A few years ago Eve got me a MagLite Solitaire AAA torch for Christmas. It’s been on my keys ever since, but I recently came across an LED conversion kit for it and it was time for an upgrade.
Until I started regularly carrying a torch around with me, I didn’t realise how many day-to-day situations I encounter in life that are improved by …. regularly carrying a torch. Looking in cupboards, looking for dropped earrings under tables in pubs/restaurants. Lost doodads in the rehearsal room/in the footwells of cars late at night, or even for things that have fallen under/off my desk etc.
As I understand it, MagLite were very late in updating / upgrading their range to LED’s and this complacency has meant they have lost a lot of marketshare to upstarts. There is an LED version of the Solitaire available now, there wasn’t at the time that Eve bought me mine. Which speaks to the thing that has always disappointed me about the device – how anaemic the light from it is. I mean, as I said above it does the job when you need it too; and it saved my bacon walking back to the car along a sea wall after dark with my Mum last year. But during daylight, it’s barely perceptible and once you have *some light* in your life, it turns out you want moar.
What it needs is a bright LED in it.
Wondering if there was anything I could do to upgrade, and I recently came across a conversion kit on e-Bay. It arrived the other day and I couldn’t be happier with the results!
The replacement bulb fits right into the existing pin holes with zero fuss. The only thing I was confused about was initially it wasn’t working. I had to flip the pins around 180 degrees, as obviously the current is only designed to flow one way though the pin.
When purchasing the kit it did warn that because of the heat sink, the focusing ring will no longer fully focus and you end up with a 3mm gap between the head of the torch and the body when everything is fully seated in the off position.
Check out the gap in the after image below and compare it to the before image above.
But I’m honestly fine with this as what you loose in focusing ability you gain in brightness. I took side by side comparison photos of original MagLite Bulb on the left and the LED kit on the right. Both photos are taken in ambient daylight.
As you can see, the upgraded LED is bright enough to cast it’s own shadow which is a major improvement! I just walked into our under stairs chaos-cupboard and was pleasantly surprised by how bright it was. It’s definitely going to come in more handy loading in, shipping out at gigs, or when I’m looking for the speaker cable that someone unhelpfully left dangling at the practice room.
I know its only a small thing, but for 10 quid its a major upgrade and well worth the money. Much better than getting a new one.
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