need advise - bulb wise

hey guys, ive been doing alot of urban exploration lately and i needed a better torch than maglite 2d, so i invested in a nightsearcher c cell recharable, nice torch n all that, but still not exactly suited to my needs so i decided to build my own..

i got a two 12v downlighter bulbs (1x 10watt for general use and 1 x 50 watt for immense flood lighting) and rigged them into a 2d maglite with an hefty external battery pack..

its really good and everything but i want a better bulb for flood use, more powerfull than a 50watt, which has its own reflector and lense like downlighters, and ideally is no more than 55mm diameter so i can still fit it in my maglite..

Cheers guys!

I don't know about you but a 2D mag is pretty big, and hefty. Why would you want to spend time modding that when instead you can get multi level LED lights that are lighter, easier to carry, longer running. I don't do "Urban Exploration" but sometimes I like to "wander" downtown and carrying smaller lights makes it easier to blend in and so forth.

That aside have you thought about doing a ROP mod and wiring a custom switch with a resistorso you can get huge lighting power while retaining the focusing power of the Mag and swtiching to low power when you want just a bit of light.

let me expand on this, the 2d maglite is simply a body to mount the bulb in, im not after led, im after stupidly stupid flood power, somthing like a security floodlight but 12v style, like i said, im using 12v-50watt halogen bulbs and yeah its pretty good but im wondering if there is any other bulbs you guys might know of that are self contained, meaning they have their own reflectors and lenses built in..

Cheers

There are few bulbs like that and that would allow the use of spot and flood adjustment. The ROP mod is an incan. I suggest you take a gander at the mod and see if it would tickle your fancy. I only suggest it because it sounds like it would fit the bill and it would give better run time than a 50 watt bulb while still being silly bright.

tebore said:

I don't know about you but a 2D mag is pretty big, and hefty. Why would you want to spend time modding that when instead you can get multi level LED lights that are lighter, easier to carry, longer running.

Click to expand...

I don't know about the longer running part without sacrificing output. Most smallish handhelds get 4-5 hours at best with luxeons. I've put over 20 hours on a set of D cells in a MagLED 2D and it out-threw a co-worker's 6D Mag incan that had about 50% battery life left on it when I had around 16 hours on my set of batteries in the MagLed.

But my question is why would a person need that much light to justify modding a Mag for urban exploration? I would think one could get by with a SL Pro Poly or a MagLED 3xAA with a couple sets of spares for one outing and maybe a back-up that uses the same type of batteries.

If you go through somewhere lighting up 80% of the place with a retina scorcher, you're gonna draw attention. And some places really frown upon urban exploration. As in take a ride in the back of the patrol car kind of frowning. It's best to check local laws or make sure the owners of said property don't mind first.

There's a few forums on the net (names escape me at the moment) that are dedicated to urban exploration. They could probably offer suggestions as to what they use.

Edit:
Here's one place: http://www.uer.ca/

You'll have to register to read the forums.

^^ I agree with you there. He did start off with a pretty tall order and said wasn't looking in to LEDs. I just offered a suggestion that would be easier than what he has planned.

once again, thankyou all for your oppinions in this matter. However, i came here for help with my lighting equiptment only, not suggestions about the uses i get out of them and comments that place me in some kind of amateur catagory.

quote..

If you go through somewhere lighting up 80% of the place with a retina scorcher, you're gonna draw attention. And some places really frown upon urban exploration. As in take a ride in the back of the patrol car kind of frowning. It's best to check local laws or make sure the owners of said property don't mind first.

There's a few forums on the net (names escape me at the moment) that are dedicated to urban exploration. They could probably offer suggestions as to what they use.

Edit:
Here's one place: http://www.uer.ca/

You'll have to register to read the forums.

i wouldnt dream of implying that you are all less knowledgable than I about lighting, so please give me the same respect that after 4 years of urban exploration, ive got it down to a T.

i also use twin 140 infrared led illuminators with a pair of gen2+ nvg's for area's which are more lets say, delicate to visual pollution.. a mag 2aa LED for less worrying area's and this new custom rig will be for area's which have no concern to any laws.

Now if we can get back to it.. ive come to a place that came highly reccomended by a friend, which is said to be friendly and helpfull for any illumination needs..

ok, so if my maglite isnt brilliant fair enough, can anyone reccomend a 12v bulb which will give off stupid amounts of throw.. like earlier, im talking about security lighting amounts of throw, if any.. i am pretty novice when it comes to bulbs themselfs.

once again, Thankyou

The 100-watt mag mods sound like what you are looking for. Maybe with an Osram 64623 12V, 100-watt bulb. It's a very floody, very powerful, very durable bulb. It's a lot of power, so runtime is low with a small battery pack, but it sounds like you plan to use an external battery pack. You can put it into any Mag C/D head, but you will need a ceramic socket, boro window and metal reflector to prevent meltdown, common mods on this forum. You can also get a regulation circuit wired into a modded ceramic switch/socket from AWR on this forum. This will give you full regulation and make the bulb last even longer, especially if you want to overdrive it without instaflashing the bulb.

For portable power, you might try the X990, which is an HID. It has flood and spot adjustments, but it's not a very floody beam, although very powerful. And you can get an hour of runtime off the battery pack and it is relatively portable.