I had to borrow dads pickup a couple days ago and noticed his beat up old 2D maglite rolling around in the drivers door compartment, so I stole it… With the intent to upgrade and return it for his upcoming birthday. I’ve wanted to play with an MT-G2 for a while now so I figured this would be a good opportunity to do so. The thing is dad is getting older and had a mini stroke a couple years back so I’m not really sure what I can trust him with. I’ll monitor and charge the batteries for him but would an MT-G2 running off an FET driver with a turbo timer be ok for him? Or should I stick with a 7135 driver at 3 amps. I wouldn’t mind going the 7135 route as long as it will still be an impressive amount of light but if I can run it direct and the output is significantly higher without melting down that would be fine as well.
Anyway thanks for reading and any input from any of you who has experience with the MT-G2 is greatly appreciated.
PS. My time frame is limited so waiting for stuff from China isn’t an option this time. I plan to order the LED from mtn electronics so if the driver came from him as well it would be ideal but another us seller or a Blf member would be viable options as well. Thanks again.
My vote is for a 7135 driver with low voltage cut off and no turbo. 3 amps is plenty for the MT-G2 and I would think he probably would not need or possibly appreciate blinding light from a FET on turbo. Just my thought. Also, if he is old school, he might just be happy with the stock 3 modes of a Qlite driver. I think Richard has them for 6V and set up for low voltage cut off for safety. Are you going to use the Maglite LED reflector, or the Incan reflector? I would highly recommend the LED reflector stippled over the Incan stippled. Just my thoughts.
Driver Flash with Standard Nlite firmware for 3 modes, OR With Star off time with or without memory Add a couple of extra 7135s if you want a little more than 3A, but I think 3A is plenty.
MCPCB You need the larger diameter mcpcb if using either of the stock Mag reflectors. Once you trim off the bottom cone from the reflector, it will just clear the wire contacts with a 26mm mcpcb. With a 20mm, it will hit them and you will have to shorten the reflector at the led end, to make the hole bigger. I just like the larger copper mcpcb for this application.
At 3A its still twice the wattage of 3V led any of which would blow away the stock set up. Keep it simple and make sure its done in time. Any DD set up will probably be overkill. You can add a chip or two, use a 12chip driver, add a slave board, or whatever to bump the amps a controlled amount. An LD-2 driver is also an option you can set max with choice of sense resistor.
Thanks OL and RBD. That’s exactly the info I was looking for. I have a rebel reflector I planned on leaving smooth but if you suggest I stipple it I suppose I’ll give it a try. Always trust the experts right?
One last. Thing I forgot. The acrylic lens from flashlightlens.com should be up to the task for this correct? I don’t want to worry about broken glass WHEN it gets dropped. Thanks.
Should be more resistant to breakage than glass but less scratch resistant. Best place to look for big maglite mods is in OL’s build threads, he’s the master.
The stock lens would also be fine. Not enough loss to ever notice by any means, unless your dad checks with a lux meter and a lot cheaper to replace too.
Reflector,
Try it smooth and then you will see why you might want it stippled.
