Looking to modify Maglite 6D to LED

So yesterday I was walking around the local flea market and found a pretty nice 6D Maglite for $20 and decided to pick it up.


It would seem that the dude left the batteries in for too long and there's gunk everywhere, the switch assembly has some rust on the plastic and the retainer "C" ring is also rusted.
Was there supposed to be a O-Ring between the bezel and the lens? Its not there when I unscrewed the bezel.


Long story short, I'm looking to clean up this light and add a more powerful LED into it, some googling brought me to posts about the CREE XHP70. I'm wondering if there's a more powerful LED then this and where I can get the heatsink blocks for the LED to dissipate heat through the host's body, do I have to machine these myself?


I understand there are "bins" for CREE LED's what else should I look out for when purchasing LED's?


What about driver boards? specs? flashing firmware? I can get my hands on a USB AVRISP thingie pretty easily.


So far I have decided on using the 32650 batteries, will they work all in series or will I need to do some wiring to have them in parallel?


Is it possible to have a USB charger on the tail cap or do I need to pop all the cells out to charge one by one? How about a battery life indicator?


What about having a "zoom" changing the beam pattern from flood to spot like how it did originally? I read that the LED version reflector is different from the filament bulb version, mine is the filament version, is there anything I need to change?


This would be my first post on this forum and my first flashlight mod, hello from Singapore!

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

Not sure if this should be moved to the LED section or not. This light IS originally incan, but you seem set on making it LED.

For the sake of this being in the incan section for now, I will say that the 6D (good score BTW at $20 for a semi-clean 6D) makes for one hell of an ROP (or equivalent these days with ROP bulbs becoming so hard to come by :ironic.

If you're set on LED conversion you may want to request a MOD to have the thread moved to the LED section and seriously consider a Malkoff Drop-In while you're at it

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

1pt21 said:

Not sure if this should be moved to the LED section or not. This light IS originally incan, but you seem set on making it LED.

For the sake of this being in the incan section for now, I will say that the 6D (good score BTW at $20 for a semi-clean 6D) makes for one hell of an ROP (or equivalent these days with ROP bulbs becoming so hard to come by :ironic.

If you're set on LED conversion you may want to request a MOD to have the thread moved to the LED section and seriously consider a Malkoff Drop-In while you're at it

Click to expand...

Whoops wrong forum then (mods please move this) :x

Do people still run incan lights? Not to be offensive or anything but my limited knowledge tells me incan is not very bright and not very power efficient :x

But then again I have operated a followspot spotlight that had a hella bright xenon arc lamp before so I may be wrong.

And aye, it was $20 in SGD and it looks like it still works (I checked the connections with my multimeter)

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

X2 on the move to LED and the Malkoff drop in.

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

heat sink, you want to get someone to turn one on a lathe, it has to be a "puck" 1\2 3\4 thick will be fine, it has to be tight fit, the tighter the better. there are heat sinks sold, but some of them are too loose and it pretty much kills heat transfer from the puck to the walls of the maglite. you could wrap it in copper or aluminum foil, but it is not as good as tight fit. i would also recommend drilling a hole in the tube, cut a thread and use a set screw to hold the puck\heatsink in place. than you attach the led to one side, if you use good driver like taskled you can glue it to the other side of the puck, so it shares the heatsink with led, it will enable heat sensor in the driver to read led temp more accurate. h6cc driver should work just fine with such set up. you can use 32650, but you will also be fine with good quality 18650, 5 cells max with h6cc driver. use original reflector, xhp 70 will be all flood, it does not matter if you use led or inc version of the reflector. oem switch is fine, use hydrogen peroxide to clean up what batteries leaked out, but if metal parts already rusted, you will need to replace them, that stuff is corrosive.

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

Moved by request after reading thread. :thumbsup:

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

bykfixer said:

X2 on the move to LED and the Malkoff drop in.

Click to expand...

Oh $60 is a steep upgrade for a light I got at $20 :/

alpg88 said:

heat sink, you want to get someone to turn one on a lathe, it has to be a "puck" 1\2 3\4 thick will be fine, it has to be tight fit, the tighter the better. there are heat sinks sold, but some of them are too loose and it pretty much kills heat transfer from the puck to the walls of the maglite. you could wrap it in copper or aluminum foil, but it is not as good as tight fit. i would also recommend drilling a hole in the tube, cut a thread and use a set screw to hold the puck\heatsink in place. than you attach the led to one side, if you use good driver like taskled you can glue it to the other side of the puck, so it shares the heatsink with led, it will enable heat sensor in the driver to read led temp more accurate. h6cc driver should work just fine with such set up. you can use 32650, but you will also be fine with good quality 18650, 5 cells max with h6cc driver. use original reflector, xhp 70 will be all flood, it does not matter if you use led or inc version of the reflector. oem switch is fine, use hydrogen peroxide to clean up what batteries leaked out, but if metal parts already rusted, you will need to replace them, that stuff is corrosive.

Click to expand...

I do have access to a lathe, just a pretty basic one without digital readout :/

I get most of my supplies from this site and I can't seem to find aforementioned h6cc driver.

Won't 18650 bounce around as opposed to 32650 which is closer to the size of D cells?

Are there better LED's I can use? I say XHP70 because I see many Maglite mods using it and it seems to be pretty powerful.

I also saw somewhere that I need to cut off some part of the original reflector and the bulb holding part of the switch.

most of the maglite is aluminium I believe, I already ran a ball of steel wool through to get most of the gunk out, will flush with peroxide again to be sure, only the retaining C ring is rusted I believe, are there replacements for this?

scout24 said:

Moved by request after reading thread. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Aye thanks man :thumbsup:

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

email CPF member Vestureofblood. He is a custom Mag specialist. What kind of beam are you after? You have made clear you want as high output as you can get but do you want a flooder? A thrower? Mid range in between general purpose? Vestureofbloood builds and sells some pretty involved Mag upgrades one of which I believe is an XHP70 pushing well over 2000 lumens out the front. One thing is certain though with the output you seem to be after you must at least get yourself an aluminum reflector and a glass lens in order to survive the heat such a high output emitter would be putting out. Almost all aftermarket aluminum Mag reflectors I have seen are meant for LED use they are deep.

I have one 32650 light and as far as I can tell an 32650 is actually a touch larger than a D cell.

Yes for such a high output light you will indeed need to change or upgrade nearly every part of the light. The aftermarket aluminum reflectors usually have bottoms or the tube like part that have been threaded and can be unscrewed from the reflector which is most likely what you will have to do as an all out XHP70 emitter is going to need to be thermally pasted to as big of a heat sink as you can fit into the light. The switch will need modification. The spring in the tail as well.

Better than an XHP70? Pretty subjective. Technically the new XHP emitters are the most efficient high output emitters Cree makes but the XHP are meant mainly for larger applications like street lights. When it comes down to flashlights the XP-L emitters are most efficient at such high output.

Do contact Vestureofblood he will have all the details. He currently sells about a half dozen custom Mags of differeing outputs range etc. He could take your 6D clean it up and do whatever you want him to do with it. Ive got 2 of his lights. Very well done. He has the machinery to produce the parts, has access to any emitter you want etc. For what you seem to be after you will be paying for it but Vesture will deliver what you want in the end. Biggest question is still going to be what range are you after? Vesture can get you a shallow incan like reflector that will give you traditional Mag profile but at an insane output level. Hes got great deep perfectly smooth reflectors for throw etc.

The battery issue will be expensive. 6 32650's may just be to much for even that hard driven an emitter. Most likely end up using 4-5 NiMH cells plus one dummy cell. He does awesome switch upgrades for cheap. He takes the original switch re wires it for lower resistance etc.

There are many Mag modders here but for what you seem to be after Vesture should be your man. His turn around time is surprisingly fast.

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

Razroid said:

Oh $60 is a steep upgrade for a light I got at $20 :/

Click to expand...

If it has to be less than $20 then this might be better choice.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B868NE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

CelticCross74 said:

email CPF member Vestureofblood. He is a custom Mag specialist. What kind of beam are you after? You have made clear you want as high output as you can get but do you want a flooder? A thrower? Mid range in between general purpose? Vestureofbloood builds and sells some pretty involved Mag upgrades one of which I believe is an XHP70 pushing well over 2000 lumens out the front. One thing is certain though with the output you seem to be after you must at least get yourself an aluminum reflector and a glass lens in order to survive the heat such a high output emitter would be putting out. Almost all aftermarket aluminum Mag reflectors I have seen are meant for LED use they are deep.

I have one 32650 light and as far as I can tell an 32650 is actually a touch larger than a D cell.

Yes for such a high output light you will indeed need to change or upgrade nearly every part of the light. The aftermarket aluminum reflectors usually have bottoms or the tube like part that have been threaded and can be unscrewed from the reflector which is most likely what you will have to do as an all out XHP70 emitter is going to need to be thermally pasted to as big of a heat sink as you can fit into the light. The switch will need modification. The spring in the tail as well.

Better than an XHP70? Pretty subjective. Technically the new XHP emitters are the most efficient high output emitters Cree makes but the XHP are meant mainly for larger applications like street lights. When it comes down to flashlights the XP-L emitters are most efficient at such high output.

Do contact Vestureofblood he will have all the details. He currently sells about a half dozen custom Mags of differeing outputs range etc. He could take your 6D clean it up and do whatever you want him to do with it. Ive got 2 of his lights. Very well done. He has the machinery to produce the parts, has access to any emitter you want etc. For what you seem to be after you will be paying for it but Vesture will deliver what you want in the end. Biggest question is still going to be what range are you after? Vesture can get you a shallow incan like reflector that will give you traditional Mag profile but at an insane output level. Hes got great deep perfectly smooth reflectors for throw etc.

The battery issue will be expensive. 6 32650's may just be to much for even that hard driven an emitter. Most likely end up using 4-5 NiMH cells plus one dummy cell. He does awesome switch upgrades for cheap. He takes the original switch re wires it for lower resistance etc.

There are many Mag modders here but for what you seem to be after Vesture should be your man. His turn around time is surprisingly fast.

Click to expand...

I'm not really after anything specific, I just want something bright that will look impressive
This is my first time modding flashlights and I just want to try out modding something and I thought this Maglite would be a good place to start. A real bright flood light would be ideal for my camping trips but a focused "beam" would look impressive

I was thinking of maybe 4 32650's and the rest of the space being something else? Maybe a charging circuit or a bigger heatsink?
I saw this thread on reddit and I thought it was great, the dude also used 32650's

I just need a wee bit more information on what I need to buy (keywords to search?) and what else I need to mod.

Oh and does anybody know the size of the thread the setscrew in the switch uses? Mine was a torx and I didnt have a torx wrench that could fit into that tiny hole so I kinda just hammered the switch out

fivemega said:

If it has to be less than $20 then this might be better choice.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B868NE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Click to expand...

Things would be cheaper if I built it myself, no?

Razroid said:

So far I have decided on using the 32650 batteries, will they work all in series or will I need to do some wiring to have them in parallel?

Click to expand...

I certainly don't mean this offensively, I hope it is constructive

But what I think you need to do, is go off and read up on some of the basics first. Then come back with something viable that you fully understand.

Saying you want to run 6x32650 is a bit like saying you want a V12 car and have decided to mount three 4 cylinder engines in it, but don't know if you should have them lined up or not.


I could tell you the answer, but honestly, it'll be far better if you can figure it out on your own, as you'll have a greater understanding of the components at hand. Which in turn will massively aid you on modding and building flashlights.

Razroid said:

some googling brought me to posts about the CREE XHP70. I'm wondering if there's a more powerful LED

Click to expand...

This sort of follows my point above.

To use another analogy, it's like saying you found a Chevy V8... and asking if there is a more powerful engine.

Razroid said:

Long story short, I'm looking to clean up this light and add a more powerful LED into it, then this and where I can get the heatsink blocks for the LED to dissipate heat through the host's body, do I have to machine these myself?

Click to expand...

There are 3 main ways to mod an incan Maglite to LED.

1. A cheap LED drop in. Could be something like this:
http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-3WCR90_Maglite_CNC_Fit.html

These are as easy to fit as changing a bulb. They aren't massively bright by today's standards, but they will make a Maglite highly usable and offer very good throw, even compared to many modern lights. With a 6D you'd also get monster runtimes on D cells, making it a great backup or disaster light. If you don't fancy D cells, then you could easily get some AA to D cell adapters and run Sanyo Eneloop NiMh batteries in it. Either 1AA for every D cell or 3xAA for every D cell. You won't get the same runtime, but it'll still be very good.

2. Expensive drop ins. This could be the triple LED one from TerraLUX or a high output single LED from Malkoff. But these are generally expensive ways to get a LED torch. And the reality is, for a lot less money than these drop ins, you can buy a better performing new torch outright. So you have to do this for love of wanting a Mag, not because it's cheap.

3. A custom build. Which may involve any method of making it LED. But being custom means there is no single way to do it. It can be done cheapish, or it can be done very expensively. But you really ought to only do it for the love of wanting to mod it and/or because you want a Maglite. It still ins't really a financially sensible thing to do. And performance wise you can still likely better whatever you make for only a modest outlay on a new flashlight.


And least of all, don't forget that a 6D Maglite is actually not very carry friendly at any time. So it only has limited real world use.

Razroid said:

I understand there are "bins" for CREE LED's what else should I look out for when purchasing LED's?

Click to expand...

There are 'bins', but honestly they don't really matter all that much. And many makers will not disclose what the bin is anyway.

Cree make many LED types. It's best if you familiarise yourself with the current common ones, as this will massively aid you when talking about them. e.g.
http://flashlightwiki.com/Cree

Different LEDs have different attributes and pros and cons.

'bins' are merely a way of grouping a single LED into brightness categories. The highest bin should give the highest output. But the reality is, the human is unlikely to see a minor difference in lumen output, so you don't need to go gun-ho for only the top bin.

What is far more important is LED tint. All LEDs can be had in different tints and different CRI's (colour rendition index). As a rule, the nicest tints with the best CRI are not the highest bin ones.

And remember, no matter what you point a flashlight at, or what output mode you are using it in (e.g. low), you can always tell the tint. So IMO tint is far more important than brightness bin.

Razroid said:

What about driver boards? specs? flashing firmware? I can get my hands on a USB AVRISP thingie pretty easily.

Click to expand...

This is pretty open ended.

There are literally loads of driver options. Key things are, will it physically fit. Well this will depend on your specific build. You then need a driver to work with your chosen input voltage and have the correct output voltage for the LED type you are using. You'll also want to consider the amp rating of the driver, as this will determine performance. But this will by linked with the voltage specs to some degree and the LED type.

You'll also want to consider what modes the driver has, or that you want to have. And if it uses PWM or not to control output levels.

As for flashing firmware. Well that's another step beyond. I'd recommend keeping a build fairly simple first and getting to grips with the basics.

Razroid said:

Is it possible to have a USB charger on the tail cap or do I need to pop all the cells out to charge one by one? How about a battery life indicator?

Click to expand...

Likewise with things like this. K.I.S.S. :thumbsup:

Chicken Drumstick said:

I certainly don't mean this offensively, I hope it is constructive

But what I think you need to do, is go off and read up on some of the basics first. Then come back with something viable that you fully understand.

Saying you want to run 6x32650 is a bit like saying you want a V12 car and have decided to mount three 4 cylinder engines in it, but don't know if you should have them lined up or not.


I could tell you the answer, but honestly, it'll be far better if you can figure it out on your own, as you'll have a greater understanding of the components at hand. Which in turn will massively aid you on modding and building flashlights.





This sort of follows my point above.

To use another analogy, it's like saying you found a Chevy V8... and asking if there is a more powerful engine.






There are 3 main ways to mod an incan Maglite to LED.

1. A cheap LED drop in. Could be something like this:
http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-3WCR90_Maglite_CNC_Fit.html

These are as easy to fit as changing a bulb. They aren't massively bright by today's standards, but they will make a Maglite highly usable and offer very good throw, even compared to many modern lights. With a 6D you'd also get monster runtimes on D cells, making it a great backup or disaster light. If you don't fancy D cells, then you could easily get some AA to D cell adapters and run Sanyo Eneloop NiMh batteries in it. Either 1AA for every D cell or 3xAA for every D cell. You won't get the same runtime, but it'll still be very good.

2. Expensive drop ins. This could be the triple LED one from TerraLUX or a high output single LED from Malkoff. But these are generally expensive ways to get a LED torch. And the reality is, for a lot less money than these drop ins, you can buy a better performing new torch outright. So you have to do this for love of wanting a Mag, not because it's cheap.

3. A custom build. Which may involve any method of making it LED. But being custom means there is no single way to do it. It can be done cheapish, or it can be done very expensively. But you really ought to only do it for the love of wanting to mod it and/or because you want a Maglite. It still ins't really a financially sensible thing to do. And performance wise you can still likely better whatever you make for only a modest outlay on a new flashlight.


And least of all, don't forget that a 6D Maglite is actually not very carry friendly at any time. So it only has limited real world use.




There are 'bins', but honestly they don't really matter all that much. And many makers will not disclose what the bin is anyway.

Cree make many LED types. It's best if you familiarise yourself with the current common ones, as this will massively aid you when talking about them. e.g.
http://flashlightwiki.com/Cree

Different LEDs have different attributes and pros and cons.

'bins' are merely a way of grouping a single LED into brightness categories. The highest bin should give the highest output. But the reality is, the human is unlikely to see a minor difference in lumen output, so you don't need to go gun-ho for only the top bin.

What is far more important is LED tint. All LEDs can be had in different tints and different CRI's (colour rendition index). As a rule, the nicest tints with the best CRI are not the highest bin ones.

And remember, no matter what you point a flashlight at, or what output mode you are using it in (e.g. low), you can always tell the tint. So IMO tint is far more important than brightness bin.


This is pretty open ended.

There are literally loads of driver options. Key things are, will it physically fit. Well this will depend on your specific build. You then need a driver to work with your chosen input voltage and have the correct output voltage for the LED type you are using. You'll also want to consider the amp rating of the driver, as this will determine performance. But this will by linked with the voltage specs to some degree and the LED type.

You'll also want to consider what modes the driver has, or that you want to have. And if it uses PWM or not to control output levels.

As for flashing firmware. Well that's another step beyond. I'd recommend keeping a build fairly simple first and getting to grips with the basics.





Likewise with things like this. K.I.S.S. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your post. I may not have been the one who started this thread, but I am in the exact same situation where I would like to mod a maglight and have no modding experience. I don't think I want to dabble into a complete from scratch custom mod, that requires a lot of knowledge, and skills to complete.

I think both the thread owner and I probably are on the same page that simpler is best. I think we can both either go for a simple bulb replacement plan for the 220 lumens, or we could get a drop in, which is just a marginal level of complexity, and get more like 500 lumens or better. I own a 4-D cell maglight, its from the 90's, used the xenon bulb I think it is, so I think its pretty standard in design.

If I don't find a simple LED bulb replacement for more then 200 lumens, I think I am going to do a drop in. I agree, that going so far in complexity as firmware upgrades, thats a step far into the abyss, that I am pretty sure he's not ready for. I agree about getting comfortable doing basic modding and understand is the better approach. I am just thankful that we have fine folks like you who are willing to help guide us on our beginning modding adventures.

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

Razroid said:

I do have access to a lathe, just a pretty basic one without digital readout :/

I get most of my supplies from this site and I can't seem to find aforementioned h6cc driver.

Won't 18650 bounce around as opposed to 32650 which is closer to the size of D cells?

Are there better LED's I can use? I say XHP70 because I see many Maglite mods using it and it seems to be pretty powerful.

I also saw somewhere that I need to cut off some part of the original reflector and the bulb holding part of the switch.

most of the maglite is aluminium I believe, I already ran a ball of steel wool through to get most of the gunk out, will flush with peroxide again to be sure, only the retaining C ring is rusted I believe, are there replacements for this?



Aye thanks man :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

lol, sure 18650 would bounce around unless you roll a tube out of cardboard and insert it in the maglite, 18650 go in the tube, some use proper diameter pvc pipe, or ruber hose for spacer. \
oem reflector is plastic you need to cut off the cam, i do it with sheet metal sheers.
your reflector is a goner, you new a new one, they are sold for 3-5 bucks, so is the ring, all parts of maglite sold online, z-battery sells them, so is offical maglite site.

sure you can use xhp70, this is one of the brightests leds today. imo defiantly should use it. but have it mounted on sinkpad star.

this is a drawing how i build my maglite 4C with 3 18650, and mtg2.

driver h6cc sold at taskled.com, but you can use other drivers that you can fit in there,

Re: Looking to modify Maglite 6D

fivemega said:

If it has to be less than $20 then this might be better choice.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B868NE/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Click to expand...

Razroid said:

Things would be cheaper if I built it myself, no?

Click to expand...

Sure, but cost of XHP70 and driver would be higher than that. Unless if you can make them yourself.

PROTOOLNUT said:

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your post. I may not have been the one who started this thread, but I am in the exact same situation where I would like to mod a maglight and have no modding experience. I don't think I want to dabble into a complete from scratch custom mod, that requires a lot of knowledge, and skills to complete.

I think both the thread owner and I probably are on the same page that simpler is best. I think we can both either go for a simple bulb replacement plan for the 220 lumens, or we could get a drop in, which is just a marginal level of complexity, and get more like 500 lumens or better. I own a 4-D cell maglight, its from the 90's, used the xenon bulb I think it is, so I think its pretty standard in design.

If I don't find a simple LED bulb replacement for more then 200 lumens, I think I am going to do a drop in. I agree, that going so far in complexity as firmware upgrades, thats a step far into the abyss, that I am pretty sure he's not ready for. I agree about getting comfortable doing basic modding and understand is the better approach. I am just thankful that we have fine folks like you who are willing to help guide us on our beginning modding adventures.

Click to expand...

I have a 6D Mag that I run the TTS (The Torch Site) XP-G drop in, I think they rate it at 200 led lumens. This is one of the bulb like drop ins. So takes all of 2 mins to fit.

It's works brilliantly to be honest. 200 lumens might not seem like much, but it's way brighter than a stock 6D incan. The smooth focusable reflector means it makes a very good budget thrower too. The old Mag will light stuff up a long way off with ease. If your aim is simply to have a usable torch, then I think this is one of the best things to do to an old incan Mag.

I used to also run the XP-E TTS drop in, in my 3D Mag (although I later modded it for fun )

This is a few years old, but there is a review here:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/13758#node-13758

They offer this sort of level of performance:


I don't know how easy the TTS drop ins are to buy in the USA. I know they are available on ebay.co.uk

The older Terralux drop in is essentially the same sort of thing, but lower performance than the TTS ones.

This is the latest XP-G2 version:
http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-3WCR90_Small_Head.html

The best thing about these bulb type replacements, is they retain the full focus ability of the Maglite and offer very good throw for the money. They aren't flooders however.


If you want a step up, then the Terralux triple drop in, is quite a good place to start. But the triple uses small TIR optics for each LED, so it won't focus like the old incan setup and it will be a much more floody light. Fairly good output however.

You should be able to buy the "TerraLUX TLE-310M-EX" in the US. It looks like this:


It essentially replaces the reflector, but fits straight into the original bulb holder. Very easy to install. I've wanted one of these for ages, but in the UK they are £50 vs £8.95 for the bulb type drop ins. And that's just too much money for me to spend on it. As £50 will buy a lot of new high output flashlight for the money.


I've never used the Malkoff drop in (mainly as I'm in the UK).
https://www.malkoffdevices.com/products/3-6-d-cell-drop-in-to-fit-maglite

I think they used to be pricey and usually out of stock. But looking now the price doesn't seem that bad tbh. They are slightly more involved to fit by the look and are more of the design of many of the custom setups. But in terms of higher performance, they do look superior. To any of the above setups. It's just if you are prepared to do a little more work to make it fit or not.

I'm fully convinced the Malkoff will easily out perform any of the bulb style drop ins. But this comes at a modest price increase.

Chicken Drumstick said:

I certainly don't mean this offensively, I hope it is constructive

But what I think you need to do, is go off and read up on some of the basics first. Then come back with something viable that you fully understand.

Saying you want to run 6x32650 is a bit like saying you want a V12 car and have decided to mount three 4 cylinder engines in it, but don't know if you should have them lined up or not.


I could tell you the answer, but honestly, it'll be far better if you can figure it out on your own, as you'll have a greater understanding of the components at hand. Which in turn will massively aid you on modding and building flashlights.





This sort of follows my point above.

To use another analogy, it's like saying you found a Chevy V8... and asking if there is a more powerful engine.






There are 3 main ways to mod an incan Maglite to LED.

1. A cheap LED drop in. Could be something like this:
http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-3WCR90_Maglite_CNC_Fit.html

These are as easy to fit as changing a bulb. They aren't massively bright by today's standards, but they will make a Maglite highly usable and offer very good throw, even compared to many modern lights. With a 6D you'd also get monster runtimes on D cells, making it a great backup or disaster light. If you don't fancy D cells, then you could easily get some AA to D cell adapters and run Sanyo Eneloop NiMh batteries in it. Either 1AA for every D cell or 3xAA for every D cell. You won't get the same runtime, but it'll still be very good.

2. Expensive drop ins. This could be the triple LED one from TerraLUX or a high output single LED from Malkoff. But these are generally expensive ways to get a LED torch. And the reality is, for a lot less money than these drop ins, you can buy a better performing new torch outright. So you have to do this for love of wanting a Mag, not because it's cheap.

3. A custom build. Which may involve any method of making it LED. But being custom means there is no single way to do it. It can be done cheapish, or it can be done very expensively. But you really ought to only do it for the love of wanting to mod it and/or because you want a Maglite. It still ins't really a financially sensible thing to do. And performance wise you can still likely better whatever you make for only a modest outlay on a new flashlight.


And least of all, don't forget that a 6D Maglite is actually not very carry friendly at any time. So it only has limited real world use.




There are 'bins', but honestly they don't really matter all that much. And many makers will not disclose what the bin is anyway.

Cree make many LED types. It's best if you familiarise yourself with the current common ones, as this will massively aid you when talking about them. e.g.
http://flashlightwiki.com/Cree

Different LEDs have different attributes and pros and cons.

'bins' are merely a way of grouping a single LED into brightness categories. The highest bin should give the highest output. But the reality is, the human is unlikely to see a minor difference in lumen output, so you don't need to go gun-ho for only the top bin.

What is far more important is LED tint. All LEDs can be had in different tints and different CRI's (colour rendition index). As a rule, the nicest tints with the best CRI are not the highest bin ones.

And remember, no matter what you point a flashlight at, or what output mode you are using it in (e.g. low), you can always tell the tint. So IMO tint is far more important than brightness bin.


This is pretty open ended.

There are literally loads of driver options. Key things are, will it physically fit. Well this will depend on your specific build. You then need a driver to work with your chosen input voltage and have the correct output voltage for the LED type you are using. You'll also want to consider the amp rating of the driver, as this will determine performance. But this will by linked with the voltage specs to some degree and the LED type.

You'll also want to consider what modes the driver has, or that you want to have. And if it uses PWM or not to control output levels.

As for flashing firmware. Well that's another step beyond. I'd recommend keeping a build fairly simple first and getting to grips with the basics.





Likewise with things like this. K.I.S.S. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Boy, that's a lot of stuff to digest O.O

But first off, thank you for taking your time to write so much, same goes for everyone else in the thread :thumbsup:

I have since realized that the XHP70 will not take 6 cells very well. Neither will the Maglite considering the 32650's are slightly longer then the standard D cells so I'm settling on 4 cells in series.
Now I'll have a bunch of space at the back, what should I fill it up with? Lead weights?

I have also decided on the XHP70 with just flood, no focusing control since that'll be a pain.

Getting the LED on a sinkpad and the driver would be fairly easy, The specs for the driver says it'll take 7-15v input and outputs 6v at 4-4.5A for the XHP-70 version, that sound about right?
Since one cell is 3.7v, 4 cells would be 14.8v?
The LED will be on a copper sinkpad of diameter 20MM.

Now, the problem is the heatsink and reflector, I have a feeling I'll need to buy an aluminium rod and use a lathe to machine it into shape, luckily, I have gone through machining training before so it should be fine there. Will the XHP70 output enough heat to melt the stock reflector? I'm already upgrading the lens to glass so that's sorted.
I also read somewhere that the stock reflector is designed for incan bulbs so it has a different profile then a LED reflector, the stock reflector won't be as effective in bouncing the stray light off in the correct direction as compared to a (deeper?) LED reflector.

As for the tint, probably 6500k? the other options are 3000k and 5000k, what do you think?

PROTOOLNUT said:

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your post. I may not have been the one who started this thread, but I am in the exact same situation where I would like to mod a maglight and have no modding experience. I don't think I want to dabble into a complete from scratch custom mod, that requires a lot of knowledge, and skills to complete.

I think both the thread owner and I probably are on the same page that simpler is best. I think we can both either go for a simple bulb replacement plan for the 220 lumens, or we could get a drop in, which is just a marginal level of complexity, and get more like 500 lumens or better. I own a 4-D cell maglight, its from the 90's, used the xenon bulb I think it is, so I think its pretty standard in design.

If I don't find a simple LED bulb replacement for more then 200 lumens, I think I am going to do a drop in. I agree, that going so far in complexity as firmware upgrades, thats a step far into the abyss, that I am pretty sure he's not ready for. I agree about getting comfortable doing basic modding and understand is the better approach. I am just thankful that we have fine folks like you who are willing to help guide us on our beginning modding adventures.

Click to expand...

You almost got me there man, I almost wanted to give up on a custom mod and just buy a LED bulb

alpg88 said:

lol, sure 18650 would bounce around unless you roll a tube out of cardboard and insert it in the maglite, 18650 go in the tube, some use proper diameter pvc pipe, or ruber hose for spacer. \
oem reflector is plastic you need to cut off the cam, i do it with sheet metal sheers.
your reflector is a goner, you new a new one, they are sold for 3-5 bucks, so is the ring, all parts of maglite sold online, z-battery sells them, so is offical maglite site.

sure you can use xhp70, this is one of the brightests leds today. imo defiantly should use it. but have it mounted on sinkpad star.

this is a drawing how i build my maglite 4C with 3 18650, and mtg2.

driver h6cc sold at taskled.com, but you can use other drivers that you can fit in there,

Click to expand...

Oh that drawing is helpful, is your sinkpad and driver mounted on a custom heatsink?

Won't it make more sense to use 32650's for more capacity?

fivemega said:

Sure, but cost of XHP70 and driver would be higher than that. Unless if you can make them yourself.

Click to expand...

Getting the LED on a sinkpad will run me about $10 and the driver another $5.

Chicken Drumstick said:

I have a 6D Mag that I run the TTS (The Torch Site) XP-G drop in, I think they rate it at 200 led lumens. This is one of the bulb like drop ins. So takes all of 2 mins to fit.

It's works brilliantly to be honest. 200 lumens might not seem like much, but it's way brighter than a stock 6D incan. The smooth focusable reflector means it makes a very good budget thrower too. The old Mag will light stuff up a long way off with ease. If your aim is simply to have a usable torch, then I think this is one of the best things to do to an old incan Mag.

I used to also run the XP-E TTS drop in, in my 3D Mag (although I later modded it for fun )

This is a few years old, but there is a review here:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/13758#node-13758

They offer this sort of level of performance:


I don't know how easy the TTS drop ins are to buy in the USA. I know they are available on ebay.co.uk

The older Terralux drop in is essentially the same sort of thing, but lower performance than the TTS ones.

This is the latest XP-G2 version:
http://thetorchsite.co.uk/TTS-3WCR90_Small_Head.html

The best thing about these bulb type replacements, is they retain the full focus ability of the Maglite and offer very good throw for the money. They aren't flooders however.


If you want a step up, then the Terralux triple drop in, is quite a good place to start. But the triple uses small TIR optics for each LED, so it won't focus like the old incan setup and it will be a much more floody light. Fairly good output however.

You should be able to buy the "TerraLUX TLE-310M-EX" in the US. It looks like this:


It essentially replaces the reflector, but fits straight into the original bulb holder. Very easy to install. I've wanted one of these for ages, but in the UK they are £50 vs £8.95 for the bulb type drop ins. And that's just too much money for me to spend on it. As £50 will buy a lot of new high output flashlight for the money.


I've never used the Malkoff drop in (mainly as I'm in the UK).
https://www.malkoffdevices.com/products/3-6-d-cell-drop-in-to-fit-maglite

I think they used to be pricey and usually out of stock. But looking now the price doesn't seem that bad tbh. They are slightly more involved to fit by the look and are more of the design of many of the custom setups. But in terms of higher performance, they do look superior. To any of the above setups. It's just if you are prepared to do a little more work to make it fit or not.

I'm fully convinced the Malkoff will easily out perform any of the bulb style drop ins. But this comes at a modest price increase.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm in Singapore, not the US

all of these drop in's I feel are a touch expensive, I built my own computer, I built my own Mountain bike, now I want to build my own mod for the 6D instead of buying a ready made "upgrade"

Oh and 200 lumens does sound little, I think my mini torches can do more then that :/

Razroid said:

Oh that drawing is helpful, is your sinkpad and driver mounted on a custom heatsink?

Won't it make more sense to use 32650's for more capacity?

Click to expand...

yes, a custom heatsink is nothing but a puck turned on a lathe. and led is on sinkpad, all leds driven at max current should be mounted on one. or any other direct path stars
32650 will make more sense as far as not needing spacers, if you already got them, use them, the reason i leaning more towards 18650, is that no reputable manufacturer makes 32650, they all come from either no name manufacturer, or in best case trustfires, and we know ****fire brands are not exactly known to be reliable, or their claimed capacity is unlikely to be real. in reality their capacity may not be much greater than good quality 18650, but they are 2,5X more weight

you can go "kiss" and use 6 nimh D cells, (or 2 18650\32650) and have no driver at all. aka direct drive, DD) i have 2d mag with 6AA eneloops, that is DD and uses xhp50, it may not sound as good as regulated light on paper, but in reality, its dims noticeably when cells are pretty much drained, you know your cells need recharging, and you will not be left in the dark, as you can (and i have) left in the dark when li ions, protection shut off the cells.
as far as reflector goes, led will not melt it, it it is not like bulb, led puts out heat at its back, towards the heat sink, so you do not need to worry about it.

as far as led vs inc reflector, maglite inc. reflectors proven to work pretty good with leds, maglite led reflector will too obviously, i tried few leds in led, and inc reflector, as far as big leds go, like p7 mtg sst90, xhp 70, it does not really make much difference, all pretty much same flood. for small ones like xpg\e led reflector focus tighter, but also, not night and day difference. i'd say for 4 die led like xhp is, i'd rather use inc. reflector, and splatter it, turn it into orange peel one, using simple technique, and clear coat spray, it will smoothen the beam of multi die leds. search for splattering reflectors here, we had few threads on it, iirc.

i was on the malkoff sight last week and saw they had a led drop-in for the mag-light,ant cheep though! i would just as well invest in a newer surefire or something a little lighter!my 2 cents.:ironic:

alpg88 said:

yes, a custom heatsink is nothing but a puck turned on a lathe. and led is on sinkpad, all leds driven at max current should be mounted on one. or any other direct path stars
32650 will make more sense as far as not needing spacers, if you already got them, use them, the reason i leaning more towards 18650, is that no reputable manufacturer makes 32650, they all come from either no name manufacturer, or in best case trustfires, and we know ****fire brands are not exactly known to be reliable, or their claimed capacity is unlikely to be real. in reality their capacity may not be much greater than good quality 18650, but they are 2,5X more weight

you can go "kiss" and use 6 nimh D cells, (or 2 18650\32650) and have no driver at all. aka direct drive, DD) i have 2d mag with 6AA eneloops, that is DD and uses xhp50, it may not sound as good as regulated light on paper, but in reality, its dims noticeably when cells are pretty much drained, you know your cells need recharging, and you will not be left in the dark, as you can (and i have) left in the dark when li ions, protection shut off the cells.
as far as reflector goes, led will not melt it, it it is not like bulb, led puts out heat at its back, towards the heat sink, so you do not need to worry about it.

as far as led vs inc reflector, maglite inc. reflectors proven to work pretty good with leds, maglite led reflector will too obviously, i tried few leds in led, and inc reflector, as far as big leds go, like p7 mtg sst90, xhp 70, it does not really make much difference, all pretty much same flood. for small ones like xpg\e led reflector focus tighter, but also, not night and day difference. i'd say for 4 die led like xhp is, i'd rather use inc. reflector, and splatter it, turn it into orange peel one, using simple technique, and clear coat spray, it will smoothen the beam of multi die leds. search for splattering reflectors here, we had few threads on it, iirc.

Click to expand...

Any pointers on how the sink should be made? Saw a few pictures of a puck with a "pedestal" like middle for the sinkpad to mount to and a hole in the back for the driver board.

I found the feilong 32650's that the dude on reddit used, I think that's the best I've found so far. Speaking of which, a few of my batteries are from Ultrafire, that's worrying ._.

Eh what does "kiss" mean?

I also saw something about a voltage monitor that can tell you if your cells are low, need to find a way to build that in though :/

Yeah I saw a few threads about "orange peel" reflectors removing artifacts, maybe I'll buy a new aluminium reflector

blanex1 said:

i was on the malkoff sight last week and saw they had a led drop-in for the mag-light,ant cheep though! i would just as well invest in a newer surefire or something a little lighter!my 2 cents.:ironic:

Click to expand...

Nah man, I have small lights that are bright, the point of this post is that I want a big light that is bright

it should be simple disc with diameter same as inside diameter of maglite tube, hight\thicknes, anywhere from 1\2 inch to 3\4, if you use metric sys, anywhere from 13-20mm. you want sides, where it touches the walls of the tube, and top, where you mount the led to be smooth, so there is good metal to metal contact. than you need to drill 4 holes, 2 for wires,and 2 for screws, you can either cut thread in holes for screws, or use nuts on the other side of the heatsink, i tried both, i find doing thread more convinient to use, thou it does take extra steps, like cutting thread with taps, i use 2.5mm taps and screws.

you do not need any pedestals, it was done for small stars, and p7 leds that were mounter directly, but for leds on 20mm star, you do not need that, i used to buy heatsinks with pedestal, and used them upside down.

kiss is an expression, saying, means "keep it simple stupid" . KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960.[1]​[2]​ The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicityshould be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided. The phrase has been associated with aircraft engineer Kelly Johnson (1910–1990).[3]​ The term "KISS principle" was in popular use by 1970.[4]​ Variations on the phrase include "Keep it Simple, Silly", "keep it short and simple", "keep it simple and straightforward"[5]​ and "keep it small and simple".[6]
​

as far as aluminum reflector, they have a bit different shaped throat, (those that are sold at dx and kd, and other sites) there may be issues with focus.

i actually have few reflectors and rings that you need, i would gladly ship them to you, but shipping to Singapore is like 32 bucks. if you know someone in new york who is going to Singapore, i would give them parts to take them to Singapore.

you could include voltage monitor, with your li ions, few builders did that, iirc radio control model stores sell those. they are made to monitor every cell, but you can wire them to monitor total voltage. thou it wont tell you if one of the cells too low, before that cell's pcb shuts it off.

now that you made this thread i want to build one my self and keep it in the car, DD with nimh cells, what i like about such set up, you can even use alkaline cells in it, when rechargeable cells drain, even with voltage well above, alkalines will never put out enough current to damage the led.