At 700mA the 10mm star might be OK, but I’m pretty confident that the 10mm stars I referred you to are significantly worse than a standard aluminum MCPCB. (Which is significantly worse than a DTP board such as a SinkPAD-II or Noctigon v2 or etc.)
I’d just use a standard 7135 based driver with 3x7135. The Nanjg-AK47, 105c, etc.
Guess this would not really fit thr Luxeons then, 1400 mA: https://www.fasttech.com/p/1122401
This is the 1$ host that was modded with a: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1151300
Got 4.5 V out of the “driver” from one AA Alkaline so just soldered on the Osram instead of original LED and it works, don’t get hot at all?? Those Chinese cooks don’t make any sense to me :~
Even fits the plastic(!) pill and reflector by enlarging the hole a bit. Kept it in a glass of water for an hour and no dimming.
Waterproofed it by removing the clicky and siliconed the bottom. Bigger oring for body/head. Sanded down front of bezel and siliconed a glass lens on top.
It will be a perfect giveaway to guides/DM’s. Tiny, common battery and power enough to use at night.
I think I’m driving one at 1400mA or higher (probably 2A), but it’s not on an FR4 PCB!
I assume you measured with no LED attached. In the future do not do that. It is a boost driver. Some boost drivers will destroy themselves with no “load” (such as an LED). A current-controlled boost driver will continue attempting to increase the output voltage until the target current is reached. With no load (open circuit) of course it can never reach the target current, so some boost drivers will simply increase the voltage until the driver is destroyed (the maximum voltage of the discrete components is exceeded).
Aha, thanks a lot wight! Only measured very fast so don’t think i ruined something and it works fine with the cheap Osram now. It means they actually designed that cheap pos good then, wonder if i can drive it with a 14500? Need to get better on the electronics part, been a while since studying physics.
I would not attempt the use of a 14500 with a cheap unknown boost driver and a red LED. It will probably be DD, red Vf is low…
Finished 5 Maggies now, 2 white and 3 red. Love those as hosts, tiny and sturdy. Will show some light patterns but they are all basically wide and even. Some glass were frosted by sanding it down with fine sandpaper. The osram is a lot more red than the cheap P60s but also dimmer.
Wight> Got a 16mm Star that i could solder the Luxeon on?
The only DTP stars I know of for the Luxeon Rebel footprint are the SinkPad-II 20mm aluminum ones. At low drive currents it doesn’t matter though, you may as well use standard non-DTP… oh, I see that those are not actually available at the first few places I looked. 
Well, I still wouldn’t use FR4, I’d at least use an MCPCB of some kind. It’s possible to use a 16mm XM- Noctigon with some cutting and scraping, that’s what I did.
Will try a 10mm to start with. One of the white T6 Maggies got very hot in air but in water there’s no heat at all, not even lukewarm. Had a Canister light before, 12 V/4.5 Ah 50 W Halogen in plastic head, couldn’t even turn it on in air but in water it was cool like Fonzie.
Seems like they listened to wight and changed the FR4 to Sinkpad II 10 mm squares.
Now on the way to Sweden. Some of the Crustaceans and Cephalopods really liked the red cree, let’s hope the Luxeon is another love story.
Wow, those must be exclusive. They aren’t on the SinkPAD website.
[quote=roglebk]
My first post. Been hunting for the optimal focus and spotting light in terms of size, price, red light and evenness of beam and there’s not a lot to choose from if not wanting to spend 100s of $ on a FIX or Sola. The fixation to Red light is the fact that lots of Crustaceans (shrimps crabs and so on) only come out at night and really dislike white light but can’t see red light with wavelenghts over aprox 600 nm.quote]
I just found this:
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1987 Sep 15;147(2):747-52.
Near infra-red sensitivity of the eye of the crustacean Mysis relicta?
Lindström M, Meyer-Rochow VB.
Abstract
When individuals of the crustacean Mysis relicta are fully dark-adapted and preparations for electroretinogramme recordings are performed in infra-red light of wavelength greater than 730 nm, responses to 300 ms flashes of light can be recorded. Though this is the first time that responses to such long wavelengths have ever been reported for any invertebrate photoreceptor, the authors suggest that near infra-red sensitivity in arthropods could be more widespread, and that because of very long adaptation and sensitivity regeneration times preparations should not be carried out in red light, hitherto deemed invisible to most arthropods, but with the aid of an infra-red image converter and a filter at wavelengths greater than 800 nm.
fyi
That is very interesting Ronin. Been searching after some written proof that red light can’t be seen by some marine creatures. Seems like it stems from Aquarists that used red light to observe and photograph skittish Crustaceans and could well be another “rat in the pizza” myth.
Do a lot of night diving and on some crustaceans it seem to work. Esp Gnathophyllum (Bumblebee Shrimps) are extremly light sensitive. Some Species don’t mind the white light at all so red is overkill anyway. Octopus and Reef squid seem to mind the red less than white.
Red is dimmer so it might be why. It also makes it very hard to find and focus on the critters, the reefscape looks flat. Use manual focus so no idea if the camera have problems with autofocus but according to divebuddies AF works fine with red.
Here’s some shots from this years trip: https://www.facebook.com/carljohan.nilsson.75/media_set?set=a.799088933474354.1073741848.100001197658091&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/carljohan.nilsson.75/media_set?set=a.782577435125504.100001197658091&type=3
Testing will continue…
All 5 maggies, both red and white, gets dimmer after 2-10 minutes of use. Components was mostly from Q5 and T6 P60s recycled from cheap 18650 driven divelights since i bought red P60s for those. Batteries are both Sanyo UR14500 and some kind of Ultrafire and which one does not seem to matter. They get warm in air but not at all in water so guess not heat related. They do not dim with 18650s in plastic host.
Any idea why?
Also looking for pill/LED/driver for 1 AAA maggie mod, any tips? No need for optics and longer time is prio over power.
Is there any Japanese made Li 10440, or at least better ones than Singfire BRC/Ultrafire 600 (300) mAh?
How deep do you dive with the Minimag’s?
Deepest was 42 m but seldom more than around 35, not a lot of critters we search for live that deep.
Basically all o-rings and plastic glass has been changed. One of ’em got a thick plano convex lens from a broken Nikkor camera lens, that one would be good for at least a coup 100 m.
One had a small leak due to sealing area between lens and top of head corroded from saltwater, probably because the bezel o-ring leaked first. This area has been sanded down to accommodate the thicker glass so the anodizing is gone.
Now they are torn down and soon upgraded with better drivers and Luxeon LED’s. Will permanently attach the glass/bezel/head for better seal.
With the chop mod of micromags it’s possible to permanently seal the tail and bezel and only keep the head loose for twisty operation. Do you add an extra o-ring between the head and tube?
Yup, tail is sealed, are all top loaded. Some bezels will be permanently sealed (w silicone), some kept as is for possible upgrade. Added an o-ring inside glass so there’s 3 o-rings for sealing bezel/head/glass, not optimal but so far only one leaked a bit. Only one o-ring for head/body but slightly thicker/smaller dia than original.