Q: How to disassemble Planet Bike Blaze (1 or 2 Watt) light?

[mdt]

I've got a planet bike blaze 2w that I've been living with for awhile. It's been a good bike light, but now I'd like to put a cree xp-g led in it. I've figured out how to access the power supply PCB by removing the plastic housing from the battery-side of the heat sink, but I cannot figure out how to remove the lens/led housing that's in `front' of the heat sink. Anyone out there done this on either the one or two watt Blaze? I suspect it's a similar operation on both.

Thanks in advance!

Marshall

[BrianMc]

I thought that by the pictures you in your prior post showed the lens and cover off of your light. Looks like you had the LED MCPCB off as far as the wires allowed, as well. So I don't understand why you need more access to swap LEDS. Searching here and DIY lighte on MTBR I see no one has posted mods to either light. So it looks like you are on your own as you have no replies from someone who has.

The XR-E Q5 at 2 watts (assuming they are not counting the driver) means about 570 mA from the driver into about 3.5 Vf for about 140 lumens before losses.

An XP-G at 570 mA is about 3.12 Vf for about 1.8 Watts and 210 lumens before losses for an R5 bin.

An XM-L at 570 ma is about 2.85 Vf for about 1.65 W and 210 lumens before losses, for a T6 bin.

So a gain of 10% runtime and 50% in lumens for the XP-G R5, and a 17% increase in runtime and the same 50% increase in lumens for the XM-L. My guess is that the heat sink is good for warm nights @ 2 Watts, ridden slowly or even stopped. You might push more current and more power but it should not be more watts than the area of air cooling of the heat sink (1 sq in/watt minimum, 1.5 would be better). That will require access to remove/mod the driver or replace it, which I suspect is why you wanted to know how to disassemble it further non-destructively. A new LED and driver in a light which you admit has a poor beam suggests you should keep this light as a back up or be seen light and build a new light meeting your needs better. We all understand the desier to mod. So have at it and report back.

[mdt]

That wasn't me who did the tear down. Thanks for the LED info!

I might just get impatient and start galling up the side of my blaze in the process of forcing disassembly. When I'm done, I'll document here how it really should have been done. I'm looking forward to getting xp-g installed!

[mdt]

Probing and gouging completed! My way to get the shiney black plastic cover off the front of the Blaze 2W is to do the following:
(1) Slide the tip of my Leatherman's blade underneath the vaguely v-shaped indentation of aforesaid cover at it's deepest point (ie. The 'crotch'). This lifts the cover off a catch (a raised bit on the heat sink).
(2) With the cover lifted, slide the cover forward just enough to clear the catch.
(3) Repeat on the opposite side.
(4) Remove cover.

A pic is worth a thousand words:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6365460...th/5793924695/

[jnyyz]

I've done some runtime tests on the 2W versus the 1W Blaze. The oddest result is that I have two 2W lights with very different runtimes.
http://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2012/01/2...hts-revisited/

[runun]

Probing and gouging completed! My way to get the shiney black plastic cover off the front of the Blaze 2W is to do the following:
(1) Slide the tip of my Leatherman's blade underneath the vaguely v-shaped indentation of aforesaid cover at it's deepest point (ie. The 'crotch'). This lifts the cover off a catch (a raised bit on the heat sink).
(2) With the cover lifted, slide the cover forward just enough to clear the catch.
(3) Repeat on the opposite side.
(4) Remove cover.

A pic is worth a thousand words:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6365460...th/5793924695/

mdt - So how has the XP-G LED worked out for you? I'm also wondering if the XM-L LED would work in the Planet Bike Blaze. According to BrianMc, the XM-L wouldn't be any brighter, but would only last a bit longer.

[mdt]

mdt - So how has the XP-G LED worked out for you? I'm also wondering if the XM-L LED would work in the Planet Bike Blaze. According to BrianMc, the XM-L wouldn't be any brighter, but would only last a bit longer.

Sorry for the delay, but it's worked out great as I say on on post #8 in this thread: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...light=Blaze+2W