My $2.24 triple emitter Mag Mod

If you do decide to, pick one or a few off ebay. The chinese sellers have buddies/alt account who auto bid up to about $1.40 ish, meaning if you bid last minute for around 1.50 then it’s yours. :slight_smile:

I grabbed two 9W MR16 12v 3x3W Led Bulbs about a week ago for about 1.50 each (1 cool 1 warm). If all else fails I get some uber cheap components to fry for experience. :smiley:

I just bid on a coupel of them to see if i win them. Its definitely a cool easy mod :slight_smile:

It does look better! I wonder if I can just swap my stars over to the new host. I had upgraded the 2 lights that I have done to 3x3W by ordering 3W emitters from FT. The second light I did was a 2C Mag and I run it off a single 18650. That’s the light I use around the house.
EDIT:
I ordered one, let’s see how long it takes to get here

I just ordered two of those new ones to try out. Thanks for posting!

-Garry

Good find Helios! Can’t wait to see how this one turns out for Ya’ll!

I just finished this mod on my 3d mag I’ve had around the house for years. Love the outcome!
IT was pretty straight forward. Now I gotta find a brighter white than the 3000k I ended up with.
(and make it brighter! of course!)

What about batteries? What are the best combinations, suggestions? (I just put the D primaries in for now, but want rechargeable fun!)…Have alot of 18650’s on hand and ton o AA duraloops…

If we use a 9w like OL found, how does that change the battery scheme? THanks

Nice find Helios. Looks like one could make the flashlight waterproof using that one. Or, at least, more water resistant.

Got mine today! Ordered Nov 4th, delivered today Nov 18th (no tracking China Post). The two I ordered look slightly different - like the TIR's are different angles. No thermal paste under the star, but otherwise decent. TIR snaps out very easy (but not too easy). Did not test for output yet.

Few pics:

Two side by side to see their differences:

-Garry

Thanks for the update Garry. Is the one on the right in the last picture further back? It appears to have a smaller diameter

How come you got yours first? Oh yeah, PA is a little closer to China than CT. :frowning:

Ordered mine a week before Garry and mine aren’t here. :frowning:

I wish their dang shipping estimates were reasonably accurate.

Thanks for posting pictures. :beer:
Left one looks almost like an overall larger diameter. :~ Same size in reality, right?

Just checked again, they are perfectly identical in size.

He he he!!! With unregistered Post you never know what's going to happen! Actually, I placed an order for some 110v E27 base ones the same day (which came with tracking) and they also came today.

-Garry

So I overlooked a key factor here… There’s great detail on how to wire the leds in parallel, but not how to physically connect the lamp assembly to the maglite switch assembly.

Can someone guide me to the light?

I too am curious how dchomak wired to the Maglite switch. BTW - I've done nothing with my bulbs. I'm just too busy to get to this and I don't even have a 3D Maglite yet.

-Garry

I was thinking to solder the positive to the little spring cap that the underside of the incandescent contacts. Then solder the negative to the inner wall of the housing for the incan bulb. That seems to make sense to me, but I’m not very keen as far as electricity goes.

Edit: The spring cap looks like stainless, dunno if solder will stick.

If you have an incan version, you can always do this (pic borrowed from Finnish forum)

Nice! How do I pop this glass bulb out of the housing?

Edit: watched the how it’s made video on incan bulbs. :slight_smile:

-So it’s soldered on the bottom and spot welded on the side… hmm.

I think I’ll try to make one instead.-

Broke that sucker, drilled out the glass and threw in my wires.

The only thing I’m not sure of is

I have no continuity between pos and neg with the traces I drilled through… is this what is being referred to here?

Check that you have no continuity between the metal bottom of the board & any of the traces.

Drilled spot and bottom of the board, or pos/neg at either side of the trace and bottom of the board? I see continuity when measuring from bottom of the board to either drilled spot, but not between pos/neg of the led blobs to the bottom of the board.

The Traces look a bit different to OP's -->

1 down 1 to go!

Warm is really warm. Thankfully I got one of each.

I was hoping for it to be a little more throwy, but instead it just lights 20-30 yards about 120 degree angle. Not bad for $1.47