Inspired by Double Barrel's upgrade of his Novatac 120 EDC with an XP-L, I took a long hard look at my aging but trusty old Novatac 85T that rides along in my bag everyday, not being used. I had purchased another light on the marketplace that had an XP-G2 added to it, so I thought why not swap the XP-G2 into the Novatac?
Behold The Horror
Lessons Learned:
- My soldering skills need work. I used the only thing I had to solder with, a Weller 2-stage soldering gun. I've done other jobs with it (swapped driver in an Olight M31), but for a tiny heatsink and precision soldering it was overkill. My father-in-law (retired electrical engineer) took one look and asked me if I used a blowtorch. He graciously gave me his old school precision low-watt soldering iron with a tiny 1/16" tip. Night and day.
- After some finagling, I not only managed to snap off one of the leads coming out of the NT heatsink, but I also pulled off one of the solder pads on the XP-G2's PCB.
- Holding a soldering iron like a pencil puts a really cool mark on your pinky finger if you don't keep your fingertips away from the part that gets hot. YYYEEEOOOWWWCCCCHHH!
After aborting the upgrade, I actually managed to get the NT's original emitter soldered back on and working, fabricating my own lead soldered to the stub from the NT heatsink. This was a huge psychological win for me. I got it to work. Sort of. It would be fine for a couple hours, I'd set it down, then it wouldn't work. Unfortunately, after playing around with it and additional troubleshooting and finagling, I realized I'd also snapped off one of the leads on the stock NT emitter as well. But I'm hooked!!! As soon as the holidays quiet down, I'm ordering an XP-G2 on a Noctigon and cutting it down and getting that baby in there. Pretty sure the electronics inside the heatsink are still okay. Only one way to tell for sure.
Any words of wisdom, encouragement, hints, tips, tricks, let's have 'em.
P.S. Didn't realize how much I missed the UI and form factor of the Novatac until I started messing with it again.
Decided to get myself an HDS to have and to hold while I fiddle with the Novatac.
Behold The Horror
Lessons Learned:
- My soldering skills need work. I used the only thing I had to solder with, a Weller 2-stage soldering gun. I've done other jobs with it (swapped driver in an Olight M31), but for a tiny heatsink and precision soldering it was overkill. My father-in-law (retired electrical engineer) took one look and asked me if I used a blowtorch. He graciously gave me his old school precision low-watt soldering iron with a tiny 1/16" tip. Night and day.
- After some finagling, I not only managed to snap off one of the leads coming out of the NT heatsink, but I also pulled off one of the solder pads on the XP-G2's PCB.
- Holding a soldering iron like a pencil puts a really cool mark on your pinky finger if you don't keep your fingertips away from the part that gets hot. YYYEEEOOOWWWCCCCHHH!
After aborting the upgrade, I actually managed to get the NT's original emitter soldered back on and working, fabricating my own lead soldered to the stub from the NT heatsink. This was a huge psychological win for me. I got it to work. Sort of. It would be fine for a couple hours, I'd set it down, then it wouldn't work. Unfortunately, after playing around with it and additional troubleshooting and finagling, I realized I'd also snapped off one of the leads on the stock NT emitter as well. But I'm hooked!!! As soon as the holidays quiet down, I'm ordering an XP-G2 on a Noctigon and cutting it down and getting that baby in there. Pretty sure the electronics inside the heatsink are still okay. Only one way to tell for sure.
Any words of wisdom, encouragement, hints, tips, tricks, let's have 'em.
P.S. Didn't realize how much I missed the UI and form factor of the Novatac until I started messing with it again.
Decided to get myself an HDS to have and to hold while I fiddle with the Novatac.
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