Mini mag LED

Is the 3AA LED maglite brighter then the 2AA LED maglite or just longer run time?

Hi Dasanii19,

Just bought these today. Based on my limited sample size of one 3AA and one 2AA, I see 2 differences. The 3AA is brighter and whiter. The 2AA is yellower, however, if you didn't do a comparison with the 2AA, you wouldn't notice. The 2AA is very bright and very white.

The 3AA also has more spill. Both have good spill, but this is where you can see the difference vs. the larger magleds. The spill is much more substantial with the C and D magleds. However, the focusing mechanism on the led minimags does not have the massive black hole. There is a bit of a donut at the widest aperature, but the center contains a substantial amount of opaque light within it. Just the most minor of adjustments eliminates the shadowy donut hole completely. Effectively, the focusing mechanism narrows or widens the entire disk of light. When tightly focused, you get a smaller brighter circle of light. When loosely focused, you get a larger dimmer, but very effective, circle of light.

So far, I am extremely pleased, but I will let others answer issues pertaining to runtime, regulation, etc. It does send heat to lower parts of the head. I can't tell if heat extends into the cylinder itself. Assembly and disassembly are just like the normal minimag. Length of the 2AA is substantially longer than the corresponding incandescent 2AA. Any old holsters will not be long enough, but accessories such as clips, lanyards, lenses, etc. will still function.

How about the tailcap threading? Will a Kroll switch work?

I find the form factor of the 3-AA goofy looking. I bought the 2-AA.

Not without some adjustments. The spring is too short to reach the negative pole of the battery, stretching it a bit to make contact will take care of that. The contact with the body of the light is further up on the Mini Mag LED, the contact wire/spring on the side of the Kroll switch does not contact a portion of bare metal on the body. The Mag tailcap has contacts at the top of the threads. There are two ways of resolve this, either insert a piece of metal shim material behind the spring and have it reach the top of the threads, or remove the anodizing on the inside of the tailend of the Mini Mag so that the spring has bare metal to contact. Both the bezel and tailcap threading is the same as that of the incandescent Mini Mag.

cliff said:

How about the tailcap threading? Will a Kroll switch work?

Click to expand...

so being the stock minimag...its still twist on twist off correct?

is it prefocused or can you adjust the focus?

Works just like the incandescent MiniMag. The focus is adjustable, though focusing it to a spot does not appear to gain much light at all, as a matter of fact, it might decrease it a little. It's hard to get a donut in the middle unless you misuse the focus mechanism. I find that turning the bezel/switch about a 1/2 turn gets the maximum output with a hotspot and a very impressive spill circle. If they had made this a fixed focus with this setting, I would not have been disappointed. The bright spill makes it a great light for close quarters usage, like inside of a car or in a room. In the backyard, the spill lights up a good chunk of the back yard while throwing a bright hotspot to the fence (about 15 yards away).

Illum_the_nation said:

so being the stock minimag...its still twist on twist off correct?

is it prefocused or can you adjust the focus?

Click to expand...

Brighteyez said:

Works just like the incandescent MiniMag. The focus is adjustable, though focusing it to a spot does not appear to gain much light at all, as a matter of fact, it might decrease it a little. It's hard to get a donut in the middle unless you misuse the focus mechanism. I find that turning the bezel/switch about a 1/2 turn gets the maximum output with a hotspot and a very impressive spill circle. If they had made this a fixed focus with this setting, I would not have been disappointed. The bright spill makes it a great light for close quarters usage, like inside of a car or in a room. In the backyard, the spill lights up a good chunk of the back yard while throwing a bright hotspot to the fence (about 15 yards away).

Click to expand...

Ill go and pickup one

Anyone like to do a screenshot for the rest of us, please????

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=130635

VF1Jskull1 said:

Anyone like to do a screenshot for the rest of us, please????

Click to expand...

Does anyone know what the lens in the MiniMag LED is made of? Is it glass or plastic?

Lens and reflector are both plastic. Lens is easy to scratch!

Anyone know how long the runtime is for both lights

Maybe Kroll will make a new version of their switch for the new MM led. If they do I'll buy a couple.

In review forum:
Mini Mag-Led 3 Watt Led 2AA & 3AA
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=131000

To OP:

Both.

Comment: I replaced the plastic junky lenses with nice stuff from Flashlightking dot com

It's not the best but way better than what came with it.

Quick note:

Noticed Silver [not Pewter, Dark Gray, etc.] 3AA Magleds at West Phoenix Frys Electronics. So more colors may be coming soon.

Watch out.
I bought a 2AA MiniMagLED a little over a month ago, and loved it right away. I may not be the hardest guy to impress, but I felt the light output (brightness) and quality (nice and white) were very pleasing to me. I also liked that it was a Mag.

I liked it right up until I started getting very "iffy" contact, and finally, as of yesterday, the thing is not reliable enough to wear on my belt. In fact, it's essentially failed. I turn it on, to where I would normally have a nice spot, and it flickers off after a second or two.

Some other posters have reported that this failure is likely due to corrosion on the positive terminal inside the flashlight, so now I have to look into cleaning that off somehow and seeing how it affects performance. I am NOT happy about this. I had shelved my Inova T2 -- which has a momentary-on clicky -- for the twisty MagLED, and now it fails me?! (It should be noted that I MUCH prefer clickies, so for the MagLED to have displaced my EDC T2 was a big thing for me.)

Not sure if I should attempt a receiptless-packageless return at Walmart, or just try to clean the light. I don't know how to take the thing apart (if it's even possible without factory tools). Ugh.

No problems with that...

My only reservation with these Mag LEDs is that they are regulated (at least 2AA is) and don't drain the cells far enough.

A drained cell that doesn't work in mini Mag led will still work elsewhere... example Gerber Infi, StreamLight Jr. Lux, Princeton Tec Yukon.....

the other bad consequence is that they bypass the moon mode. They do give a few warning "blinks" and they go out.

I am not really concerned about that, as I take out the cells, beat them against a hard surface and gain maybe 10 minutes of lite, but the end is near then.

Pays to carry spare batteries, then, for sure!