Old & Ancient Mag-Lite Solitaire

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I’ve had my old Solitaire in the collection for nearly 25 years. And yes it’s crap. Trouble is, it has a sentimental attachment and I can’t throw it out. I saw a post years ago where someone bought a modern flashlight and stripped the parts for their Solitaire.

Does anyone haver a link to this old post. Or can someone suggest a new flashlight whose donor parts would fit.

Thanks

ps I don’t need a replacement FL, I have enough for 3 lifetimes …… :person_facepalming:

Technically, it is possible to rebuild a Maglite with newer parts, but this might not be a financially viable solution. I know you don’t want a new light, but a new light would be cheaper.

Here is a start:
https://asflashlights.com/

ps: I also have loads of Maglites sitting around…

Not sure what would be the best route to go, but (I think the Solitaire is AAA? twisty incandescent right?) if you find a light that uses the same battery size, you could probably find a compatible driver. If 10mm will fit, MTN Electronics has some misc 10mm drivers on his site (I’m sure you could find similar small drivers around in the usual places).

I have seen some deals on the Lumintop Tool AA and AAA in the amazon deals thread here on BLF. I’m not sure if they are still active, but I got a AA tool for like $6 and it is a pretty good light. From what I can see, it may be possible to get the driver out of it without too much damage. I think there is a sub brand/cousin of the AAA version named “Ultratac A7”. The Ultratac A7 doesn’t appear to be an easy one to pull apart, but if you are careful you may be able to cut the innards out. As far as my experience goes, most of the AAA sized lights are full of glue/solder/etc and hard to mod/disassemble.

There will be custom work no matter which way you go, so if you can get a driver the right size without having to dismantle a tiny and difficult light, you will probably be ahead in labor costs.

I haven’t looked for small LED boards before, but I’m sure they exist. I’ve modded 2 Maglites so far, a AA Mini Maglite (cut it down to 1AA size and put in a triple board with 5000k nichia 219c’s with a FET driver), and a 3D Maglite (buck driver, 3x 26650, XHP70.2 emitter). I have since purchased some ready made lights (D4s, Q8, FW3A, Convoy S2, Convoy C8, etc) and I like many of them more than the modded lights (that extra-mini mag is awesome though). Doubly so if you count the cost of the modded ones vs something like the FW3A.

If this is purely for sentimental reasons, why not keep it as is? You could run rechargeable NiMHs in it for slightly better performance and maybe they make an easily swap-able LED for it. (found one on ebay with a little searching) A small single cell light like that with non-leaky batteries is nice for a car light or in an emergency/first aid kit

Let Old-Lumens be your guide:

After all this time, Old-Lumens still showing us how it’s done. :cry:

Wellp, 25yo almost certainly means a hotwire bulb… wanna buy an LED Solitaire and stick the innards from there into the sentimental one?

Then you can hacque around with the gutted new one. Drop in a 10440, LED, and ballast resistor on a simple contact-board for a totally unprotected but usable light.

https://www.amazon.com/MagLite-Solitaire-Conversion-upgrade-flashlight/dp/B07GVQ6R6W

Thanks guys …… I’ll buy a new LED solitaire and see if the parts will transplant. If not I’ll follow Old-Lumens DIY… Plus I’ll end up with another flashlight. ha

:wink:

I’m glad there are people here that know more than me about this stuff and are nice enough to throw some words out to help. What a great place!

When you’re done, please post a few photos. We just love refurbished vintage lights :smiley:

People only die when they’re forgotten, Dave. Justin lives on in his lessons.

Perfect info …thansk for saving me from posting ( and you lot having to reply! ) to a new thread.
Just dug out my old AAA Solitare
Wanted a lamp to strap to my aircraft headset for night flight paperwork.

Any AAA lamp will do, TBH…currently using an 18650 with MTN Electronics driver, no memory LMH driver …but an 18650 zoom lamp on my header on a belt clip is a bit big…the little Solitare will be perfect…though as you all say…cheaper to buy a new one…but sentimental value too…and don’t like to waste an old body it I can make it work…
Searching those links now for clues as what to do

Wasn’t there an MJLED drop in for the Solitaire at some point? I suppose it would be somewhat difficult to find one now, though.

I believe so.

Sino Union which was the company that made the 48 LED Showerhead drop-ins for the Maglite had a really nice one with a warm tint. It’s still available but I can only find it in bulk orders of 20 or more. LINK

You can still find no-name ones on eBay & AliExpress but I have no idea about quality.

Much easier yes, worth a try
Actually have one in a AA Maglite now I think of it

Found one on Amazon

MagLite Solitaire LED Conversion/upgrade bulb for MagLite Solitaire Torch/flashlight 1AAA Cell Philips LED https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B012ZIPAMW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_09p0Db780BA7M

Was really hoping for a Low-Medium-High, no memory type driver though. Often find for night time aircraft cockpit use, ‘standard’ brightness is often too much

Will give this a go and see what happens.

Found a video OL made, but not looked at that yet

Looks like a Terralux, or a terralux knock off. I wonder if you could reflow a red XPE in there instead.

Red, hmm yes, that was always my thoughts, until I started night flying for real.

Surprisingly the need for a red light is not really a requirement or needed. All cockpit lighting is white, and the whole red light for night vision is more relevant for night time VFR of military ground survey ground attack roles. All the flying done in commercial environment is in to big (ish) runways, under IFR and lots of radar control and lots of runway lighting.

Having just a low level light is actually better than a red.

I was wondering if I can find a small 10mm driver, stack it under Led board and build a clicky tail switch

> > SinoUnion
I hope someone business-minded goes for 20 and parts them out to us.

When I started poking around, seeing if I could find them (Sino Union’s original web page is dead it seems) and stumbled across that my first thought was maybe pursuing a group buy here but I’m not sure there would be enough interest.