# 2D mag modded to 6AA XM-L



## yazovyet (Jul 29, 2011)

So I know everyone and their dog has done this sort of thing but I figured I would post mine anyway. Here's my modded 2D maglite.

Parts:
h22a heatsink (P7 flat top) 
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?310770-********-H22A-Heatsinks-********

2.8A driver from SB
http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-132/3-dsh-Mode-Regulated-Circuit-Board/Detail

T6 XM-L (from SB)

3AA to D series batter converters (2 of these in parallel)
http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=2723

2D maglite (incandecent, not an LED/rebel reflector)
6 eneloops
Cheap thermal paste from DX

First I modified the battery holders. I put a spacer in between them then ran wires connecting the 2 positive terminals and likewise for the negative terminals so that they were in parallel with each other. Next I put a solder blob on top for a +ve contact and a wire from the negative pad to the negative wire where there was only a very thin strip of metal. I used 2 wires (red/yellow) for the +ve and 2 for the -ve (not pictured) because I felt like it. 







I had to make a small modification to the tail spring so it would play nicer with the battery pack. 






I took the switch out and cut off the stalk, I also cut the metal negative contact a little shorter. You can also see the LED thermal glued on the HS here. 





I used a little epoxy on the back side of the HS to secure the driver in place so ir's little wires wouldn't be twisted by the force of the power wires being twisted when it was put together. You might see scratches on the side of the HS, those came from my light. It has a little spot on the inside that drags on the HS.





Reflector after I removed the cam. It takes the whole LED inside when screwed on and bottoms out on the HS. I could take off another 1 or 2 mm if I wanted but it isn't need since it will screw on 1.5 turns more than the focus point. 





The HS sticks 2.6 mm above the end of the light. I figure the dome of the LED is about 1 mm higher than that. I put thermal grease around the HS before putting it into the tube, it was a very tight fit.





low with the beam as wide as it goes





low with focused beam





medium





high







All beam shots are with the same settings as the ones in this ink, incase you wanted to compare.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?313029-mini-mag-AA-mod-(update-2011-05)

Run time is calculated to be 85 min. I tested it and after 82 min it kicked into low mode. I turned it off for a second and back on at high. It went in to low mode after 10 or 20 seconds again. The calculated run time on low was 28.5 hours. I tested it and it ran for 32 hours. Everyone few hours (after the first 24) I would turn it to high mode for 5 seconds to see if it would kick into low mode, at 32 was the first time it did this so I declared it done then. 

Sitting on a chair with a temp probe under it it got up to 45 degree (on the outside of course) after running for 1 hour constantly (it is currently around 27-28 degrees in my room). But I think if I am holding it in my hand or there is a small amount of air movement it should be fine. 

The beam is nice, somewhat tight but can be adjusted. Fairly similar to the incan mag before the mod.

I'm thinking of getting a cheap optic for it so I can change it to a range thrower, what are people's thoughts on this?
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/50mm-18mm-2-80-degree-glass-optics-12834

I can't measure anything on it since I don't have a meter but I did put (a pair of AAs in parallel) in series with the battery pack (boosting it's theoretical voltage from 3.6 to 4.8 and there was no difference in brightness). 

If I was to do it over I think I would use a T5 instead of a T6 to try and get a slightly nicer colour of light and epoxy the driver to the heatsink better to aid any thermal transfer away from the driver. 

Anything else I'm missing or people want to know?

update 2012 03 12:
I used my camera (apperently it has a lux meter function) to measure the output of this light over a discharge cycle. Running 3s2p AAs it ran for about 45 min before the output started to diminish for the remaining 30-40 min. 
Running 3 AAs in serise it was dimishing over the whole 45-50 min run time. I'll put some graphs up sometime after I run a few more tests
link for the graphs:




Light output on the y-axis is is not a standard unit but does compare from one test to the next. Unit on the bottom axis is time in min.



update 2014-02-17
I got a trust fire 32650 from fast tech and tried it in my light. I took the protection circuit off the battery and used a bunch of magnets as spacers to make contact. I did a runtime test to see how it would go. This test was under different conditions than the previous tests so the brightness number on the graphs is not comparable to the previous ones. I started at a full charge (4.26 volts), I went untill the output was falling off and stopped since I didn't want to go too low and hurt the battery, the battery measured 3.443 volts a few minuets afterwards. I put the 3s2p pack of AAs in and tested the brightness of it and found that to be around 3850, so pretty much the same as the max with the lithium and thus I am sure it was running at full 2.8 amps and thus full brightness to start. I was not very careful with these measurments so you'll see some noise in the data but you'll get a decent idea.


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## LilKevin715 (Jul 30, 2011)

Looks like a good simple build overall. I'd be interested in the tailcap measurements with the eneloops whenever you get around to it. From what I've read those KD 3xAA battery holders in a series have high resistance due to the thin metal used. I wonder how the retrofitting with the solder will help decrease the resistance. The mounting of the driver is interesting with epoxy. There shouldn't be that much heat generated by the AMC7135 chips due to Vin close to Vf of the XM-L (with 3 x nimh).

The only thing I noticed that stood out was the emitter wires. Did you use the stock wires soldered to the driver? They might get the job done (won't know until you get tailcap draw measurements). One of the first things I do to the driver is replace the stock wires with at least 24 guage wire.

As for the aspheric lens, you can take a look at this thread.


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## willieschmidt (Jul 30, 2011)

Nice clean mod. Photos are clear and sharp. Like your XM-L cuz of low voltage and AA NiMH. Does anyone offer a 
package deal with the XM-L like the SSC P7 combo (emmiter,reflector&driver)@ DX?


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## EASTWOOD (Jul 31, 2011)

willieschmidt said:


> Nice clean mod. Photos are clear and sharp. Like your XM-L cuz of low voltage and AA NiMH. Does anyone offer a
> package deal with the XM-L like the SSC P7 combo (emmiter,reflector&driver)@ DX?


 
DX does have a XM-L drop-in. I have one and the driver died after 2 days of very minimal use. I am using it as direct drive for now, but plan to purchase a better driver elsewhere. You get what you pay for. 

This XM-L drop-in is very straightforward and only requires a little sanding to install:
http://macscustoms.com/MagLiteDropIn.aspx Watch the video.


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## moderator007 (Jul 31, 2011)

If you dont mind me asking. Does the head to body rubber seal show when the light is focused. If it doesnt show, do you mind telling me how you did this? Did you cut more of the reflector off than just the cam.


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## yazovyet (Jul 31, 2011)

emitter wires: I used the stock ones that came on the driver. The solder points to put new ones on are pretty small and I have a really large soldering iron. I think there would be a pretty decent chance of soldering a few things together that shouldn't be if I tried to put new ones on.

tail cap amps: I don't have a meter and the one I borrowed from a friend a while back (and have since given back) will only measure up to 2 amps (the 10 amp setting didn't work). If I get a chance I will measure it and post results. Since there should be only around 1.4 amps through each set of 3 batteries I think it should be ok with the mods I made.

head rubber seal: When the head is screwed all the way on the emitter pokes into the reflector by 6 or 7 mm (visual guess). It focuses when I turn the head 1.5 turns off from that. From being screwed on all the way I have about 3.5 to 4 full rotations of the head before I see the rubber seal. I figure I could likely shave another 1 to 2 mm off the 'cam' before I got in to the actual reflective part. (I updated the first post with a pic of the cut off cam and the HS lip.) I don't know that I did anything, it all just worked out this way. If the seal were showing I might think about taking some of the under side of the HS lip off so it sat lower in the tube, or taking the pedestal that the emitter sits on down a bit (if I had a tool that could do that) or maybe shaving some off the back of the PCB (but I don't know how much there is to play with before you start hitting contacts and electrical paths).


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## yazovyet (Aug 25, 2011)

Updated with beam shots and low power run time being 32 hours.


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## moderator007 (Aug 25, 2011)

> If you dont mind me asking. Does the head to body rubber seal show when the light is focused. If it doesnt show, do you mind telling me how you did this? Did you cut more of the reflector off than just the cam.


I originally had thought you had used the rebel reflector. I see now that you used the incandescent reflector. That explains it for me. Nice beam shots yazovyet.


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## Techjunkie (Aug 27, 2011)

yazovyet said:


> I'm thinking of getting a cheap optic for it so I can change it to a range thrower, what are people's thoughts on this?
> http://www.dealextreme.com/p/50mm-18mm-2-80-degree-glass-optics-12834
> 
> I can't measure anything on it since I don't have a meter but I did put an alkiline D-cell in series with eh battery pack (boosting it's theoretical voltage from 3.6 to 5.1 and there was no difference in brightness).


 
Nice build. I've wondered what the XML would look like in the stock incan reflector and from your pics, it looks pretty nice! (I keep going straight for the deeper rebel reflector.)

That DX optic is my favorite for making Mag aspherics, but it requires the LED to be sunk into the neck to focus properly. Your LED sits above the neck, so it wouldn't work for you. You'd have to trim the lip off of the H22A heatsink and push it down the neck quite a bit to get the 12834 focused with head passed the o-ring.

About your carriers, if they become a problem down the road, you might try replacing them with the 3s2p AA carrier from the $8 Ray-O-Vac LED light that Walmart sells. They're better for higher currents than the KD carriers are, because of the single spring for cell-to-cell connections. I've tried soldering the springs to the sheet metal on the KD carriers in the past and didn't like the results at all. (See discussion here.)


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## freeloader700 (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks for posting. This is going to help me out!


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## Hugo7 (May 18, 2013)

Hi, I'm new to the forum and came across it when searching about how to upgrade my old AA Mini Maglite to LED. 

I was just wondering what the benefit of converting D to AA was. I'd guess partly ease of replacement cells, but is there any other rational? 

I'm toying with the idea of trying to source a 2nd hand 2/3D or 2/3C to play around with to then leave at my folks place in the countryside just to use for use at night.


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## Bullzeyebill (May 18, 2013)

Hugo7. Please start your own thread as you post is OT to the purpose of this thread. 

Bill


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