My Micro "Mac"-light, a single 14500 driven minimag based on Match's simple emitter mod with a shortened battery tube to avoid using a dummy battery and to make a truly pocketable Maglite at only 3.6" (91.4mm) long.
This baby is driven by a 3500mA 5-mode driver putting current to a T6-1A emitter and out of a Carclo TIR lens. Since this is just my first quick prototype, it is running out of a standard P60 pill but is fully heatsinked with arctic silver, tightly wrapped in aluminum foil for a snug press fit into the head. The head where the pill goes has a thin layer of arctic silver as well. Heat conducts through the head wonderfully and, as you can imagine, will get very hot of left on high. Future builds will have solid slug aluminum heatsinks.
This is a floody light and with 800+ lumens OTF it will light up the whole back yard and even lights up a tree line at least 100yds from my house. Solid modes are spaced at 10%>45%>100% plus a fast strobe and perfect SOS (not sure how to remove them from this driver or if it's even possible).
This new light is my baby and I'm mighty proud of it! Solid in the hand with all the clean lines and reliability of the Maglite, it just feels special in your hand. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when I tightened up all the parts for the first time and everything fit as planned and worked even better!
Now that I have all the tools needed for this mod I am ready to make more, both for myself and anyone else that is interested and can't do it themselves. Here are the rest of my pics for you to check out and hopefully enjoy as much as I enjoyed making it. ;)
I have so many mini mags it's ridicules, what is the trick to making a shorty? I have a couple match modded mini mags my KD XML drop in one with 2 14500s is my favorite. Great job.
Thanks! What drop-in did you use? I can’t find a 2.8A+ multi-mode driver in 17mm that takes 8.4V to save my butt. I went the bobbed route because I hated having a dummy battery (and because it’s just looks cool).
I was tempted to cut one down and JB Weld the end on, since you can load the batteries through the front once the match mod is done. I can't find the right size tap. What size tap do you use?
It took me quite a while to find out what the size and threading is on those. It’s a very non-standard British type, 5/8-28G (50 degree pitch), however, a standard 5/8-28 (60 degree pitch) works nicely.
I have a single mode XML I got from DX that works with 2 Duraloops, it has an oddball driver that will run down to 0 volts. I tried to get more but they changed the driver.
Excellent work! I can’t decide if I like the exterior (shortened) look of it the most, or the specs of what’s inside and what it’s capable of! Are you taking orders, lol? paypal can be on the way pre-build for materials
Very nice work, JohnnyMac... That looks like it turned out pretty well! By looking at the front, I'm guessing you used the 20mm TIR narrow? If you don't like the looks of the square-ish beam and artifacts, try a frosted wide lens....I'm really digging those.
How many twists of the top head are you able to retain?
Thanks, Match! I don't care for the square beam much. This is my first TIR lens, are they all like that due to the square emitter? Outside you don't notice it, just indoors. How much light is lost OTF with the frosted?
As for twists, not sure, I don't have it on me at the moment but I will check. The o-ring is well within the head and I have had no issues at all. I will be testing the stock reflector with an xm-l shortly. With an xr-e it works great. Real nice beam and shorter, I think, than the single TIR lens. Added benefit is you can keep the original lens for good water proofing.
Ya, agreed on the square-ish looking beam....not my favorite. However, the Frosted narrow mellows this out a bit, and the frosted wide completely eliminates it. Testing a TIR against a reflector back to back in the same host is something I haven't done yet, but from what I have done I'd say light loss is a tad more than what is spec'd on their website. 10% would probably be close... more so with the frosted, and less so with the clear. Despite that, the frosted wide is one of my favorites, and gives an amazing flood with an xm-l. Impressive and usefull enough that I need to build myself another now (the origional was given away...probably still stuck in Canadian post).
Again, good job on a very clean and functional mod! Btw, are you using IMR 14500's?
Thanks again, Match! I will probably give a frosted wide a shot. I like floody lights and the XM-L’s have so much output that they still throw in spite of the lens. As to batteries, no IMR’s…just regular 14500 trustfires. I don’t run it on high long enough to get the battery hot but there is definitely a stronger output when the battery is fresh. I usually use it on low or medium. High is just silly.
I have some new drivers enroute to my place that I will be testing with the XM-L emitters. Overall output won't be as high but I think with the XM-L I can get 1.2A-1.4A and 5-modes off of two 14500 cells. Will make the minimags a run for hours light and still put out 500ish lumens. I'll let you know how they work out for me. Let's see if I can find a link for you...