KevinL
Flashlight Enthusiast
Some years ago I built a 3 x Lux3 light based on the TWAK bin.
Direct drive, no resistors apart from the Mag3C's own resistance. I dunno whether I would be allowed to claim credit for it, but this light was unique in the aspect that people hadn't yet come up with disk heatsinks for Maglites. We had the single-emitter heatsinks that fit into the the 'throat' of the Mag, but we had nothing to mount three stars in a triangle configuration. I know, because I wanted exactly such a product and despite repeated requests I was not able to find one. If I could it would be a simple matter of Paypal sent and problem solved
I eventually ran into a gentleman by the handle of b2eze who agreed to custom machine me a round disk of aluminium to fit into the Mag head, with a hole drilled in the center. He actually drilled me a few extra mounting holes as an extra and ultimately turned it into a kit. :thumbsup: If you search long enough you will probably be able to corroborate my story, I think the year was 2005.
I like to think that this product ultimately inspired the creations of the CPF master modders who came up with triple, quad and more sinks. We all inspire each other.
Now it's 2010 and the triple TWAK has been badly beaten. A single Cree XR-E gives it a serious, serious run for its money, sometimes beating it. It looks like a candle that's not having a good day. And call me cheap, but I recall I was spending in the region of $20 per star for the TWAKs back then, plus another ton of money for reflectors. I figured I'd reuse this groundbreaking heatsink - and slap four cheap Cree XR-E's on it. XR-Es, not XPGs, because I could then use cheap $3 quad optics from DealExtreme. How things have changed: I spent $25 on this upgrade, no kidding. My time....well, it's a hobby. Time is 'free' in the sense it is also freely contributed.
And here we are today, 5 years later, four Crees. It's the simplest of circuits, but after slaving away for 2.5 hours in front of the soldering iron I think I would like to celebrate a small victory I haven't soldered in years too... it's tiring re-learning, burned fingers and all!
As a nice plus, it's visibly brighter than my TK40 MC-E when driven on 3 high-rate NiMH
Direct drive, no resistors apart from the Mag3C's own resistance. I dunno whether I would be allowed to claim credit for it, but this light was unique in the aspect that people hadn't yet come up with disk heatsinks for Maglites. We had the single-emitter heatsinks that fit into the the 'throat' of the Mag, but we had nothing to mount three stars in a triangle configuration. I know, because I wanted exactly such a product and despite repeated requests I was not able to find one. If I could it would be a simple matter of Paypal sent and problem solved
I eventually ran into a gentleman by the handle of b2eze who agreed to custom machine me a round disk of aluminium to fit into the Mag head, with a hole drilled in the center. He actually drilled me a few extra mounting holes as an extra and ultimately turned it into a kit. :thumbsup: If you search long enough you will probably be able to corroborate my story, I think the year was 2005.
I like to think that this product ultimately inspired the creations of the CPF master modders who came up with triple, quad and more sinks. We all inspire each other.
Now it's 2010 and the triple TWAK has been badly beaten. A single Cree XR-E gives it a serious, serious run for its money, sometimes beating it. It looks like a candle that's not having a good day. And call me cheap, but I recall I was spending in the region of $20 per star for the TWAKs back then, plus another ton of money for reflectors. I figured I'd reuse this groundbreaking heatsink - and slap four cheap Cree XR-E's on it. XR-Es, not XPGs, because I could then use cheap $3 quad optics from DealExtreme. How things have changed: I spent $25 on this upgrade, no kidding. My time....well, it's a hobby. Time is 'free' in the sense it is also freely contributed.
And here we are today, 5 years later, four Crees. It's the simplest of circuits, but after slaving away for 2.5 hours in front of the soldering iron I think I would like to celebrate a small victory I haven't soldered in years too... it's tiring re-learning, burned fingers and all!
As a nice plus, it's visibly brighter than my TK40 MC-E when driven on 3 high-rate NiMH