2AA MiniMag MULE easy and cheap. Just need 1/2in copper cap and P60 driver and board.

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Silver 2AA Incandescent Maglites….$9 each. NO Drilling of Bezel Required. With 17mm driver board for battery contact w/spring.

You can’t fit a reflector unless you bore the inner diameter but to keep it fast, simple, and easy I went MULE style.

Needless to say any LED on 16mm copper board is the way to go. FYI: I tried the 1/2in copper caps from plumbing section and they are almost exact diameter as P60 pills. I tried one and it too worked.

This is for 2AA Incandescent Maglites: Drill the tube to allow the AA cells or 14500’s to slide freely

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Choose the 1/2inch plug. The plug I cut to 8mm height and hammered the top flat. Either way accepts the 17mm board and 16mm stars.
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That is pretty much it. Nothing more but putting parts together now:

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NOTE: Factory Incandescent tailcap will work perfectly with no modding needed.
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Works like a charm with 1/2 copper cap engine or in the picture below the P60 type pill(which vary too much, so 1/2cap is way to go):

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2

For Testing only I used an XML2 but I am waiting for MTG2 & XHP70 to swap in there. With MTG2 I will power it by 2 IMR 14500’s for 2000~3000 Lumens……hopefully.

Note: the XML2 with 3.6V input via L92 primaries does 800mAh at the tailcap in my Direct Drive light Engine. Yet, is likely too bright for close up work. Maybe a low voltage driver to reduce the output a bit.

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Wow. A mod even I can do!

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would love to have one of these with an MT-G2 emitter. Could one have a special driver in this with lots of modes?

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yes, its called the mtnelectronics single sides FET Driver, but its $13~$15 bucks. 5 modes is standard.

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One thing I may add is that if you have a colored hosts you have to sand the interior to remove the anodizing. I find only the silver color mags don’t need this. This is true for my C and D Silver Mag builds too.

Another thing to keep in mind some p60 pills are slightly thicker than others. Worse case scenario you sand a tiny bit off the inner diameter, just not too much. You want a press fit.

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I purposely choose Silver colored MiniMag to avoid doing the removal paint inside the bezel.
I purposely choose a Mule set-up to avoid drilling the bezel with an expensive $17 dollar drill bit.

Best,
bigC

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Looks like your on a roll this month BigC. Thanks for sharing.

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I got inspired by you. :bigsmile:

I am adding a 1A low .9v~4.2V driver to the XML2 in this review, which is the driver similar to what the Solarforce low voltage drivers use. So, that should give me 1A to the XML2, which is better than my current DD set-up. Unless I add another cell via the extension I have 8)

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I will re-iterate it here again. I think you should offer a MiniMag Drop-in. I think many people here would find it appealing.
Specs could be:
–8mm tall heatsink x 18mm~20mm diameter (stock incan headspace)
-likely a narrow 16mm board fits best vs. standard 17mm. I think it allows the pill to fall slightly deeper with less fuss.

  • Offer 2 variants.
    ———————————The OMG XHP70 FET DD with 2 14500’s ———
    ———————————The EDC with 1A low voltage Driver, likely WARM XPG2
    ———————————Plastic sleeve/Centering ring you put over the LED to allow the glass to sit on like what I have in my pictures.

I think a lot of people here and at CPF would love to see this option.

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Also, if you can find them, the Brinkmann 3xAA lights are very, very similar.

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Very nice mod, now I will have to dig out some old incandescent Mini Mags…. Or buy a new one to mod…. This looks great.

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Hmmm, I have half a dozen P60 pills and none of them fit down into any of the several incandescent M@g AA heads.
They won’t go deep enough to put the bezel back on, without some drilling out of the head or filing of the pills.
How’d you do that?

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+1

argh!!

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Try getting a 1/2 copper cap. Cut it with a hand saw just make it 8mm tall or so. You can transfer over your LED and driver from your P60 pill. That’s my 2nd pill.

bigC

14

Oh, I don’t have P60 pills with emitter and driver, I have several bare metal ones.
I’m just asking, how did you get your P60 pills to fit into a M@g 2xAA head without drilling it out?
I know I can do the plumbing thing.

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The P60 pill if it wont drop right in. I suggest the less expensive route which is the copper 1/2 CAP at $1.75 or so.

1/2 Copper Cap route—-I think is cheaper and easier:
——Hammer top flat. A couple good wacks !
——hand saw and cut to 10mm tall
——Sand smooth both ends. You might end up with 7~8mm overall height, which is about what you want.
——I epoxy a 17mm board on bottom (tried to solder but I suck at copper soldering)
——Artic Adhesive a 16mm copper board with LED of choice

Here you can see my 17mm board is just used for +/- since I am building it direct drive. I just need to put a spring.

P60 pill and copper cap in my hand in this picture.
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You can see the positive is straight from the copper 16mm XML2 board. I will be putting a P60 spring today and that’s it.
Actually planning on running it direct drive. I have a 3AA LED Maglite which in that one I can actually use the reflector, but in my Incan heads its a mule.

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I think this is still an easy mod but only for those that solder.

Since P60 engines vary in height and diameter. The best choice is to go with the 1/2 Copper CAP.

1/2 copper cap, well you get copper heatsink at less than $2.00
If you have a P60 drop-in, you can transfer your driver/board onto the 1/2cap once you get it 8mm tall and flatten the top.

bigC