# Super Mac Ti EDC (2,500 lumens triple XPL)



## ghos (Jan 20, 2016)

*Super Mac Ti EDC *UPDATE (4x Nichia 219b)*

Hi all,

A quick update on the Mac Ti EDC, now its







After a long while my mac gone through a major update, whilst at first it was running a triple XP-L setup, I realised after a while what i really wanted was a high cri pocket rocket (which currently is being fulfilled by my V10R triple nichia 219b), however, due to cutting of the optics and perhaps the battery, light output is not as bright as i would like and the tint is slightly off (though still looks nice), so I have since been on the tint hunt

One day, whilst I was playing around with a Manker E14 (Quad nichia 219b and 18350) from a local flashlight shop and found out it had a REALLY nice tint, as in, really nice even when comparing with my other nichia lights, of course this is subjective but i personally felt the E14 setup was the perfect light for me

Driver is using a BLFA6 driver (eg, 7mode/4mode), FET + 1

So after buying it I went back to play around with it, they seemed to use a really strong thread lock and I had to heat it up and use strap wrenches to remove the head

After removing the optic, I was surprised how small it was, I had seen other quad optics before but they are bigger then this, a quick measure with calipers (about 22mm-ish) indicated it "might" fit into my mac with a little 1 or 2mm of filing, which should not affect the beam as much

The original mac ti edc is suitable for this as it was originally meant to house a reflector with SST50, in fact a triple optic can slightly move around when assembled, meaning there is actually some allowance

This is the optic after slight filing and is able to fit snuggly into the mac, as you can see, the optic is mostly intact, I have ordered a few replacement optics so I can rebuild the Manker once it arrives






So i decide to do a simple transplant to the mac, the quad star (it seems to be a special quad star that can't seem to be purchased separately) and quad optic and driver.

Replacing the driver and star is straightfoward, only the optic has to be modified to fit, and due to the thickness of the optics, the sapphire lens can no longer be used (unless i shave away the copper pill) otherwise the light cannot fully screw in






Here is it stacked on the body






And complete!!






Here it is with the new extended multiple emitter family






And with the inkosi






Cheers all!


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Original Post 21 Jan 2016

Hi all,

After a long time searching, I finally bought another of one my most wanted lights, the Ti Mac EDC!! Its exactly what I had hoped for, I chose this Mac version due to its smooth bezel and is slightly longer then the Mac Tri, 

This version accepts a 18350 cell, which is required for the build I am going to attempt (IMR AW 18350 15C max discharge, or about 12A), I realized due to the current limitations of the 16340 cells (4A?) I use for my other lights (eg, haiku), its not possible to go beyond brightness due to cell current limitations






The longer head also allows it to house the Tri copper conversion pill from Mick (Mcbrat), has much more mass then the standard mac Tri pills, and can sink more heat (but it does weight more, the pill itself weights 80g)






After removing and cleaning the interior of the head, I prepared a FET + 7135 driver taken from my BLF-A6, its a 7/4 mode driver which makes use of a FET and 7135 regulator, on the low and moonlight modes, the drivers uses the efficient 7135 regulator to control output, on high or turbo modes, the driver switches to the FET, for nearly 100% output similar to direct drive. Another cool thing about this driver is that the modes can move backwards, by slow clicking the light

I soldered a copper spring to the light to allow for less resistance







Sticking the driver to the massive 80g Copper Tellurium pill by Mcbrat






My triple XPL-Hi 4000k has not arrived, so I scavenged a dedomed triple XPL on a noctigon from an old project (notice the crappy soldering )






Putting it all together..






Its done!! I stuck glow tape under the carclo optics legs, don't have a tiny drill so haven't got a chance to stick tritium in them yet






This thing is literally a light cannon, using a fully charged AW IMR 18350 cell, this thing can smoke newspapers and dark colored surfaces
The light does get a little warm on turbo, but due to the large copper core, it can go much longer before become too hot to hold







Finally, the perfect edc setup with the haiku!! One for throw and general use, one for flood and pure power!! And one for cutting paper and opening boxes 







And joining the Ti modded family, with the battery and copper pill, the Mac weights quite a bunch, its actually heavier then my larger 2x18350 Pocket Rocket! 






Added some beamshots






Thanks for reading!!


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## DellSuperman (Jan 20, 2016)

Awesome... I missed out on a brass version recently. Still feeling sore. Haha.. Question, who did u get the light from?


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## badtziscool (Jan 20, 2016)

VERY nice mod to the Mac EDC. I agree with you. The Mac EDC, to me, is the best looking of the Mac lights. The proportions are just right, and thanks to Mcbrat, you can have a triple in an EDC format.


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## ghos (Jan 20, 2016)

DellSuperman said:


> Awesome... I missed out on a brass version recently. Still feeling sore. Haha.. Question, who did u get the light from?



Hey bro, its the same person who sold the Triple conversion pill, Mick! He packaged the deal together with the light

The light took about 7 days to reach singapore, quite fast

I've been eagle-eyeing the forums quite sometime, didn't see any Ti macs for sale, but did see a couple of aluminium and brass ones, they move fast, so will need to keep checking for the ones that go on sale


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## mcbrat (Jan 20, 2016)

Looking good. Yes. The conversion pill is heavy. Imagine that pill in the copper edc! (that's my setup)


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## jonwkng (Jan 20, 2016)

Nicely done, *ghos*!

Congratulations on getting the Mac! Nice triple conversion!


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## DellSuperman (Jan 20, 2016)

Oh man.. Congrats on getting the mac!


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## THE_dAY (Jan 20, 2016)

Awesome work ghos, love your mods!


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## archimedes (Jan 20, 2016)

Always enjoy seeing your mods ... wow !


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## Thetasigma (Jan 20, 2016)

Damn that is a nice looking light, perhaps my favorite one I have ever seen. Nice work putting her back together as a barn burner.
Wish I had the chance to have acquired a Mac, they are too damn expensive secondhand.


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## Exeter354 (Jan 20, 2016)

Great job! Thanks for sharing!!

I got a few of Mick's great cu pills as well and as soon as I have a moment, I'll build them out. They are awesome!


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## D2000 (Jan 22, 2016)

Wow. Holy guacamole. I didn't know you could get such intensity out. I'd love to do the conversion on mine! But it's not the long head. Just a regular aluminium Tri. Can you post some beamshots or night photos and a estimate on run times? I assume the turbo 2500lm would only be for a short time only.


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## mcbrat (Jan 22, 2016)

if you have a copper pill in a regular Tri, you can drive those harder...

Ghos, nice work! I think mine may be direct drive now... not sure, I should test it. I had a qlite 3.04A driver, but did something bad with my soldering iron, and it's just a single mode, triple XPL, and it's bright!


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## ghos (Jan 22, 2016)

Hey guys, thanks!! Been using it daily ever since its been modded, feels really heavy and solid!!

The light this thing puts out is ridiculous, you can actually feel the heat of the light by pointing at at your skin.. I can light up a whole tree at night, just puts a smile on my face everytime that wall of light comes out 

I'm considering changing them to triple nichia 219c while waiting for my 4000k xpl-hi (claimed to have a 80+ cri), next mods would probably be to add a tritium carclo and a to replace the dead tritium in the screws


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## ghos (Jan 22, 2016)

D2000 said:


> Wow. Holy guacamole. I didn't know you could get such intensity out. I'd love to do the conversion on mine! But it's not the long head. Just a regular aluminium Tri. Can you post some beamshots or night photos and a estimate on run times? I assume the turbo 2500lm would only be for a short time only.



Will try to post some beamshots tonight, will try a tree and compare with my haiku..

Well the turbo is meant to be used in short bursts, triple XPLs drain a 18350 cell really quickly, a burst of 10 seconds can drain as much as 5% of the cell's capacity, of course, being direct drive when in turbo, it gradually dims and lowers the drain

When using the lower modes, it switches to the 7135 regulator instead, which is much more efficient, i believe at its lowest moonlight mode it can last for days


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## ghos (Jan 22, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> if you have a copper pill in a regular Tri, you can drive those harder...
> 
> Ghos, nice work! I think mine may be direct drive now... not sure, I should test it. I had a qlite driver, but did something bad with my soldering iron, and it's just a single mode, triple XPL, and it's bright!



Yeah, the copper really makes a difference, it sinks the heat faster, allowing the LED to remain cooler and remain at higher power levels longer

Heh the Mac is doing really well now!! 

Hmm then you have essentially what I have on turbo, its DD, could be a LED or driver short, try with the LED and driver dangling outside the light and see if output is fixed, sometimes when I do that it doesn't happen anymore, means something was shorting it or the driver is probably dead

I'm still figuring out how to remove the reflector from the original pill so I can remove the SST-50 and replace it with another SST50 or a XPL..


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## D2000 (Jan 22, 2016)

ghos said:


> Will try to post some beamshots tonight, will try a tree and compare with my haiku..
> 
> Well the turbo is meant to be used in short bursts, triple XPLs drain a 18350 cell really quickly, a burst of 10 seconds can drain as much as 5% of the cell's capacity, of course, being direct drive when in turbo, it gradually dims and lowers the drain
> 
> When using the lower modes, it switches to the 7135 regulator instead, which is much more efficient, i believe at its lowest moonlight mode it can last for days


Thank you for that. This is a intended project for me also. It would be amazing to just have 2500 there to switch to.


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## ghos (Jan 22, 2016)

As promised! Here are some beamshots from the tree, about 20-ish meters away

Also took a grass photo, I think I may have shot the mac on high instead of turbo (sometimes the modes switch backwards if you click too slow)

Haiku (running osram oslon 92cri 4000k FET w IMR 16340 @ 900~ lumens) vs Mac






Nice afterglow


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## DellSuperman (Jan 22, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> if you have a copper pill in a regular Tri, you can drive those harder...
> 
> Ghos, nice work! I think mine may be direct drive now... not sure, I should test it. I had a qlite driver, but did something bad with my soldering iron, and it's just a single mode, triple XPL, and it's bright!


McBrat, your light is spoiled. 
Send it over to me will ya! Hahahah..


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## ghos (Jan 23, 2016)

DellSuperman said:


> McBrat, your light is spoiled.
> Send it over to me will ya! Hahahah..



Heheheh then afterwards the mac will vanish, and appear in singapore.. bro don't worry, someone will put one up for sale soon.. if you persist long enough you will get it.. or do active buying (like what i did)


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## mcbrat (Jan 23, 2016)

I only have one conversion pill left. Don't think there will be any more made.


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## ghos (Jan 23, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> I only have one conversion pill left. Don't think there will be any more made.



Haha hint hint! Dellsuperman, you should probably get it from him while searching for your mac edc otherwise later must stack copper discs Haha

Gone fishing is selling a mac tri to.. can't believe it's been more then a month since these surfaced!


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## DellSuperman (Jan 24, 2016)

Yup, i have just PM him!! Lol


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## D2000 (Jan 24, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> I only have one conversion pill left. Don't think there will be any more made.


Is it still for sale? How much?


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## ghos (Jan 24, 2016)

D2000 said:


> Is it still for sale? How much?



Think you can find it here : http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?411336

Putting that pill in makes all my other Ti lights feel light in comparison! 

I wonder when someone will make copper pills for mcgizmos


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## mcbrat (Jan 24, 2016)

Datiled already has copper pills for his engines!


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## ghos (Jan 24, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> Datiled already has copper pills for his engines!



Ah, didn't know that, will do a search on it.. thanks for the tip! Have an idea for a high powered build for a sundrop i am thinking..

Am thinking of boring the haiku to accomodate a 18350 cell instead, can squeeze out even more lumens


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## archimedes (Jan 24, 2016)

ghos said:


> ....Have an idea for a high powered build for a sundrop i am thinking..
> 
> Am thinking of boring the haiku to accomodate a 18350 cell instead, can squeeze out even more lumens



The threads would get very thin 

I think that @Moddoo still has a couple of compatible 18350 "splitbody" tubes available for sale here, though.

Not sure about shipping international, but you might be able to work something out ....


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## ghos (Jan 25, 2016)

archimedes said:


> The threads would get very thin
> 
> I think that @Moddoo still has a couple of compatible 18350 "splitbody" tubes available for sale here, though.
> 
> Not sure about shipping international, but you might be able to work something out ....



Hmm will check it out also.. 16340 is good but it lacks the punch the 18350 gives, of course 18650 is even better but that would be a different class of lights..

Looks like McBrat has sold his last triple conversion pill! If anyone else wants to do this mod most probably have to settle for his standard copper pills and buy a copper rod and cut it to size and stack it on top, would work well too

I see someone has bought his Alum EN plated EDC


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## DellSuperman (Jan 25, 2016)

ghos said:


> Looks like McBrat has sold his last triple conversion pill! If anyone else wants to do this mod most probably have to settle for his standard copper pills and buy a copper rod and cut it to size and stack it on top, would work well too
> 
> I see someone has bought his Alum EN plated EDC



Hmmm.. Last pill bought by me! 
And Al en plated EDC, by me too!!!


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## mcbrat (Jan 25, 2016)

ghos said:


> Hmm will check it out also.. 16340 is good but it lacks the punch the 18350 gives, of course 18650 is even better but that would be a different class of lights..
> 
> Looks like McBrat has sold his last triple conversion pill! If anyone else wants to do this mod most probably have to settle for his standard copper pills and buy a copper rod and cut it to size and stack it on top, would work well too
> 
> I see someone has bought his Alum EN plated EDC



my prototype was copper washers stacked... 

The shop that made the pills can make more, but I don't know what the cost would be on a very small run. but at least they already have the CNC file for them....


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## ghos (Jan 25, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> my prototype was copper washers stacked...
> 
> The shop that made the pills can make more, but I don't know what the cost would be on a very small run. but at least they already have the CNC file for them....



Ah, but the problem is the light in question is no longer being producted (extinct!!), so demand on it wouldn't be very high.. save for a few crazy modders like us.. 

My prototype was our 1 cent coins, soft and conducts heat well, and can be filed and flattend to fit anywhere

Hint :


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## DellSuperman (Jan 25, 2016)

ghos said:


> Ah, but the problem is the light in question is no longer being producted (extinct!!), so demand on it wouldn't be very high.. save for a few crazy modders like us..
> 
> My prototype was our 1 cent coins, soft and conducts heat well, and can be filed and flattend to fit anywhere
> 
> Hint :



Actually i have another solution for this.
Buy extra copper triple MCPCB, file the top layer (red coating side) off then solder a few pieces (depending on the height needed) & you will have a nice solid chunk of copper heatsink with a hole in the middle already. 

The thing about our 1 cents coins are that they are copper coated zinc.


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## ghos (Jan 25, 2016)

DellSuperman said:


> Actually i have another solution for this.
> Buy extra copper triple MCPCB, file the top layer (red coating side) off then solder a few pieces (depending on the height needed) & you will have a nice solid chunk of copper heatsink with a hole in the middle already.
> 
> The thing about our 1 cents coins are that they are copper coated zinc.



Yeah but a bit wasted to use those triple stars.. I even cut them up nicely so I can use it to house 3 separate LEDs (on small builds).. best would be to go to a hardware store and buy a copper rod, cut it down to size and drill a big hole in the middle

Gonefishing has lowered his price of his mac tri to 6XX.. can't believe it.. if he had posted it 1 month ago in dec I would probably have bought it.. and it comes with a FET + 1 driver and drilled optics

But the one I bought now is really the one I want, and modding is the fun part of this hobby!


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## DellSuperman (Jan 25, 2016)

ghos said:


> Yeah but a bit wasted to use those triple stars.. I even cut them up nicely so I can use it to house 3 separate LEDs (on small builds).. best would be to go to a hardware store and buy a copper rod, cut it down to size and drill a big hole in the middle
> 
> Gonefishing has lowered his price of his mac tri to 6XX.. can't believe it.. if he had posted it 1 month ago in dec I would probably have bought it.. and it comes with a FET + 1 driver and drilled optics
> 
> But the one I bought now is really the one I want, and modding is the fun part of this hobby!



Yeah, price is quite attractive. 
If its a EDC format, i would have gone for it.. Kinda burst my budget for the month for light but cant afford to lose out again. Hahaha.. 

Those empty triple are quite cheap & considering that i dont have to do as much as buying rod to work on, it's pretty worth it..
But getting a copper rod is a pretty good idea. I should find them somewhere near my area. Hahah...


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## ghos (Jan 28, 2016)

Just tested the Mac ti during a walk on a completely dark trail, seems the 7135 x 1 really kicks in, supposingly, a triple running on low is more efficient then a single running at higher power lumens equivalent? 

Then you start to realise you want more runtime when you are out in the forest! Will probably do a low and medium runtime test to see how long it could last


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## D2000 (Jan 28, 2016)

Yes please!


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## ghos (Feb 16, 2016)

So I've been carrying around the light almost daily, on turbo (DD) it seems to suck the battery really quickly, I can see a dip in 5-10% of battery for every 10 second burst of full power, of course, being direct drive on turbo, as the voltage gets lower and lower, so will the output and hence the runtime, the brightness does remain somewhat constant on low and medium modes (7135), and mainly used in "medium" mode, battery seems to last really long, since I'm using it daily I couldn't really measure the low and medium runtimes, and probably won't dare to leave it running on high or turbo as it might probably do something to the driver or LED

I've modded the tailcap from the traditional black tailcap, changed it to a special white glow tailcap (stripped from some light bought at the home department). I didn't like the empty "void" surrounding the tailcap (retaining ring), so I cut out the "cap" in a white tailcap, turn it inside out and press fit it into the button so it's (somewhat) flush with the glow tailcap

Its press fit hard enough so it's probably waterproof on its own, but didn't really test it out, I'm comtemplating whether to "drill" some small holes in it and stuff some tiny trits into it, could probably make a nice display

Next mod will be drilled tritium slots in the triple optic and to replace the trits in the tailclip screws


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## mcbrat (Mar 2, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> if you have a copper pill in a regular Tri, you can drive those harder...
> 
> Ghos, nice work! I think mine may be direct drive now... not sure, I should test it. *I had a qlite 3.04A driver, but did something bad with my soldering iron, and it's just a single mode, triple XPL, and it's bright!*



tested my driver on a non-fresh Purple efest 18350 and it was pulling just over 4 Amps. so I definitely did something accidently to my driver than just make it single mode.... how is that even possile with the qlite 3.04A driver? isn't it maxed out because of the 7135 chips?


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## DellSuperman (Mar 2, 2016)

Check of the led negative wire if it is shorted to the ground of the driver.. This is usually the cause of direct drive shorts.


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## DellSuperman (Mar 2, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> tested my driver on a non-fresh Purple efest 18350 and it was pulling just over 4 Amps. so I definitely did something accidently to my driver than just make it single mode.... how is that even possile with the qlite 3.04A driver? isn't it maxed out because of the 7135 chips?


McBrat, on 2nd thought.. 
I think ur Mac is faulty & u should sell it to me! Hahahah...


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## mcbrat (Mar 2, 2016)

I'm okay with it direct drive


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## DellSuperman (Mar 2, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> I'm okay with it direct drive


Ahh damm.. 
There goes my chance in a owning a 2nd Mac. Hahaha.. 

But do check on the LED negative wire, it might be shorted some where resulting in the direct drive.


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## ghos (Mar 3, 2016)

mcbrat said:


> tested my driver on a non-fresh Purple efest 18350 and it was pulling just over 4 Amps. so I definitely did something accidently to my driver than just make it single mode.... how is that even possile with the qlite 3.04A driver? isn't it maxed out because of the 7135 chips?



Hey Mcbrat, it definitely sounds like something is shorting out and making it direct drive, it could be a problem with the driver or as what dellsuperman said, the current is sneaking somewhere, it happens sometimes when I am press fitting the reflectors really tight or a exposed wire touches the ground

To test this, I normally use my led tester (basically a cheap 18650 flashlight with its LED removed and replaced with red and black wires coming out and a 5mm LED soldered to one wire, to test continuity) and test the driver and circult for problems
- Solder the your driver leads to the LED outside the host, so that is is dangling about
- Apply 4.2v (in my case my tester) to the spring and sides of the driver and see if it lights up correctly, if its still single mode or full brightness, either the driver is busted or something is shorting on the driver itself (sometimes I get this when stacking 7135 chips or excessive soldering)
- If it lights up correctly, that means your driver is probably fine, something in the host is shorting the driver or LED, could be a 7135 leg that got shorted directly to ground, try assembling back your host and testing it again



Cheers!


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## ghos (Mar 3, 2016)

DellSuperman said:


> Ahh damm..
> There goes my chance in a owning a 2nd Mac. Hahaha..
> 
> But do check on the LED negative wire, it might be shorted some where resulting in the direct drive.



Tsk tsk tsk, someone got a mac already still want another one...


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## Skeeterg (Mar 3, 2016)

I love post like this,what a amazing group of very talented people on this forum. Sweet torch BTW. Congrats


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## DellSuperman (Mar 3, 2016)

ghos said:


> Tsk tsk tsk, someone got a mac already still want another one...


Something i learnt here.. 
2 = 1
1 = 0

Hahahaaha...


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## archimedes (Mar 3, 2016)

DellSuperman said:


> Something i learnt here..
> 2 = 1
> 1 = 0
> 
> Hahahaaha...


Also ... "buy both"


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## ghos (Aug 6, 2016)

Long overdue update, mac has now been updated with 4 nichias, making it the perfect high cri now! With the quad nichia setup, I find it much brighter then the original 3 (though it still loses in brightness to a triple XPL)


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## Thetasigma (Aug 6, 2016)

ghos said:


> Long overdue update, mac has now been updated with 4 nichias, making it the perfect high cri now! With the quad nichia setup, I find it much brighter then the original 3 (though it still loses in brightness to a triple XPL)



Ah you miserable sadist, I still have yet to find a Mac Ti EDC, and here you are making your's even more awesome than it was.
Very nice work.


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## mcbrat (Aug 6, 2016)

very cool! since I've got a few more conversion pills left, I may need to make a quad engine for my copper EDC!


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## D2000 (Feb 24, 2018)

*Re: Super Mac Ti EDC *UPDATE (4x Nichia 219b)*

I ended up being inspired by this forum ages ago and did an upgrade on my Tri EDC too.

Popped in a H17F Driver and upgraded the LEDs to XPL HI's.

Turbo mode really is insane and warrants the upgraded battery too.


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