Mini-MagLites torn down and compared

I currently have four generations of 2AA Mini-Maglites in my posession so I decided to do a photo essay on them to show the differences between them all.

They are: early Mini-MagLite, later Mini-MagLite, Luxeon Mini-MagLED, and later Rebel Mini-MagLED. Note that there was an earlier version of the Rebel Mini-MagLED that is the same size and has the same configuration as the Luxeon Mini-MagLED but has the newer Rebel LED module and plastic mounting ring. I don't have one of those currently. I do not know when the different versions came out. The Luxeon Mini-MagLED is a single-mode light that draws about 400mA from two NiMH cells at 2.4V resting. The later Rebel Mini-MagLED is a multi-mode light that draws about 220mA from the same batteries on high, about 50mA on low, and has blinking and SOS modes, all obtained by turning the light on, off, and on again quickly. The newest Rebel Mini-MagLED is visibly brighter than the older Luxeon MagLED, despite drawing less power from the batteries.

On to the pictures:
Left to right in all of the picture: Mini-MagLite, Luxeon Mini-MagLED, and Rebel Mini-MagLED


You can see the height difference between the three shows the old incandescent Mini-MagLite being the shortest and the Luxeon/early Rebel Mini-MagLED are the tallest and the newest Rebel Mini-MagLED is right in the middle, length-wise. The old Mini-MagLite belongs to csshih.

Here are the pictures of the lights dismantled:
The business end of the three lights


The heads taken apart


The light engines removed from their hosts


The body tubes


The last photo shows the differences between the ways that Mag has used to make contact between the tail caps. The incandescent Mini-MagLite uses bare aluminum on the threads. The Luxeon Mini-MagLED uses an exposed contact ring that can be seen inside the battery tube past the threads. The latest Rebel Mini-MagLED has bare aluminum on the end of the body tube.

The different tail caps


The incandescent Mini-MagLite tail cap has bare aluminum threads. The Luxeon Mini-MagLED has two metal contacts and an oversized spring. The last tailcap is not a Rebel Mini-MagLED as it has bare aluminum thtreads while the correct one has anodized threads and a ring of bare aluminum at the point where it makes contact with the body of the light.

Here you can see the differences between the incandescent Mini-MagLite and the current Rebel Mini-MagLED tail cap with the springs removed

You can see the larger hole on the left tail cap that is drilled deeper than the Rebel version

The Luxeon and early Rebel Mini-MagLEDs have a longer body and a different tailcap that is not compatible with the earlier and later Mini-MagLites nor with the later Rebel Mini-MagLED. The Mini-MagLite tail caps can be used with the latest Rebel Mini-MagLED flashlights if you remove the anodizing from the area of the tail cap that makes contact with the bare aluminum at the end of the body of the light. The tail cap used on the latest Rebel Mini-MagLED can be used on the Mini-MagLite if you remove the anodizing from the end of the flashlight body. The longer tailcap of the Luxeon Mini-MagLED is not compatible with either short
tail cap lights.

I've found an earlier version of the Mini-MagLite. The bodies, heads, tailcaps, and reflectors are the same but the early tail cap spring and bulb retaining system are different:


Early system on the right, current version on the left.

It's interesting to note that the two different LED modules are actually interchangable. The Mini-MagLED bodies are essentially the same as are the head and reflectors. The early Rebel Mini-MagLED is essentially the same flashlight as the earlier Luxeon Mini-MagLED but with a new module and retaining ring.

I even installed the older Luxeon module into my Rebel 2D MagLED to see if it would work and it did.

Of particular interest to lots of folks here on CPF are modifying these little lights. Here are four lights that I've modified:

From left to right: black cut down Mini-MagLite (currently waiting for a sandwich), silver cut down Mini-MagLite (going to put a Nite-Ize 3-LED drop-in into this one), blue cut down Mini-MagLite with Nite-Ize 3-LED module that I built for my grand nephew, metallic blue Mini-MagLite with a Sandwich Shop Mad Max Plus, custom heatsink, XP-G, and Nite-Ize IQ tail cap that I built for my daughter.

Yeah, my grand nephew could be the world's youngest flashaholic!


The longer Luxeon Mini-MagLED tail cap can be modified to work with the other Mini-MagLite/MagLEDs if you have access to a mill or lathe


The middle one is modified to work with the Mini-MagLite


Anyone else have any Mini-MagLites or Mini-MagLEDs to show?

Tell us about that metallic blue min maglite that you built for your daughter, if you will. Sandwich Shop Mad Max Plus, custom heatsink, XP-G?

Very cool thread on the Mini PCC I don't see many of them especially this detailed.

great thread, thanks for doing it lovecpf

Very cool...I hadn't realized they had that many changes over the years.

prof student said:

Tell us about that metallic blue min maglite that you built for your daughter, if you will. Sandwich Shop Mad Max Plus, custom heatsink, XP-G?

Click to expand...

There isn't much to tell about this light. It's a pretty straight-forward Mini-Mag sandwich. I made the heatsink from copper, attached the Mad Max Plus driver to the heatsink using epoxy, AA'd the 14mm star board with the XP-G attached to it to the top of the heatsink then soldered it up. Yeah, that's an oversimplification but you get the idea. I'm going to make another one as soon as some more emitters arrive so I'll do a write-up but I'm pretty sure others have done a write-up already. I'll also do a write-up about cutting down a Mini-Mag since I was asked about it in a PM. Stay tuned...

BTW, bigchelis tested that light and it puts out around 110 lumens as pictured. With a simple on/off clickie that number jumps to 215 lumens but I lose the modes. My daughter likes the multiple modes so it retains the Nite-Ize IQ switch. The head is tightened down all the way and it has a cut-down original MM reflector in there. I can unscrew the head and defocus the hotspot like any other Mag but the beam is just plain ugly if I do.

Thanks for the comments, folks.

Nice work on the cut downs.

I've always wanted a 1AA mini mini mag, but never got round to getting one. There used to be a member on here who cut them down and sold them, but I forget who. He also made a CR2 Mini mag.

Well the other month one came up for sale and I got it, here it is next to a Fenix T45



It appears to have been stripped and coated in HA of some type. The sandwich is unknown, the LED is a Luxeon III. I was thinking of further modding it, but it's not bad as it stands, so I'll leave it for now. I'ts running on a 1.7V Lithium.

Question- What are you using to power you cut downs?

Very good thread! Excellent detail on the differences between the Mini-Mag versions.

It's one of those threads that would fit well in both the General and Collecting sub-forums, but you have covered mods too, so I'll move it there for you as you have asked.

Essexman said:

...He also made a CR2 Mini mag.

Question- What are you using to power you cut downs?

Click to expand...

Now that's an idea! The black one shown above needs to be redone because I tapped the threads a little bit crooked then retapped them again so they're cross-threaded. It's about as short as it can get if I want to use it with an AA battery so I've been living with it but a CR2 should fit and allow me to eliminate the section with the bad thread job. Now I need to get some CR2 cells to use with it since I don't have any.

The Sandwich Shop Mad Max drivers can handle a single cell as well as the two earlier Nite-Ize drop-ins. The 3-LED drop-in works down to about 0.7V but only provides about 10 lumens (that's why I used that particular drop-in for my grand nephew's light) and the 3-Watt version from Nite-Ize is good for about 15 lumens but will only work to about 0.8V. I have not tried the latest drop-in from Nite-Ize because I can't find it on the shelf of any B&M store around here. Shiningbeam has a three-mode driver that looks like it would fit this application that is rated from 0.8V to 1.7V. It has a 14mm diameter, though it looks like it would not leave much room for the heatsink. I supposed you could cut the MM down to 1.1 or 1.2 AA, leaving some room for a larger heatsink to use that driver.

Re CR2's I think you may have to open up the battery hole to fit a CR2 as they are a little bigger diameter?

Yes that Shiningbeam has a three-mode driver was one I was looking at too, could be very good if it fits OK.

Great thread. I have pretty much all the generations back to my oldest 2AA that I got in 1985. I have the two latest gen Rebel versions, I'm glad they put the lanyard hole back in.

JB

I looked up the size specs on the CR2 cells and they are a slightly larger diameter but I might be able to do the boring to get it to fit.

Yeah, Jamie, the newest tail caps are nice, especially if you want to modify it like on that black 1 X AA shown above. If you cut it down like I did you don't have a hole like on the silver 1 X AA next to it. That one is using the older tailcap design and it ended up with that big hole that I need to fill with epoxy. I want to put a tritium vial in there, though, so it will remain open for now until I can get one.

Is the led capable of supporting the CR2?

PCC, not to hijack your thread, but how do you remove the emitter from the Luxeon model? :thinking: I have a 3AA model in which the alkalines puked in :green: that I would like to try and salvage. I managed to get only one of the batteries out so far.

PCC said:

Click to expand...

Bet this one's the brightest of the batch! Train him well and he'll grow up to be a strong Jedi-erm, flashaholic.

But yeah, neat to see the evolution of the everyday AA minimag!

steve007 said:

Is the led capable of supporting the CR2?

Click to expand...

The CR2 is 3V so it should be able to. I don't see why not other than that voltage of 2 AA alkalines would sag more than the voltage of a CR2.

OCD said:

PCC, not to hijack your thread, but how do you remove the emitter from the Luxeon model? :thinking: I have a 3AA model in which the alkalines puked in :green: that I would like to try and salvage. I managed to get only one of the batteries out so far.

Click to expand...

Have you considered contacting the battery manufacturer to see if they'll replace that light for you?

You push the LED module straight down. On the older Mini-MagLED this is more difficult because you don't really see the module itself and pushing down on the larger plastic ring does nothing. You need to carefully push down on the black plastic ring of the Luxeon emitter until the larger plastic ring can be removed. Once this is done the batteries are the only things keeping the emitter module in place. Then you would just try pushing straight down to try to force the middle battery out. The problem is that you will probably damage the module before the battery falls out. If it's the 3AA battery tube you're looking to salvage then you can always put in the Rebel 3D module and probably trim down the plastic ring to make it work with the different module shape. I just happen to have one of those 3D modules laying around...

Thanks PCC.

PCC said:

Have you considered contacting the battery manufacturer to see if they'll replace that light for you?

Click to expand...

I did contact Duracell and they were very quick in responding to me. I had a check in hand for a replacement in 1 week! With nothing to lose, I wanted to see if I could salvage the light.

Oh, I see. If you look at the larger plastic ring you'll see two slots. Looking through those slots you'll see metal. If you can somehow hook a corkscrew or something into one of those slots you might be able to pull the black plastic ring right out. If you don't care about salvaging the module then I'd just place a small but long socket over the Luxeon and pound it straight into the flashlight body to force the middle battery out. Try not to flare the top of the module out as that still needs to clear the shelf that the black plastic piece was hitting to prevent the module from falling out. Good luck with this.

Well, I managed to pull out the LED from the body and removing the plastic casing. The CR2 gives a significant boost in light output. If only I can come up with a way to house the CR2 with the original housing it would be great. Looks like I'll have to figure out a way to MOD the body or perhaps use a different host. Some special modding will be in order for this to work out.

Well, the AA battery has a nominal diameter of about 14.5mm while the CR2 is around 15.6mm. The inside diameter of the Mini-Mag is going to be around 15mm. You'll need to both cut it down and bore it out to get it to fit a CR2. That black cut-down Mini-Mag shown above will be getting that treatment some time soon but I need to wait for the LEDs that I ordered to arrive before I can do that. The only problem that I may encounter is that the bored diameter may be larger than the diameter of the threads of the tailcap, which means that it may not work with the standard tailcap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes for battery sizes.