This is a work in progress thread, obviously made by a professional amateur. Don't take it too seriously. You were warned. Thanks.
First of all, a background check. This is my second attempt to mod a good quality flashlight (the first being an easy led swap in Petzl Myo XP). I had been thinking about the mod work for some time already. I bought the Ti from 4Sevens Black Friday Weekend Blitz Sale but hadn't used it much (ReVO SS is my keychain light). Preon 1 has an XP-G, so, the Nichia 219s should work fine.
It is an old model already, but I didn't find much information about changing the led. Obviously it was not an easy task to do but at least someone had done it before. So, I felt confident enough to give it a try. At the time of this original post, the progress has been quite small and pretty much everything has gone wrong. This work can have three different end results now:
We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, you can sit back and enjoy the ride, or (preferably) give me some opinions and hints on how to proceed. :wave: I try to add some pictures later, too.
So, lets get started!
Things were pretty fine this morning. Then the mailman came and delivered me my new Nichia emitters.
There is 2 small holes in the Preon 1 pill board, which seems to be a pretty common in other flashlights, too. Heat and tweezers or pliers seemed to be the key do the work. I started to bake the head to some 100+ degrees Celsius. Tried first with tweezers but they were not strong enough (and I wasn't really happy with the sharp tips that could go pretty deep into the holes; neither did I want to cut them shorter). I did another try with sharp scissors and after managing to chip a tiny piece of the board off, I decided to make a specific tool for the job. That had actually been the original plan, too.
A new try with the new tool. Success! The pill was obviously pretty tight but just before I decided to give up, it started to move. I managed to unscrew it a few millimeters but then (I suppose) I got sloppy, twisted the tool and the board came off! The light still worked, though... The actual driver was inside, loose and not potted. The outer board had nothing else but contacts and wires. I tried to position the board back to its place but couldn't twist the pill any more. It didn't hold. Instead, I managed to detach the wires, which wasn't a big deal though.
The metal shell of the pill was pretty thin. I tried to file the board a bit and twist the shell protrusions with tweezers, no luck. Instead of it, the board slipped and broke an inductor! :shakehead I made a little tool to be used instead of the broken board too, but it started to look pretty obvious that the little protrusions of the pill shell weren't strong enough to be used for twisting any more.
After this, I decided to call it a day. :goodjob: And post to CPF, too.
So, lets see what the situation is:
So... Any suggestions? I have a soldering station, Dremel 300, Peaktech 3695 Multimeter, a thermometer, a drill and some handtools.
It seems pretty obvious that the pill can't be screwed back down any more. I can twist the board and see the wires that go to emitter. The next plan is to detach those wires and get the board off. And try to fix the inductor (but if there is suggestions on a good replacement, I am all ears! I don't care about the blinkies, but a firefly would be nice and the board should start low). The next step would be making a little expanding rubber tool to be put inside the pill shell to get it unscrewed. If it doesn't work, well, there is other possibilities up to the point of glueing something inside. The metal core seems to have a plastic shell though. Don't know how that will stay in place.
First of all, a background check. This is my second attempt to mod a good quality flashlight (the first being an easy led swap in Petzl Myo XP). I had been thinking about the mod work for some time already. I bought the Ti from 4Sevens Black Friday Weekend Blitz Sale but hadn't used it much (ReVO SS is my keychain light). Preon 1 has an XP-G, so, the Nichia 219s should work fine.
It is an old model already, but I didn't find much information about changing the led. Obviously it was not an easy task to do but at least someone had done it before. So, I felt confident enough to give it a try. At the time of this original post, the progress has been quite small and pretty much everything has gone wrong. This work can have three different end results now:
- I have a nice Preon 1 Satin Ti clicky with a Nichia 4500K high cri emitter (as originally planned)
- I have a nice Preon 1 Satin Ti clicky with a Nichia 4500K high cri emitter and new electronics :thinking:
- I have a nice Preon 1 Satin Ti clicky with a new stock head, ordered from FourSevens ($33) :sigh:
We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, you can sit back and enjoy the ride, or (preferably) give me some opinions and hints on how to proceed. :wave: I try to add some pictures later, too.
So, lets get started!
Things were pretty fine this morning. Then the mailman came and delivered me my new Nichia emitters.
There is 2 small holes in the Preon 1 pill board, which seems to be a pretty common in other flashlights, too. Heat and tweezers or pliers seemed to be the key do the work. I started to bake the head to some 100+ degrees Celsius. Tried first with tweezers but they were not strong enough (and I wasn't really happy with the sharp tips that could go pretty deep into the holes; neither did I want to cut them shorter). I did another try with sharp scissors and after managing to chip a tiny piece of the board off, I decided to make a specific tool for the job. That had actually been the original plan, too.
A new try with the new tool. Success! The pill was obviously pretty tight but just before I decided to give up, it started to move. I managed to unscrew it a few millimeters but then (I suppose) I got sloppy, twisted the tool and the board came off! The light still worked, though... The actual driver was inside, loose and not potted. The outer board had nothing else but contacts and wires. I tried to position the board back to its place but couldn't twist the pill any more. It didn't hold. Instead, I managed to detach the wires, which wasn't a big deal though.
The metal shell of the pill was pretty thin. I tried to file the board a bit and twist the shell protrusions with tweezers, no luck. Instead of it, the board slipped and broke an inductor! :shakehead I made a little tool to be used instead of the broken board too, but it started to look pretty obvious that the little protrusions of the pill shell weren't strong enough to be used for twisting any more.
After this, I decided to call it a day. :goodjob: And post to CPF, too.
So, lets see what the situation is:
- Pill partially unscrewed.
- Contact board detached.
- Inductor/coil broken (but I am not yet ready to admit it can't be fixed).
- The threads seem to be still ok
So... Any suggestions? I have a soldering station, Dremel 300, Peaktech 3695 Multimeter, a thermometer, a drill and some handtools.
It seems pretty obvious that the pill can't be screwed back down any more. I can twist the board and see the wires that go to emitter. The next plan is to detach those wires and get the board off. And try to fix the inductor (but if there is suggestions on a good replacement, I am all ears! I don't care about the blinkies, but a firefly would be nice and the board should start low). The next step would be making a little expanding rubber tool to be put inside the pill shell to get it unscrewed. If it doesn't work, well, there is other possibilities up to the point of glueing something inside. The metal core seems to have a plastic shell though. Don't know how that will stay in place.