MacTech
Enlightened
I was in the mood to do a quick mod tonight, make a "sleeper" flashlight, prefereably with a *cheap* host body, so i stopped off at wally-world, picked up a yellow Ray-O-Vac "Industrial" 2 D-cell flashlight (the one with the 3 "status LED's" on the side of the light, showing the batteries power level) as it has a nice faceted reflector, which should give a nice smooth beam, and a MagLED 2 cell module....
got into the car, tried to pop the MagLED module in, but it's too wide, it's wider than a standard PR base bulb, and brute force wasn't working...
....hmm, it's almost like Mag Instrument doesn't want you to use their bulb in a non-Mag host, but they *wouldn't do something as dishonest and dirty as that, would they??.....
ahh, screw mag instrument anyway, they're not the boss of me...
so, since my first host didn't work (i ended up putting my Sears Endurable 1 watt Lux bulb in it anyway), i stopped off at Radio Shack, as i had seen cheap $2 Ray-O-Vac incan flashlights in there, the standard cheap 2 D-cell lights "normals" think of when you say "flashlight"
i picked up one of the cheap red Ray-O-Vacs and a set of batteries for it, purchased them, and took the MagLED bulb (which i had the foresight to bring in with me and test-fit it before purchasing it) and the batteries and installed them....
it lit up with a brilliant white, no tint, i won the Luxeon Lottery on this one, the clerk saw me do the upgrade, and asked to see the light, pointed it towards his face and went to turn it on....
"careful, that's a 3 watt lux.....(too late)"
WOW!, that's bright, here take a look at this, this is cool!!
he hands it to the other clerk, they both inspect it, quite impressed, they ask me where i got the bulb, i told them wally world, it's the 2-cell Maglite LED bulb
they seemed very impressed with this 30 second hack, just imagine when they discover SureFires.....
Once i got home, i tested out the Red Sleeper, it's a definite thrower, in fact, if your target is closer than 6 feet away, therell be a slight "donut hole" in the beam, and the magnifier lens thingy and arms molded into the window at the front of the light add a rather cool "starbursty" pattern to the beam, there are also a couple of holes in the beam, but it's not too bad for a fixed-focus cheapo incan...
here's some beamshots to show the hotspot and spill, remember this is a $2 host body
and a second one where i upped the contrast and brightness 35% to show the patterns in the beam;
i took some comparison pics outside, the barn is about 30 yards away....
Mag 6D (the beam's a little spotty because i dropped it on the granite steps as i was walking outside and the bulb filament got whanged out of alignment)
MagLED 3D;
Stock 2D incan (the Ray-O-Vac Industrial);
the Red Sleeper!;
and just to compare the two side by side, here's the MagLED 3D again...
and finally, pics of the Red Sleeper itself...
looks like a bog standard Ray-O-Vac $2 cheapie, right?, well, anyone who uses it is in for a surprise, aren't they?
Yes, admittedly the bulb cost substantially more than the flashlight and batteries *combined*, but still, i'd love to see the looks on someone's face when i hand them that cheapie and they light it up....
got into the car, tried to pop the MagLED module in, but it's too wide, it's wider than a standard PR base bulb, and brute force wasn't working...
....hmm, it's almost like Mag Instrument doesn't want you to use their bulb in a non-Mag host, but they *wouldn't do something as dishonest and dirty as that, would they??.....
ahh, screw mag instrument anyway, they're not the boss of me...
so, since my first host didn't work (i ended up putting my Sears Endurable 1 watt Lux bulb in it anyway), i stopped off at Radio Shack, as i had seen cheap $2 Ray-O-Vac incan flashlights in there, the standard cheap 2 D-cell lights "normals" think of when you say "flashlight"
i picked up one of the cheap red Ray-O-Vacs and a set of batteries for it, purchased them, and took the MagLED bulb (which i had the foresight to bring in with me and test-fit it before purchasing it) and the batteries and installed them....
it lit up with a brilliant white, no tint, i won the Luxeon Lottery on this one, the clerk saw me do the upgrade, and asked to see the light, pointed it towards his face and went to turn it on....
"careful, that's a 3 watt lux.....(too late)"
WOW!, that's bright, here take a look at this, this is cool!!
he hands it to the other clerk, they both inspect it, quite impressed, they ask me where i got the bulb, i told them wally world, it's the 2-cell Maglite LED bulb
they seemed very impressed with this 30 second hack, just imagine when they discover SureFires.....
Once i got home, i tested out the Red Sleeper, it's a definite thrower, in fact, if your target is closer than 6 feet away, therell be a slight "donut hole" in the beam, and the magnifier lens thingy and arms molded into the window at the front of the light add a rather cool "starbursty" pattern to the beam, there are also a couple of holes in the beam, but it's not too bad for a fixed-focus cheapo incan...
here's some beamshots to show the hotspot and spill, remember this is a $2 host body
and a second one where i upped the contrast and brightness 35% to show the patterns in the beam;
i took some comparison pics outside, the barn is about 30 yards away....
Mag 6D (the beam's a little spotty because i dropped it on the granite steps as i was walking outside and the bulb filament got whanged out of alignment)
MagLED 3D;
Stock 2D incan (the Ray-O-Vac Industrial);
the Red Sleeper!;
and just to compare the two side by side, here's the MagLED 3D again...
and finally, pics of the Red Sleeper itself...
looks like a bog standard Ray-O-Vac $2 cheapie, right?, well, anyone who uses it is in for a surprise, aren't they?
Yes, admittedly the bulb cost substantially more than the flashlight and batteries *combined*, but still, i'd love to see the looks on someone's face when i hand them that cheapie and they light it up....
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