Thread: Maglite LED upgrade

yeah found the number , D4014396019.

does that make it a 4D?

D.

I have 2x4Ds which I converted at least 10 years ago. One has 3 LEDs and one 1. The single LED is far superior to the earlier 3 LED one.
Just on the lithium batteries. Be careful and get LifePo4 batteries not Lion and charge them with the same brand dedicated charger as torch conversions do not have BMS.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

yeah found the number , D4014396019.

does that make it a 4D?

D.

Yes.

Originally Posted by p38arover

A question that I do have is: what is the purpose of the reflector with a point source of light? An incandescent filament radiates light in all directions and reflects off the reflector and is focussed into a beam.

It's an interesting question. I have looked at mine and see that no light leaves the bulb (?) from the sides at all, as it would with the old incandescent type, and yet the Maglite focusses just as well as it used to. All the stuff I learnt about the "F" point and parabolic reflectors seems to have been made obsolete.

Originally Posted by Tins

It's an interesting question. I have looked at mine and see that no light leaves the bulb (?) from the sides at all, as it would with the old incandescent type, and yet the Maglite focusses just as well as it used to. All the stuff I learnt about the "F" point and parabolic reflectors seems to have been made obsolete.

I would think that maybe the resin or whatever it is that covers the SMD LED chip acts as a diffuser, also the filament sits higher in the bulb than the replacement does.

Around 2004 I put an LED globe in a 2D maglite, fitted it with rechargeable batteries and gave it to my then 70 year old father who regularly destroyed torches on the farm. I saw it again a couple of years ago and he'd worn all of the black anodising off it - I have no idea how. Presumably he was throwing it into the back of farm equipment and it was rolling around as he drove around the paddocks, but nonetheless it was still functioning fine. The filament bulbs wouldn't've survived that kind of abuse, but the LED did.

My 2D Maglite came with an LED ex-factory.

IMG_3147.jpeg

I’ve had the 2D and 3D torches for years. I think I was given them (separately) but from whom I have no clue.

Originally Posted by p38arover

My 2D Maglite came with an LED ex-factory.

IMG_3147.jpeg

I’ve had the 2D and 3D torches for years. I think I was given them (separately) but from whom I have no clue.

It was probably around 20 years ago that they switched to LED, definitely a few years after i got mine.
I had intended to do the conversion ages ago but forgot i even had it and we have other lighter LED torches that are used often.