I found this dark blue 2aa Mini Mag in Wal-Mart. I can't remember the last time I saw one that dark, so I took it home, to destroy it.
I am putting in a Nichia 219 3-up with TIR optic and a DrJones linear driver with ramping. In order to do that, I need to use a momentary switch, so I decided to try and put a SMD switch in the side of the body... Yes, a side switch in a minimag.
I made a little video of what I have done so far and when I finish it, I will update the video with the results.
Components:
- 2AA Mini-Mag
- 3- Nichia 219s on a triple star (parallel), from IS
- 3-up TIR optic from IS
- DrJones 3040mA driver with 3 chips added - 4 amps approx.
- Various copper pipe components and copper discs
- Aluminum rod stock for locating the switch and for the positive contact for the battery
- Switch cap from a cheapie light
- SMD switch
- Efest 14500 IMR battery
- Etc, Etc, Etc...
Here's the video teaser showing the start of this project:
Well, I am finishing this up with a few photos. As usually happens, once I get to finishing a mod, I don't want to stop and do a video, so a couple photos will have to suffice.
I was waiting for a couple things. One of them was some 3mm copper discs, but I just went ahead and made one of my "almost round" ones instead. Here it is soldered to the positive wire, before using AA to glue it in place.
Four wires are ground, positive and two for the SMD switch.
Ready to add the driver. I drilled and put in a pin, to hold the center aluminum shaft to the outer copper shaft.
Down inside I added a copper ring for the end of the insert to sit in, to help stabilize it.
The driver is in place. I didn't take a shot when I put the led star on. As you can see, there's not much room and I could not add more chips, so it's a 3040mA driver, or about 1 amp per led. Not the brightest light in the world, but it should be ok for a Mini.
Finished light
I didn't even have a clear TIR optic. This one is frosted and I polished it up a little. I have to get a clear one.
The IMR batteries have not come in yet, so all I have is a couple of "don't Trust Me" fire batteries. They can't put out the necessary amps, but at least it proves it works. This is on high.
Lowest setting. My camera will not reproduce the neutral white color of the leds. It just shows up as white, when they are shining directly on the sensor.
I will do beam shots when I get the Efest batteries, but that will be a couple weeks most likely. It's finished for all intents and purposes.
This particular SMD gives an audible click when pressing it. It sounds like a muted clicky... sort of, but quieter. It takes a fair amount of pressure to turn it on. I ended up using just the rubber button and a thin spacer, so the rubber pushes directly on the SMD switch. It was because of tight clearances. The old 10 pounds of ____ in a 5 pound box kind of deal.
The DrJones driver has two main modes - High and Medium and then there's ramping and the other modes he normally puts in. I ordered mine with just high and medium, since the ramping will set the light wherever a person likes.
Coupled with a DrJones driver where you can set high to be whatever you want you can actually make it more reasonable too. 
My guess is that you are below 3 amps in less than 4 minutes if used on 100% output.