Aspherical Maglite Mod

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I am back again with another Maglite mod! This time I will be using Aspherical lenses :smiley:

Previous Mods:
DX drop in Maglite Mod
MR16 3x3W Maglite Mod
Purple XM-L2 with Battery Monitor Maglite Mod

While I was in the planning stages of this one of my mates who I have done a previous Maglite mod for, asked me to do another. As I had already been talking about doing an Aspherical Mag mod he asked if I could do one for him at the same time. And of course I agreed.

My Specs:
Silver 2D Maglite.
XP-G2 on copper Noctigon.
Driver with L/M/H modes putting out 3A on high and capable of taking 2 Li-ions if need be.
Heatsink - for which I chose to used H22A heatsink developed for use with the Rebel reflector found in the new LED Maglites.
Aspherical lens.
Battery holder to take 6AA batteries for normal use.

The other build for my mate will be using the same parts except his Maglite is Black and he wanted an XM-L2 for more lumens despite the possible decrease in throw.
Unfortunately as I was in a hurry to complete his Maglite I didn’t manage to get many photos along the way. :frowning:

Once all of the parts were order and had arrived it was time to assemble.
First thing to do was to increase the size of the holes in the heatsink to allow for using thicker lower resistance wires.

After this it was time to attach the LED’s to the heatsinks using a two part thermal epoxy.


Once these were left to dry the driver was soldered to the LED and attached to the bottom of the heatsink with thermal paste.

In the image above you can see the thicker wires used to connect the driver to the switch. Unfortunately the wires were too stiff and broke the contacts on the driver which meant replacing the driver with a new one and using lower gage wires which were more flexible.

I was now able to assemble the LED, heatsink, driver and switch inside the body of the Maglite. The heatsinks were a smidge to wide for the body of the Black Maglite, which required some of the anodising inside the body to be removed.

Once they were all inside the body of the Maglites I discovered the Aspherical lens rattles a bit inside the head. To solve this I cut the top off the original reflector which then held the Aspherical lens tight against the bezel.

And now they are complete!!! :smiley:


I have tried to get some beam shots but was a complete waste of time due to me making a school boy error of not actually focusing the camera. So I will get you all some beam shots as soon as I can.

Hope you have all enjoyed reading this and I welcome any comments or questions.
Thanks and have a good day!

2

Very nicely done, indeed. Just curious though. Any reason why you didn’t de-dome the emitter? It would have doubled your throw.

3

Was tempted to de-dome but didn’t feel confident enough to do so. At some point I plan to upgrade the driver at that point I may de-dome the emitter!

4

I thought there wasn’t much to be gained from dedoming in aspherical lights? Just reduces spill and increases hotspot intensity a bit.

5

Oh no, not at all. I have modded a bunch of ashperical lights and it works the same as with a reflector. As with any light the intensity of the point of light increases the distance of the throw. Also it will not reduce the overall size of the spill on an aspheric light but of course the spill will be less bright. But if the intention is to get as many KCD’s out of the light de-doming does the same for an aspheric lens as with a reflector. Of course as with any light you will get an overall reduction of lumens of around 10 to 20 percent. So there is a tradeoff.

6

Oh and by the way, I love the light. I think it’s very sharp looking. So I’m really not trying to criticize at all. I was just curious because there is a trade off and preferences vary of course. For a lot of people they don’t like the tint of de-domed lights at all. I like the tint but only if I start out with a very cool white.

7

Thanks very much. With this mod I do want as much throw as possible which is why this XP-G2 is being pushed at 3A. When I get the confidence im sure I will end up de-doming

8

Use Gasoline. It is the best thing since sliced bread!! Before using the gasoline soaking method I was killing about half my emitters. Now I lose none of them as long as I don’t accidentally bump the little wires that are now exposed. Just soak the emitter in gas and after a few hours it will fall off. If it doesn’t fall off after a few hours give it some more time or pull it out of the gas and give it a gentle tap on something while holding it vertical. After the dome is off I just gently rinse mine under a flow of warm water. This really does the trick time after time. I have now de-domed 100’s of emitters without fail. It was the best discovery ever for me and throwers.

Congrats again on a super nice build. Great work!

9

Warm water terrifies me, I’d feel much more comfortable with isopropyl personally! I also picked up a bottle of LEDSeal, which can be applied to dedomed LEDs to protect them from surface events like this by laying down a thin layer of silicone.

10

The eye of sauron :smiley:

11

Another nice mod. Whats next after this one?

12

Thinking about Quad XM-L2 and a WRGB but with individual high end emitters :smiley:

13

Also when funds permit it wish to do a 3D Maglite with 3 triple Nichia boards to give 9 x 219 emitters and a driver using a dimmer to give any brightness between 0 - 100% :smiley: