Gave my old 3D M*gL*te a tuneup today...

Hi everyone,

For a few years I have been particularly disappointed with a certain 3D M*gL*te that for the last while I've been keeping under the sink. It seemed, well, crappy. Dim compared to other better M** 3D's (like the one in my car for example) and with a disastrous beam pattern. Overall YUCK. Really cruddy plastic-junky-flashlight type performance. I suppose this is part of why over time it kind of got continually demoted until it reached the new lows of under the sink duty.

This particular lacklustre example is also one of the motivators that got me first interested in more serious lights. I suppose that was a positive result!

So... onto today. It's late at night/early in the morning and for some reason I start thinking of that yucky 3D under the sink. I'm not asleep anyway, just writing some dumb email. Hmm... flashlights are much more interesting than email so I went and got out the yucky 3D and started playing with it - particularly noticing my longterm complaint about how DIM and CRAPPY the beam was.

On a whim I disassembled the light and when I had it all in pieces on the desk, cleaning it a little, dusting the bits, etc. something under the flange on the bulb caught my eye: "4 cell".

???!!!???!!! WHAT ???!!!???!!!

?! FOUR CELL ?!

Sure enough, close inspection shows the bulb is "4 cell". Talk about a "D'Oh" moment. All those wasted years!

I quickly looked around for a spare 3 cell bulb but if I have one it's out in the garage and I'm inside in the office at 2 AM. I may be a flashlight freak but I'm not going out there now to hunt for pedestrian bulbs. Maybe for a SF assembly, but not for this!

The closest thing to hand that fits is a M** "2-cell Japan" bulb. OK, overdriving will be my new watchword. In it goes and lickety split the lacklustre under-the-sink 3D is reassembled.

Late night living room test says... "Dim cruddy beam's a thing of the past, Flashlight Man!"

All of a sudden I've got a beautiful bright white beam perfectly aligned and looking pretty impressive actually. In a split second this sucker has just gone from the cruddiest 3D to the best 3D I've got.

So... What's with this "2 cell Japan" bulb guys? It's almost perfectly aligned and doesn't give any of the typical junky beam pattern. It's MUCH better in terms of alignment than any other M** bulb I've seen or had, including their fancy M**NumStar versions.

How long do you guys think it will last being overdriven by 50%? I suppose I could put a set of rechargeables in there and bring it down to just 17% overvoltage if this is a substantial life-shortening threat.

Oh well, at least in the short term the so-very-important under-the-kitchen-sink zone is equipped with the best M** 3D I've got.

You better get a couple more replacement bulbs. I am surprise that it didn't blow when you turn it on, it's just about the best bulb I have ever seen, or in this case, heard.

Every 10% over it's rated voltage = 50% reduction in it's life.

20% = 25 % left
30% = 12.5% left
40% = 6.25% left
50% = 3.125% left

3.125% of 20 hours = 0.6 hours = 30 mins.... cool!

You were only able to do this because your batteries in the 3d lite were not at full power. I did some extensive testing on this a while ago, but forget exactly how high I could take the voltage before they would just flash on turn on. The 2cell bulb in a 3cell light is a great upgrade just as long as you have slightly used batteries in the light, otherwise it will blow right away.
Ok, I just looked up my notes on this:
3 cells totaling up to 4.555 volts was ok, but much higher would blow the bulb. 4.665 will blow the bulb. So to be sure don't go higher than 4.555 (although there may be a little room above the 4.555 I was tired of blowing up bulbs testing this). And just for the record the overdriven 2-cell bulb with weaker batteries is stil way brighter than the 3cell bulb with brand new batts. KPR102 available at Radioshack is what I did my testing with.

For a long time I had a two cell bulb (What Manuf.? I know not) in one of my favorite Sams Choice 3D lights. I didn't realize why it was so bright until it popped and I took it out.

I destroyed a couple other 2 cell bulbs until finding one that works for now. There is a KPR103 in the spare bulb holder however!

The Rayovac bulbs at Wally World are as good tsets subjects as anything.

You might look at Home Depot or any GOOD hardware store for M*glite M*gnum Star Xenon bulbs. They ain't cheap. DO NOT OVERDRIVE ONE! But I have 2C, 2D, and 3D M*gs with these bulbs and they throw a nice tight WHITE beam.

Lotsa other lights are better at area lighting, but for a reach out there beam the Xenons are hot!

Hmmm. The first bulb that came with my old Mag 3D was pretty poor as well. I wonder if it was a mistake at the factory. I swapped it for a krypton from Radio Shack that was much better (still not as good as my new Pro Polymers though )

Chris

I've been running a 3 cell Carley Xenon bulb in my 4 cell Mag for about 6 months now. Haven't had a problem yet and I've ran it extensively a few times.

Ok another noobie question here - if Xenon are such great bulbs, why doesn't Mag Lite just use them as their standard bulb, instead of selling seperate?

Raven

This way, they can get $4 for it without adding $4 to the price of the light. Something you might consider. Run the Xenon blub until it starts to dim, then switch to the 2D Krypton. TX

Put 4 C cells in that Mag. It'll be brighter and a bit lighter...

Mark

Hi everyone,

Well, the "2 cell Japan" bulb is still going strong in my previously cruddy 3D M** that had the "4 cell" bulb in it.

Aside from it's white-hot colour temperature, what is most impressive about this bulb is how nicely aligned the beam is when compared to most other M**'s I have. While not perfect by any means, this bulb is putting out a much more even and clean beam - from spot all the way up to flood it's the cleanest beam I've ever had from a M**. Most M** beams seem to be blotchy and scrubby, and having seen what this bulb can do I'm convinced that a big part of this problem is contributed by junky bulb design!

Here's a kitchen-wall beam shot:



Hey, what do you think of that?

I just wish I could determine who is the manufacturer of this hot little bugger.

best regards,

A.

p.s. - I have had M**N**St*r bulbs too, and this "2 cell Japan" bulb is much better. The last M**N**St*r I got was dropped while in the 3D that used to live in my car. It didn't get dropped from far, but the bulb filament assembly bent inside the glass envelope. The bulb continued working for a while (with a really terrible beam pattern) and then just quit. $6 up in smoke. :<

Thanks for the tips, guys. I tend to keep batteries in my 3D Mag for a long time, since it really doesn't see much use any more. Putting a 2D bulb in there with my old batteries made a huge differene.

Originally posted by txwest:
Run the Xenon blub until it starts to dim, then switch to the 2D Krypton. TX

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">That is a great idea, and exactly what I'm going to do from now on.
Thanks.

Just a quick update - the overdriven "2 cell Japan" bulb continues to work just fine in this M@g 3D.

It is featured in a M@g shootout I posted yesterday in this forum. Beamshots, etc...

best regards,

A.