Mini Maglite + DO NOT REMOVE

First off, I would like to introduce myself! I am totally new to candlepowerforums and new to gadget and light collecting. I have a quick problem that I couldn't find using the search - hope this is something that isn't covered a whole lot. My apologies if it is and if this is in the wrong section. Anyhow, I was putting in the krypton bulb replacement in my mini mag (AA) and removed the disk (what a noob!) that says "do not remove". I discovered this after I put in the new bulb and now the minimag doesn't work. Any suggestions? Should I just buy another minimag, or is this salvageable? Thanks for any and all help. YEs, the little tab thing attached to the underside of the "do not remove" disk popped off. I know, total noob move.

Nice thing about a Mag is it can always be fixed
but
I'm not really following your description,
anless something changed then the "switch"
of a Mag 2AA is four parts.
1 black plastic part inside the battery tube
that holds 2 silver connects
and 1 black plastic "do not remove" cover.

Did you lose one of these parts?

The best solution to this is to just stick in a new LED sandwich in
like on this page
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/index.php?cPath=22
It's a method of upgrading the Maglite to use LEDs and DAMN is it brighter than the krypton bulb, and you've already done the first part of this mod already by pulling out the do no remove tab on the minimag

Atrick-Pay said:

Nice thing about a Mag is it can always be fixed
but
I'm not really following your description,
anless something changed then the "switch"
of a Mag 2AA is four parts.
1 black plastic part inside the battery tube
that holds 2 silver connects
and 1 black plastic "do not remove" cover.

Did you lose one of these parts?

Click to expand...

No, I removed the 'do not remove' part and the other piece fell out of the bottom (had taken batteries out and unscrewed the back end). I found that piece and put it back inside. The original bulb had two prongs with a little 'tab' attached that I took off. I figured, no biggie, so I put a new bulb in and put it back together like before (or so I thought). Now, no light. Hmm...

1st: throw everything away and get a sandwich
or
2nd: throw the sucking "5 hour lifetime bulb" away and get another good LED insert with longer runtime but lesser output than a sandwich, like a Terralux or similar
for now:
3rd: no problem to put everything together againg, if You did not loose any part.
Get the inner plastic thing out again. Inside there have to be the connectors for the bulb. One should have an extension that should lie flat on the top of the plastic (this one makes contact to the body tube and might have fallen out). Check it to be present (the other one cant fall out), hold the MM upright and insert the innter part from below, followed by some kind of stick (batteries do work, but might get damaged), then put the "do not remove" part in from the outside. AFAIR this one cant be inserted wrong way.
No magic included.

Get a Minimag LED.

darklight943 said:

No, I removed the 'do not remove' part and the other piece fell out of the bottom (had taken batteries out and unscrewed the back end). I found that piece and put it back inside. The original bulb had two prongs with a little 'tab' attached that I took off. I figured, no biggie, so I put a new bulb in and put it back together like before (or so I thought). Now, no light. Hmm...

Click to expand...

Make sure that the disc that sits under the 'Do not remove' piece has a small bit of metal visible when you take the 'DNR' bit off. This little bit of metal should touch one of the pins of the bulb and also the inside part of the battery tube.

I've found that this little metal piece going missing is the main cause of MiniMags not working after fooling around with them.

Dump the incandescent and get a sandwich also. It's orders of magnitude improvement over the stock bulb and also much better than the Mag LED which is too friggin long and is not as bright as a good sandwich.

Thanks a bunch everybody. Yeah, I know it's only a minimag, but I like the damn thing! I'll try to mess with it some more, but it looks like I'll be getting a sandwich for it. Again, thanks for the help!!

Sounds like you need a new switch assembly, or you just did not put the switch assembly back together right. But a new one is only $1.50 from zbattery. But as the others have said get rid of that stock incan bulb, but you will need th switch assembly if it is a bi-pin upgrade.

yellow said:

Get the inner plastic thing out again. Inside there have to be the connectors for the bulb. One should have an extension that should lie flat on the top of the plastic (this one makes contact to the body tube and might have fallen out). Check it to be present (the other one cant fall out), hold the MM upright and insert the innter part from below, followed by some kind of stick (batteries do work, but might get damaged), then put the "do not remove" part in from the outside. AFAIR this one cant be inserted wrong way.
No magic included.

Click to expand...

Yellow is right. I was going to try to explain it, but he did a good job. Just play with it. Make sure the two little contacts complete the circuit between the negative terminal of the batteries through the body, up to the lamp back to the positive terminal. One goes from the lamp pin to the body and the other one goes down to the positive terminal of the top battery. It's a lot simpler than it sounds. I've done this and it was a bit of a pain to get back together. Be careful when putting it back together as it could fall apart the next time you change the batteries.

This is one of the foremost flashaholic lessons: Learn by doing.