Newbie Maglite conversion questions

I am new to LED mods. I recently bought a few LED lights and love them. The problem is that I have a bunch of Maglites (3-2D, 1-3D, 4-2AA) and I want to convert some of them to LED, but I don't want to pay a bunch of $$. I checked out some of the pre-made solutions, and was turned off by $40 price for the D cells.

Can I hack a costco light to work with the Maglites? Can these work with the D cell and AA lights? This would be pretty inexpensive since they are about $10 each. Are these any other inexpensive ways to covnvert these?

Thanks!

Do a search on MJLEDs for your 2AA minimags.

Better yet, here is one link.

As for the others - it will take more time and $$, but try this link.

Hope that helps.

Depending on what aspects of LEDs you like, the TekTite LED replacements are nice. .

Sandwich ! Pick one, any one

For the MiniMags - 2AA or even 2AAA - for me it has to be the MJLED - good brightness - a bit brighter than the standard incandescent - much improved beam quality/smoothness and HUGE runtime of 30+ hours (reported) on plain alkalines. All for just about $6 shipped.

Some of us have written nearly a whole book on it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif -
lots of comparison beamshots and lots of feedback and useful hints -

MJLED drop-in for MiniMag 2AA

Hi go_to_the_light. I've been very happy with the Terralux Ministar2 and Microstar1. They're not too expensive (~$20-25 US) and easy to install. Both run very nicely off NiMH rechargables too.

Ministar = 1W luxeon. Should give 5+ hours from 2xAA. Very bright, but not the smoothest beam.

Microstar = 0.7W nichia (I think). Should give 15+ hours from 2xAA. Not as bright as the Ministar. Smoother beam with nice blue/white hotspot, but significant yellow rings (which might annoy you if you're a white beam purist - I'm not). Also works in 2xAAA Maglite.

Terralux maglites are my workhorse lights. Cheap and reliable - just don't twist the head really tightly when you turn them off or you may wreck them!

VT: WHAT IS THAT thing on the right?

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GarageBoy said:VT: WHAT IS THAT thing on the right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, I didn't see your question until now.

Are you asking about the light? or something else?

The light on the right is the S1801 1 watt Luxeon 1x CR123 sold at GoldenGadgets.com -
comparison review -

S1801 1w Luxeon 1xCR123

Otherwise, hopefully this photo of my new comparison beamshot setup may answer your question.....

I was referring to that insanely bright light on the right. (then read your other thread that you said the camera made it appear brighter than it was)

[ QUOTE ]
GarageBoy said:
I was referring to that insanely bright light on the right. (then read your other thread that you said the camera made it appear brighter than it was)

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, perhaps a bit of explanation is needed.

I do NOT use a fixed exposure (ie: aperture, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity) for all my beams shots - since those would range from the very unbright "dim" eternaLight on dimmest 5% setting (on 1 LED) to things like 3watt Luxeon (clone) and Xenon lights - a huge range.

I do side-by-side comparison beamshots and use the camera's metering system to get the "best" representation of the differences - hence the "optimized" exposure and one at -2 stops Underexposed to emphasize the differences and color.

So the beamshots are not absolutes and one canNOT compare one photo with another -
since these beamshots are the lights in the actual photo compared relative to each other only.
(even two separate shots that contain one light exactly the same are NOT comparable)

Perhaps little more explanation to clarify things is in order.

Lets take this very exaggerated example:

(1) comparison beamshot of ArcAAA vs eternalight on dimmest 5% white setting (on 1 LED).

(2) comparison of 1watt Luxeon vs ArcAAA.

Beamshot (1) would show the ArcAAA as "insanely" bright compared to the eternalight on dimmest 5% setting.

Beamshot (2) would show the ArcAAA as "pitiful", and in comparison the Luxeon would be "insanely" bright
- because this beamshot is strictly a comparison of the the Luxeon vs. ArcAAA -
and one cannot compare one photo to another -
since beamshot (1) would have a very bright ArcAAA, but in beamshot (2) the exact same ArcAAA would or should be "pitiful"......

With the latest configuration (as shown above) there are still some "tricks" I have to figure out - because I am trying to include the entire beam/sidespill - sometimes it leaves the central area unlit - which seems to fool not only the focussing system but the exposure system as well.

My previous comparison beamshots used only a single standard letter sized paper so there was considerable overlap of the beam side-spill - and those shots tended to compare the central hotspots -
this was fine for my earlier lights like the single 5mm LED class - the ArcAAA, Ultra-G, Dorcy 1AAA etc - where the most useful areas of light was in the hotspot.

However with brighter LEDs like the Luxeon, I needed to take the sidespill since those areas are a lot more useful/used, hence the change in setup.