anyone make their own LED flashlight?

[MrChicken]

Look at the ledcorp replacement bulb:
Ledcorp site
EPI-3W. 1 watt LS. Good brightness, super white, tight spot and works with the mag reflector.

Here is a review of it at the LED Museum:
PR-3 review

For some insane Mag kits look at the Inretech store:
Inretech

 

[flot]

Hmm, thanks MrChicken for the link to that test site. What with all the "duct tape and saran wrap" discussion, I was just thinking to myself that I probably ought to change the batteries in my Mag Light. I'd love to put a LED bulb in it as well - but reading that review, it looks like the LED is still significantly dimmer than the standard incandescent... surprised me, I figured for $40 you'd get better battery life AND at the very least equivalent performance... ah well.

 

[MrChicken]

It is hard to judge how much dimmer it really is. The standard bulb throws out a very yellow light when compared to a good LED. Sure it is dimmer, but the color is truer to day light and most things are far easier to see in white (daylight) color, than yellow would be. I have this bulb and I can tell it all the light you need the in house. You can stand it on end and light the whole room with the light bounced of the ceiling. The spot goes a long ways, it's still tight and bright on my fence 60 feet from my door.

When it comes to usefulness, consider these facts.
A 3D maglite with that bulb will run for about a month continously.
The incandecent bulb in the mag wont even last long (rated at 36 hours), the batteries will be dead in a few hours.
The LED has no filament to break, filaments break very easy when they are hot. Turn on a flashlight and get it hot and drop it, you'll see what I mean.
With a LED, you can literally destroy the flashlight aorund the led and it wont break. The LED will last for ~10000 hours.

 

[KingNothing]

As far as battery life goes, using rechargeable batteries in it is certainly an option. For a total geek project, figure out someway to modify your maglite so you can mount it on a recharger at night instead of pulling the batteries out. Good luck, and if you manage to make an LED flashlight as bright or brighter than your Mag was, make sure to post and tell us all how to do it.

 

[MrChicken]

The Inretech mods are far brighter than a standard Mag is.

Mag sells a rechargable.....