After adding all those sockets to the car, what was I going to do with them? Well I had the parts to make a 12v maglite sitting around, so I put them to good use.
Years ago I installed a Terralux TLE-300 led assembly to my trusty maglite, along with a 3D cell to 9AA cell adaptor. This was a really nice bright light, but was massive to carry.
Eventually smaller lights eclipsed the maglite in terms of brightness, so it was placed in the spares drawer but was always at the back of my mind.
So earlier this week I decided to shorten it, barely big enough to hold the switch which makes for an interesting stubby flashlight.
Or paperweight as there was no room for batteries. So I drilled the end cap and installed a DC connector, matched with an aux socket lead.
The result is a stubby 12v searchlight which outputs approx 600lumens at 12v. There are lower output levels too so as to add to its flexibility.
To put things in perspective, my favourite flashlight, and Eagletac D25C Ti (shown here next to the maglite) runs on 1 3.7v RCR123 and outputs approx 400lumens on turbo. And it's still smaller than the modded maglite.
But I'm not leaving that one in the car...
So how well does it work?
Pretty well I'd say, this is full power and I forgot just how bright this thing was. Because it's so small it's also manoeuvrable, so perfect for use in the car.
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