NewBeam regulated LED for Mini-Mag

The_LED_Museum

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Was sittin' on the can awhile ago when I heard the distinct tone of my outside doorbell. It was the postal service with a very unusual (unheard of, actually) Saturday delivery. Inside the Tyvec pouch was a small box containing something called the NewBeam.

The NewBeam is a complete, ready-to-use LED retrofit kit that goes in your Mini-Mag flashlight. It consists of an LED board, a spacer ring, and a new lens. But this LED board is different: it has a regulated (constant output) step-up converter, three white Nichia LEDs, and a tiny red warning LED that comes on when the unit falls out of regulation and declines in brightness as the battery is nearly depleted.

http://www.opalec.com/products.html

This is one good reason to not throw your Mini-Mag in the garbage can, and it has the possibility of introducing LED technology to those who's only real flashlight has been a Mini-Mag.

I'll be setting up a page for it over the weekend, and will post the URL here when available.
 

lemlux

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Craig:

Looks interesting, but at $27.95 for the kit plus the cost of minimags the Opalec mod is getting into the price range of the X5. I wonder if it is any brighter than the 3 LED PT Attitude that sells for $15.99 at TTS. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to pay extra for level output regulation.

Opalec's site shows a graph that suggests that it generates more lumens than the OEM 300 mA bulb of the MiniMag once batteries have about 1/2 hour use.

I wonder if 2AA lithiums will generate the same sort of 10% to 15% brightness increase vs Alkalines that you report with the ARC LS's regulation.

If the run time is double that of a 300 mA incandescent bulb, that suggests a drain in the neighborhood of 150 mA. This, in turn, suggests amperage per led in the neighborhood of 38 mA or less.
 

Chris M.

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Looks like a tidy little thing indeed- with one of those in the top and a Flashlight Tuner at the other end, well I`m almost starting to like the AA mag again!

They almost had themselves a sale too, until I went to order it and got a big red and yellow "this merchant only sells to US addresses" when I tried to change the ship-to country.

Too bad
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I`ll have to pass then. Looking forward to your review Craig.

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Darell

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LOCO is more like it.
Nice looking product. It's about time, huh? Bummer that I just went through and cleaned house on my Minimags. But I think I must have a couple left around here somewhere. I think I gave all the nice ones away, and kept all the dinged-up ones... Oh, yeah, NOW I remember - I just bought new NexStar bulbs for all of them
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Be nice if they'd supply us a bit more info on the LEDs. Wonder if some discount place will carry them soon. Can't wait to see your review Craig!
 

revolvergeek

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WOW, that looks very cool. Glad now that I bought those Minimags that I found at Walmart for $4.50 the other night!
grin.gif
 

Silviron

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Looks pretty neat to me. May take some of the pressure of Gransee to produce a AA ARC

Price point seems a little high though, and longevity isn't that great, IMHO.

I was tempted for a minute to order, but will wait until (if) the price goes down.
 

carl

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Dear Craig Johnson, thanks for testing the Newbeam so the rest of us can enjoy your review as we do with all the rest of your reviews on your site. BTW, how come the rest of us don't get special packages at our doors when we're sitting on the can?
 

TCPilot

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Well, I guess my name isn't Mr. Patience,

I have an X5 on order, but it's taking a while, so I ordered one of these kits. I figure I can just grab one of the (dead) minimags that's rolling about on the floor of my airplane and retrofit it.

Maybe it'll arrive quickly, and I can post/share some (less scientific & totally subjective than Craig's) opinions.

/TCP
 

JollyRoger

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Interesting! I guess I'll have to take my minimag out and consider getting this. I wonder how the brightness would compare to Technology Associates' Versalux PR-base replacement (single led)????

Now for someone to come out with a similar "drop-in" luxeon upgrade for the minimag...
 

carl

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This product looks great! I hope it has the brighter nichia S bulbs in them too. I don't have a minimag AA but this makes me want to buy one!
 

The_LED_Museum

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by carl:
BTW, how come the rest of us don't get special packages at our doors when we're sitting on the can?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now that I don't know the exact formula for, but these can help: Having a website about flashlights & LEDs so crammed with info it has 50MB of data spread out across five servers helps. An article about you on a major technology news site like slashdot.org also helps. So does having a quiet toilet. Gotta be able to hear that doorbell, 'cause around here the postman only rings once.
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I'd wire an annunciator in the john, but our lease forbids us from disassembling or modifying the little phone in the hall.
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Also, you should also have at least minimal functional test equipment - a good light meter & a DMM. A digital camera is a must. It doesn't have to be great, but it should shoot in color. And last but not least, you need a lot of spare time - preferably no less than 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to devote to the cause. (Yes, you may very well end up working on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas). If you can do ALL THAT, you too will start seeing unannounced deliveries and surprise express mail packages (some even on Saturdays). And that big poop colored truck will show up so often you can make out its wide tire pattern worn into your driveway.

Hmmm... now that's funny... do you hear the faint sound of a horn tooting?
 

Quickbeam

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>preferably no less than 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

He's not kidding... As the "new kid on the block" for having a review website, I can tell you it's very, very, very time consuming.
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My site is fairly small by comparison, so of course I don't get all the cool toys that Craig does
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but it still keeps me very busy!
 

Mr Ted Bear

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This thing looks really interesting, but unfortunately, checking may MagAA inventory, all of mine are the "old style", so I guess I won't be buying any of these puppies
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carl

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Dear Preliminary Craig, Thanks for the preliminary. Can hardly wait for brightness measurements!
 

yclo

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Don't know about you guys, but I really like the idea of the red led indicator that tells you it's no longer at full brightness.

YC
 

The_LED_Museum

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by carl:
Dear Preliminary Craig, Thanks for the preliminary. Can hardly wait for brightness measurements!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I just metered it at 33,100mcd. This will of course be refined once I run it through the ProMetric, but I don't expect to see a deviation of more than a couple of cd. either way. The beam is just a bit wider than is typical for this type of LED, so the reading may appear to be slightly low.
 

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