Mac's Mods: Micro "Mac"-Light

PM me and let me know what you are intersted in. I can give you a list of options I can put together. As much or as little as you like. Johnny

Amazing job Johnny! im sure you can sell lots of these.

Very nice work, JohnnyMac... That looks like it turned out pretty well! By looking at the front, I'm guessing you used the 20mm TIR narrow? If you don't like the looks of the square-ish beam and artifacts, try a frosted wide lens....I'm really digging those.

How many twists of the top head are you able to retain?

Thanks, Match! I don't care for the square beam much. This is my first TIR lens, are they all like that due to the square emitter? Outside you don't notice it, just indoors. How much light is lost OTF with the frosted?

As for twists, not sure, I don't have it on me at the moment but I will check. The o-ring is well within the head and I have had no issues at all. I will be testing the stock reflector with an xm-l shortly. With an xr-e it works great. Real nice beam and shorter, I think, than the single TIR lens. Added benefit is you can keep the original lens for good water proofing.

Johnny,

Ya, agreed on the square-ish looking beam....not my favorite. However, the Frosted narrow mellows this out a bit, and the frosted wide completely eliminates it. Testing a TIR against a reflector back to back in the same host is something I haven't done yet, but from what I have done I'd say light loss is a tad more than what is spec'd on their website. 10% would probably be close... more so with the frosted, and less so with the clear. Despite that, the frosted wide is one of my favorites, and gives an amazing flood with an xm-l. Impressive and usefull enough that I need to build myself another now (the origional was given away...probably still stuck in Canadian post).

Again, good job on a very clean and functional mod! Btw, are you using IMR 14500's?

Thanks again, Match! I will probably give a frosted wide a shot. I like floody lights and the XM-L’s have so much output that they still throw in spite of the lens. As to batteries, no IMR’s…just regular 14500 trustfires. I don’t run it on high long enough to get the battery hot but there is definitely a stronger output when the battery is fresh. I usually use it on low or medium. High is just silly. :stuck_out_tongue:

I have some new drivers enroute to my place that I will be testing with the XM-L emitters. Overall output won't be as high but I think with the XM-L I can get 1.2A-1.4A and 5-modes off of two 14500 cells. Will make the minimags a run for hours light and still put out 500ish lumens. I'll let you know how they work out for me. Let's see if I can find a link for you...

Sent you a pm over johnnymac

PM answered ;)

Whipped up a sweet little custom holster for the Micro-Mag last night.

+1 :bigsmile:

Excellent .

I finally took some ceiling bounce and beam shots last night. Here are the results. These pics were taken with a point & shoot digital camera with auto white balance turned off and the ISO set to 100. I have no control over shutter speed so I can't tell you what it was set to for the pics.

This first picture is the control shot...

This first set of pictures are ceiling bounce shots to show the amount of light put out.

The first shot is my custom 3D Cell Maglite sporting an XM-L T6 driven at 3A by 12V (3x18650) set on High mode. This light will be used as the comparison light to give you a reference for the ones that follow.

Next is The Micro Mag on High so you can easily compare it to it's big brother. Ceiling bounce gives the best way to visually compare the amount of light put out by a torch and I think the Micro really holds it's own compared to it's big brother!

Next is the Micro Mag on Medium.

This one is the Micro Mag on Low.

Now I'll show you the beam shots so you can see how large the hotspot is and compare it to the reference light. They are not blue at all in person, they just came out that way on camera for some reason.

First is the reference light, my 3D Mag on High. You can see the intense hotspot given by the large reflector combined with a very smooth and even spill.

Now here is the Micro Mag's beam on High. Since the hotspot is so much larger and not as intense, it would appear to be no where near as bright but as the ceiling bounce showed, the amount of light as a total from the broad center and distinguished zones of flood is really impressive. Clearly not a thrower, it's specialty is flooding.

Here are the two beams (High mode) next to each other in the same shot for a direct comparison.

Here is one last view again of both bounce results on high in a mouse-over view for easy comparison (more for my own curiosity)

I hope this helps to give an idea of what an impressive little torch this is. Thanks for looking! :)

How much would one cost?

I've sold others at $80 shipped but $70 is my current price and I include a nylon holster and a custom lanyard. PM me if interested and we'll see what we can work out.

So a P60 drop-in fits a AA Maglite? Hmm . . . opens up another avenue for modding for me! How much work is involved getting the drop-in into the Mag? Does the reflector fit, or just the heatsink? And if I were to cut down my own, would that tap be available at my local Lowes or Home Depot?

-Garry

It's called the Match mod there is a tutorial post around here somewhere that Match put up.You need a 25/32 drill bit and a drill press or a steady hand. You reuse the mag lights reflector after some minor trimming. I made a couple fire breathing mini mags they are great fun.

I think I came across that in the past, but don't remember it using a P60 drop in. I'll have to take another look.

-Garry

It doesn’t use the whole drop-in, just the pill itself. Match’s thread gives very detailed info on what’s needed to do the mod. I found the needed bits on ebay and other online places. You won’t find the stuff at your local hardware stores.

I'd LOVE to do a triple XP-G in a mini-mag! I saw Match's mod with the triple XP-G sometime ago and couldn't figure out which driver was used nor what was used for a heatsink. Is Match's triple XP-G the same thread you are referring to for use of the P60 pill? Or is there another. I haven't had time to look yet, been very busy at work (like I said in another thread, work always gets in the way!).

Oh, and yeah I want flood. I am finding more use for floody lights, although having a thrower or two in the toolbelt is good too. I'd also prefer a driver with at least two modes.

-Garry

Match used the same technique in his XP-G triple. The only difference is he made his own copper pill for better heat sinking. Same deal though.

I'm in the process of making an XP-G triple as well. I was just waiting for the right driver to come along. I think I might have it but am not ready to mess with it yet. One day soon though. ;)