3xD or 4xD for a LuxIII Mag?

I wanna bulld a DD Mag mod, so shall I go with 4.5V or 6V? I hope to use T bins, WO, or X1 color and either J or K Vf

OK - MHO - TWOJ or TWOK is a nice setup - very pretty beam. There is a thread on the Vf of Lux IIIs decreasing over time to reach approx the same level, so a K and J are going to be at almost the same point within a reasonable amount of use.

There are people who have gotten away with DD of the Lux III with 3 D, but a 1 ohm resistor would be dramatically better. 4 D with a 2 ohm resistor is also very good, long battery life setup, and very bright. It will also hold up much better to cold weather when the battery voltage drops.

Despite knowing better, I have damaged plenty of Lux IIIs on a bench test unit which had good heat sinking using DD and fairly short run times. There are people who have gotten away with it, but I have not been sucessful. A little resistor can save a lot of pain.

The resistor can go on any side of the LED right? How white is WO? I have a SX1K Roguesoul DD'd off 3AAAs and I LOVE the color. Anyone selling pre LED'd heatsinks? I don't want to deal with artic alumina

My Friend, TUla, make DD 4*3 watt from 8AA battery. It's pretty work and make a plenty of light.

Inside

And beam shot. Thanks Tula for nice picture.
left 4*3 W and right DD 5 watt 6AA.

I've modded a few 3D Maglites (unresistored TV1L Lux III on an O-sink). The V1s have been just slightly blueish, but I've been very happy with the end results. I've heard that you shouldn't go with anything less than an "L" Vf for direct drive.

Which Vf do you recommend?

Quick question about Luxeons. Voltage higher than the Vf will blow it or not?

If you have good heat sink you can shift for higher Vf. L bin is suitable for DD.

Garageboy
I have a few SX1L stars for $9 shipped.
I can even send you over the whitest and best one of the batch.
I can also mount it to an Osink for you and ship the whole thing to you for $30 with wire leads ready to be soldered into a 3D mag.

[ QUOTE ]
3rd_Shift_Lights said:
I can also mount it to an Osink for you and ship the whole thing to you for $30 with wire leads ready to be soldered into a 3D mag.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a good offer!

Ok, give me a few more days to rack up money for the Osink (Hotbeam's or Yaesu's?)
S bin is close enough. Should I drive it with 3Ds or 4Ds? (will 4Ds make it brighter, or do I need to kick up the current for that?)

That is a great offer from 3rd shift. 3 x D should be more than enough - He has lots of experience with these setups.

4 X D will not really help you with brightness or runtime over 3 x D unless you go to a buck converter setup. It only helps when the temperature drops to near 0 F. In the case of 4 x D - definite resistor needed.

3 x D - I would put a 1 ohm on it, but that is because of the pile of abused Lux IIIs in my box.

Thanks! I'll PM you when I'm ready

It's an Osink.
I'll go ahead and make it, so that I can send it over the same day you pay.
If you change your mind, someone will want it I'm sure.

I just built a 4D Mag with a TV1L emitter, O-sink and 2.2 ohm resistor. With 4 new Duracell batteries it pulled about 830 mA and with 4 used Walgreen batteries it is pulling about 630 mA. After 15 minutes the head doesn't heat up noticably. Next up is a DD 3D with a K bin.

Oh man, I just finished, that was painful..read in homemade forum