Dorcy 3D 1W, integrating Mag 3D LED circuit

I bought a Dorcy 3D metallic grey flashlight from Target for $11 a while back. The stock emitter is a Luxeon I Star driven through a 1.2 ohm series resistor. My first mod was replace the emitter with a Luxeon III, bypass the resistor and assemble using thermal compound.

Unlike, Maglite, the thermal path in this light is excellent. The Luxeon Star never becomes too hot to use and after about 30 minutes of use, the entire aluminum body of the flashlight becomes warm, which indicates excellent heat conduction.

When you have the head installed, it is an excellent thrower with very clean beam. With the head removed, it's an asesome flood light.

I would like to rip apart a Mag 3D LED module and integrate the circuit into the area below the LED mounting plate in this light and use it to drive the heatsinked Luxeon Star. In the absense of LED heating up, the Mag driver should throttle considerably less than inside a Maglite in the crummy fat PR base.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like a great plan, and a much better use of the circuit than stock.
Any disassembled shots? The Mag circuit's small enough there should be plenty of space between the switch and the heatsink - you might have to make room for it, depending on the switch assembly, but that would let you encapsulate it for better shock resistance.

Anyone who bought the full MagLED could do the same, putting the emitter on a heatsink and potting the circuit to the switch. You'd lose the "versatility" factor, but the brightness should stay higher.

I had a similar idea for the LEDbeam light, but I'm also waiting for the LED minimags to show up.

Best,
Jon.

jmw19 said:

Sounds like a great plan, and a much better use of the circuit than stock.
Any disassembled shots? The Mag circuit's small enough there should be plenty of space between the switch and the heatsink - you might have to make room for it, depending on the switch assembly, but that would let you encapsulate it for better shock resistance.

Anyone who bought the full MagLED could do the same, putting the emitter on a heatsink and potting the circuit to the switch. You'd lose the "versatility" factor, but the brightness should stay higher.

I had a similar idea for the LEDbeam light, but I'm also waiting for the LED minimags to show up.

Best,
Jon.

Click to expand...

I should have taken pics. It's too much work to disassemble now. The only thing that makes me go hmmm is how I would keep the circuit heatsinked as well. The Mag LED circuit has thermistor sensor that throttles the output, so if the circuit board gets hot, it will throttle down regardless of the LED temperature.

Why not determine the optimum resistance value and replace the thermistor with a fixed value?