High-powered LED Mag-lite Conversion

This instructable will show how to take an ordinary Mag-lite flashlight and modify it to hold 12--10mm high-powered LEDs. This technique can also be applied to other lights as I will show in future instructables.

Step 1 Tools Needed

Tools Required:

12--10mm High-Powered LEDs (I bought mine from besthongkong on eBay)
Corresponding resistors
Insulated wire (preferably ~20ga)
Soldering Iron
Solder
Thin plastic (preferably clear and flexible, I used PETG from a local supplier)
Electrical Tape
Scissors

Tools Recommended:

Wire stripper
Small pliers
Side-cutting pliers

Comments

[ac-dc]

There is no need to break the bulb. The contact at the end that touches the batteries can be heated with the iron then quickly shook sideways to fling off the solder, then grasping the bulb the solder point on the side can be melted allowing the whole bulb to slide out whole.

[rbormann]

Ok, but.. what for???

[ac-dc]

1) So there is no need to deal with sharp broken glass fragments.

2) When you heat the socket end of the bulb to melt the solder, you're leaving behind a hole to slip the new wire through for more durability so it's a s step you'd take anyway when soldering in the wire... so essentially you are skipping an unnecessary step, there is simply no reason to break the bulb.

Perhaps you should try it both ways to see what I mean.

[LinuxH4x0r]

I was going to do this with mine, except with red leds (I have tons from a stoplight). I use formica samples and a drill press to make my own boards. it really helps to keep them all pointing the same direction. Nice Instructable!

[howboutitbru]

leds are in stoplgihts?

[wittzo]

We have a few stoplights in town that are LED powered, but the coolest thing we have on the end of my main road at a dangerous intersection is a stop sign that has a bunch of red LED's around it's edge. It has a solar panel that charges a battery for night time. The LED's slowly flash so you can miss the sign. There are tons of intersection warning lights that have solar panels to power their flashing lights so the county didn't have to tap into the main power and get charged by the power company. A guy somewhere in MS invented it, but they're all over the place now.. Cadillac and some higher end European cars started the trend using LED's in their third brakelight, since it's a pain to replace bulbs in. It allows them to make a sleeker light unit, but I've seen few in town that have dead LED's, that's got to be a pain to replace and a nuisance to think that your $XXK car has a 20 cent bulb burned out that will cost $XXX to replace the whole unit...

[totally_screwed]

LEDs have been in some high level stoplights for about a decade or so. My 1998 VW Golf had a LED high level brake light. They are becoming more common as a general replacement for stop, side and indicator lamps. They certainly are fairly common on newer models of some cars, but they still don't seem to be universal, except in large goods vehicles, where reliability and low maintenance due to the huge MTBF of 100 000 hoursare more important than unit cost and LEDs are now dirt cheap anyway.

[LinuxH4x0r]

No, I meant in traffic signals sort of like this (mine is dialight)

[totally_screwed]

We have had LED traffic signals in the UK for around a decade, but they're still in a minority. Near us some LED signals have been installed and reinstalled repeatedly, and then were replaced with incandescent lamps. I think they may have been problematic. I now get the impression they're becoming more common. It's easy to determine the difference between LEDs and filament lighting, the LEDs are instantly on (visually), whereas the filament lights take time to reach working temperature. (probably around a tenth of a second or so). The LED traffic signals (at least the ones I've seen in the UK all use a matrix of LEDs like those in LinuxH4x0r's picture)

[Yerboogieman]

in the US i havent seen a regular light in a stoplight for a while until the other day, it looked way different

[MustangChris429]

I understand that. Some time within the last 10 years, they've started putting LED traffic signals in Minnesota too. I was just wondering where LinuxH4x0r got their hands on one :)

[MustangChris429]

Where did you get it? I'd be interested...

[LinuxH4x0r]

I got mine when mndot (I lived in minnesota all of my life until a few months ago whan I moved to santa fe, NM) changed the lights near my friend's house. (he lives in moundsview, but the lights had a sticker on them that said 65 and bunker hill) I got a working one and one that didn't work so I scrapped it for the leds (~190 of them). I stil have the other one, but it still is in minnesota. The one in the picture isn't mine, mine tas a much rounder standard stoplight look to it. If you want one try DOT auctions or just ask when they are changing the lights.

[MustangChris429]

Thanks! That's actually really close to where I am now at Bethel :)

[LinuxH4x0r]

Thats in Arden hills if I remember right. I lived in shoreview, right next to the mndot place and the (former) ammunition factory. If you are interested in MNDOT auctions they are right next to county rd I and 35W and are usually on saturday mornings.

[unclex6]

all most all the lights are leds in Ga.

={) <- man with a mustache

[sivboy]

Hey man, Finally got the nerve to get moving on my LED conversion for my 6 C-cell Mag Light. Works great I must say. The only issue I have with it overall is that when putting the housing on, and taking it off, the wires twist together, and sometimes snap, then it's back to the solder gun. I was just showing it to a friend of mine, but now that that's over, I'm not taking the housing off for noone! Appreciate the instructable, and thank you.

[GorillazMiko]

DANG!!! NICE! freaking awesome, maybe me and a friend will try this, maybe not

[MustangChris429]

Thanks for the enthusiasm!

[la3bna]

Do you know if this will work on the mag-charger? If it works im def. going to make it

[DELETED_Right Key Repair]

(removed by author or community request)

[gnasty gnork]

I got one of those but it did not include the push button. I have it for about 2 or 3 years. The led part of the unit works perfectly but I don't know about this push button thing but my led thing works fine.

[Yerboogieman]

what do you mean "night eyes" conversion kits?

[Yerboogieman]

http://www.dannyg.com/examples/res2/resistor.htm
use this link if you have resistors but dont know they're value

[Yerboogieman]

now try a mini maglite

[omanah]

do you have one for sale? i'd be interested, i work at night so this would be of great interest to me.

[maxmutant1]

For a LED current limiting resistor calculator
now and in the future, you can get LED resistor values by going to:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/LEDcalc.html

[silverpapermaker]

i made this sort of maglite hack before but i got one of the biggest like 2 1/2 foot 1s and fit like 14-16 bulbs in

[DELETED_lsloan]

(removed by author or community request)

[MustangChris429]

Sorry, I would if I had the capability. If you have any ideas for how, I might consider it.

[maxmutant1]

Get pdf creation by downloading it at: www,pdfcreator.com Rich

[triksmada]

Great write-up and thoughtful replies. Does anyone know if modified headlights using LED arrays are acceptable to highway use? I had an old 6-volt VW bus that could have used these things.

[ac-dc]

Batteries in series don't have additive mAH capacity. In any combination there is still only 12K mAH.

Unfortunately from the mag LED spec you list, your LED conversion does not put out as much light as the original bulb did. The reason it looks brighter is because it is blue light in a room with more yellowish ambient light, plus the original maglight was more focused. Regardless, increasing the efficiency, I mean runtime, is still reason enough to do the mod.

Again, the light output is not really 12'. Most of the usable light will be within about 36'.

I roughly estimate your light puts out about 100 lumens, so I was wrong in a previous comment that it's not as bright, it is as bright as some Mag xenon bulbs, but this is only if my estimate does not count light-reducing heat, battery drain which redues current to the LEDs, or LED aging. We can probably ignore the LED aging unless you had a very regular use of the light to put many hours on it, and even then the savings in batteries more than makes up for cost to replace the LEDs at some point.

Check out the http://www.dealextreme.com website, they have many nice high powered 1-3W LEDs separate or including a reflector set that would drop in to a flashlight and produce more light, more efficiently.

[MustangChris429]

Whoa...lots of comments. I realize now the mAh capacity doesn't add. Thanks. Also, the light fits within 12 degrees (mostly), but the brightest part is really around 5-10 degrees. I didn't use PCB because this is supposed to be a cheap, easy thing that anyone can do. By my own experimentation, the LEDs throw off WAY less heat than the original bulb did, so I see the heatsinking as a little excessive. Again, this is not supposed to be the ultimate flashlight, but a cheap, easy way to improve the regular old Mag-lite that many people have lying around. Thanks for the tips on where to find more powerful LEDs--if this instructable proves to be as popular as it has been, I might have to check out your lead! Also, the assembly is as waterproof as it originally was, so there is no need to epoxy anything, and the array is held in place simply by pressure...it doesn't shake around at all.

[ac-dc]

THe LEDS really do not shine mostly within 12 degrees, see the Besthongkong chart, it is at least +-12' which is 24' minimum but you see on the chart that there is a lot of light left out of that 24' pattern. Yes the LEDs produce less heat but the important thing is they are susceptible to heat when the bulb is not (Much at all). They will get hot and that reduces light. Don't get me wrong that light is nice, and I'm sure if you're like the rest of us you will be building many more lights in the future so I'm just throwing out some ideas.

[MustangChris429]

Thanks, it seems that you really do know your stuff. What I said comes from my personal [very un-scientific] testing. I just took an estimate of the spread size at a known distance and noticed that it seemed the majority of the light seemed to be at about a 7 or 8 degree spread. Also, it stands to reason that if the 12 degree is the 3dB threshold, there would be significantly more light at 7 degrees than at 12 degrees. Just a thought.

[ac-dc]

The reflector would be helpful, the LEDs don't actually focus in a 12' beam, that is only the degree measurement of the brightest part, there is still significant light output outside of 12 degrees. However, if the flashlight does not need great distance illumination, many peoploe find a wider than 12' beam more useful for navigation, like inside their home if the power goes out they don't need a tight beam much but rather to see more around them.

[mark_gober]

LED light focus measurements are taken at the points where the power is half it's peak. In other words, they find the brightest point (typically directly in front of the LED) and them move laterally until the power is half as bright. In this instance it would be 6 degrees. 6 degrees for the left and 6 degrees for the right equals twelve degree focus. (Incidentally, these two points are known as the 3db points) So you have half of your overall output in a tight 12 degree pattern and the other half is spread out over the remaining 168 degrees from the base of the led. Needless to say, there is actually very little light outside of the main beam. And most of what is outside is very close to the original 12 degree beam. I'm sure the author can attest to this by merely shifting the beam slightly off center. The intensity rapidly diminishes. This handy for a flashlight though. With traditional LED lights, the tighter the beam, the brighter the intensity of the LED.

[MustangChris429]

That's exactly right...very little light can be seen anywhere except for the 12 degrees straight ahead. Thanks for the knowledgeable insight!

[ac-dc]

That's because the room is lit. In a pitch black room I have plenty of flashlights using 5mm encapsulated leds with roughly 12' center beam, and while it is much brighter than the rest because of it being centered, if you were to reflect the rest of the light into the center that is spread out along the rest of the axis, you would find there was more light lost than you realize.