last minute magled ssc p4 upgrade questions

i am working on my second mod tonight. fun fun time in this hobby for me. i build a p7 3d dd light already. tonight i took off the old lux from the magled host. before i did, i made sure to mark a side of the led with red highlighter, and same side on the host with a marker. once the lux was off i tested the led and i happened to mark the ground (-) side of the lux, so the side i marked on the host would also be ground. i found the ground side on my new ssc p4 led, and marked it. so, long story short im ready polarity wise to do the re-install. but i have a couple hang ups in the way.

first of all the tutorial we have on here https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/166999 tells me to make copper tabs out of solid copper wire. can i use the same 18 guage speaker wire that i wire my switches to my led's? if so, how would this work. if not, where do i get some form of copper tabs.

As long as it's solid core wire I don't see why not. If it's stranded wire, I think you should tin them before flattening them. You can also use the lead from the old luxeon being swapped out.

That is what I used and it worked great. As already mentioned it has to be solid core. Just hammer it flat and your in business!

i dont think i've ever seen solid core wire. is that what they used in the magled swap tutorial? where can i get some of that?

jasonsmaglites said:

i dont think i've ever seen solid core wire. is that what they used in the magled swap tutorial? where can i get some of that?

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Any radioshack or just about any hardware store.

k. ill try tomorrow. what guage should i get? also, if i decide to just use my stranded wire, can i make that work? whats tinning? im assuming that involves sottering them and then flattening, but enlighten me.

jasonsmaglites said:

k. ill try tomorrow. what guage should i get? also, if i decide to just use my stranded wire, can i make that work? whats tinning? im assuming that involves sottering them and then flattening, but enlighten me.

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I don't know exactly, but try getting different sizes. I think 18 guage would work, but I can't say for certain. Again, different sizes just to be sure. You shouldn't need much, half a foot just so you have a little to play with. Tinning is basically preparing the wire for soldering. Do a video search on youtube for soldering. There are some good videos that can tell you the very basics.

by tinning you mean preping with flux? seems easy enough. i just did my first build a week ago, and fixed my gps 6 months ago, so i have a little basic soldering exp. just needed expounded on what i was trying to accomplish.

You can also use the legs of the Lux emitters.

If you trim them off,you can solder them to the SSC.

-Michael

jasonsmaglites said:

by tinning you mean preping with flux? seems easy enough. i just did my first build a week ago, and fixed my gps 6 months ago, so i have a little basic soldering exp. just needed expounded on what i was trying to accomplish.

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You will use flux, but you tin the wire by melting a little solder onto it. It'll look silvery after you tin the wire. The flux helps the solder to flow. You can either use solder with a flux core (which I'm guess most people do here) or you can buy them individually.

Having extra flux hanging around can really come in handy. It works so well. The smallest dab is all it takes to make soldering a slam dunk for a novice.

If you think it would help, I could send you some.

I used stranded wires according to this post: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2307702&postcount=25

i have some liquid flux, but thank you for the offer. very generous. i use it before each solder joint, although i dont really get what it does, but i do it like i'm cleaning it. something about wetting?

anyways, i took the old tabs off the lux emitter and plan to reuse them, i can see it will be very easy to solder them onto the ssc p4, but how do i solder them to the module. the bottom of the tabs were down in the plastic module and of course i cant reach that with a drop of solder. also, isnt the top of the module a ground, and the base of my ssc p4 positive polarity. i dont want to accidently connect that to the ground tab with sloppy solder. i think the best way to do it is to take the module out of the plastic holder but i dont know how. then i could solder the tabs onto the module, slip the tabs and the module back through the plastic holder, then solder the ssc p4 onto the tabs. but the million dollar question is, how do i get the module out of the plastic holder of the magled?

THe tabs don't need to be soldered to anything inside the module, they push into a female type connector inside the module.

ok. ive got the tabs in. i build up a layer of 1/1 epoxy/grease to electricly isolate the positive bottom of the ssc from the ground top of the magled. i've glued the led to the magled module, and waiting for that second layer of glue to dry. then i'll solder the tabs on. do i need to make sure the solder doesnt touch the casing of the magled. is it metal or plastic. if its metal it would seem i need really clean soldering. also, should i jam some wire down in with the tabs. if there isnt a solid connection down there, this thing wont fire up and then it goes right?

The housing is metal and you don't want any solder touching the housing from your positive tabs. I don't know if the driver in there is protected for a "no load" condition, that is not something I wanted to find out the hard way.
Here is a great thread about this very same upgrade with lots of pics, hope it helps.

thanks. that is exactally what my visiting father in law just said. i put a magnet to the body and found it was metal. i figured if both the solder joints touched the body (which would be very easy to do), it would short itself out. then he said that metal is probably the actual ground, so just the negative tab shouldnt touch. sounded good to me, and you just confirmed the praise i will give him tomorrow for figuring that out.

that link you gave me is pretty much whats been getting me started, but its not a build for dummies guide, but enough to get me started on my first one. the second one is always incredibly easier. i wired a switch for my 2nd p7 build like it was nothing. its getting something done the first time like this mod thats the tricky part.

just had an epiphany. im gonna solder the tabs on the new sscp4 before installing the tabs in the module. i had the tabs in there, and was gonna solder them on. duh!

ok. never mind the duh. the reason i didnt think of that when i was out there working on it, is because i already had glued the led to the module. anyways, im about to put it in a host mag to compare it with stock magled. will let you know tomorrow about tints and lumens and all that good stuff. i already tested it by touching positive wire to the bottom, and ground wire to the body, and led lit up. thanks for all the help. i hope this thread is useful to someone in the future.

crap. now its not working again. the solder on the negative side was too thick to fit the top ring around it to screw the bulb into the mag host. i was trying to thin down the fat solder and take a drop off (which i couldnt) or spread it around so it was closer to the module, so i screw down the ring that holds down any mag bulb or magled module. well i tested the light again by touching the side to negative terminal, and bottom to positive, and it wont fire up. might i have got too much heat near the module with the excessive soldering. i added some epoxy/grease mix around the rest of the light to better heatsink it. but that stuff doesnt conduct electricity and therefore wont ground my solder if it touches right? what could i have done wrong?