Help me mod my minimag -

I'm a new guy on this board, however I've been reading it for the last 6hours now, so I know what's going on. Anyhow, I have a minimag I've had for possibly 15+ years now. I've got a terralux switch cap, and a terralux bulb that supposively produces 140 lumens (not sure about that). But now I see my other options:

-glass lens (seems mineral glass is popular)
-sandwhiches? madmax, badbaoy...

I want to get my minimag going strong with a very bright light.
Are these sandwhiches stronger then the terralux LED? I don't see lumen counts on these.

Another questions : can I put CR123A batteries in my minimag and bolster the juice for a brighter light without burning out the LED or chip? Are there any sandwhiches that incorperate this into their sandwhich?

What's up with the heat sink items? I don't think I have one, why do they sell them? Do I need one?

All help appreciated. I'm open to buying custom pieces to install into my minimag, but I don't want to replace it (sentimental).
thanks board..

so I believe you've already seen this thread by johnnymac, which is probably the most detailed minimag mod I've seen to date.

Minimag (incan ones) mods present several issues:

1) size: you have to fit the LED, heatsink, and driver into a very small space.

2) batteries: you've got a small space, so that means lower capacity batteries.

3) switch: once you've put the LED in, how do you turn it on, there are a few [weak] tailswitches available.

4) very limited space for a reflector, an optic seems much more suitable for the limited space. You're dealing with about 20-30mm to fit the optic, LED, heatsink, and driver in.

As you can see from Johnnymac's mod, he used a good amount of grinding to get everything to fit.

Soooo, here's my idea so far: Incan Minimag ground out head to fit a Cree R2 on a 14mm PCB, Ledil 21.5mm Optic, Shiningbeam 0.8-1.7v driver, mag body cut to 1x AA size, Lithium 1.5v battery, permanently mount tail cap, twisty to turn on.

Here's the issue... the heatsink. I'm thinking I can just mount the LED board with wires thru the back of the head. Then fill the void with AA epoxy then maybe smack on the driver. Or maybe do the driver first, fill epoxy, then LED...

Semiloaded said:

I'm a new guy on this board, however I've been reading it for the last 6hours now, so I know what's going on. Anyhow, I have a minimag I've had for possibly 15+ years now. I've got a terralux switch cap, and a terralux bulb that supposively produces 140 lumens (not sure about that). But now I see my other options:

-glass lens (seems mineral glass is popular)
-sandwhiches? madmax, badbaoy...

I want to get my minimag going strong with a very bright light.
Are these sandwhiches stronger then the terralux LED? I don't see lumen counts on these.

Another questions : can I put CR123A batteries in my minimag and bolster the juice for a brighter light without burning out the LED or chip? Are there any sandwhiches that incorperate this into their sandwhich?

What's up with the heat sink items? I don't think I have one, why do they sell them? Do I need one?

All help appreciated. I'm open to buying custom pieces to install into my minimag, but I don't want to replace it (sentimental).
thanks board..

Click to expand...

First of all, :welcome:
A sandwich is made by assembling an LED to a heatsink along with a driver. This can also be called a pill. The heatsink is needed because the amount of power that you are pushing to the LED will cause the LED to heat up and you need to draw that heat away from it or else you will get diminished output or damage the LED (or both!).

A well built sandwich can put out in excess of 200 lumens. I built a sandwich a year or so ago for my daughter's Mini-Mag. We measured 216 OTF (Out The Front) lumens from this light using two NiMH cells in bigC's sphere. I'm sure that you would notice a difference in brightness compared to the Terralux in your light. My sandwich is composed of an XP-G R5 driven by a Mad Max Plus driver with a brass heatsink. I've since bought C110 copper and I will make my future heatsinks from copper instead of brass.

Can you put CR123a batteries into your light? Sure, if you have someone bore it out and have a custom tail cap made because the stock tail cap will no longer screw onto the body after getting it bored out to fit that battery.

WRT heatsinks, there aren't too many Mini-Mag heatsinks being made these days. I make my own on my lathe so I have an endless supply of them.

havnmonkey said:

Minimag (incan ones) mods present several issues:

3) switch: once you've put the LED in, how do you turn it on, there are a few [weak] tailswitches available.

4) very limited space for a reflector, an optic seems much more suitable for the limited space. You're dealing with about 20-30mm to fit the optic, LED, heatsink, and driver in.

As you can see from Johnnymac's mod, he used a good amount of grinding to get everything to fit.

Soooo, here's my idea so far: Incan Minimag ground out head to fit a Cree R2 on a 14mm PCB, Ledil 21.5mm Optic, Shiningbeam 0.8-1.7v driver, mag body cut to 1x AA size, Lithium 1.5v battery, permanently mount tail cap, twisty to turn on.

Here's the issue... the heatsink. I'm thinking I can just mount the LED board with wires thru the back of the head. Then fill the void with AA epoxy then maybe smack on the driver. Or maybe do the driver first, fill epoxy, then LED...

Click to expand...

3) The standard switching system works fairly well, though you probably will need to clean the contact surface every once in awhile with use. The available tailcaps aren't bad, they just can't take the higher currents.

4) There are shallower reflectors that would work with the MM. On my daughter's MM I used the stock reflector that I cut down to fit and later used a reflector out of a Quark MiNi 123.

There are ways to accomplish a bright Mini-Mag that does not require a lot of grinding of the host to get it all to fit. Part of the challenge is to shoehorn all of those components into an already small space and have it all work both seamlessly and flawlessly.

AA epoxy makes a terrible heatsink by itself. It's really intended to fill the void between two surfaces and to stick them together. You actually want to squeeze out every last bit of the stuff that you can when attaching something and using this stuff as an adhesive. I'd look into a brass or copper heatsink before using AA like you are planning.

So, to conclude my post, a disclaimer: as you probably know, it's not exactly inexpensive to assemble and modify a Mini-Mag and the cost can actually exceed the cost of buying a nicer light. If you are doing this because you want something unique or because you want to do it "just because" or for sentimental reasons then have fun with it. If you are trying to save money because you already have a MM and want to just modify it for more output then look into a Nite Ize drop-in instead. They're cheap and somewhat bright for what you are paying for and the manufacturer stands behind their product.

PCC said:

AA epoxy makes a terrible heatsink by itself. It's really intended to fill the void between two surfaces and to stick them together. You actually want to squeeze out every last bit of the stuff that you can when attaching something and using this stuff as an adhesive. I'd look into a brass or copper heatsink before using AA like you are planning.

Click to expand...

Thank you, I searched for a while to see if someone had already asked about AA as a heatsink alone.... I'm guessing if I can't find anyone machining a MM drop in heat sink, I'll have to tinker with my dremel and some copper ;-)

havnmonkey said:

so I believe you've already seen this thread by johnnymac, which is probably the most detailed minimag mod I've seen to date.

Click to expand...

Yep...waiting on mine to be completed! :-D

Very nice build Match! Really makes me wish I had a machine to work with... I'm still trying to figure out how i could fab a single LED pill with what I have access to.

Wow, this board is amazing. I only wish I found it 10 years ago when most of these forums seem to have been booming!
I found a NexGen750 sandwich and I've got it coming in the mail, very anxious to get it. Why I'm dumping all this cash in this minimag, I don't know. Actually, I do know. I estimate I've had it for almost 18 years or more... and it still works perfectly. Cant believe I haven't lost it or anything. It's all scratched up, but it's mine, and I'd like to keep this piece of my childhood a little longer.
But at the same time, I work security, and my flashlight comes out many times every night. Nothing gets the point across at a crowded venue like a bright light in the face
I'm buying a few more mini mags so I can take pictures of the different beams compared to each other... one stock, one terralux, and one Sandwich Shoppe Special!

I just did my first MM (Match Mod, ha!) using the 25/32nd bit technique:thumbsup: and it came out pretty well, 1xAA using a SB 0.8-1.7v 3 mode driver. It looks great on the outside but the inside is kind of a hack job. But it works!

problems:

P60 XR-e R2 pill is quite large and difficult to fit in the Mini.

the SB driver is a 14mm pcb, so.... I had to fab a 17mm "collar" or "adapter" out of a spare amc7135 board to fit it into the pill.

the stock reflector after modification (my first time modding an AA reflector) gives a very obvious donut.

However, it runs of a single AA bronzetop very well, modes work well, and it blows away the stock incan bulb.



For my next Mini, I'm going to try to fab (or have someone else do it) a smaller pill to accomodate the 14mm driver and give me room to use the 8.5 deg Carclo optics I have lying around. Hopefully the pill will be able to fit into the Mini's head without as much surgery.

I have wanted to ask similar questions, thanks.

Semiloaded said:

Wow, this board is amazing. I only wish I found it 10 years ago when most of these forums seem to have been booming!
I found a NexGen750 sandwich and I've got it coming in the mail, very anxious to get it. Why I'm dumping all this cash in this minimag, I don't know. Actually, I do know. I estimate I've had it for almost 18 years or more... and it still works perfectly. Cant believe I haven't lost it or anything. It's all scratched up, but it's mine, and I'd like to keep this piece of my childhood a little longer.
But at the same time, I work security, and my flashlight comes out many times every night. Nothing gets the point across at a crowded venue like a bright light in the face
I'm buying a few more mini mags so I can take pictures of the different beams compared to each other... one stock, one terralux, and one Sandwich Shoppe Special!

Click to expand...

And it's sold... now what?

I also done a mini mag conversion here. You could probably get by without a lathe using a dremel tool and drill bits. You would have to make a pill from something maybe in homedepot or lowes plumbing section. Just thought it might give you some ideas.

Here is a link to my homemade minimag flashlight mod. I have since used a blue minimag to match the bezel and found some flashlight "grease" on DX to use on the threads.. This flashlight now is quite the thrower even with just the luxeon K2 putting out a max of 180 lumen...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...irst-official-modified-flash-light&highlight=