3W Maglight LED

Hi, new member here. I just bought a pair of Maglight 3W LED for a bargain black friday price of $10.97ea and would like to remove the LEDs to mount on my RC Helicopter to light it up at night, but I can't seem to figure out how to get the lamp assembly out of the case.

I would hate to have to destroy the case to get them out.\

Any help would be appreciated.

Dang nice light by the way.

:welcome:
You could have bought much better bare emitters at lower prices to use in your RC helicopter. If you REALY want to remove the emitters only you can use a pair of pliers and force them off. Thermal glue is used to attach them to the housing. Apply the pliers to the black plastic part of the emitter.

Here are two posts that can help you:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2307702&postcount=25

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2534760&postcount=28

I can continue to warn you about heat sinking, how to drive it, impact on weight to power them and to heatsink them in a helicopter, etc. but I will leave that for you to think about it first.

Good luck.

EDIT: Perhaps you should change your title to "Removing lamp assembly from MAGLED?"

A high power LED is not like the 5mm ones that most are used to. High power LEDs are much brighter, take more power, and usually require a heatsink(unless driven at low enough currents).

You remove the MagLED drop-in(it contains the LED and the driver circuit) but unscrewing the head and the unscrewing the bulb retaining ring.

You could have spend less money, a good amount less. From what I understand, you want to use the LEDs to help you see where you helicopter is. A couple of 5mm LEDs should do and they should be less the $5 total. The Luxeon III used in the MagLEDs is around $6-7 each.

:welcome:

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I am not sure if I will use these or order just the LEDs. The flashlights are pretty freakin sweet.

The current Model Aviation issue has a story about a light set up for a large plane that lit up the entire plane from LEDs mounted on the wingtips (6 each side w/ heatsinks).

I want to do simething similar for my Trex 500 heli. These will not be nav lights, they will be mounted on a carbon fiber spar that sticks out to the sides. If i use just the lamp I will for sure heatsink it and use the proper resistors.

Where can I get the 3W LEDs for $5?

Gunner12 said:

The Luxeon III used in the MagLEDs is around $6-7 each.

:welcome:

Click to expand...

I will try to find these. Thanks.

Also, by the way, how do you edit a post on here? I would change the post name as suggested if I could figure it out.

Hmm.. I found the Luxeon III for $7.95 ea. 2 of these plus $3 shipping is $19. I paid $22 for the 2 MagLight Minis. Just about a wash.

And as I said, these are for external illumination of the body of the heli, so they need to be really bright.

If you want to buy high power LEDs, skip the Luxeon IIIs and go on to the Cree XR-Es. Twice or more output for the same power(twice or more the efficiency depending on bin).

One of the cheapest place is here, but shipping is slow.

Gunner12 said:

If you want to buy high power LEDs, skip the Luxeon IIIs and go on to the Cree XR-Es. Twice or more output for the same power(twice or more the efficiency depending on bin).

One of the cheapest place is here, but shipping is slow.

Click to expand...

+1
also you can try SSC-P4's