I got an old school 3 D cell Maglite and I thought it would be fun to upgrade it to an LED. Ran across some obvious upgrade bulbs for about $50 until I hit on Adventure Sports conversion. The original flashlight was about 50 lumens, the current 3D LED one that Maglite sells is 500. This conversion is 5000 Lumens! The complete kit was almost $200 but excess is never cheap.
The kit has the emitter, a Guppy2 driver board and a machined aluminum head and a pvc pipe cut to hold the thinner batteries in the body. But… the conversion for a 2D body not the 3D I had. I need one more D. The first one involved wiring an AA to D adaptor I had. It worked OK but OK wasn’t good enough. This was right after I took the lathe class at MakeIt Labs so this was a good project for the lathe. A friend at the labs helped a bit with setting up and even had a little bit of brass stock I could use.
And to keep the Guppy 2 commands documented somewhere I know I have included it below.
User Selectable Groups:
2% - 25% - 100% | Memory
100% - 25% - 2% | No Memory
2% - 25% - 100% - Strobe - Beacon | Memory
2% - 25% - 100% - Strobe - Beacon | No Memory
15% - 100% | Memory
100% - 15% | No Memory
100% Only
100% - Strobe | No Memory
Strobe - 100% | No Memory
ML - 5% - 33% - 100% | Memory
100% - 33% - 5% - ML | No Memory
ML - 5% - 33% - 100% - Strobe - Beacon | Memory
ML - 5% - 33% - 100% - Strobe - Beacon | No Memory
ML - 100% | No Memory
100% - ML | No Memory
ML - 100% | Memory
ML - 5% - 15% - 50% - 100% | Memory
ML - 5% - 15% - 50% - 100% | No Memory
100% - 50% - 15% - 5% - ML | Memory
100% - 50% - 15% - 5% - ML | No Memory
2% - 15% - 50% - 100% | Memory
2% - 15% - 50% - 100% | No Memory
Guppydrv ​Instructions
To switch mode groups: rapidly tap the switch 8 times, the light will then enter the programming mode and begin to flash. With the light in programming mode, tap the switch the same number of times as your desired mode group. The light will blink and your mode group will be memorized.
Example: To select mode group 3, tap the switch 8 times quickly to enter programming mode. As soon as the light enters programming mode and starts flashing, tap the switch three times (for group 3). The light will blink to recognize the mode group change.
To set the turbo timer: rapidly tap the switch 8 times, the light will then enter the programming mode and begin to flash. With the light in programming mode, tap the switch 30 times to enter the turbo timer set mode. The light will then switch to 100% power. When the light is at the desired temperature for the turbo step down, turn the light off. The turbo timer will then be set. Turbo timer drops down to 50% output.
To lock the mode groups: Solder Star 2 to ground. The other stars have no function with this firmware.