Copper heatsink Luxeon Star Mag-Lite

kz1000s1

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Central Arkansas, USA
Until now I've been reading and studying the lessons of ElektroLumens, lambda, Lightspeed, and others, while speaking very little on this forum. However, now it is time to show what I have learned. Here is my version of the 2D/3C Mag-lite Luxeon Star conversion. The LS (a white w/o that I purchased from ARC) is mounted on a 1/16 inch copper heatsink that is bolted to the lip on the inside of the head. A small hole was drilled in the copper piece for a bolt and nut and it was then ground to fit the head on a grinding machine at work. Before mounting to the head, I chucked the heatsink into my electric drill, put an abrasive substance on the backside and spun it slowly against the lip in the head to lap it and match their contours.

Arctic Silver compound was used under the LS and the heatsink. I addition, the anodizing was also removed where the head and barrel meet. The head is tightened against the barrel for maximum heat transfer between them.

The bulb was modified for the wiring connections per the instructions on lambda's Website except that I built up a bump in the center with epoxy to keep the wires from contacting the bottom of the heatsink. Male and female bullet connectors were placed in the middle of the positive wire (20ga.) to plug in a resistor module I made. That way I can change the resistance at any time without having to cut or solder, or I can plug the wire section to each other for direct drive.

Initial testing was done with 2 D cells and no resistor. The brightness was similar to my blue Inova X5, perhaps slightly brighter. There was no noticeable warming of the LED at this level. After this I was going to install the three c cells and a 2-ohm resistor module. Before I did this I gave in to my curiosity and connecting it to direct drive for a second. Wow!!! That looked great, so I then checked the power draw and it was only pulling 570mA with fresh Duracells. This seems a bit low to me from what I have read, maybe I didn't test it correctly, the connectors in the positive wire have some resistance, or more likely it's because haven't located a proper short battery spring yet, so I temporarily used a wad of aluminum foil in the tailcap.

Regardless of this, after 10 minutes of use, there is hardly any noticeable warming of the head and even less of the LED and heatsink. The lens was left off for testing and the reflector is not being used at all.

This light works great! It makes 3D Mag with Xenon bulb look terrible and is even better than my Craftsman 4AA tool light with an overdriven 3 cell Xenon! Almost as bright, bigger spot, and much whiter!
 

Alexis

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Joined
Mar 9, 2001
Messages
107
Luxeons vary very much. My 3C direct drive runs at about 950mah, which is lower than Electro's 1.5amps on direct drive. I would base your resistor value upon your multimeter testing, so you might be able to go direct drive with your sample.
 

moraino

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Jan 20, 2002
Messages
447
Location
B.C. Canada
Hi there,

Thanks for the sharing. I am also thinking of building one on the coming holiday.

Did you use collimator or the reflector? I wonder which is the better way.

Henry
 

Slick

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Apr 24, 2002
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Nor Cal
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by moraino:
Hi there,

Thanks for the sharing. I am also thinking of building one on the coming holiday.

Did you use collimator or the reflector? I wonder which is the better way.

Henry
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You'll need to use the collumator, the reflector is mostly just for decoration.
 

kz1000s1

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Jun 2, 2002
Messages
693
Location
Central Arkansas, USA
I used the LS optics only, no reflector, which gives a very nice beam. Here is a link to some photos.

Mag LS Photos

Sorry about the quality. I just took some shots with my webcam, don't have a digital.
blush.gif
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
kz,

It is scary that your mod seems to outshine a xenon bulb! WooHoo, that's bright!
 

kz1000s1

Enlightened
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Jun 2, 2002
Messages
693
Location
Central Arkansas, USA
In person, the xenon is actually slightly brighter, but only in the small hot spot. The LS is brighter overall with a bigger spot. The Craftsman light has a much better beam than the mag-lite. All the lights have fresh duracell batteries.
 

hotfoot

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Feb 2, 2002
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Can you say, \"Durian\"?
KZ1000s1, I just love asking this question: How does the beam throw? BTW, what is KZ1000s1 - a motorcycle? Just curious
smile.gif


MRBulk, just noticed the hilarious last sentence of your signature line - the "billyuns and billyuns of batteries". Cracked me up!
smile.gif
I still remember my childhood days watching the "Cosmos" series with Carl Sagan and that trademark voice of his. Thanks for the memory!
 
D

**DONOTDELETE**

Guest
Hey hotfoot,

Hee hee! Yeah, really miss the old guy, he fast-forwarded much of the public consciousness regarding outer space science, not to mention sci-fi itself. And I tremendously enjoyed first reading, and then watching, "Contact"...
 

kz1000s1

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Joined
Jun 2, 2002
Messages
693
Location
Central Arkansas, USA
Originally posted by Hotfoot:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> KZ1000s1, I just love asking this question: How does the beam throw? BTW, what is KZ1000s1 - a motorcycle? Just curious <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The beam throws very well, about 180 feet is the longest distance I tried it at and it lit up the side of my shed, though not very brightly. My regular mag is much better at this distance.

The KZ1000S1 was a racing motorcycle that Kawasaki built in 1982. Just 29 were built. You can see more about them on my Website.
 

brightnorm

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
7,160
Originally posted by MR Bulk™:
.... And I tremendously enjoyed first reading, and then watching, "Contact"...[/QUOTE

One of my favorite films. I especially enjoyed Jodie Foster's portrayal.

Brightnorm
 

greenLED

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Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
13,263
Location
La Tiquicia
How bright do you want it, and for what purpose, and what size Mag do you have?

Search for EverLED, and TerraLux, and Diamond drop-in replacements. I can assure you things have advanced a lot since this thread started.

Welcome to CPF!
 
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