Incand-Collector
Newly Enlightened
Update: Statements later proven to be wrong are marked in red.
Hi,
after I bought an incand MagCharger (discontinued AFAIK) recently, I have been thinking about
ways to mod standard incandescent Maglites without having to
order special parts from China.
All parts used should be readily available in the US and Europe.
(So no glass lenses, metal reflectors etc.)
The goal is to have a light run by rechargeables with relatively steady brightness
for about an hour or two.
Basically a cheaper but slightly dimmer and bigger MagCharger without a charging cradle.
This is what I have been experimenting with so far:
A 5-Cell White Star Krypton bulb with 6 Eneloops in AA to D adapters
inside a 6 D body.
The cells were rested for at least a week and were run with a 6D bulb
for a few minutes first.
Result: Bright white light, but dimmer than a 6D with Magnum Star II Xenon
bulb on fresh alkalines.
Later it dimmed down to just under the brightness of a 5D on fresh alkalines.
This is good as I expect this configuration to give at least one hour of relatively
stable brightness.
Better than the standard alkaline configuration which dims to 50% during the
first 20-30 minutes. Also see this thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?75317-Battery-Life-of-Maglite-2D-and-3D
With the 6D krypton bulb on 6 Nimh AAs, the brightness compared to alkalines that have already been used
for some time.
Unfortunately, the White Star Krypton bulbs have been discontinued and alternative krypton
bulbs are hard to come by.
A 3-Cell White Star Krypton bulb with 4 Eneloops in AA to D adapters
inside a 4 D body is the second test configuration.
It performs well compared to the 6D setup, being dimmer.
Both bulbs seem to run at the 90%-brightness of alkaline-driven
lights with the right number of cells after some time.
So the additional cell does not cause a huge overdrive
all the time.
It is rather like the nimh powered lights would run on fresh alkalines for most of
their runtime (at the expense of bulb life, of course.)
I have been searching the forum for info on softstart circuits.
The NTC SL12 1R010 seems to have too much resistance when used with
a 0,75 A to 0,85 A bulbs.
I may be wrong on this, having basically no clue about more complex electricity.
Is there an easy solution to limit the inrush current of freshly charged cells
with readily available parts?
Maybe even a homebrewn "resistor-washer" out of tinfoil and pencil-rubbed paper between the
battery and tailcap spring?
I consider this rechargeable setup with an overdriven krypton bulb to be practical,
especially the 3D bulb in 4D body on 4 nimh version as 3,6V 0,75A bulbs are readily available
from other manufacturers.
My only concern is the inrush current on the cold filament on start-up, which may
be the cause of a
.
----------
Update 1: 02-22-2016 just ed the first bulb when turning on the light.
It was a 3-cell bulb in a 4D body with 4 AA 2600 mah rechargeables in AA to D adapters.
The bulb worked fine with these cells before, but after 24 hours of resting the cold
filament obviously couldn't stand the inrush current.
Runtime less than 1 hour overall. Not impressed.:fail:
I consider this setup as unreliable now, as I had similar results with even shorter runtime with alkalines before.
The 5-cell bulb in the 6D body with 6 1900 mah eneloops is still working.
Higher rated bulbs seem to handle overdrive better.
----------
Update 2: 02-26-2016 Testing another setup:
6-cell White Star Krypton bulb in 6D-body with 7 AA 1900 mah eneloops in AA to C adapters.
Cardboard tube as spacer for the smaller diameter, aluminium foil "coin" with roughly 1/3 inch thickness for better contact
between battery and tailcap spring.
Brightness comparable to 6 fresh D alkalines, slight overdrive.
Update 3: 03-08-2016 The bulb blackened considerably with not that much use (approx. 1 hour).
Hi,
after I bought an incand MagCharger (discontinued AFAIK) recently, I have been thinking about
ways to mod standard incandescent Maglites without having to
order special parts from China.
All parts used should be readily available in the US and Europe.
(So no glass lenses, metal reflectors etc.)
The goal is to have a light run by rechargeables with relatively steady brightness
for about an hour or two.
Basically a cheaper but slightly dimmer and bigger MagCharger without a charging cradle.
This is what I have been experimenting with so far:
A 5-Cell White Star Krypton bulb with 6 Eneloops in AA to D adapters
inside a 6 D body.
The cells were rested for at least a week and were run with a 6D bulb
for a few minutes first.
Result: Bright white light, but dimmer than a 6D with Magnum Star II Xenon
bulb on fresh alkalines.
Later it dimmed down to just under the brightness of a 5D on fresh alkalines.
This is good as I expect this configuration to give at least one hour of relatively
stable brightness.
Better than the standard alkaline configuration which dims to 50% during the
first 20-30 minutes. Also see this thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?75317-Battery-Life-of-Maglite-2D-and-3D
With the 6D krypton bulb on 6 Nimh AAs, the brightness compared to alkalines that have already been used
for some time.
Unfortunately, the White Star Krypton bulbs have been discontinued and alternative krypton
bulbs are hard to come by.
A 3-Cell White Star Krypton bulb with 4 Eneloops in AA to D adapters
inside a 4 D body is the second test configuration.
It performs well compared to the 6D setup, being dimmer.
Both bulbs seem to run at the 90%-brightness of alkaline-driven
lights with the right number of cells after some time.
So the additional cell does not cause a huge overdrive
all the time.
It is rather like the nimh powered lights would run on fresh alkalines for most of
their runtime (at the expense of bulb life, of course.)
I have been searching the forum for info on softstart circuits.
The NTC SL12 1R010 seems to have too much resistance when used with
a 0,75 A to 0,85 A bulbs.
I may be wrong on this, having basically no clue about more complex electricity.
Is there an easy solution to limit the inrush current of freshly charged cells
with readily available parts?
Maybe even a homebrewn "resistor-washer" out of tinfoil and pencil-rubbed paper between the
battery and tailcap spring?
I consider this rechargeable setup with an overdriven krypton bulb to be practical,
especially the 3D bulb in 4D body on 4 nimh version as 3,6V 0,75A bulbs are readily available
from other manufacturers.
My only concern is the inrush current on the cold filament on start-up, which may
be the cause of a
.----------
Update 1: 02-22-2016 just
ed the first bulb when turning on the light.It was a 3-cell bulb in a 4D body with 4 AA 2600 mah rechargeables in AA to D adapters.
The bulb worked fine with these cells before, but after 24 hours of resting the cold
filament obviously couldn't stand the inrush current.
Runtime less than 1 hour overall. Not impressed.:fail:
I consider this setup as unreliable now, as I had similar results with even shorter runtime with alkalines before.
The 5-cell bulb in the 6D body with 6 1900 mah eneloops is still working.
Higher rated bulbs seem to handle overdrive better.
----------
Update 2: 02-26-2016 Testing another setup:
6-cell White Star Krypton bulb in 6D-body with 7 AA 1900 mah eneloops in AA to C adapters.
Cardboard tube as spacer for the smaller diameter, aluminium foil "coin" with roughly 1/3 inch thickness for better contact
between battery and tailcap spring.
Brightness comparable to 6 fresh D alkalines, slight overdrive.
Update 3: 03-08-2016 The bulb blackened considerably with not that much use (approx. 1 hour).
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