Maglite 2D good for anything?

Monsters_Inc

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G'day all, I recently picked up a Maglite 2D on the cheap - against all advice on here (I've been lurking for some time) and other hardcore flashlight sites.

Disappointed with the light output, as was expected, so I wanna try modding it. I read of 3D maglites being modded for Luxeons, but does a 2D give enough juice for anything decent? I can't find anything off the shelf for it, but if you have any suggestions, past experiences and your general wisdom appreciated.

Flashaholic in making,

Onyx
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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I 'rescued' my old green 2D Mag (after replacing it with a new black one) and 3C it. Using a piece of 1" plastic pipe just long enough to be tight when the tail cap is screwed on, and a spring mod it drives a Halogen 2.8v bulb pretty doggone bright!
 

lemlux

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Bulb life shortens in relationship to the percentage by which over-voltage is applied.

The fewer cells for which a bulb is designed the larger the percentage of voltage overdriving you get by adding one cell.

I have had txwests experience in making flashbulbs out of 2.8V bulbs driven by 3 cells, even by 3.6V rechargeables. 0.8 V is just too large a percentage of 2.8V for the modest design lives of the 2.8 V bulbs I've seen.
 

txwest

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I found the Krypton bulb will take OV better than the Halogen, but the standard 2D Krypton is only 2.4V & it makes a nice "FB" also. If you could get a 3V Krypton, it would probably do well. TX
 

PsycoBob[Q2]

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Apparently the Halogen-cycle causes bulb-life to be shortened dramatically when the bulb is cool (and especially when the filament is HOT).

Some bulbs like over-voling just fine- others from the same package turn into either FB's or 10-minute bulbs.
 

Monsters_Inc

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That 3C mod sounds easy enough. About the spring: do you cut the existing to shorten or get another spring from somewhere to fit? Where would I find loose springs in the land downunder?!
wink.gif


Thanks for all suggestions folks. Luxeon bulbs are a little pricy for me to experiment with, so I might try with a standard LED in bulb base first.

Ok, so the orig Maglite 2D bulb is 2.4V - does anyone know how many amps?
 

snake

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hello,
recently I plan to modify a 2D too...
by stuffing 8 2ah AA Nimh and generate a 9.6V 2A light..
bulb still searching... most ideal will be a 9V 20W. may be a 6V 20W will work 2.
then change the lens to glass to let some heat out. Changing the reflector to Al would be a plus.

then it will be powerful as a M4 .. may be even a M6 .. certainly the beam pattern will be a MAG, if you don't change the reflector.

lemlux any comment ?
Thanks
 

Hemingray

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I did the 2D/3C mod to an old 2D Maglite, the original spring does have to be replaced. I used the spring out of an old cheap plastic 2D Neveready flashlite I had laying around, it fits all the way down into the hollow of the Maglite tailcap, and has enough "grip" to stay in place.
(Remove the original spring, and the foam spare bulb holder thingie).
It definitely helps to scrape away the colored anodizing inside the tailcap, where the bottom of the spring makes contact. I didn't have any 1" PVC
pipe on hand, but found an old thick wall cardboard fax paper tube that was left over from my fireworks-making days of old, and that did the
job of making C cells fit inside a D flashlight body just perfectly, after cutting about 1" off one end.
The original bulb was replaced with a direct-drive 1 watt white emitter, and works great!
grin.gif


/ed brown in NH
cool.gif
 

Charles Bradshaw

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There is the Verslux PR2 LED bulb (Nichia white). I ordered 2 of them. One of the lights I want to use it in, is my 2D Mag. I'll probably post a new topic on the Versalux PR2, since I will be trying it several 2 cell lights. I will do this in the LED section.

Welcome to CPF, Onyx.
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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Two things.

I don't know for sure if it is the 2.8v Halogen or a 2.4 Krypton in my 3C conversion. It isn't in front of me and I forgot to check when home last.
The Halogen could be in my other 2D Mag (still 2D).

On the spring thing... I had to do an immense amount of experimenting until I got the ground all figured out. The anodizing really must be roughed up a bunch in the tailcap! And I have to work with it a bit every time the cap is off to get a solid ground when I put it back. On non of my other C conversions did I have this much trouble! This is the light that had a stuck Energizer a while back and was gonna get tossed. I'm now sure it was a ground issue all along.
 

lemlux

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Snake:

I know of no aluminum reflector that will fit into the Mag C or D flashlights. So far I haven't driven a 320 degree F Mag Polycarbonate reflector more than 11 watts. 11 Watts are fine.

I like using 2 @ 3AA NiMH Packs to slightly overdrive a 6.0 V 1.7 A Carley Krypton Star at close to 200 Lumens. I may get brave or stupid enough to use a ceramic potted Carley PR 6.0 V 1.7 A Halogen bulb that is rated at 247 Lumen at 6 volts. I still have had no success in getting 4AA packs into a Mag.
 

Monsters_Inc

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G'day all, I have successfully modded my 2D Mag to 3C's. I didn't even use plastic tubing for spacing, just a rolled up circular (junk mail) around the batteries, so basically it's a ghetto mod.

Since I only bought the thing 2 weeks ago, I was hesitant to scratch off the anodising, wanting to keep it in orig cond.

Spring replacement: I got a thick copper wire to circle around where the spring usually sits on the outer perimeter of the tailcap, and bend it at one spot into a J hook to touch the bottom of the battery. Wish I had a dig cam - I'm quite proud of my handiwork.
smile.gif


This copper wire was scavenged from my dad, it was left over from when something in the household fusebox had to be changed. Strip the rubber protection and you got fairly good pure copper! Let's see how long before it's dull and oxidised.

The bulb was also replaced with one for a 3D mag and it throws a much smoother, softer, brighter beam.
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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GOOD JOB! Onyx.

I wouldn't have thought of that copper wire deal. I did take the anodizing off the older 2D, but won't do it again!

And lastly, I think it's a 4v Halogen in my conversion... I won't take it out to see, as it would ruin my very nice beam!!!
 

EMPOWERTORCH

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The problem with any two-cell torch is the low battery voltage. 3V is just not enough for InGaN LED's such as blue, pure green, cyan and white.
That limits you to red, "Neon", orange, sodium- yellow and yellowish green (all based on GaAs and GaP technology which has been around in one form or another since the early seventies.) LED's using this technology are getting better, and companies like Toshiba and Agilent (formerly Hewlett Packard) are producing some very bright LED's. One advantage of these LEDs is that they are more tolerant to overload than the InGaN types. You could even run these direct-drive, particularly if you run your torch on rechargeable NiCd or NiMH cells!
I have modified a number of 2 cell torches either with a permanent mod by soldering directly to the bulbholder or by using a PR or ES bulb cap. (dead torch bulbs are a useful source of these. There are a number of very informative web pages showing consruction of LED converted bulbs.
To allow your torch to run on InGBaN there are these possibilities:
i).Use a readymade LED PR bulb with a built in booster circuit. Some commercial companies supply these over the net.
ii).There are several torchaholics who make booster circuits for addition to your humble torch... I believe that Mr Bulk and Elektrolumens wil put you on the right track if you go down this line pof enquiry.
iii). Change the battery format of your torch. 2" 4AAA Batterypacks will fit into the body of a 2D torch...this would give you a potential 12V supply. Solder long taild PP3 clips to the battery contacts in your torch, allowing for complete withdrawal of the batteries from the battery holder. Padding out he interior of the torch with a commercial insulativbe foam will stop he torch from rattling!

I hope that the above generates some ideas on how to modify your Mag 2D torch!
 

Jumi

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Hei
I made 3 4AA holders for my Mag 3d but since I did't find any good bulb for it I use 2 of them in my 2D aluminium Philips. For the bulbs I ended up to krypton ones: Mag lite 6 cell, philips 7.2V 0.75A or Makita 7.2V 0.55A. I'm using old but unused 1000mAh cell phone nimh.s in it. The bulb that I'm now using is 6 cell Mag bulb, it draws 0.75A and has suffered 2 charge and plenty flashes. I discharge the cells few minutes in anothetr light before I put them in.

Now I only need to find a better reflector to it since the original is so thin that it broke when it was tighten.

One tip: If the head of flaslight is loose, you can put that thin teflon tape that plumbers use to tighten it.
smile.gif

Juha
 

Hemingray

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Couple years ago, I did a quick LED conversion to a cheapo plastic NeveReady 2D "industrial" flashlite. Used 13 red HP "traffic signal" type LEDs, all in parallel, (laid out in a circle of 8, an inner circle of 4 and one in the center) and the result is a real eyefryer. Required a little hack 'n' whack meatball surgery on the reflector, done with small wire cuters and an exacto knife. On 2 D size NiMH it is impressive, on 2 fresh D alkies, it is fearsome. The particular LEDs give a fairly wide beam, about 60 degrees (I can safely say between 30 and 90 deg's). Total expenditure was about $10, due to a
lucky bid on E-bay back then, and the lite being on sale at wally-world. The PCB was hacked piece of perfboard. Hotmelt glue holds it all together, and I also sealed the lens to the flashlite body.
So, what this all means, is that this can be done to a 2D Maglite, if a Luxeon red, orange or amber is too expensive.

/ed brown in NH
 
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