# my Maglite Solitaire LED mod



## Turbo_E (Feb 25, 2005)

Pretty simple.

1. Take your Maglite Solitaire apart, the head, reflector and take the bulb and battery out.The reflector will take a bit of doing as you need to pry it out from the back. there are little tabs which hold it in on the outer edge so you'll have to pry them inwards with a sharp pick or similar tool. dont worry if they break.

2. get a nice bright 5mm LED of your choice. I used a 20,000 MCD one. Poke it into where the old bulb goes.

3. grind out the bulb hole in the reflector to fit the 5mm LED. Don't make it too big it should be SNUG. I also added some epoxy glue to the rear of the relfector to beef it up and avoid cracking the thin reflector.

4. get a 12V A23 battery or similar. Make a dummy spacer with a resistor. I used a 470 ohm -1/4 W resistor (100 ohm is also safe, but your battery and LED will die faster i imagine, although mine hasn't). Take a short length of non conductive material say a bit of dowel wood or a pencil (anything that will easily fit (and drop back out)into the Solitaire body)and cut a short length off, about 1/2".

test fit it in the Solitaire the battery or spacer should NOT rattle around but not be super tight. leave enough room for the spring on the endcap. take the resistor and tape it along the length of the spacer(pencil). now take the resistor leads and bend them into a spiral @ each end of the spacer and glue them down and let dry. grind off any excess glue on the spiral so it makes good contact.

EDIT: I used a bit of dowel wood and cut a groove lengthwise in it and recessed the resistor into it so my "spacer" would fit better. I have also used epoxy glue as a fixing agent and insulator.

5. put it all back together and now you have a much brighter and longer lasting light!

note: the focus option may not work if you break off the tabs holding in the reflector and if it doesnt light, remove the LED and switch holes.


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## Turbo_E (Feb 25, 2005)

EDIT 100 ohm seems to work way better.

so bright..it hurts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## Turbo_E (Feb 27, 2005)




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## CroMAGnet (Feb 27, 2005)

That is very nice. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being easiest, how easy was it to do for you? How about a noob?


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## AndrewL (Feb 27, 2005)

would this work with a 3mm LED so you don't need to drill out the reflector?


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## Turbo_E (Feb 28, 2005)

[ QUOTE ]
*CromagNet said:*
That is very nice. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being easiest, how easy was it to do for you? How about a noob? 

[/ QUOTE ]

very easy provided you have a dremel/ rotary tool and diamond rinding bit. a drill wont work (CRACK!)

10 being easiest? isnt 10 normally being the hardest? anyways...
I'd say its a 8/10 (by your scale). easy but requires patience. the hardest part being prying the reflector out of the mag. if you dont have to drill, 9/10


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## Turbo_E (Feb 28, 2005)

[ QUOTE ]
*AndrewL said:*
would this work with a 3mm LED so you don't need to drill out the reflector? 

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have any 3mm LED in this output range (20,000 MCD)so i can't say. but I'd imagine that 3mm would be perfect, but i can't say which would be brighter, or if they are exactly the same. I should find some 3 mm's


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## teststrips (Feb 28, 2005)

the reflector's really don't do anything with most led's anyway. They are designed to keep a 20 degree focus, and hardly any spill.. very little light actually hits the reflector. 

The reflector IS useful though, it centers the LED and allows you to turn the light on/off (it pushes against the switch assy)


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## greenLED (Feb 28, 2005)

I've done this several times using 3mm LED's. No need to bore the reflector, although you *might* have to file down the LED's "skirt" for the light to switch on/off properly. When I did this with a 5mm LED, I actually enlarged the hole by hand (I held the drill bit in my hand and turned the head) and the reflector did not break.

None of the 3mm LED's I have are as bright as 5mm LEDs, but they're still bright enough for looking for a keyhole, fumbling for the keys, etc.

I still wish someone would come up with a commercially-available regulated plug for the Soli... it's possible (pbarrette, NewBie, LED_ASAP), but it requires advanced soldering and electronics skills I do not have.

Having said that, I'd give this mod a 8.5/10 on the difficulty scale (10 being easiest).


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## junior (Feb 28, 2005)

how about putting a mjled in?

I have a mjled that i cut too short for the minimag and dont want to waste it. 

The mjled is a lot brighter than a reg 5mm led.

What say you guys?


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## Turbo_E (Feb 28, 2005)

chop the leg off a reg LED and solder it onto the MJLED. there fixed.

BTW the pics dont do the light justice. they are way brighter than the pics suggest.


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## greenLED (Feb 28, 2005)

yeah, IIRC, the bulb's legs are the same length in the Soli and the MiniMag.


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## davidefromitaly (Mar 1, 2005)

i have do the same thing some days ago but with a 10440 li-ion and a 5,5ohm resistor in the tail-cap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

it's very bright, around 60ma at start and over 30ma for a lot of hours...

the battery last about 7-8 hours and when finally discharged i simply recharge it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## Turbo_E (Mar 2, 2005)

[ QUOTE ]
*davidefromitaly said:*
i have do the same thing some days ago but with a 10440 li-ion and a 5,5ohm resistor in the tail-cap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

it's very bright, around 60ma at start and over 30ma for a lot of hours...

the battery last about 7-8 hours and when finally discharged i simply recharge it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif 

[/ QUOTE ]

can you explain a little more? rechargeable lithium? 5,5 ohm? 5.5? or 55 ohm?


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## davidefromitaly (Mar 3, 2005)

5.5 ohm resistor at the place of the spare bulb

and the battery is a li-ion AAA size, 3,6v 320mah


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## Zelandeth (Mar 3, 2005)

Hmm, might have to give that A23 mod a try. Have a couple of Solitaires sitting around here doing nothing at present. Hmm...


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## teststrips (Mar 3, 2005)

[ QUOTE ]
*Zelandeth said:*
Hmm, might have to give that A23 mod a try. Have a couple of Solitaires sitting around here doing nothing at present. Hmm... 

[/ QUOTE ]

the A23 is also called a MN21. They are normally marked as "security" on their packaging. My local wal-mart sells both for 1.77, and I've seen them at other wal-marts for 1.50.


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## Pila_Power (Mar 3, 2005)

Turbo_E; could you please post a couple of pics of your mod, showing the different parts and where they are placed please? I want to try to mod my Soli if its easy.

Thanks, Tim.


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## Turbo_E (Mar 3, 2005)

I'll try to do it tonight if my net connection is still up at home.

its pretty simple tho.


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## Turbo_E (Mar 3, 2005)

paintbrush p3nz m3 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## teststrips (Mar 3, 2005)

ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful mspaint.exe

Here's another reference to baisically the same mod. http://www.flashlightreviews.com/mods/solitaire.htm


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## Turbo_E (Mar 4, 2005)

BTW testrips, i used the meathod in your link and it fries LEDS. i dunno about Nicha LEDs but mine went up in smoke.
be warned.


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## Pila_Power (Mar 4, 2005)

Wow!!! Thanks for going to all that effort Turbo_E! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Seriously, it must have taken SECONDS to slap that together! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Just kidding, I feel bad that I kinda made you go to the trouble to draw stuff for me, thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Honestly, thank you.

*print*
*hunt down my Soli*


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## kevino (Mar 4, 2005)

Can anyone tell me where I can purchase the rechargeable lithium ion AAA 3.6v battery?


also i'm going to use a 10 mm led on my solitaire. What kind of resistor should i use? if I use a higher rated resistor does that mean lower light but longer battery life?

thanks.


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## davidefromitaly (Mar 4, 2005)

AW have li-ion AAA

and yes with a higher resistance you have less light but more runtime

why you want to use a 10mm led? how many mcd output and at how large spot?


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## kevino (Mar 4, 2005)

the specs on the led are 
EMITTED COLOR : WHITE

SIZE (MM) : 10 MM 

LENS COLOR : WATER CLEAR

MATERIAL : INGaN

LUMEN : 13

just figured the bigger led, the more light. I'm new at this flashlight stuff so if i'm wrong, please correct me. I understand battery life will suffer with such a large led, but hopefully i can aquire the lithium AAA battery. Any other suggestions?


-Kevin


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## Bimmerboy (Mar 4, 2005)

Excellent thread. Too bad I just came across it a few minutes too late. I just ruined a brand new MJLED with a 14500 Li-On AA in a cut down single cell Minimag, and no resistor. Yes, I feel rather retarded now. It looked great for about 6 seconds, then quickly started dimming and turning a strange greenish blue color. Panicked, and started turning the head the wrong way, which delayed shutting it off. Now it's permanently tinted green and not as bright as fresh out of the bag (I just tested it with 2 fresh alky AA's, which I believe provides the proper voltage and current with no resistor).
I only bought two of these because I wanted to do two mods, and now I'm down to one. That's what I get for trying to save money. I'd really like to put the remaining good one into a Solitaire, but have some questions first:
A) I'm not clear on how to hook a resistor into the tailcap. Could someone describe how or point me to the info?
B) What's the brightest combination of battery and resistor in a Solitaire while staying in a safe range for the emitter?
C) If I can get another MJLED for that second mod, does anyone know what resistor to use for a 14500?
Man, screwing up that nice LED put a damper on my evening. I'm gonna' go make a new thread in the LED forum and whine about it there.


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## Turbo_E (Mar 7, 2005)

if it makes you feel better I smoked my LED too. i dont see how a LED has enough resistance to drop 12V down to 3 or so V.


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## Anglepoise (Mar 7, 2005)

The trick is the 12 volt battery , MN23.

Now in the posts ^^^^^, we seem to be talking about two separate batteries.

If you use a MN 23, 12 volt battery, you can dispense with the resistor because of the very high internal resistance peculiar to this one battery.

You can get a 23,000 mcd LED and stick it in the Solitaire and using a MN 23 12 volt battery, and a longer spring in the tail cap and no resistor.

The output is excellent, but continuous run time is not good but intermitant gives the battery time to recover. Fun , cheap mod.


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## Turbo_E (Mar 7, 2005)

ahhhh...i assumed it was a regular 12 from a car alarm pager.


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## Flashlike (Mar 8, 2005)

Turbo E--
In your original post with your instructions for modding the Solitaire your said in step number 4:
[ QUOTE ]
4. get a 12V A23 battery or similar. Make a dummy spacer with a resistor. I used a 470 ohm -1/4 W resistor (100 ohm is also safe, but your battery and LED will die faster i imagine, although mine hasn't)... 

[/ QUOTE ]

In the follow up post you said [ QUOTE ]
EDIT 100 ohm seems to work way better--so bright..it hurts 


[/ QUOTE ] 

Then in another post you said [ QUOTE ]
if it makes you feel better *I smoked my LED too* . i dont see how a LED has enough resistance to drop 12V down to 3 or so V. 


[/ QUOTE ] 

I have a Mag Solitaire that I'd like to outfit with a 5mm LED. I have a 100ma I.S.P. 5mm LED made in Korea. But I really don't want to "smoke" it like you smoked yours!!

Does anyone know how to make it work with the 12V A23 battery without toasting the LED? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif


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## Turbo_E (Mar 8, 2005)

nono, i smoked one when i tried to power the LEd without ANY resistor. 100 ohm is perfect IMO. You're welcome to try a little lower like 75-80 ohm but i never tried so don't blame me if your LED goes *Poof*

my instructions with the hurting diagram works fine.


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## Flashlike (Mar 9, 2005)

Turbo_E--
Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to try the 100 ohm 1/4 watt resistor, too. Maybe I can pick one up at a Radio Shack store.

You said in your original post that you used an "A23" 12 volt battery.

But AngelPoise said [ QUOTE ]
If you use a MN 23, 12 volt battery, you can dispense with the resistor because of the very high internal resistance peculiar to this one battery.


[/ QUOTE ] 

I'm confused. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Isn't the A23 Eveready's version and the MN21/23 Duracell's version of the same battery?

Anyhow, I think that you're better off to go with a resistor because of the 12 volts.
I'm going to epoxy the back side and "neck" of the reflector (except for the opening, of course), then drill it out slightly after the epoxy cures to accomodate the 5mm LED. Otherwise I think the reflector would be weakened too much.
It's a lot of fooling around, but the end product will be worth it if it's done right!
This comment is a bit off-topic, but I've done this mod on a little Streamlight KeyMate flashlight:
SL KeyMate Mod.
It involves quite a bit because you have to press out the reflector, resolder the replacement LED, etc. But WOW what an impressive light it is after it is done!


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## Turbo_E (Mar 9, 2005)

[ QUOTE ]
*Flashlike said:*

You said in your original post that you used an "A23" 12 volt battery.

But AngelPoise said [ QUOTE ]
If you use a MN 23, 12 volt battery, you can dispense with the resistor because of the very high internal resistance peculiar to this one battery.


[/ QUOTE ] 

I'm confused. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Isn't the A23 Eveready's version and the MN21/23 Duracell's version of the same battery?


[/ QUOTE ]

i couldnt tell you, but i do know blowing expensive LEDs isnt cool. use a resistor first. I think the a23 is a more common battery. 

anyways I have 2 premodded Solitaires if anyone wants to take em off my hands for $20 shipped? one blue and one gunmetal/silver. I also have a bunch of "resistor/spacers" + 20,000 MCD LEDS for $6 shipped if you want to mod the reflector yourself.


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## Pila_Power (May 6, 2005)

My LED holder part disintegrated /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

It was very old but it's going to a much better home on mondat - into AWR's workshop!!

I have a feeling he's going to get the honor of being a subject in one of Andrews new ideas /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Anyone ever make or buy a glass lens for the soli?

I 'dented' mine from the inside by screwing the head on too tightly with a 5mm LED in there which sits up too high.


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## Analog (May 6, 2005)

http://www.shoudian.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=28&ID=4530&page=1
Check this out, wish I knew how to read it, sorry I can't convert to English.


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