The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga - SUCCESS!

sween1911

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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

image_zps0473a75e.jpg


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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fl0t

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Mar 10, 2011
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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Good to see you losing fear to modding!

I always thought about novatacs as a good start point for modding. Too bad they dont make them anymore.

Keep us posted.
 

onetrickpony

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Best advice I give myself is to calm down and take your time. I often flub a seemingly simple task because I'm rushing or tired, at the expense of my bank account and increased frustration.

When it comes to soldering, the solder follows the heat. I never use flux which is only because I don't have any but I'm told it helps a lot too. The cleaner everything is the better, solder won't stick to oily metal. Tin your wires with solder before you try to solder them to anything. Silicone or Teflon insulation won't melt and screw up your soldering like the regular wire insulation does. Get some really thin tweezers, they're awesome. Stay positive, it's worth it when a difficult project finally comes together. Yada yada...
 

Hoop

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Your soldering job looks like a crime scene. :faint: Definitely pick up a decent soldering station; that's the first step. Then just start soldering loose wires together and to various things. After about 15 minutes you should be pretty good at soldering. Oh, and use rosin core lead solder of a small diameter.
 
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sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Your soldering job looks like a crime scene.

I LOL'ed at that one. :) Thanks for all the good words, I'm definitely having fun. I'm absolutely one of those "Can't leave it well enough alone" kind of people.

(However, I am NOT cracking open the HDS!)

I think a good soldering station is in my future. Browsed at Radio Shack the other day, actually had pretty good price and selection.
 

datiLED

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Check out Circuit Specialists for good value soldering stations. I have purchased 3 stations from them, and have been happy with each of them. I use their store brand station regularly. Just be sure to buy good Hakko tips.

FYI, if you heat the pill from the NovaTac, you can probably get the converter board assembly out. You could solder on new leads to the LED and give it another go. You have nothing to lose at this point.
 

sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Ohhh... okay, what do you mean by this exactly? I have the Novatac LED, but the little contact on the one side is broken off. Heat that thing and... the converter board assembly is which part?

FYI, if you heat the pill from the NovaTac, you can probably get the converter board assembly out. You could solder on new leads to the LED and give it another go. You have nothing to lose at this point.
 

sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Ah ha, I see what you mean. Got the original SSC pill apart and... it fell apart. :)

XP-G2's are inbound. If I get this one working without removing fingerprints with the soldering iron... again... I'll move onto the Classic I just picked up.
 

sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

I DID IT!!! Yes, it's about 1:45am EST.

I got my XPG2's on Noctigons from Mountain Electronics in the mail today, went with a warmer tint.

First trimmed the Noctigon with a Dremel and cutoff wheel.

Here's my slightly less crime-scene soldering job. Using a fine tip low wattage soldering iron is key...
LED_zps3ee0629e.jpg


Trimmed the bottom shoulder of the reflector and also trimmed some solder from the top of the joints so the reflector would sit in the heatsink without stressing the joints.


After infinity+1 disassembly and reassembly, she's together and working!
XPG2_zps648832f6.jpg


I'll let the beamshot speak for itself (HDS EDC LE 200 on high on the left)
beamshot_zps956badb5.jpg


Thank you guys so much for your guidance. I can't possibly express how helpful Double Barrel and Think2X have been answering my PM's and giving me encouragement and help. THANK YOU ALL!!!!
 
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THE_dAY

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Great job! That new beam looks beautiful.
What tint bin did you order for that XPG2? I really like that warm sunlight look.
 

sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Great job! That new beam looks beautiful.
What tint bin did you order for that XPG2? I really like that warm sunlight look.

Let's see... My order says "CREE XP-G2 R4 5A2 LED on Noctigon 16mm MCPCB". I think the tint I ordered was 4000k - 4100k.

I really wanted to get away from the original harsh cold beam to make it a nice bright incan-like sleeper.

Right now, I'm still tweaking the leads from the circuitry in the heatsink. They're broken off even with the top of the heatsink and are unreliable. I'm doing some fiddling to come up with the optimum robust connection. No amount of cramming solder down the hole will give me a good connection as the heatsink sucks out the heat and it just kind of globs at the top. I'm seriously considering Jamie's tip of using LED/resistor legs, but I have to dig some up first.
 

sween1911

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Re: The Novatac 85T Upgrade Saga

Update: The original head doesn't want to work. I transplanted the head from my Classic (2AA model) and put a fresh XPG2 in it and it's been working beautifully!

Think2X hooked me up with a great deal on another Classic head, which I put unmodded into my Classic, so they're both running now.

Down the line, I plan to get an lflex and put that in the original head.

Here's my modded Novatac helping me cook steaks on the snowy deck the other night...
nt1_zpszfhel39c.jpg
 
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