LED -- er, LEAD me to the right drop-in LED for a Maglite, please!

I don't want to be confused, and I sure don't know enough techy stuff to be able to choose on my own...

Could someone lay out the top three drop-in LED products to put into a 2 and a 4 D cell Maglite, please?

Please explain what makes them the best choices, and outline pluses and minuses if there are any. Please specify brands, models, and where they can be obtained and for approximately how many dollars.

Thank you very very much!

-Jeffrey

For runtime, the Nite-Ize C- and D-cell Maglite upgrade is probably the longest lasting. According to FLR, it should last days, maybe even months, on one set of batteries. Not that bright, though.

For the best low-cost upgrade, you want Lambda's PR-base SMJLEDs at $10 each. Works only in 2-cell lights, though. I'm told it's pretty bright.

I don't really know about the higher power stuff, sorry.

If you want to wait a couple of months, Mag should be out with their LED upgrade modules for these lights (about $17 each?). Or if you choose, you can just replace your incandescent lights with the Mag LED lights, but they're not likely to differ from you just replacing the bulbs in your existing lights.

peacefuljeffrey said:

I don't want to be confused, and I sure don't know enough techy stuff to be able to choose on my own...

Could someone lay out the top three drop-in LED products to put into a 2 and a 4 D cell Maglite, please?

Please explain what makes them the best choices, and outline pluses and minuses if there are any. Please specify brands, models, and where they can be obtained and for approximately how many dollars.

Thank you very very much!

-Jeffrey

Click to expand...

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews_index/reviews_index_ledbulbs.htm


Drop-ins shown here are mainly for mini mags and 2D lights

hope it help, or at least start you off on your search endeaver


Enjoy!

Brighteyez said:

If you want to wait a couple of months, Mag should be out with their LED upgrade modules for these lights (about $17 each?). Or if you choose, you can just replace your incandescent lights with the Mag LED lights, but they're not likely to differ from you just replacing the bulbs in your existing lights.

Click to expand...

That last sentence is the gyst I am getting from around here... (some report that suspicion cynically).

I was just wondering if there are likely better quality/performance drop-ins that are available now that are better than what Mag is going to offer in the coming months.

Any other opinions, ideas about currently available drop ins? Please spell out the acronyms and brands -- I'm not familiar with abbreviations like FLR, PR-based SMJLEDs... Thanks.

-Jeffrey

FLR -- FlashlightReviews.com
PR -- a common type of bulb holder, used in Maglites and in other incandescent lights
SMJLED -- Super MJ LED. 4-die 5mm LED. See this thread: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100958

The PR-base SMJLED I was referring to is here: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=108856

SMJLED is a 5mm LED and won't be nearly as bright as even a 1-Watt Luxeon. I wouldn't even bother with them. Ditto the Niteyes.

All of the following are true drop-ins. They can all be installed as easily as changing the stock bulb. Most of these products are reviewed on FlashlightReviews.com. See the link in the post above.

Diamond Luxeon I and Luxeon III drop-in modules are extremely bright, have excellent throw, require no modification, and are relatively inexpensive. They use the same Luxeon brand LEDs as most high-powered LED flashligts. The LuxIII module needs 3 batteries to work. If you replace one of your 4 batteries with a "dummy battery" and use a Lux III, your light will be lighter, and much brighter. There's no downside to using only 3 batteries, because the runtime will still be more than 24 hours with the Lux III. You can use a Lux I with your 2-cell Mag, and it will be brighter and throw better than the stock bulb, but nowhere near the brightness and throw of the Lux III

Diamond is also about to release the Luxeon K2 drop-in. It will work with up to 6-cell MagLites. It will almost certainly be even brighter than the Lux III drop-in and still cost only $24.95. It should produce at least 100 lumens. (The stock bulb in a 3-D cell Mag makes less than 30 lumens for comparison) If you can wait, buy that one. If not, buy the Diamond Lux III. You cant go wrong. Currently Diamond is offering blow-out pricing on their Lux III drop-ins. Just $19.95. See: http://www.flash-lights.com/index.php/cat/c1243_3-Watt-Luxeon-LED-s.html/XTCsid/5b8bdbe933ad3af1e0ddde04e2417040
Here is a link to their K2 offer: http://www.flash-lights.com/index.php/cat/c1305_6-5-Watt-Luxeon-K2.html

There are a couple other Luxeon drop-ins. EverLED makes a Luxeon drop-in but it isn't as bright as the Diamond LuxIII, and costs $39. LunaLEDs makes a 1 watt drop-in using a Cree brand emitter that is descent, but it is also around $39 and seems sketchy to me. At least, that is, their web site sucks. I couldn't even tell if they were taking orders for it.

In my opinion, your only decision shoud be which Diamond drop-in to buy. It's true that Mag industries is going to release their own brand of drop-ins very soon, but I don't have any reason to believe they will be as good as Diamond's Lux III or K2 drop-ins.

The K-2 in a 4-D cell Mag will be brighter and throw farther than almost any LED flashlight currently available. If you already have the 4-D Mag, you can own some true whup-*** for only $25 I don't know why you would do anything else. As stated earlier, if you can't wait, I don't know why you would choose anything but the Diamond Lux III for $20

Now go out and light up the neighborhood!
Bernie

FirstDsent, thanks for the info.

I request a small clarification:

You mentioned using 3 live batteries and a dummy. I don't know where to obtain a dummy D cell, but are you saying that you can't simply use all 4 live batteries with a Luxeon III in a 4D Maglite? Do you have to limit it to 3 batteries?

Why can I not use a Luxeon III in a 2D Maglite, anyway? Gotta use the Luxeon i, huh?

I read that Luxeon IIIs were the first LEDs to require temperature modulation via a heat sink. This won't be a factor if I drop one into a plain ol' Maglite?

Oh, and say I wanted to order these... Where's the best place to do so? Can they be found in any stores?

Thanks again!

-Jeffrey

I don't understand this desire. If you want an LED light, why don't you buy one, instead of trying to convert a Mag? If you want a 3 watt 2D light, for example, Elektrolumens makes some nice ones.

Well, I like the heft of a Maglite, and I was waiting eagerly for MAGLED until I read more and more from people here (who would know) that they are not likely headed toward greatness -- apart from the constant rolling back of the schedule! I just want a bigass under-the-car-seat light and I want it to be a durable LED-type, not a conventional incandescent Maglite. (I used to keep a 4D under the seat but then I found LED lights and can never go back to bulbs that will break if you breathe on 'em wrong.)

And I want to keep this relatively inexpensive. I know there are crazy lights out there with far more lighting power. I'm not greedy; I want something that's "pretty darned good" that won't break the bank. I also want momentary-on capability, and don't Mags have that on their barrel switches?

I would like to know one more thing: what can I expect as far as dimming, since obviously a drop-in LED in a Maglite has no current regulating circuitry...


-Jeffrey

Leds aren't indestructable, and incans aren't THAT fragile. Surefire weapon mounted lights (intended to take the recoil of full auto firing etc.) are still all incan. So if you want a "bonk" light and you already have a 4D M*g, your easiest option is probably just stay with it. It has a spare bulb in the tailcap in case the bulb burns out. Of course you should have a led light on your keys as a backup to for when you do need to change to that spare bulb.

Of course what you REALLY want is this:
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/needle1.htm

Notice in particular the "assault and batteries" AA tube near the bottom of the page.

paulr said:

I don't understand this desire. If you want an LED light, why don't you buy one, instead of trying to convert a Mag? If you want a 3 watt 2D light, for example, Elektrolumens makes some nice ones.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I am now very interested in the Elektrolumens 3P.

Um, is it expensive? Where can I order it? I saw their website but it didn't seem to have order info or prices. (I had to scan it quickly.)

-Jeffrey

Good questions.

Dummy batteries are available from the same company from which you can buy the Diamond drop-ins: www.flash-lights.com. Those are the two links in my above post. If you just use this address, look for the "LED FLASHLIGHT bulbs" picture on the main page. Dummy batteries are listed in the index in the left column.

I'm not sure about using the LuxIII with 4 cells. I assume it will be overdriven. It may even fail. I would want to hear from someone who's gotten away with it before I throw $20 away. Nevertheless, for less than $4, get the dummy battery just to play it safe. There's no downside to using only 3 cells in your 4 cell flashlight. You can even figure out the best balance and put the dummy in any of the 4 positions. The only thing you'd get with the extra capacitance of the 4th battery is longer runtime. But look, the runtime is already world-class with 3 cells, and D cell batteries are relatively cheap considering they're about 10 hours of runtime each. You can even use NiMH rechargable batteries if you can find the D size.

I'm not sure the Lux III would even light with 2 cells. 3 Volts is certainly enough to run a Lux III, but I assume that the module contains a resistor that limits the voltage.

Diamond's recommendations can be ignored of course. The fact is, I'm currently overdriving their Lux I with 3 cells instead of the recommended 2. It's a screamer. I feel I can get away with it because I don't usually use it for more than a minute or two. It won't build up enough heat in short bursts to fail. However that is still asking for trouble. One of these days I will need to have it on for an hour, and it will crash.

That leads me to your heat question. There is some thermal path to remove heat from the emitter. It's skimpy but it's there. One advantage of Diamond's units over all the competition including Mag's own drop-ins is that they contain an integral heat diffuser. The black "casing" that you see is actually an aluminum air-cooling fin to dissipate heat into the air space inside the Mag body. I have not heard of Lux III failures due to heat. I'm still asking for trouble with my overdriven Lux I, because it will produce more heat than the correctly driven Lux III. Hey I've just got to be me -read my signature line.

To the best of my knowledge, Diamond units are only available from Flash-lights.com but they're the ones with the blowout special on the Lux III anyway. Personally, I would hold out for the K2! If they're pre-ordering for it, send them your money in case they sell out their first shipment. I'm telling you, if the K2 lives up to its promise, it will be the brightest, best throwing single LED light available -and for just $24!!!!!

Bernie

FirstDsent said:

You can use a Lux I with your 2-cell Mag, and it will be brighter and throw better than the stock bulb,

Click to expand...

There ain't no way a Luxeon I Magmod is gonna out-throw a stock Mag bulb Krypton or Xenon. Not even close.

paulr said:

I don't understand this desire. If you want an LED light, why don't you buy one, instead of trying to convert a Mag? If you want a 3 watt 2D light, for example, Elektrolumens makes some nice ones.

Click to expand...

The answer is bang fo the buck:

Originally Posted by FirstDsent:
if the K2 lives up to its promise, it will be the brightest, best throwing single LED light available -and for just $24!!!!!

Click to expand...

what's not to love about that? He already has the host. The Electrolumens 3P is $40, and will be eating the $24 K2's dust. Even the Diamond Lux III/Mag has the same ouput and 60% better throw than the 3-P, and it's $20!

Originally Posted by paulr:
your easiest option is probably just stay with it. It has a spare bulb in the tailcap in case the bulb burns out

Click to expand...

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! ATTENTION WILL ROBINSON: CPF FOUL! RECOMMENDING A KRYPTON MAG IS A VIOLATION! INTRUDER ALERT!

No disrespect intended sir, but you're kidding, right? I have a 1 X CR123 Lux III keychain light that puts out almost twice the light of the 3D Krypton bulb. This man wants some POWER! I think that's the first post I have seen on CPF where someone actually advocated keeping a MagLite stock. Geeez!

Must...calm down. Heart...rate...falling. Must....breathe...into...paper bag.
Bernie

The stock bulb is not that awful, especially the xenon one, if you're looking for pure throw. I have a 2C with a magnumstar xenon and it throws pretty good. I have a stock 2D with a Dorcy xenon and it throws pretty good as well. For pure light output or lumens per watt, an LED mod will outperform for sure.

Now, I also prefer incans for color rendition, but that's for another thread.

The Blaster 3P is $39.99. Visit www.elektrolumens.com and click the link at the top right that says "Products for sale".

Of course I wouldn't recommend BUYING any Mag product (ok, maybe a Magcharger for some specific requirements). But if you already have one and it does what you want, well, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Also, I don't think that the OP was looking as much for max lumen power, as durability and usability as a baseball bat in case an impromptu baseball game popped up somewhere .

paulr said:

Of course I wouldn't recommend BUYING any Mag product

Click to expand...

Why? Do they carry disease or something? They're a great, cheap, American made product that you can do alot of different things with if you want.

I do not want to encourage anyone to finance Mag's crapulous litigation efforts aimed at suppressing legitimate competition. Even if the products are well-constructed and cheap, they are an evil company trying to operate by squashing competitors rather than making competitive products. You might by the way have noticed that most of that litigation has been aimed at other American manufacturers, so kindly spare us any xenophobic pseudo-justifications for it. Also, except for the Magcharger, Mag lights pretty obsolete except as mod hosts.

Yeah, don't you just hate those worthless Maglite's?

Note to self. Self, throw away all Maglites.