# 4D Maglite LED Conversion



## Caligvla (Mar 18, 2008)

What's the best LED conversion for a 4D Maglite, quality and lumens are my main concern...

thanks


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## Stereodude (Mar 18, 2008)

Have you looked at the Malkoff drop ins?

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/


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## Gunner12 (Mar 18, 2008)

Malkoffdevices would be the one I'd recommend because they are regulated unlike the Elektrolumen drop-ins.

This one would be the brightest 1 LED drop-in and he also has a 4 LED one.


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## 2xTrinity (Mar 19, 2008)

Be warned, in the case of the quad, Alakaline "D" Cells can't sustatin the 3A draw required to run that thing. You'd need to buy NiMH D-Cells to drive it to its full potential. If you can afford $250 for the quad, you should also be able to afford $48 for low-self-discharge D-Cells (available here). That would give you a total over 800 lumens for over three hours... for only $300... 

The Malkoff Single is also a healty upgrade, and will work on Alkalines no problem.

The other optin would be to go for a custom quad build. You would need to buy:

Kaidomain Kennan drivers ($20 for 5, incase you destroy one)
Dealextreme Cree Quad optic ($4)
Heatsink, forget who sells them, around $12
Cree Q5s on stars, $40

And you'd still need the NiMH cells.

Note that this would be a VERY tedious and time consuming build, requring extensive soldering and epoxying if you do it yourself, with a high chance of failure (I know this from experience unfortunately...)


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## Caligvla (Mar 19, 2008)

http://cgi.ebay.com/TERRALUX-LUXEON...photoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

any thoughts on that one???


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## traildesaster (Mar 19, 2008)

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/190513
The only advantage would be using 7 LEDs or a Seoul P7.
But when it's coming to efficiency there is nothing better, imho.

Gruß td


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## Caligvla (Mar 22, 2008)

http://terraluxcorp.com/products/MiniStar30M.php?PHPSESSID=805fb4256cc73badddd46faef7ee966f

does anyone know about this terralux upgrade?


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## Isthereanybodyoutthere (Mar 22, 2008)

How would a Malkoff drop in ( for the mag) compare to a Aurora WF-600 Q5 2-Mode Cree LED Flashlight for lumen and throw 
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8537

The Malkoff drop in would be able to adjust focus ,, but would that really be needed ??


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## skyva (May 22, 2008)

I am a complete newbie at this so please keep that in mind.
I have a working but old 4 D cell maglite that I wanted to upgrade. I have 5 acres and like to know what critter is making that noise 30+m away in the dark. 

I bought a terralux Ministar30 (TLE-300) hoping to get some good light out of it, more throw than flood. However at present I cannot get the tle-300 head to connect to the threaded bulb holder, even though I am following the instructions. It appears that the threaded bulb holder is recessed too far into the body of the torch, and it will not connect. 

My maglite is old but I have not seen any info on their being different type of 4 D cell bodies, so who knows what the problem is.

When I get it working I will try to post some shots.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have sent an email to terraflux recently so it may be a couple of days before I get a response. 

Makes me wonder whether I can get some sort of extender for the bulb socket. I do not have the facilities to remove excess metal from the end of the body.


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## Gunner12 (May 22, 2008)

The Maglite can be disassembled with the right sized hex tool.

Does yours have a serial number or not?

This thread might help too.

:welcome:Skyva


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## skyva (May 22, 2008)

Thanks for the welcome. I received an answer from terralux. Basically they said it won't work on some older maglites. They said my only options were to return the tle-300 to the place of purchase, or buy a newer maglite.

I have to say I am somewhat dissapointed with their answer. It appears they knew of the issues yet failed to put anything on their website about compatibilty problems with older maglites. I read an advertisement from one of their distributors, and it says "For D cell Maglites ONLY. Will not fit C cell lights." 
As the ad never said it would work in C cell torches, I am surprised they put in this disclaimer but were slient on its failure to work with some D cell torches. Surely an upgrade kit like this is going to be used by people with old lights looking to get better poerformance from them with modern globes. 
I will reply and ask them to update their website as I can see many people being caught by this. Being in Australia it is lucky I didn't spend a fortune on postage, only about 2 hours of time so far.
To the OP, I would not suggest using this product if your torch is "old". They did not provide details how to work out what models are affected
Doesn't bode well for the rest of their products I guess.


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## [email protected] (May 23, 2008)

Caligvla said:


> http://terraluxcorp.com/products/MiniStar30M.php?PHPSESSID=805fb4256cc73badddd46faef7ee966f
> 
> does anyone know about this terralux upgrade?




To answer you specifically on that product... it's reportedly quite bright though you will lose one of the [email protected]'s best features namely focus ability, I imagine it would be a relatively floody beam pattern (compared to it's less powerful sibling TLE-6EX), for simple installation you can't go wrong with this one :thumbsup:


Personally should you put in extra effort and modifiy your [email protected] to a C-bin P7, you'd be more than compensated by it's massive 900L output compared to this products 500L (and you'd keep the ability to focus), it's also worth pointing out Alkaline batteries won't deliver a steady current like NiHMs will :devil:


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