But the light did not turn on and I had to disassemble it again. Apparently some problems with the switch area which I rectified.
- But putting the painted batts back into the tight mag body caused the paint to come off due to repeated abrasion, and there was a serious short that heated up the whole body. I panicked and and rushed to extract the switch and knock the batts out. By that time, a few of them were sizzling and some magnets even lost their magnetism!! (I guess 80ºc!!)
- I'm not sure what is the condition of the other batts, but I'm prob gonna replace them all soon. I'm just trying to assemble everything together again to fire it up to make sure everything works.
- The batts have been resprayed and the inside of the mag body has been sprayed too for extra insulation.
[size=+1]The Litebox Shootout[/size]
To get approx lumens from my litebox, the formula is output lux divide by 3.76. This was based on a Fenix L1P on new AA batt being assumed to be 25 lumens. I got an output of 94 from the Fenix. 94/3.76 = 25. So far it seems quite accurate, as I get close to rated figures for other lights like SF P60 (85 lumens), P90 (126) and P91 (199).
The 50w 12v mag when run on fresh batts is 16.6v without load and 14.4v under load (overdriven), which yields about 65w of power. Current is 4.5 amps.
The 50watter gets a max of 6000-7000 (1600-1800 lumens) output on my litebox at the beginning, and settles down around 4900 (with lens and bezel on). I've used it quite a lot intermittently, so for today's test, it's prob running on halfway or almost depleted batts.
Let's see : Without load, it's getting only 14.2v, and with load, prob 12ish. Batts are rewrapped Sanyo 2100s.
In the pic, its getting only 3650. That's around 970 lumens. It has no lens and bezel on even, so I guess the batts are really finishing soon. I removed the lens and bezel so that it is a more accurate comparison to the DDL bulb. (Since this is neither Bulb nor Torch lumens, can I call it Reflector lumens?
)But nvm, since I know the 50w makes about 4900 (1300 lumens), let's see how the DDL fares! (Just for ref, my Brightstar HID makes 5090 (1350 torch lumens).
Now for the DDL direct bulb comparo!
Let's see those batteries charging up and getting ready to go :-
Weighing in at :-
And the setup, using my first DDL bulb (I bought 2) :-
And fire up DDL1!
What?? Only 8000 odd output max? I had previously tested one of my DDL bulbs before and I got well over 10000. It must either be the bulb, problems with my batt pack since the last time or the batts failing to hold up after the mishap.
So I took the other DDL bulb and set it up :-
Yes!! This was the one I tested previously. Monstrous output! Such varying difference between bulbs from the same manufacturer. Previously I tried putting Alu foil behind to prevent stray lumens but the output figures remained almost the same, so I'm not going to try it this round.
edit : Just for comparo, here are the Brightstar 24w and Fenix :-
BS on original first round of batts, not 5090, as I stated earlier, but close at 4720, prob due to batts or setup variances.
Fenix on a brand new, 1.5v Duracell AA, having a slightly better day than previously.
Future plans
- Try other brand of DDL bulbs
- Try to transplant this bulb into a 10º MR16 reflector or other alu reflector
- Make a MagDDL 5D to achieve the full Volts?? Can't imagine the max power if it's already doing this well now! (Either DDL1 is a lemon or DDL2 is a superachiever)
Took a lot of time on this project and writeup. Hope you guys enjoyed it! I'm still having problems setting it up into the mag body but once I do, I'll update.
Update : More voltage added!
Decided to emulate a MagDDL 5D by adding batts. Went for 2 first :-
Then 4 which by estimation will run the bulb at full spec :-
Yikes!! It's a monster... a 5D solution will be spewing lumens. 133W of power (6.9A * 19.3V) spewing almost 6000 lumens. Wonder what if it's overdriven at 22-23v?? haha... 6D mag??
I won't be able to handbore a 5D/6D though cause my file doesn't reach deep enough even if I do it from top+bottom. The 4D is about the limit. Also, the thought of making another batt pack is...... demotivating. haha... but someday maybe!!
Update :-
Managed to squeeze in the batt pack and fire up the light!! Makes the 50watter look dim.
Can't really capture good shot with my mobile phone cam, but here's a side by side shot :- (3 notches underexposed with the mobile phone setting)
Didn't manage to get any beamshots (yet) and am trying the batt pack insertion/removal. The beam is not a perfect hotspot, and has slight 'holes' in them, but it throws pretty far. It is comparable to the 50w which is a 10º! But just bigger and brighter in every way, just not such a nice beam.
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