# Mag Dragon Jr.: ~150,000Lux compact super thrower: Lighthouse beam shot vs. 35W HID



## ma_sha1 (Aug 22, 2010)

*Mag Dragon Jr. Compact super thrower: Now 231,500 lux @ 1 meter.*

In human society, it takes two adults to make a Jr. 
In flashlight world, some times the same thing will happen, where two adult flashlights gave their lives to the birth of a Jr. 

The Jr., in functionality (Not so much the look) is very similar to the MagDragon (https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/280670), thus, The name: MagDragon Jr. 
*
Here are the parents:*
*Left,* is this flashlight: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/264722, it has achieved ~100K lux @ 1meter, but has some flaws that I am getting tired off, the cheap switch kept messing up & after the third time trying to fix it, I have decided to give up. 
*Right*, The Ledean mag 1C with Surplus shed 52mm aspheric, although it's 18650 direct drive Cree P4, it held it's ground against Q5 aspheric fairly well in the LuxLuther Mag Aspherical shoot out back in 08.: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/202045
It does around 60K lux @ 1 meter, not bad for 2008, however time has changed & Clearly, the time has come for it to pass the torch on to the next generation. 







The operations are very similar to the MagDragon build. 
First, the head of the Ledean Mag 1C was cut in two halves by my trusty-old table saw:










The bottom half of the Mag C head was then grind down to match the opening of the DX shower head/66mm lens. 
The DX head was bored to remove the thread. 

This is not hard to do, just take some time & patience, try not to let the grinding wheel touch where you don't want it to. 

The grinding generate lots & lots of heat, so every 15 seconds or so, it need to chill out in a bowl of water:










When it's done, the Mag C Neck fit into the Dx head nicely. Again, plenty of JB weld, some weights to hold the two pieces
tight for a few hours op top of the Kitchen Counter. (I am not Cooking, but refused to get out of the kitchen :laughing










While the JB weld taking its time to cure, I turned my attention to the Mag 1C body. 
I grind the edge of the Mag C sink & pushed it inside (Need to do that for focus with this lens). 
Added a piece of copper around the Alu. heatsink post, changed the led out to XRE R2 from Cutter. 

Its still Direct Drive. I didn't do tail cap spring resistance mod, you'll see why in a minute. 





Wola, the MagDragon Jr is born! *Isn't she beautiful?* :devil:





Side by side with the original MagDragon:










I think there may be too many picture in one post, 
*Beam shots & Lux readings to come in post #2 below: *
.
.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

*Beam shots & Lux readings:*

MagDragon on Top
MagDragon Jr. at bottom:





Super duper low exposure so that one can tell the difference: 1/1250 of a second, ISO 80 F2.6. 
*This is the lowest exposure that my camera will go down to.* (Canon Powershot AS530)
Given that the MagDragon (SST-50 6Amp/75mm lens) already measured at ~125K lux, 
before I get to the lux meter, I already can tell that the Jr. will be a smash hit. 















*The Lux Readings:

*MagDragon Jr. runs on 1x18650. I have a bunch of various 18650 laying around in different state in regarding to their charge. Instead of charge to Max, I decided to pick 4 that's a bit apart & do a AMP vs. Lux test, to get an idea on what might be the Optimized Amp for this flashlight to get highest possible lux.

I set-up a 10 meter lux reading system, I had to use a Monocular as I can't read the lux meter numbers that far out.

The Entire experiment is written down on to the dinner plate:






*Let me explain a bit what I have done:*

*First, each batteries volts are measured before use:*
1. Ultra fire 18650 3.88V
2. Ultra fire 18650 3.98V
3. AW IMR 18650 3.99V
4. Trust Fire 18650 4.14V

*Second, each battery are put into the flashlight & measured AMP with tail spring:
*1. Ultra fire 18650 3.88V: *1.22 Amp*
2. Ultra fire 18650 3.98V: *1.55 Amp *
3. AW IMR 18650 3.99V: *1.89 AMP*
4. Trust Fire 18650 4.14V: *2.00 AMP*
*
Third, each set-up are taken to 10Meter Lux measurement & convert to lux @ 1 meter
*1. Ultra fire 18650 3.88V: *1.22 Amp*, Lux @ 1 meter: 113,000
2. Ultra fire 18650 3.98V: *1.55 Amp *, Lux @ 1 meter: 125,000
3. AW IMR 18650 3.99V: *1.89 AMP*, Lux @ 1 meter: *135,000*
4. Trust Fire 18650 4.14V: *2.00 AMP*, Lux @ 1 meter: 134,000
*
Then, Re-test the first battery & see if the lux has reduced due to heat sink heat up **
after 4 reading round. 

5. *(Repeat of 1.) Ultra fire 18650 3.88V: *1.22 Amp*, Lux @ 1 meter: 112,000
The lux has not dropped, that means I can trust the lux numbers of the test of 2,3,4 & not to worry
that are lower than if I had made them the first one to test when heatsink is cold. 
(The flashlight hasn't gotten warm even, as each test only takes a brief 10-15 seconds to conduct, then 
battery change gave the heat sink some time to cool down).
*
Finally, Optimize the read out of the best set-up:*
Since I wanted the setting to be exactly the same, I made no adjustment when testing different batteries.
Now that the comparasion is over, I can adjust the focus & see if I could get even more lux. 

The #6 written on the dinner plate is: 
Trust Fire 18650 4.14V: *2.00 AMP*, Adjust focus in & out while keep the eye on lux meter through my monocular to optimize the lux.: *139,000 @ 1 meter. 

Here is Plot on Lux vs. AMP of CREE XRE R2 on MagDragon Jr. 
*It appears to have maxed out lux out put at 1.9 Amp. At 2 Amp, no improvements & at >2AMP,
the lux probably will drop. However, optimized lux is only done on the 2 AMP condition.

However, the lux optimized spot is *NOT* the best looking & fully focused spot. It is actually it's slightly de-focused. The sharpest focus & visually most pleasing spot would have a read out around 135K lux. The chart used raw lux from DX meter which reads about 20% lower.
After 20% correction. The 135K lux translates to 162,000 [email protected] 1 meter. I have since upgraded to the Extech EA30 lux meter & confirmed DX meter +20% correlate to EA30 fairly well.  

*




Wait a minute, you might ask what's the #7 written on the dinner plate?

*Long story short. Typical Lux meters are optimized for incan readings. It's a known fact that typical lux meters will read 
higher on warm/yellowish tints over white/blueish tints of the same brightness.

Readings of 1 to 5 were all done by reading the center of the non lux optimized spot, 
the spot that eyes see as the most focused, most pleasing even white color spot. 

The #6 & #7 were done on Lux optimized spot. This lux optimized spot is not the best looking spot, it has a distinct yellow edge followed by a blue rim. The yellow area doesn't look brighter than the center to the eye & doesn't really show-up on photos either. 

# 6 reading is done by reading the center. #7 reading is done by reading the yellow rim. 
*When I positioned the edge of the spot, the yellow zone, over the lux meter*, *OMFG*, watch the lux meter shot up to 160-170,000 lux @ 1 meter range (vs. the 139K lux reading of the white center) & peaked a few times at 170,000 lux. That's a 26% increase just by positioning the yellow spot over the *sensor 

Overall, conservatively speaking, I'd conclude that MagDragon Jr. has delivered around ~150,000 lux @ 1 meter, over achieved my expectations. I was aiming at the 135K lux DEFT FTP number, a number that I had aimed for a few times, got pretty close but had failed to reach. 

Certainly, the Jr has achieved a new level that neither one of his parent flashlights could even come close. 
May the Jr's parents rest in peace lovecpf*
*.
.


*


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## jasonck08 (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*

Very cool! Thats an insane amount of Lux!


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*

Thanks, it actually peaked around 170K lux around the yellow edge of the die,
I'll explain in a minute in post #2.


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## LED4LYF (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*

Hey Ma_sha1 I always enjoy seeing your work. Your mag dragon inspired me to build a 2-d mag with the dragon head. I am not quite complete but I hope to be soon. If you soon see another mag dragon soon on cpf don't be surprised. Anyway I can not see the beam shots in post number 2 for some reason. just wanted you to know. Keep up the good work>


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## PapaLumen (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*

Cool. :thumbsup:


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*



LED4LYF said:


> Hey Ma_sha1 I always enjoy seeing your work. Your mag dragon inspired me to build a 2-d mag with the dragon head. I am not quite complete but I hope to be soon. If you soon see another mag dragon soon on cpf don't be surprised. Anyway I can not see the beam shots in post number 2 for some reason. just wanted you to know. Keep up the good work>



Thanks, I can't wait to see another Mag Dragon on CPF :thumbsup:
I am still posting, it'll take just a few minutes


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## LED4LYF (Aug 22, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~140,000Lux cmpact super thrower*

sweet thanks


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## saabluster (Aug 23, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> *
> 
> Certainly, the Jr has achieved a new level that neither one of his parent flashlights could even come close.
> May the Jr's parents rest in peace lovecpf*


Good work. Now you know why I use the XR-E and don't bother with the SSTs or XP-Gs just because they are the latest or most popular LED. There is no other LED that can beat the XR-E. Now your next step is to replace the LED in your larger light with the XR-E and you will see the real potential of the XR-E.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 23, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



saabluster said:


> Good work. Now you know why I use the XR-E and don't bother with the SSTs or XP-Gs just because they are the latest or most popular LED. There is no other LED that can beat the XR-E.
> 
> Now your next step is to replace the LED in your larger light with the XR-E and you will see the real potential of the XR-E.



Thanks, means a lot when the complement comes from the Master behind DEFT!

I was thinking about making a Mag D to C adapter, so I can screw the body of the Jr. into the Dragon head with the bigger lens. I have* 4 parallel cuts* on my middle finger caused by holding the finned mag C head while grinding it down for hours, got to give it some time to heal first :devil: 

Are there a Mad D to C adapter already made by someone FS? Definitely would prefer just buy one...
.
.


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## Al Combs (Aug 23, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> The operations are very similar to the MagDragon build.
> First, the head of the Ledean Mag 1C was cut in two halves by my trusty-old table saw:


Always a pleasure to see what you come up with. It has both fins for heat dissipation and adapts to the MagC, nice work.



> Added a piece of copper around the Alu. heatsink post, changed the led out to XRE R2 from Cutter.


Surprised to see you move away from the SST's. Is that an EZ1000 die? If you're aiming for higher lux, the EZ900 would seem like the natural choice. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but I don't see the orange frame around the phosphor typical of an EZ900 die. I heard somewhere the DX R2's on stars are EZ900 (sku.15943). They also look like it from the picture.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 23, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



Al Combs said:


> Surprised to see you move away from the SST's. Is that an EZ1000 die? If you're aiming for higher lux, the EZ900 would seem like the natural choice. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but I don't see the orange frame around the phosphor typical of an EZ900 die. I heard somewhere the DX R2's on stars are EZ900 (sku.15943). They also look like it from the picture.



Since i already have a SST-50 Mag dragon, I wanted to have something smaller & still be able to push to full AMP potential. One need to drive SST-50 to 10Amp to match the surface brightness of R2 at 2AMP, 
I have tested SST-50 very hard, at 8.5 AMP, it starts to show angry blue tint. 

It's EZ1000, I ordered a couple of bare R2 from Cutter & hoping to get EZ900, but no luck. Theses are what came in. I did try one EZ900 Q5 on 15mm board that came out of DX SS Ultrafire C3, DD on 18650 as well, somehow was not as bright, I wonder if it's the advantage of mounting bare emitter that gave the edge of the EZ 1000 R2?


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## Al Combs (Aug 24, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> Since i already have a SST-50 Mag dragon, I wanted to have something smaller & still be able to push to full AMP potential. One need to drive SST-50 to 10Amp to match the surface brightness of R2 at 2AMP, I have tested SST-50 very hard, at 8.5 AMP, it starts to show angry blue tint.
> 
> It's EZ1000, I ordered a couple of bare R2 from Cutter & hoping to get EZ900, but no luck. Theses are what came in. I did try one EZ900 Q5 on 15mm board that came out of DX SS Ultrafire C3, DD on 18650 as well, somehow was not as bright, I wonder if it's the advantage of mounting bare emitter that gave the edge of the EZ 1000 R2?


Well it is DX. Who knows what emitter they used in a light they claimed was a Q5. I gather by "not as bright", you mean more than just the percentage of increase from a Q5 to an R2 by the bin codes? How did you mount the LED to the MCPCB? Is that AS5 epoxy? Have you ever tried to reflow an emitter? It is surprisingly easy. Just use a very thin layer of solder paste. Hold the star with a needle nose pliers and put a butane lighter a few inches away from the bottom of the star. You can see when it begins to melt very easily. Then just put it down on a block of metal to draw away the heat. That doesn't fit the Cree reflow profile by any means, but it does work. I saw one guy use his toaster oven to assemble a fairly complex circuit board with a regulation paste mask and all the trimmings.

FWIW:
Even better might be to reflow your XR-E onto a 5/16" copper bar you file to shape. Clamp it in a vise between two pieces of cardboard for protection and just keep filing until you get down to the steel. If you don't want to mark up your vise, use two L brackets and two pieces of cardboard. Then just drill a 5/16" hole in the heat sink and hold the LED in place with a set screw. The relative increase in surface area from the thermal pad on the back of the emitter to the inside of the hole gives a dramatic improvement to the AS5 compound's performance. I saw a Newbie post a long time ago where he had thermographs of a Cree mounted on copper and another one on a cheap aluminum MCPCB (not made by Cree). IIRC, both were driven to 1 amp. The copper mounted XR-E was 40 something degrees centigrade. And the one on the cheap star was 80 something degrees. It was a surprising difference. But even a good aluminum star is not as good as a big hunk of copper.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 24, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Good suggestions, I need to look into re-flow on copper with EZ900 R2...


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## Ra (Aug 24, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Another very nice build ma_sha!!!






Regards,

Ra.


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## Al Combs (Aug 24, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

FWIW, here's a few I had bookmarked. This CPF thread has a YouTube video of a Digi-Key rep using a heat gun to reflow a Cree. You can actually see how it self aligns when it finally melts, cool video. This CPF thread I hesitantly included it because he has pictures and a link to the DX Mechanics paste I used on my copper core SST-90 (post #24). It's a good buy for paste at $3.36. But since it's not a "no clean" paste, you have to use a Q-Tip and alcohol to remove the flux residue when it cools. A syringe worth of no clean solder paste from Digi-Key was over $30 including the mandatory 2nd day shipping. Trout links to a YouTube video in post #28 where he removed a bunch of XP-E's to reflow them onto a larger star. At about 4'30" into the video you can see the one on top self align.

The OP of the second thread had way too much paste on his MC-E and several guys suggested waiting until the solder melted before dropping the LED into the puddle of molten lead. Try to ignore all of that. A friend at work uses solder paste to reflow SMT IC's with one of those $1,500 solder stations. One of the three tools is an ultra miniature heat gun with a 1mm hole in the nozzle. I learned from him you have to store solder paste in the refrigerator. The syringe of solder paste he has on his desk (no fridge) only lasts a couple of months before it goes bad. I have a Ziploc bag with my solder paste and AS5 epoxy in a box in the fridge. So far the wife hasn't asked what's in it.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 25, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Thanks. very helpful info!

you must have a massive collectinon of bookmarks.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 25, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



saabluster said:


> Now your next step is to replace the LED in your larger light with the XR-E and you will see the real potential of the XR-E.




Now since you asked, I made a Mag C to D adapter to use the Jr. in the MagDragon head with the bigger lens.
The adapter has inside thread of Mag C head & outside thread from Mag D tube 
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/288981


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 26, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Did some beam shots, not a good sign, as the Cree R2 spot through the Dragon head isn't as clean. There are some wasted lights not in the spot. 




Lux measurement comes out marginally higher at 155K lux @ 1 meter. 
Less than I thought it would be give the difference of 75mm vs 66mm lens.

The Thick lens seems to be more efficient on the SST than it's on the Cree.
This is the first time that I've noticed that maybe Cree bebefit a bit from lower profile aspheric lens, 

However, Tonight I also finished the Franken MagDaddy, >200,000 lux # 1 meter
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/289329


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## The_Police (Aug 26, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

that light looks sick! I love it


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## saabluster (Aug 27, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> Did some beam shots, not a good sign, as the Cree R2 spot through the Dragon head isn't as clean. There are some wasted lights not in the spot.
> 
> Lux measurement comes out marginally higher at 155K lux @ 1 meter.
> Less than I thought it would be give the difference of 75mm vs 66mm lens.
> ...



I would have expected them to use better lenses than that. Only 155K?!:thinking: BTW I'm over 250 in a prototype DEFT. That's without pushing it either. Should be able to hit 300 soon.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 27, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



saabluster said:


> I would have expected them to use better lenses than that. Only 155K?!:thinking: BTW I'm over 250 in a prototype DEFT. That's without pushing it either. Should be able to hit 300 soon.



The lens is super for SST but not optimized for xre. 155K is un adjusted by DX meter.

Is your 250k after your 16k to 22k Spear adjustment? That adj. would bring this up 210k or so.

what would it be if you measure 10 meter lux w/o the up adj. with yor DX meter?

Thanks


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## Walterk (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

And all that with a 52mm lens ! Very good job !:twothumbs

How much Lux does the XRE R2 give at 1.9Amp without the Aspheric ?


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

it's 66mm Lens, not 52mm.

W/O Lens, probably 0 lux, i neasure @ 10 meters


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## Walterk (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

But could you measure the Led at 1 metre then?
You wouldn't need the binoculair !:naughty:


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



Walterk said:


> But could you measure the Led at 1 metre then?
> You wouldn't need the binoculair !:naughty:



Aspheric light need longe distance to mature the beam, measuring at 1 meter is not accurate, even 5 meter may be too short. Plus, @ 1 meter, even small position variation create huge lux difference. @ 10 meter, the reproducibility is greatly enhanced.

DR. Jones did hid measurement at 18 meters.


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## Walterk (Aug 29, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Measuring the flashlight at 1 meter wouldn't be useful.

But just the led, at 1 meter without the aspheric lens would!


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 29, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



Walterk said:


> Measuring the flashlight at 1 meter wouldn't be useful.
> 
> But just the led, at 1 meter without the aspheric lens would!



Again, what for?

thanks


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## Ra (Aug 29, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> Again, what for?
> 
> thanks



Because then you can compare different led's on CP-output at, lets say 2Amp...

Like I do...


Ra.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 29, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

RA, Can you post a link to different LED bare 1 meter numbers?

Compare the same led at various amps may be useful on determin optimized
Amp for a paticular system, however, that could be done with the lens on. 

But compare different led to led may not translated into similar results when put under the lens. Not only the leds have different beam spread, they don't work the same with identical lens either. 

I was surprised to find out that the MagDragn lens, which is excellent for the SST, didn't quite work with the XRE after me spending two days grinding out a Adaptor to fit the Jr. into the Dragon head with big 75mm lens, wasted my time on that one.


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## Ra (Aug 29, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



ma_sha1 said:


> RA, Can you post a link to different LED bare 1 meter numbers?



Sorry, but I can't, because to my knowledge, there is no such link... I always do these tests myself for the led's I received in a bunch. I place the led's in separate bags with a test data note.




ma_sha1 said:


> Compare the same led at various amps may be useful on determin optimized
> Amp for a paticular system, however, that could be done with the lens on.



Yes, thats correct, but testing the bare led's prevents variations in measurements caused by small differences in optical alignment.




ma_sha1 said:


> I was surprised to find out that the MagDragn lens, which is excellent for the SST, didn't quite work with the XRE after me spending two days grinding out a Adaptor to fit the Jr. into the Dragon head with big 75mm lens, wasted my time on that one.



That absolutely doesn't surprised me: The XR-E is of a very differend breed than the SST: The XR-E die is much smaller, so the lens must be of higher quality to perform well. And the optical characteristics of the XR-E are also different.
With the bigger die's, the SST50 and SST90 led's are much more forgiving towards optics.


Regards,

Ra.


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## saabluster (Aug 30, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*



Ra said:


> That absolutely doesn't surprised me: The XR-E is of a very differend breed than the SST: The XR-E die is much smaller, so the lens must be of higher quality to perform well. And the optical characteristics of the XR-E are also different.
> With the bigger die's, the SST50 and SST90 led's are much more forgiving towards optics.


Can you tell us what you think the mechanism is exactly that would cause this? It is not entirely clear to me.


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## ma_sha1 (Sep 25, 2010)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

*Light house about 700 feet away.*

*35W HID (Modified Mozo Ultralite 35W 4" reflector):*







*Mag Drgon Jr.*


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## ma_sha1 (Apr 10, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Junior never failed to impress & I am in for a shocking surprise after all this time!

I got a pair of Panasonic 2900mAH battery, charged it up & popped into Jr. & measured lux, I could not believe my eyes: 213,000 lux @ 1 meter.

I was shocked, as with the ultrafire 18650, the best I ever got was 173K lux,
I've measured this light many times.(Junior is a direct drive light, no regulations).

Making sure something is not wrong, I need a control light. my new Mozo Ultralight HID which I measured 180 Klux the other day. Yep, everything is fine, it did 185 Klux,well within measurement standard deviations where it should be. 

I proceeded to two more measurements on the jr. Yep, 221,000 lux & 217,000 lux @ 1 meter for the 2nd & the 3rd measurements. I was shocked beyond believe. 

I did a tail cap current measurement, 2.15 Amp . 
I hope my R2 can take this "abuse", as I am liking the new numbers . 
I've sold a DEFT recently which did 150 kLux that was on bigger 3" lens. 

At this condition, Jr. will not only beat DEFT, it'll beat DEFT HO (180 K lux) as well. 

Go Junior!

Just in case if anyone is curious how I mounted the led. I took the Cutter R2 bare bare LED, 
Grind away the two +/- led solder pads under it, arctic silver under pressure to a bare Alu. heat sink. It's very tight, with arctic silver 5, I had to gently hammer the heat sink into the Mag body. Then soldered to the bare Led from above.


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## Tatjanamagic (Jul 19, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Hi Ma Sha Friend 

Your Mag jr. is freakin awesome...

I need your knowledge man. In fact I was not aware that U R the man who has experience with Maglite modding.


This time I need your help. Please look:

- I Got 20 year old Magcharger at home...
- I got deerelight XR-E R2 pills driven at 1,2 amp 3,4-16V range so I can use 2×18650 batteries inside...
- I got artic silver paste also

I want to made something of my Magcharger... OR aspherical thrower or any other mod... Please help me...

I even don't know where to start...

I need your few step detailed guidance in order to assemble it( lenses switch or something else) 

Hope you will reply with your experience.


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## ma_sha1 (Jul 20, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Mag charger is not a popular host, I don't know if its got same inside diameter as mag D?

If yes, you should get a H22a HAIII mag D XRE heat sink, Arctic silver glue down a XRE bare led to it,
get a driver that can do 1.6-2Amp, you can get to about 100K lux with a 2" aspheric lens, the cheap Dx lens works farely well.

Forget about the deerelight XR-E 1.2A R2 pills, not enough Amp, not enough heat sinking for mag mod.

If 100K lux is not enough, you'll need to make a turbo head, but the build complexity goes up a bit, 
a 3" lens + 2 Amp XRE bare led + excellent heat sinking = 200,[email protected]


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## Tatjanamagic (Jul 21, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Your job is really hard ma sha1...

I have a trouble to disassemble magcharger... This is really not for me... I would like to send this to you on modification but you R to far... On the other side of world.

I feel sorry for my old magcharger... It is huge and simple led lights killing him... It has modding potential but not real guy who knows to do real stuff. 

Inside diameter is 34 mm.

54.5 mm is diameter of lenses in magcharger so it could take 54 mm aspheric. Can U recommend me aspheric sku number for it from DX?

100k lux would be perfect for me... It would easily beat Tiablo a9 and deerelight aspheric i have...

I have thought on deerelight pill because it is heatsinked and idea is to fit it inside 34 mm diameter aluminium(or steel maybe) that has been worked out on cnc machine(threads and everything to fit the tube and pill), and after that put head with aspheric on, and maybe add tailcap switch.


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## ma_sha1 (Jul 21, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*



Tatjanamagic said:


> 100k lux would be perfect for me... It would easily beat Tiablo a9 and deerelight aspheric i have...



I don't know which of the two light has better heating sinking, but you can convert one of them into Direct Drive by single 18650, basically take the pill apart & wire it to by pass the driver & hook to the battery directly. That way, you might be able to get close to 100K Lux, since they are already 65K lux or so with only 1.2Amp driving current.


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## Tatjanamagic (Jul 22, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Hmmm... I really don't like direct drive. I can not run it on 2×18650 because led gets angry blue and poof... 

I will order new 1,5 amp deerelight pill. Even if I get 70 k lux it will be fine for me...

I need your advice how to fit 2×18650 batteries inside magcharger tube(it has huge 34 mm diameter) I can cut trim and cnc workout at my friend if needed...

Please give me advice what aspheric lenses for most throw I should order for it (link or sku number) 54 mm diameter... I got KD and DX account...


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## ma_sha1 (Jul 22, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Don't know about mag charger, but DX 
SKU 12834 is a good 50mm lens. I don't know a good 52 or 54mm lens, Surplus shed used to have good 52mm lens, not anymore.


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## Tatjanamagic (Jul 24, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*

Thanks. I ordered sku 12834 and SKU 43044 75 mm aspheric...


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## saabluster (Jul 27, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*



ma_sha1 said:


> Junior never failed to impress & I am in for a shocking surprise after all this time!
> 
> I got a pair of Panasonic 2900mAH battery, charged it up & popped into Jr. & measured lux, I could not believe my eyes: 213,000 lux @ 1 meter.
> 
> ...


 Sorry I missed this earlier but congratulations on the accomplishment. Breaking past the 200K mark takes some doing and that puts you in a very small group of people here who have done so. You've been quiet lately. Makes me wonder what you must be working on.:naughty:


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## ma_sha1 (Jul 28, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: compact super thrower now 221,000 lux @ 1 meter*



saabluster said:


> Sorry I missed this earlier but congratulations on the accomplishment. Breaking past the 200K mark takes some doing and that puts you in a very small group of people here who have done so. You've been quiet lately. Makes me wonder what you must be working on.:naughty:


 
Thanks Saabluster!!! The Jr. is an over achiever for its size, one of the very few lights I still process.

I've been working on CPF portable light Throw record by beating Ra's Maxa Blaster in my most recent project (Likely my very last short arc project, the swan song of my short arc mods, so Ra jokingly name it the "Swan Blaster"  )but unfortunately, a job loss put the hobby to a halt, just started a new job in Maryland & everything is still in boxes back in Maine.

I have overcame quite a few hurdles to finally fire up my 230-280W P-VIP short arc lamp with my DIY 300V DC power supply and a gift 260W P-VIP ballast from a Friend at Osram. This is a 1mm arc lamp, the highest watt UHP/P-VIP lamp bearing the 1mm arc, which in theory would give the highest possible surface brightness by Today's brightest high pressure mercury short-arc technology.

I also bite the bullet & purchased a 9.5" high precision short-arc reflector ($700 just for the reflector alone), I know I needed to go all out in order to have a chance at beating Ra's legendary Maxa Blaster, unfortunately, the job situation put everything to a halt. So far about $2000 has been invested into the "Swan Blaster", but its going to be at least several month before I could get back into the game.


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## bshanahan14rulz (Oct 20, 2011)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

most LEDs are very close to the same lambertian emission pattern, coined by some dude named lambert, no doubt ;-)

XR-E are the oddballs in terms of light distribution. I think, though, what they were saying was to be able to compare your XR-Es and find the best one you got, you'd compare them with the sensor dead center of the emission pattern of the bare LED.


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## ma_sha1 (Jul 28, 2012)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

Update:

Mag Dragon Jr. Got up after 2 years of Hiatus & went for another shoot out with the new HID legend Fire Fox 3. The Jr. won 

FM3X UT - FireFox 3 -Mag Dragon Jr.






After the shoot out, I took the Panasonic 2900mah out & tried High Drain ICR bare cell from Tool battery pack 1300mah. It got 2.4 Amp and lux measured at 10 meter:*

231,500 lux @ 1 meter *


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## saabluster (Jul 30, 2012)

*Re: The Birth of mag Dragon Jr.: a ~150,000Lux compact super thrower*

:thumbsup: Always makes me happy to see LEDs beating HID.


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