My recent purchase (pics)

Last week I purchased a 3 c cell maglite along with the diamond 1 watt luxeon LED + a UCL glass lense. So far I'm pretty impressed, the pics were taken this moring and the maglite was left on in the garage for aprox. 20 hours and it's still burning bright! From what I understand three C cells should power this for more more than 2 weeks running 24hours a day (now thats good runtime)! One thing I didn't like about the diamond mod was that the threads were a bit rough. [font=VERDANA, ARIAL, HELVETICA]
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http://www.flash-lights.com/product_info.php/info/p164_Diamond--1W-Luxeon-LED-flashlight-bulb-w-Driver---Maglite-2--C-D.html
http://www.flash-lights.com/product_info.php/info/p11458_MAG-LITE-Flashlight-Black-3C-Battery-Maglite-flashlight.html
http://www.flashlightlens.com/item--UCL%AE-Lens--UCL_Lens.html

Wonderful pictures! Hot spot looks very great.

I think just try to change that Luxeon I into an Cree LED or SSC-P4 and you'll be more impressed Aha~just a joke.

fineday said:

I think just try to change that Luxeon I into an Cree LED or SSC-P4 and you'll be more impressed Aha~just a joke.

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But will the runtime be the same? :thinking:

Same current into a P4 or Cree should roughly double the runtime. It'll either be brighter or longer runtime but the Cree might not work well in that reflector. I'd leave things the way they are for that unit. Looks nice and you don't have to worry about runtime or reliability.

matrixshaman said:

Same current into a P4 or Cree should roughly double the runtime. It'll either be brighter or longer runtime but the Cree might not work well in that reflector. I'd leave things the way they are for that unit. Looks nice and you don't have to worry about runtime or reliability.

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Have any idea if it's safe to run say energizer NiMH cells? Woluld the runtime be the same and would the NiMH's fully power it??


http://cgi.ebay.com/8-C-Energizer-e2-2500mAh-NiMH-RECHARGEABLE-BATTERIES_W0QQitemZ320077767770QQihZ011QQcategoryZ94888QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem










.

matrixshaman said:

Same current into a P4 or Cree should roughly double the runtime. It'll either be brighter or longer runtime but the Cree might not work well in that reflector. ...

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here's my cree in a 2dMag I just wired up yesterday. Cree is more ringy but uses about a third of the power.
300 ma Cree vs 1100 ma for stock luxIII

matrixshaman said:

Same current into a P4 or Cree should roughly double the runtime. It'll either be brighter or longer runtime but the Cree might not work well in that reflector. I'd leave things the way they are for that unit. Looks nice and you don't have to worry about runtime or reliability.

Click to expand...

If you put the same current in, you will get the SAME runtime. Since the diamond is regulated (I believe) you should get the same runtime, but it would be 2x as bright (roughly). The nice thing about the maglight having an adjustable focus, pretty much any light source will focus with it, unlike fixed focus reflectors that require modification

carbine15 said:

here's my cree in a 2dMag I just wired up yesterday. Cree is more ringy but uses about a third of the power.
300 ma Cree vs 1100 ma for stock luxIII

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Nice mod, any idea of the runtime and lumens?

myk said:

If you put the same current in, you will get the SAME runtime. Since the diamond is regulated (I believe) you should get the same runtime, but it would be 2x as bright (roughly). The nice thing about the maglight having an adjustable focus, pretty much any light source will focus with it, unlike fixed focus reflectors that require modification

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After looking @ quickbeams review of the K2 I thought I would just stick with the 1w. The runtime plot looked pretty bad, would the cree perform any better??

http://www.quality-items-flashlights.com/product_info.php/info/p11616_Luxeon-K2-LED-Bulb-Replacement-Maglite-C-D-White-LED.html
http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/diamond_magbulbk2.htm






Runtime plot of the 1w in a 2 cell looks much better and I'm using 3 cells.

http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/diamond_magbulbs1w.htm

i see you put that in a 3cell for 20 hours , how hot was it....i plan on putting a sccp4 in there when emitter arrives

Buz,
First of all- thanks for all the incan information you post on the other side. I really appreciate you.

Your regulator will push the same power to the LED no matter what you swap, so your runtime will not change. Brightness, however will increase about double with the new LEDs. The cree xre is a more complicated package to work with, but you can buy a Seoul SSC Ubin for 13 bucks in thedealers corner, and simply solder it in their. You may want to wait to see the new K2 that lumileds said should be ready by the end of the first quarter. This new led none of us have seem, but lumileds has been quietly impoving several aspects of this for a while now-it will be good when they finally come out. If you want more brightness now, go for the seoul.

qip said:

i see you put that in a 3cell for 20 hours , how hot was it....i plan on putting a sccp4 in there when emitter arrives

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It got warm after about 4-5 minutes however after that it's stayed the same temp. It was on the cool garage floor though (around 35-F).

ROVER said:

Buz,
First of all- thanks for all the incan information you post on the other side. I really appreciate you.

Well thank you!

Your regulator will push the same power to the LED no matter what you swap, so your runtime will not change. Brightness, however will increase about double with the new LEDs. The cree xre is a more complicated package to work with, but you can buy a Seoul SSC Ubin for 13 bucks in thedealers corner, and simply solder it in their. You may want to wait to see the new K2 that lumileds said should be ready by the end of the first quarter. This new led none of us have seem, but lumileds has been quietly impoving several aspects of this for a while now-it will be good when they finally come out. If you want more brightness now, go for the seoul.

Good info thanks!

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..

Nice! And just what I've been waiting to see. I have a 3C Maglight I've been hanging on to just for this mod.

What size is the UCL lens for the 3C Mag??

Thanks!

magic79 said:

Nice! And just what I've been waiting to see. I have a 3C Maglight I've been hanging on to just for this mod.

What size is the UCL lens for the 3C Mag??

Thanks!

Click to expand...

52.1mm - 1.90mm


In the pics above the Orig. lense is still in, when I get a chance I'll take some more with the UCL lense (nice not having to worry about all the fine scratches)!

fineday said:

Wonderful pictures! Hot spot looks very great.

I think just try to change that Luxeon I into an Cree LED or SSC-P4 and you'll be more impressed Aha~just a joke.

Click to expand...

I just plopped a SSC P4 into a Mag PR2 replacement. Got double the light with the same run time. Looks like it would be a cinch to do with the Diamond, too.

c_c

got my ssc p4 and just finished installing them on a maxstar5 and this same db-1w-d drop in .....sweeeet you gotta try it, especially with the diamond zetex i test ran it in the 3d cell i have and it was impressive ,im thinking about getting another one to do the same mod cuz right now its gonna go in my dads 2d cell ,so i may need one for me...in 3d this runs at 900+ma ..wish i had a good camera for beamshots all i got is a 1.3 webcam which doesnt really show the what i see by eye

Still wish I knew if it was safe to run the energizer NiMH cells.

BUZ said:

Nice mod, any idea of the runtime and lumens?

Click to expand...

I have to say that overall lumens are the same but with more spilll and a smaller brighter hotspot. it's like trading hot spot size for more spill and more throw.

since it's using less than 1/3rd the power when cold it should theoretically last three times longer on the same cells. But since it doesnt heat up as much it'll probably run brighter for longer without kicking in the overheat protection that is built into the mag modules. I'd venture to say that the runtime will be the same but it will be closer to startup brightness through the life of the battery.

The Diamond is not regulated right? I used to own the DB-3W and its direct drive, thats why it could only be used in 3-cells lights and 4-cells would need a spacer.

Buz, don't bother with 2500mah C cells... at that size, you should be looking at least at 5000mah, like these :- http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=227

But look around for other brands and choose based on your own preferences. I believe Amondotech also sells 5000mah C cells.

3 NiMhs (3.6v nominal) should work nicely for direct drive, assuming the Lux I and Cree are have a Vf of about 3ish volts. NiMh's sag less than Alks and will actually have a much more gradual runtime curve than Alks.

Since the Crees Vf is unknown, if you get a 3.1v one, it will be overdriven and will be pretty bright, and runtime will reduce. But with 5000 mah batts, even driving the LED at 1A will give you about 5 hrs runtime. 1A might be a little too hot though; the Diamond module doesn't provide that great of heatsinking as it is only connected to the pedestal via the threads.

I guess for direct drive, its always trial and error. But more or less, 3 Alks or NiMhs will work well with the LEDs we've discussed.

Edit : Ok, looked at the Diamond, it is regulated with driver, so changing the LED to a Cree or Seoul will yield the same runtime still but near to double brightness (though your eyes won't see it as double). The driver specs says 350ma, so with 5000 mah batts, you theoretically have about like 11-12 hours runtime. 3 x NiMh should work well.