Giving Flashlight Man a Run for his Money

[kjp1969]

I just picked up a 600 lumen LED for a 4D maglight. . .

http://mandamus.typepad.com/onefullplate/2009/01/flashlights.html

Did you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the guy wakes up with blinding light pouring through his windows in the middle of the night? That guy is now like my neighbors.

 

[Clark White]

I want one!!!!! How did you make that thing??? Could I do that to my 6D Mag? :drool:

Clark

 

[Hilldweller]

I just picked up a 600 lumen LED for a 4D maglight. . .

Tell me your secrets and I will humbly commit myself to your service, my supreme overlord.... :drool: :drool: :drool:

I've been quite happy with my little 130 lumen led light. Until now.
Evidence of power corrupting.

You may pm me if it's a secret; I'll tell people I stole the thing from NASA...

 

[soonenough]

Yea I would definitely like to see a write-up or some kind of how-to on this one. I am a fellow "flashaholic", and own a few SureFires, but 600 lumens?? :Wow1: I bet that's pretty sweet to see.

 

[kjp1969]

I should clarify: I didn't build the thing, I bought it. It drops into a 4-6 cell maglight, but it would be pretty cool to build a custom battery for a 2D maglight and get a more compact package.

It's this: http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-300.html

I bought it on Amazon for $59 because I had a couple of gift cards to use up.

Typical of LED's, it seems to have better close range than far range- It will blind the bejeezus out of a possum in your back yard or across the street, but less so down the block. Still, hubba, hubba.

 

[Corey]

I carry a 4 D cell Maglite in the rear of my rig to the far right.
I have LED kit in it now, but it is not much brighter than the stock bulb.

I think I will give this $60 item a try to see how it works.
Thanks for the link.

 

[soonenough]

I should clarify: I didn't build the thing, I bought it.

Ahhhh, the page you posted was written by a guy named Kevin, and when I saw your signature, I figured it was you. My fault

 

[adventureduo]

Can it light paper on fire? If not, it's not bright enough

 

[kjp1969]

Ahhhh, the page you posted was written by a guy named Kevin, and when I saw your signature, I figured it was you. My fault

Oh yeah, that blog is mine. I just bought the LED array and installed it in the Maglight. It wasn't really a "build" kind of thing, just an "assemble" kind of thing. It's a little more complicated than just changing a bulb, but still less than a 5 minute deal.

You just unscrew the bezel of the light, remove the reflector and regular bulb, then screw the adjusting head all the way down. Then you screw in the 3-LED array, which also has a few little circuits built into it, then screw the adjusting head back up until it just contacts the new LED assembly. That, I think, makes the whole Maglight head a heatsink. then you just screw the bezel with lens back on with a new O-ring to take up a little slack so nothing rattles around. Pretty easy stuff.

 

[soonenough]

Oh yeah, that blog is mine. I just bought the LED array and installed it in the Maglight. It wasn't really a "build" kind of thing, just an "assemble" kind of thing.

It's all starting to make sense now...

I figured I should probably add something constructive to this thread, so here you go - Candlepower Forums. I've poked around here a few times and there seems to be some good info.

 

[teotwaki]

It's all starting to make sense now...

I figured I should probably add something constructive to this thread, so here you go - Candlepower Forums. I've poked around here a few times and there seems to be some good info.

IIRC the Candlepower forum discussed these LEDs and they are something less than a real 200 Lumens but still impressive.

 

[kidishi@gmail.com]

HIDS are brighter than LEDs so its like apples to oranges......but cool light!

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Grasshopper,

How is the beam on that LED conversion? I've tried a couple that were really poor (including Mag's own new LED lights - very disappointing).

When you can snatch the Surefire from my hand, it will be time for you to go.

 

[Tucson T4R]

I upgraded my 2D Maglight with this single CREE LED bulb replacement.

http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-6exb.html

It's only about 120 Lums but much better than the standard bulb and has nice white color to it. You can still focus the beam with this sigle LED installed.

It's not like Jonathan's Surfire or my Fenix TK11 with the new R2 240 Lum LED, but it's a nice, not too expensive upgrade from the standard Maglight bulb. :victory:

 

[kjp1969]

Grasshopper,

How is the beam on that LED conversion? I've tried a couple that were really poor (including Mag's own new LED lights - very disappointing).

When you can snatch the Surefire from my hand, it will be time for you to go.

I will snatch the surefire, with chopsticks. . .

The beam pattern is strange- its a large roundish circle with points- sort of like a circle overlayed by a star. There is a very large peripheral glow outside the center bright spot. Its an unusual pattern, but symmetrical and not distracting. The bright spot is very large compared with my Surefire L2 lumamax.

The only gripe I have is the 4D body- its big and heavy. I'm thinking about modifying a 2d with 8 AA rechargeable batteries (two banks: 4 in series paralleled with another 4 in series). But the 4 D cells are only supposed to last 90 minutes, so there's an advantage to the big batteries.

Gee, I wonder how much runtime I would have if I hacked off part of a maglight and made it a stubby little 4AA powered light?