Help - TLE-6EX not brighter than MagLED??

Hello,
First off I'll say this has been, and I am sure will continue to be, a very informative and helpful forum. I'm on here everyday. That being said I hope to draw from someone with more experience with me.

I have had for a while a stock MagLED 3D and I have been very happy with it. I even added an aspheric lens from surplusshed, pretty nice. Just today I received and upgraded another 4D MagLite with a TLE-6EX. My thinking: "man, i can put this aspheric lens on this light and it will be even better."

Apparently my thinking was wrong? The MagLED 3D is clearly just as bright if not marginally brighter than the Mag 4D with the TLE-6EX. (Tested with just the stock reflector and plastic lens.) The 3D MagLED has month old alkalines and the 4D TLE-6EX has brand new Rayovacs.

What gives? I was not expecting a miracle but from all I have read on this forum and beyond I definetly expected the TLE-6EX to be brighter.

In typical fashion all the money I have in this project and I could have got a Malkoff upgrade which I put off because of the price. argh....

Any ideas? Do I have a dud? Is the advertised output of the TLE-6EX constant with 4, 5, or 6 cells?


TIA - Jon

I don't have any of the new magled drop-ins so I can't really help you. My first guess though, would be the way the way your eye see brightness of LED's. What I'm saying is, an LED could be twice and bright as another, but it won't looks twice as bright to your eyes. One thing you might be able to do, to see for sure, is go outside at night, pick a target some distance away from you and focus the light for each module as best as you can and see which you think lights it up best. If one is truly brighter then the other, then you should see more light on the target with the brightest module pointed at it. That's my guess.

I purchased the Terralux Seoul drop in from Batterystation when it first came out. The one that I was recieved was not noticably brighter in a 4D mag when compared to the stock 3D Magled. Several here have reported that it is much brighter and very noticable. I must have a very good Magled module and probably received a very weak Terralux Seoul. If I hadn't purchased mine via the internet it would have went straight back as it really wasn't an upgrade over the stock LED.

I did however have excellent luck with the Malkoff dropin module. It was a dramatic and substancial upgrade over the stock Magled. From my experience I can't recommend the Terralux over the stock Magled module. If you're looking for something brighter give the Malkoff drop in a try.

saltwater said:

I did however have excellent luck with the Malkoff dropin module. It was a dramatic and substancial upgrade over the stock Magled. From my experience I can't recommend the Terralux over the stock Magled module. If you're looking for something brighter give the Malkoff drop in a try.

Click to expand...

+1 The Malkoff is the ultimate Mag drop-in and worth the money. I have two of them and they :rock::rock::rock:

I got the 6EXB, and I have 2 3D mags. And also have 2 Mag-LED bulbs. So I could compare quite easily. The 6EXB didn't look much better to me, and was greenish. The spot seems a little bigger, and about the same brightness. But no way it's twice the light. I was showing them off to my co-workers that like lights, and the first comment was on how green it was. I personally can't recommend the 6EXB.

As a side note, since I had an extra Mag-LED, I put in an SSC U-bin from DX on one. It also doesn't seem any brighter, and seems to throw a little less.

Bradley

I have both the magled and ter6 from lighthound. I had a chance to test them out in a completely dark unfinished parking garage.

I had a 3d with magled and a 5d with terr6. Both had ucl lenses and new batteries. The focus beam is pretty similar in brightness with the ter6 slightly brighter and the magled had a smaller diameter beam.

You can't really tell a difference till you widen the beam. The ter6 has a bigger usable spot with a smaller black hole in the middle than the mag led. The ter6 seems brighter again but not by much.

Its definitely not a big difference in brightness but my magled did fog up the lens which is pretty bad. It was not even raining at the time and had it running for about a half an hour.

I think they're in the same ballpark. The TLE-6EX is a replacement for the krypton bulbs. Not a lot of point in replacing a MagLed. The dimmer one would probably have a slightly better run time.

+1 go Malkoff drop in, or wait for new models next year.

buy cheap, you buy twice
i know walmart sells magled 2d for $25. if it were me i would rather get that with an aspherical 25+13=38 for a cheap aspherical mag rather than 18 body+25 terralux + 13
dx has 2aa to D converter for 1.40 shipped i think. cheap aa thrower.
o-ring for the bezel gap is cheap or old bike tube cut to fit over the whole mag head.

i feel you go cheap or go all the way(malkoff). terralux is not a good buy when you can just buy magled(led and body) for the same price.

can you return the terralux?

I had 2 Terralux units and found they weren't much brighter than the stock Mag units. I was disappointed, and have kept the Magleds stock (better runtime). I guess Mag will eventually convert their lights to Rebel leds, and then I'll just buy new drop ins.

just bad design
i was informed on another thread the buck circuitry of the LED module outputs more heat than that of the MagLED...keeping in mind the surface area for termal dissipation is already very limited, that can't be good:shakehead

NewBie has made an info page for this [warning not for 56K]
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/terralux.htm

interesting thing to note:
theres no epoxy under the LED
the driver MOSFET blew up at 254 F

NewBie said:

It appears that the designer chose to take the low cost and simple approach to the current sense, and due to the high losses of the 2 ohm resistor, a large, higher wattage resistor had to be utilized. One could have utilized a *much* lower sense resistor value, and put an op-amp with associated components in the same space occupied by the higher power sense resistor.

Click to expand...

I only use MagLED and diamond dropins...but Im beginning to think the LEDs may be improving in efficiency...but with drivers producing the same amount of heat from high losses...we're really not better off if they continue to proceed in the PR assembly

So the Malkoff is sold out? Everytime I find out about some new mod . its sold out .. went to do an ROP once .. and the battery holders were all sold out .. okay I'm slow, but .. well .. I try to have a life so I don't really stay on top of these things ..

PegAir said:

So the Malkoff is sold out? Everytime I find out about some new mod . its sold out .. went to do an ROP once .. and the battery holders were all sold out .. okay I'm slow, but .. well .. I try to have a life so I don't really stay on top of these things ..

Click to expand...

Not sold out forever I expect - basically he makes a few - puts them for sale - they usually sell quickly...

Think if you sign up to the mailing list on his web site he notifies people when they are available.

PegAir said:

So the Malkoff is sold out? Everytime I find out about some new mod . its sold out .. went to do an ROP once .. and the battery holders were all sold out .. okay I'm slow, but .. well .. I try to have a life so I don't really stay on top of these things ..

Click to expand...

i've seen them on ebay

I am not sure why the 6EX gets so much bad press :thinking:

In my case (which is all I can judge), the 6EX (w/6AAs) has twice the output of a 2D MagLED (and according to flashlightreviews.com even the 4D MagLEd doesn't have much higher output) - approx. 90-100 lumes for the 6EX and approx. 50 for the MagLED.

I find it hard to see the difference between the 2 if swapped in the same host, but side by side it is very apparent (this is not just a 6EX vs MagLED issue)

I wonder if this is the power of the auto-adjusting eye (again)?

And yes, I would also like a mythical Malkoff (I am sure there are more 'recommenders' than owners :lolsign: ), but I am in the wrong continent.

I noticed something I thought was weird...I've had a Diamond K2 drop-in that I used in my 3D Mag beater (until I got my first Malkoff which I put in the beater, just because I love a "sleeper") and it always seemed to me that it wasn't all that much brighter than the 3D MagLED drop-in. Well, the other day, I got thinking about it and decided to put the homeless K2 in a brand new 2D that I've had laying around (still in the package) since I found it on sale for $7.99 at a local hardware store. I figured I would build an ROP or something with it at some point.

Anyway, I put the Diamond K2 in and then the necessary mods to put 3 C cells in the 2D (different spring, scraping the inside of the tailcap, PVC pipe, etc.), then I fired it up. This is where it gets weird...it was FAR brighter in this configuration than it ever was in my 3D! :thinking: This thing actually throws now, at least for a Luxeon! It seems to be about twice as bright as the 3D MagLED drop-in I have in another 3D (I have quite a few Mags!) and throws much farther. Of course, in no way does it come close to the Malkoff, but at least I have a use for the K2 now.

Is it because the new 2D (with 3 Cs) has cleaner contacts, lens, reflector, etc? Or do the Cs provide juice at a higher rate (maybe more miliamps or something) than the Ds, or what?

I even switched the drop-ins between a fairly unused 3D with MagLED (presumably with close-to-new condition contacts in the switch etc.), so the 3D had the K2 and the 2D had the MagLED and they seemed to be about the same brightness...I switched them back and the K2 in the 2D was brighter! Both have new batteries and both have lenses that are in good shape...2D of course having the brand new lens.

What gives???:thinking: