SST90 3D Maglite

I built 6 years ago a Luminus SST-90 Maglite with a 9A Buckdriver and 2x 26650 Proteced Li-Ion Batteries.

At the beginnig, I pressed a copper cylinder in a aluminium tube and machined down to final diameter:

Buckdriver is made from CPF seller "Der Wichtel":

Case for driver:

Fitting all the parts:

Driver is on the side of the battery, because I had no space (Maglite Rebel reflector is deeper than the stock.)

Wiring from front to back with thick wires took me some time... Every space in the switch is covered with holes for the wires:

Tailcap mod:

Front view: (Reflecor is from a Maglite Rebel)

Thermal images, each per minute, Bx1 is the max. temperature of the frame. (Black tape is used for more precise reading.):

The thermal pictures in "iron-mode" look simular to the chosen color from the host! Pure coincidence?

Edit: google photos fixed...

very nice mod!!

Looks great.
Is that maglite painted or is that done with heat?
It looks very perfect :stuck_out_tongue:

Nice work Zelda. Have you modded any other lights.

I’m not sure, how the color is made. A skilled mechanician told its anodized, he never saw something similar before.

I have modded lights since 2003 with incandescent or LED, like Maglite in all sizes, Surefire, Fenix and a very few hosts made from scratch.

Can I has one???

The “front view” image isn’t visible to me…
I really want to see that LED :stuck_out_tongue: plz fix

I remember those NASCAR edition maglights, they were nice! They are anodized from the factory.

There are some still available in different designs
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_odkw=nascar+maglight&\_osacat=0&\_from=R40&\_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xnascar+maglite.TRS0&\_nkw=nascar+maglite&\_sacat=0

Nice, classic 2010 build!
Also a nice, classic 1999 host! I have always liked the look of that one.

These days you could upgrade the light with an SST-40. It would produce similar lumens, but way more throw becaise the DIE is a little little less than half the size!

BTW: did you mount the LED on an aluminium star? In that case you could greatly reduce the temperature of the LED by using a copper DTP pcb (the SST-90 fits on the pcbs for MT-G2 LEDs).

(Picture is now fixed.)

Here a detail view about the deeper Rebel-Reflector:

The SST-90 W57S-F11-GN200 was a "top-bin" at the time, I calculated around 2500lm.

Its still a litte greater output than the SST-40.

At the momemt, I build a thermal plate for easier soldering leds on DTP sinks like djozz did.

Previously, I tried soldering leds on a DTP with a heatgun, but i had problems with centering (small) 3535 LED's.

(Edit: google link again fixed.)

If you the buck driver also supports 6V LEDs you could go for an XHP70.2 doubling the lumens

Your new pic also doesn't work for me.

The LED lumens you calculated are only possible with a dtp pcb or direct soldering onto copper heatsink. Olight had this problem with their SR-90 back then (the first ones did maybe 1200 otf lumens, later ones 1750 otf). Custom light maker lambdalights showed this with his modded maglites (called Varapower 2000 etc.).

Here are some sphere measurements that bigchelis posted of his Varapower lights back then (same build, one with aluminium heatsink and star, one with copper heatsink and LED directly soldered onto it, both direct driven off of four c nimh cells with some resistance from spring, usually 15A at turn-on, same LED bin on both):

Lumens after 1s: 1840 vs 2110

After 4 minutes: 1282 vs 1715

I don't know why the aluminum one starts off with less lumens, but it definitely drops off more.

I agree with Lexel - an XHP-70.2 would cause more wow effect. :D

Picture still not visible :frowning:

very cool mod, I have an old maglite somewhere in my garage but haven’t touched it for years.

this Nascar host is really cool.

Very appealing!

Nice light.

I was just searching on here for posts about this emitter the other day lol.

I have an SST90 DD 3D mag that I built around 2010. I have been thinking of upgrading it since it kills the NIMH batteries. Its no fun turning it on and seeing a dim light… Once it nukes the last set I will have to figure out a plan for it. So many more options now than back then.

You could try the new 15A buck driver from the texas ace. In theory it’s perfect for this LED, but nobody has actually built and tried it yet (should be around 30:money_mouth_face:.

Now the I got it with the picture:

After putting the link from google picture, I resized it: Thats not working!

The "destination" size is hard coded in the link from google.

The 9A Buck driver needs 2.5 - 3+ volts to run stable.

Prior I bought 32900 Li-Fe cells, the deliver not enough voltage for the SST-90.

Yes, but there is this factor…

“5% chance of it setting off a chain reaction, going nuclear, starting WWIII, leading to the end of civilization.”
From Texas_Ace thread here

The bigger issue is that I cannot fit a 46mm driver into the maglite. They are big, just not SRK kinda big.

Very nice.