What mod for a 5D M@g?

So, I found this site, and all of these cool lights, I have an E2 that is twice as bright as my 5D ever dreamnt of, and I love my L1 as my EDC, still in search of a Z62 and the perfect AAA keychain light, but thats another story.
I now have this light sitting around, as well as two dozen D batteries that I would like to use. The big light is awsome for a detterent, but a little "WOW" factor in the illumination area is needed. I see mods to 2-3D lights all the time, but nothing on the larger lights. I would like around two hours run time and more than 65 lumens out of it, not asking too much I don't think? Any suggestions? anyone want to build me a drop in? Someone to recomend for that?
Thanks.

I have never tired it, but you could take 5 D sized NiMh Cells, charge them, replace the switch, batteries (with the 5 NiMh) bulb, reflector, and maybe lens from those of a MagCharger and you have a very decent light with very long runtime. You won't overdrive the bulb or anything like that, but you will have the MagCharger output with significant runtime (4-8 hours maybe).

I think you can have mor than 65 lumens output with standard mag 5D and xenon bulb...
however what about use 6Cs nimh and ROP LOW?
you can run it with standard reflector and lens (for 10 minutes?) and you need only and adaptator(maybe very easy to made), batteries with charger and bulb...
I don't know wich will be the runtime but I think acceptable (you have also to consider the rechargable batteries)
you can also run a ROP HIGH but with less runtime....

Stick a 4 cell M*g Krypton bulb in the thing and I THINK it'll be a little more wow.

If you'd like a VERY nice beam (that unfortunately doesn't throw as far) look into frosting the bulb.

If you are feeling REAL adventurous, stick a 3 cell bulb in there, but don't be suprized when it

I have an old 5 cell Streamlight with 6C NimH and a wa01160 bulb. It is definately WOW, but I can't run it too long or the bulb adapter will melt!

5D mag and a heap of alkaline D's ?

Easiest upgrade is the new TerraLux SSC LED upgrade (ministar 5, model ends in 6EX) -- I got mine from battery junction :

http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-6k2.html

It works with 3-6 cells, is brighter with 4-6 cells, and seems to be at its very best with 5 cells. It's noticeably brighter than a stock 4D, should be brighter than your 5D, plus 20-odd hours of regulated runtime.

If you want a huge honkin' amount of light alkaline batteries really aren't the best option (as others have suggested). NiMH cells can put out more current and hold their voltage for much longer. Assuming you don't want to go with NiMH cells (and if you have a heap of D cells I understand why) the and you use the light a lot you could do a lot worse than the Terralux upgrade.

If you're not going to use the light for long periods of time and want the most brightness from alkalines, Reflectalite's GH24 bulb might be a good option. You buy them from the UK but it's remarkably painless and fast; costs about $10 US including shipping. You might want to get one regular and one frosted bulb to try, although I was kinda disappointed with the frosted bulbs -- you really need a LOT of light before a wide soft beam makes sense.

http://www.reflectalite.com/halogenpage.html

If you don't do anything else, at least pick up a xenon 5D bulb from Mag (about $3). That will give you a tighter, brighter beam. Not a huge improvement but definitely makes a difference.

What part of the world are you in ? That affects what is cheap and easy to find.

You are catching on bridgman!!! I have a pot load of D's sitting around, so I am not asking for huge numbers. I want something realitivly inexpensive with a real run time. I don't need to catch paper on fire with a light!! Anything that can blow away an E2E, and run 2ish hours, I am happy!! BUT............ I need to burn up some D batteries in the proccess!!!!

OK, I did some "out the front door" tests. Out the front door for me means 200+ feet to the road through a bunch of trees, out to where the coyotes hang out waiting for little dogs to snack on, so it's a pretty fair test.

I don't have an E2E but I used a Z2 as reference, which with P60 bulb is just a tiny bit brighter than an E2E as far as I know.

The Terralux TLE-6EX running in a 3D mag with 5 1/2-D NiMH cells was IMO about the same as the Z2. The Terralux is supposed to be brighter and probably is, but to my eyes the ability to see was about the same.

The previous results are after I slightly defocused the Mag to get the same spot size as the P60 bulb in the Z2, ie my best attempt at apples-to-apples comparison. With the Mag set for tightest focus it had a tighter, brighter spot than the Z2/P60 and noticeably better throw, ie I could see the road (200 feet away) clearly with the Mag/Terralux but only dimly with the Z2.

I then replaced the Terralux LED drop-in with a GH24 10W incandescent bulb. Now the Mag was noticeably brighter than the Z2, and let me view the road clearly with a decently large spot. Remember I'm running on 5 1/2-D NiMH cells not 5 D alkalines so your results may not be as good. Alkalines just have too much internal resistance to be good at driving really high currents.

OK, so what's the bottom line ? My guess is that the GH24 will be just a bit too much for your D alkalines. I have to second the recommendation for the cheap 4 cell Mag Krypton bulbs (2 pack is a couple of bucks at Home Depot) and suggest you pick up one 4 cell Mag Xenon bulb as well. The Xenon bulb *might* flash on new alkaline cells although it worked real nice on 5 NiMH cells.

I just tried the 4 cell Xenon with 5 NiMH and it is *much* brighter than the Z2 with P60 bulb. The Xenon bulb gives you a very small, bright spot while the Krypton bulb gives you a larger, slightly less bright spot.

Try both. An occasional is not the end of the world.

The Terralux will use your batteries much more efficiently -- the current draw is maybe 1/3 amp which means you don't waste much power heating up the cells, and the regulator keeps the light bright until the cells are nearly dead -- but you're looking at 25 hour runtime and only a bit more brightness than your E2E. Putting the Mag bulbs in will give you more brightness, but only maybe 6 hours runtime and some of that will be dim and yellow when compared to the initial brightness. The GH24 bulb will only give 2-3 hours of runtime but somewhat more light. I'm not sure it's worth it.

I say play with some 4 cell Mag bulbs and find what works best. Have fun !!

If you're into specs and data sheets the Carley web site seems to have good info. I'm not 100% sure that these are the same bulbs Mag sells but it sure seems that way :

http://www.carleylamps.com/star.htm

Note that they clearly recommend only the lower current bulbs (the ones Mag sells) for use with Alkalines and reserve the higher current bulbs for rechargeable cells. It's not the rechargeable-ness that matters, it's the fact that rechargeable cells tend to have much lower internal resistance so are able to drive high current bulbs MUCH more effectively.

As you get into higher numbers of batteries the percentage of overdrive goes down.

Driving a 3 with 4 is 25% over, while 4 with 5 is 20%.

I have had 8 NimH AA driving 5 cell Krypton with no and even now have 8AA Alk driving 6K and 6AA Alk driving 4K with no problems.

Like bridgman says, try a 4 cell Xenon. It MIGHT but if not should be quite white/bright/tight.

I don't have 5 good D cells or I'd take one for the team and try a Xenon. Maybe I can do it with Cs, be right back if so.

OK, here's my 2 cents.
Get a single LED heatsink from H22A, A Seoul P4 from PhotonFanatic, and a CC5W 1 amp downconverter from Georges80.
You'll get over 100 lumens, a very tight beam for fantastic throw and really long runtime from 5 Alkalines.
you'll have to modify the reflector and switch to make it all work, but it will be WAY worth it.
If you need help with the mod, Third shift has a thread on doing the mod to the switch and reflector. He also answers PM and email last I knew.

Okay this is in a Brinkmann 5D rather than a M*g, and it usually has 6C. I made a spacer for one C, and put in a 4 cell Xenon. No

The reflector isn't the same, and the spot isn't perfect. But it is of a very nice color temp and does have a pretty good amount of throw.

It's no M*g85, nor even a ROP HI. But it IS nicer than a stock driven Krypton.

Now the frosted 4K goes back in there with 6C.

UGH! The color temp is WAY better with 5 cells and 4 Xenon than with 6 and 4 Krypton. WHOOPS it was still 5C, but it ain't as good as the Xenon even with 6.

Get a 4 cell Xenon as perfectly centered in the reflector as possible and you should be pleased!

Well, no love here, had a few minuets and thought I'd give it a try. Snaged the spare bulb from a 3D (don't tell the wife) and stuck it in, ran for about a half second, then "tink" and no more light. I guess you win some, you loose some.

Yeah, a 3 cell bulb would essentially be a flashbulb.

When I was fooling around with the Brinkmann, I had a 4.8V .5A bulb go supernova.

Man it was bright for a nanosecond!

I generally do all my abusing to M*g bulbs. They seem to take it better.

Get a M*g Xenon for 4 cells. Do what you must to get the bulb centered in the reflector. This could take carefull tweaking of the PR flange, or even shimming of the pedestal. It is WORTH IT!

Then be amazed how white and tight that beam is!

UncleFester said:

OK, here's my 2 cents.
Get a single LED heatsink from H22A, A Seoul P4 from PhotonFanatic, and a CC5W 1 amp downconverter from Georges80.
You'll get over 100 lumens, a very tight beam for fantastic throw and really long runtime from 5 Alkalines.
you'll have to modify the reflector and switch to make it all work, but it will be WAY worth it.
If you need help with the mod, Third shift has a thread on doing the mod to the switch and reflector. He also answers PM and email last I knew.

Click to expand...

Here's a link to one of the tutorials I did a while back.
It's a sticky thread at this place.
There is about one megabyte of photos in this link.
Time and patience is needed if you are on dialup.

http://flashlight-forums.com/index.php/topic,4045.0.html

did u know , if when having 5 normal alkaline batteries, u will eventually having a voltage of (5 x 1.5v) = 7.5 V

thus , which what i am doing is .... connect 2 leds (white/blue/green) or luxeons/cree if u have in series, thus a 3.7 volt is passing the leds ...

have fun