does a seoul in a tle5 work

[qip]

i couldnt believe i didnt think of this before but looking at the tle5 it seems like its easy to just swap emitters, is this doable does the circuit its on allow it...i tested the tle5 with its current emitter on there now and it reads 4-450ma will that change or would it be the same if i put a seoul in there, i know the circuit gets all it can out of batteries but does it regulate ma output ..is this swap okay to do

 

[ace0001a]

Physically looking at it, it looks like it could work. I'm not sure how the emiiter is stuck on it though--whether it's epoxied or not. I would say give it a try and report back us...

 

[MattK]

Yes, it's already been done - it works even better in a TLE-5 Extreme.

EngrPaul has already done it that I can think of - IIRC correctly he said the Luxeons came off relativel easily after he desoldered the contacts.

Works with a Cree too but then you have to mod the reflector and the emission pattern isn't as good regardless - the SSC P4 is the right choice if you're going to pursue this.

 

[qip]

if i do this do i still use thermal epoxy under emitter slug, cuz looking at the current emitter in there now looks like its direct connect no thermal compound

 

[EngrPaul]

With the MaxStar5 (For 3-6 C/D cells), there was thermal compound.

However, for the MiniStar5 (for 2AA), the emitter was soldered down to the heat sink.

 

[qip]

so i have to solder the seoul too ....how do i unsolder underneath the emitter withought damaging the circuit , pry it up?

 

[EngrPaul]

so i have to solder the seoul too ....how do i unsolder underneath the emitter withought damaging the circuit , pry it up?

You do not have to solder the Seoul. To remove the K2, I believe the center pad is long enough that some of the metal is exposed. Once you have desoldered and lifted away the four terminal connections, heat the pad beside the K2 with a soldering iron, and it should lift right off. Use desolder wick/braid to remove the excess solder afterwards. Just don't leave the soldering iron on longer than you have to. There is circuitry expoxy-potted onto the back side of the board.

 

[EngrPaul]

Here's a Ministar5 before soldering an emitter. At the time of this picture, I had removed the K2 and desolder-wicked the pads. Afterwards, I put kapton tape over the terminal solder pads. Next, I soldered the .030" copper slug down to the center pad. The copper slug is relatively big, and would have shorted the pads if I hadn't put the Kapton tape down. To finish the job, I put a bead of thermal epoxy around the slug, and backfilled some in the crevice where the Kapton tape was. This fillet of material also acts like a solder-mask, because it prevents the solder from the terminals from running back under toward the copper slug.

I prepared it for MattK. I was able to test it on the bench, where it worked fine. I sent it to MattK, he will mount it in a MiniMag and see how it works. I'm not even 100% sure the copper slug was needed. Sorry, I don't have a picture of it in the completed state.

 

[qip]

nice...since i dont have a copper slug i should just cake on thermal epoxy and make sure it fills the gap at connection and place the seoul right on it

 

[EngrPaul]

The thermal epoxy is not anywhere near as good as metal. At large thicknesses it's not thermally conductive enough for an emitter. You would be better off soldering just the terminals with thermal compound (instead of epoxy) under the emitter. If it won't focus, you could get the copper slug and boost it later.

 

[MattK]

Heh - I didn't even have to send you a PM to get you to this thread - you just felt the disturbance in the force, eh?

 

[qip]

ok also is there a differnece in the circuit board with a tle5 vs a 5k2...cuz i thought the emitter was the key since its like a lux 1 vs a k2 so the k2 on the same board would be brighter naturally.....mainly i wanna know if i should buy a 5k2 or regular tle5 ,if they both have same circuit output the tle5 is cheaper

 

[MattK]

qip - the tle-5 runs at ~350ma and the TLE-5k2 runs at like like 700ma iirc.

 

[EngrPaul]

Matt,

How's the Seoul I made you compare to the K2 ?

 

[qip]

yeah whats that like

 

[MattK]

Pretty damned impressive - I'd say 2X as bright, Sadly it's not quite centered - I shoulda sent you a MMag to perfect it with.

At the moment it's just gotten dark enough to play with the Striker VG SSC P4's so I'm a bit obsessed right now with that.