Is it worth upgrading a 3D LED Maglite, or should I just buy a new flashlight? I have a bunch of good 18650’s, but don’t really want to spend more than about £20/$25.
Ebay/Amazon seem to be flooded with cheap chinese led flashlights, are any of them going to be as good/better than an upgraded Maglite?
You mean Upgrading with one of those LED-Inserts?
I wouldn’t spend much money on them, those things are really big and deliver so little light if you compare it to a modern LED-Flashlight.
If you already have 18650s, it would be best to get a good 18650 flashlight
easily the most popular light here is the Convoy C8
Black: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Convoy-C8-with-XPL-HI-LED/32651190452.html?
Grey: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gray-Convoy-C8-Cree-XML2-U2-1A-LED-Flashlight-torch-lantern-lanterna-bike-self-defense-camping/32240836052.html?
Clear: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Clear-Convoy-C8-with-XPL-HI-LED-copper-DTP-board-and-ar-coated-inside-new-firmware/32732511943.html?
I would get the clear one, more modern LED than the grey and the looks of it are just fantastic
I have a few Maglites (3D) and the quality of the host is very good. Big issue: there is AFAIK no cheap way of upgrading a Maglite with decent drivers/emitters. Those cheap “drop-in” LED upgrades aren’t worth the money and the 1 $US LED “bulbs” for Maglites from Aliexpress or ebay are quite dim (I tried them, they are horrible).
If you want a proper heat sink, driver, and emitter upgrade it will be more than 20 bucks and requires some time to assemble it (and, frankly, you’d also need other parts like a new reflector).
It is already an LED, so I guess the questions are
1 - is it okay to convert to 18650 with existing led (I assume circruitry will protect the led from blowing up with 3.7v)?
2 - is the above any better than a $25 drop-in?
3 - is the above any better than a $25 flashlight (Convoy C8)?
The answer to #3 is: No
If you’re happy with it, do it.
the 3D mag with a single LiIon will be perfectly fine however, it’ll be quite a ‘waste of space’ and effort to figure out how to get a single 18650 cell to work in the light. Based on that alone, i’d say it’s better to get a convoy or equivalent flashlight.
If you don’t like Alli Express or the Chinese shops then a C8 from Thorfire is a good option.
why not, go for it, D magled is no different than inc version except it has led where normally bulb is, your led, (either xpg or rebel, is only good for 100-200lm, that drop in half after 10 min. you can remove the switch with led pill, either cut led off, or use another switch, get aluminium or copper heatsink, sold on cpf and few other places, or have someone turn a “puck” on a lathe that is about 1\2-3\4 high and diameter so it fits snugly into the tube, there are hundreds of threads on here, and cpf how to upgrade maglite.
i have done it dosens of times. it is pretty easy to do. there are multiple ways to do it, you can go with multi led set up, or single led.
depending on what parts you already have it may be within your price range. but there is nothing wrong with just getting C8 instead.if you do not want to get involved with a project, it is very good light for the price. i had 2, xpl and xml, i liked xml better, xpl had a bit narrower beam, . i find more floody lights more practical, but it is just me.
Yeah, with the amount of effort that it would take to convert a Mag, you’re better off just buying a Convoy C8 or some other decent light and be done with it.
Here is a link to the Malkoff drop-in option for Maglites, which is very expensive:
Frankly though, even the trash $5 18650 zoom lights you can get off of eBay will be brighter than a Maglite. That’s how dim those Maglites are in comparison.
Those Maglites are such old tech that you’ll be blown away by anything. That is - unless it’s one of the newer 500+ lumen Maglites. Most of the older LED Maglites are around 100 lumen range and even AA flashlights are now as bright.
Actually the better upgrade (for me).
Kiriba-ru on here sells a maglite D drop in which uses a stock reflector cut to fit a 16mm MCPCB. Works well. I have several projects involving my old maglites going right now as I really like the maglite hosts.
I bought a Q5 led dropin 4-5 years ago, this came with an original lamp screw, so i did not even have to modify it. (They also offer xml2 now)
www.ledmag.nl
But for the money, you can buy two clear Convoy C8’s. definitely one of the best deals out there.
My 3D is collecting dust, i havent used it in years since i bought a C8 (and many more lights ever since)
I don’t find myself pulling out my maglites often, but I do still keep one on my “Active” list. It is modded with an SST-40 and a buck driver capable of running from 3-18V input. I use this as an emergency light.
Right now it is sitting in an emergency kit loaded with lithium primaries, so if I need it in 20 years it will still be good to go with high confidence of no leakage. Then I can basically throw in whatever I can find that fits in the tube, from standard alkaline D cells to 26650s or 18650s. I also have 3xAA to D size adapters in both parallel and series config.
It’s not running that hard at 1.5ish amps at the emitter, but it will give me plenty of useable light on almost any common battery I can find.
Plus I had the light already, and aside from the adapter from kiriba-ru everything else was stuff from the parts bin.