MiniMag replacement bulb?

Ginseng

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Feb 27, 2003
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The MM uses a T1 lamp. Carley makes the 706 and 803 in that size. To the best of my knowledge, WA does not make a T1 size. I believe Illuminated ordered some of these in my last GB so you might want to ask him.

BTW, check the GB thread, all prices are confirmed so you can select payment at your earliest convenience.

Wilkey
 

kubolaw

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May 15, 2002
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WA 01121 is the replacement MM bulb that a few of us tried, but because it is a "kernel of corn" rather than a "grain of wheat", it is not very efficiently focused by the small MM reflector, and so the effect is rather underwhelming (you really have to bore out the reflector to allow the WA lamp to fit). A 2AA flashlight with a larger bezel might work, though (although those typically use PR base lamps).

I haven't seen any good replacement for the stock MM bulb except for the Nexstar lamp.

John
 

kz1000s1

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Central Arkansas, USA
The Radio Shack #272-1150 Krypton bulb works well, especially with lithium batteries. So equipped, a minimag has the same brightness and throw as a Surefire E1, but of course still has a terrible beam. The one I have like this just sits on the shelf and is only used for reference. A Badboy or Madmax is the best thing you can do with a minimag, and that light is used all the time.
 

Ginseng

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kubolaw,

Could the bulb pins be fed through from the front of the reflector or are the pins spaced far apart as well?

kz1000s1, thanks for th elead, I'll go look that bulb up for my two remaining incan MMs.

Wilkey
 

kubolaw

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Wilkey -

The leads are really long, so you might be able to feed them through the reflector, but I'm not sure how well that would work since you're still losing the bulk of the reflector benefit. Plus you'd have to support the lamp with the reflector, which would probably lead to some melting. It's a bright lamp, but just not suited for the MiniMag, as far as I could tell.

John
 

Ginseng

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Ahh,

Thanks John. Would you be able to post a picture of the stock bulb and the 01121 side by side?

Wilkey
 

Illuminated

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Sorry guys - I've been away...

The Carley 706 seems decent with 2 x AA NiMH in the MM, as it is rated at 2.4 volts.

The 803 is rather bright on AA lithiums, as I suspected it would be.

Both lamps look white to my eyes, and are an improvement over the stock MM lamps.

These lamps are both a bit larger that the stock T1, so I drilled the reflector just barely enough to accept the lamp.

The 803 runs hot on lithiums, and with little clearance between lamp and reflector, heat damage was observed. No such problems with the 803 & AA lithiums in the Nexstar 2AA, as the hole is suitably larger.

I do not have a Nexstar lamp to compare these Carley's to.

Beam quality is marginally better than the stock lamps, and with a little WriteRight or texturizing and some Teflon tape to eliminate head wobble they'll focus fairly well for better throw.


BTW - The 803 also works OK in the 1 x 123 Garrity Stainless 2AA mod.

Hope this helps - John
 
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