My first (and so far only) mod

Hello fellow CPFers.:wave:



As detailed in my 'hello' post the other day, I have a Maglite Solitaire that I modified to run an LED using a 12v MN21 battery.

I have had the Sol for many a year and only gets light (no pun intended) use but I wanted an LED upgrade for longer run times and brighter output.

I searched on a famous auction site and found some 3mm white LEDs complete with resistors for use with 12v. They only cost a couple of quid (pounds sterling for those of you that aren't English) for 5 of each.




Knowing that the MN21 battery was nice and small and ran at 12v, my (tiny) mind got to work.

I already knew that the MN21 batteries are actually a bunch of 1.5v button batteries in a case but wanted to keep this conversion as simple as possible and use 'of the shelf' batteries.

Plus with the resistor 'carrier' it makes the conversion very easy to go from standard to modified if the MN21 batteries were not available. As we all know, AAA batteries can be bought absolutely everywhere. Not always the case for the MN21.

So, how did I do it?:thinking:


I've never tried soldering before nor do I own a soldering iron so I took the components to a friend's house and he did the soldering for me.

Also, I don't have any pictures of the procedure, just the finished article. My camera isn't that great either so I'll apologise before you see the pics.

Using the caps from another MN21 battery, the resistor was soldered to the underneath of the + cap. A section of the outer 'casing' from a ball point pen was cut to suitable length and then the – cap was hit with a small tack to make a hole for the resistor wire to poke through. That was then cut and carefully soldered in place.


Voila, one resistor holder-cum-battery spacer!:twothumbs




This combined with the MN21 battery takes up the same space as a standard AAA battery.




Now for the bulb.

As you can guess, very easy to do by cutting the LED legs to length and then bending to suit the spacing of the standard bulb.




My LED had a small lip at the base which I removed by carefully sanding it away.

Put them all together and you have:




Should I need to convert back to standard (because I can't get hold of a MN21) all I have to do is remove the LED bulb and store it in the tail cap after removing the standard bulb from there, pop the spacer in my pocket and put in the standard bulb and AAA battery.

The ability to focus has mysteriously disappeared, and the throw isn't fantastic, but that doesn't bother me as it only ever gets used for close up work (map reading in car, finding keyholes in the dark etc.) Candle mode is much improved in my opinion.

So, there you have it. Hope you like it. It's my very first mod which I did without any research or experience. I just used my ingenuity and crossed my fingers.

:welcome: staffyman

Your images are oversize, when you post an image please remember Rule #3

Rule #3 If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels.

Please resize and repost. - Thanks Norm

That's a brilliant first mod, staffyman. It would never have crossed my mind to make a resistive spacer and use a shorter battery.

If I had to guess why it lost the ability to focus (assuming you kept the reflector in place):
a) the LED has a very narrow beam (maybe 15 degrees) and with no light being reflected out the sides like a bulb, there is nothing to focus
b) the actual LED die inside the epoxy is sitting higher/lower than the tungsten filament did in the old bulb, putting it out of focus range

Great first mod, keep posting!

@ norm:

So sorry, in my haste to get my post in, I completely forgot to resize the pictures. I've given myself a slapped wrist.:shakehead

@ calipsoii:

Many thanks for the advice regarding the bulb.:thumbsup:
I did use the original and unmodified reflector. I had to sand the lip off the base of the LED so it would fit. Perhaps this ties in with your theory of light not being emitted from the sides of the bulb?:thinking:

Now, I'm off to read the link from Norm's sig on how to use a multimeter. I have one but have only ever used it to confirm voltage is present

Very simple but nice mod!

If I look at the shape of the led I would say that it has a 15 to 25 degree angle. That way the reflector won't catch any light and so it can't be refocused.
To improve throw you can either look for a led with the smallest angle or you can try a led with the highest angle and use the reflector to focus. If you choose the second option you need to make sure the led is as low as possible in the reflector.

thijsco19 said:

If I look at the shape of the led I would say that it has a 15 to 25 degree angle. That way the reflector won't catch any light and so it can't be refocused.
To improve throw you can either look for a led with the smallest angle or you can try a led with the highest angle and use the reflector to focus. If you choose the second option you need to make sure the led is as low as possible in the reflector.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

I have had a look at some wide angle led bulbs (120 degrees, flat top) that I may try.

I have been given another Solitaire that is still packaged and never been opened, I've also had a look at some Cree powered Sols.

Can you see what's coming? :devil: