Lambda LightStick - 13W HID

This is a pewter 2D Mag with a 13 Watt HID MR11 bulb installed in a custom head. The 13 Watt Solarc HID began life as an ATV add on headlight. The headlamp case was machined to fit on to the 2D case as a custom head that retains the headlight's original high temperature silicone shock absorbing gasket. So this set up should take some pretty good knocks without problems.



Power is supplied by eight alkaline or lithium AA cells. It will fire up with NiMh, but takes like five minutes to warm up and stop salt flashing. Probably not the best thing for the bulb, so I'd stick to alkaline and lithium cells in this.



It's a little bit shorter and now has a smaller diameter head for the MR11 HID bulb.



If the bulb ever needs changing, the bezel ring unscrews and the bulb simply unplugs from the igniter/ballast.



The MR11 HID bulb has it's own built in spot reflector. Not a super tight focus, but enough that still throws a good beam and plenty of side spill light.



Here's the beam from about eight feet.

Not a real hard mod, once you get past boring out the 2D battery tube to accept the HID ballast. That's the only real hard part. The rest is just machining the headlight case and hooking up the wires. This mod took nearly five hours to complete, including break time, coffee drinking, etc.

It's going to get dark soon, got to go...

How about comparision beamshots against something everyone knows, like the minipro? That way we have a point of reference.

Lambada, are you saying that you used the hid and balast out of a trailtek ? which would save you a few bux over buying the parts?
then you , instead of wedging it into the flashlights head, wedged the trailteck into the base of the flashlight, and used its own head?

if you did that, i am duly impressed, and would certannly like to know more, and see better how you did that, cause i was thinking about ripping a trailtek apart, but it NEVER CROSSED MY MIND, to just do a "fitting" and keep the tight much smaller head, that was already effective.

you kinda did a frankenlight, instead of a mod the best of both worlds, then a big spark to get it started , than its off to find a mate.

did you use the 5* or the 13*?

This thread makes me miss my ATV. I owned a Honda 450ES while I lived in Alberta and Labrador but I sold it before I moved to Ottawa. I had a snowmobile in Labrador as well - I actually rode it to work (in the winter). It was a very long winter there - you could sled from about late Oct/early Nov until March.

Very nice mod, it really streamlines the Mag. I went to the trailtech site - if that's the brand they are sharp looking lamps.

Paul

Sorry for slow updates, I got a nasty bug and had to take some time off....

Yes, it was a trailtech part #3111-SX, 13 watt HID.

I was going to originally use the Mag head, but no real way to stabilize the MR11 bulb except by pressing it to the front glass. The shape of the MR11 bulb puts a lot of weight at the front end, making it easy to knock out of the socket.

The trailtech case just happens to fit snugly over the 2D battery tube, so I explored that option with good results. And with the nice molded shock mount gasket, it keeps the bulb isolated from shocks and snugly plugged in.

Again, the real hard part is boring out the front end of the 2D tub to accept the ballast. This one had to go from 1.343 to 1.380 in diameter.

The case was was pretty straight forward. Chuck it in the lathe and cut off just forward of where the case narrows inside. Touch up the cut edges with a 45 degree bit to take the sharpness off them.

The ballast in this light was designed for a vehicle 12V system, so performance on 8AA cells is limited a little. While it starts out at full brightness, after a few minutes it looses some brightness:



This is running on 8AA alkaline cells after about 15 - 20 minutes. The barn is 350ft+, so a very long throw.



Here it is running on 8AA lithium cells after about 15 minutes.



And this is with a 2D to cigarette plug adapter running off a Coleman Powermate (12V lead acid battery).

Time for bed now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif

more pics Please /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
of your head matching , i wanna see how it comes together.

when you speak of the boring you did, does that make the tube very thin , very very thin? or its certannly still sufficient?
and your boring is right there behind the threads? or did you hack some of them off?

how about some really big arse 640x480 pics of the head area.
it looks so slick without no big head on it.

looks like a candidate for a 3D m@G wth 9x AA CBP nmh

Good Job Kevin.... Waiting to see more.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif