Illum
Flashaholic
After seeing Chimo's thread and mat_the_cat's thread I decided it would be a good idea to try my hand at this. I hoped, after this mod, I might come up with ideas to replace the many red Gerber IU I've misplaced over the years attending varies star parties with the local amateur astronomers. 
:candle: :shakehead
I had started with Mat_the_cat's pill extraction process, but quickly realized I don't have a vice big enough. so I chucked the E01 in my small vice pointing straight up, removed the o-ring, and unscrew until separation then reverse one revolution. With a pencil torch I proceeded to heat the head for about 20-30 seconds. A punch and a mallet was used to tap it out in between 30 sec heatings. When that didn't work I went with a bigger hammer, then a bigger.... By the time the five pounder came into the equation the pill dropped out on the first thunk. The LED was a mess of fractures, chips, and leads by then :duh2:, so I didn't take a picture of it. the inductor along with the other components didn't survive the unpotting process. Grr.... *burn* :fail:
Went looking for drivers from here, and decided to use a Zetex chip as a new driver, specifically the ZXSC380. I had some chips left over since I last used it in 2010 :nana:
Efficiency is about 70% and needs only one external component. Sounds good to me
First, clean up the existing PCB, locate positive and negative.
The stubs shown are the remnants of the GS. The cathode pin leads to ground, so that pin is reused. Vcc comes in through the inductor pad on the right.
With no copper clad boards on hand I just went with a spent piece of perfboard for the platform. Previous testing give me about 20ma with a 100uH inductor. With no 100uH conformal inductor on hand I went with a 220uH inductor instead :thinking:, routing its leads through the perf board on one side and soldering the ZXSC380 to the other side.
Pin's were set on the existing PCB where the driver module then sits on top of. Of the six holes on the perf board, bottom row farthest left is where the ground connection will poke through on assembly, top row far right is the Vin connection. The LED + will connect to the left lead, and the LED- is soldered into the bottom center hole. It was only at this angle can I fit the square PCB within the confines of the round PCB. Edges were filed after test fitting.
The "Tail" is the LED+ pin:thumbsup:
An unknown spec high intensity red LED was then centered on top of everything, taking note ceiling tolerances. The LED came out of a dead Microsoft mouse and has a very low Vf with a round hotspot as opposed to the usual square. What it looks like fully assembled.:kiss::thinking:
Fitting pictures, the heads pretty beat up, but functional.
:sick2:/:ironic: Theres about a 1 mm gap between the PCB and the head, so its slightly protruding.
Business end
Success!:twothumbs
Total project took about 2 hours, the driver is not repotted, so I can pull it back out when time comes to polish the reflector. Its been fun, would I do it again? probably not.
Back in 2008 I bought a red LED E01 from Chimo and posted a review. The homebrew beamshots compared here:
Left is my mod, right is Chimo's mod. Mine is brighter for flood, while the LED Chimo used had a very nice hotspot. It is not this bright in real life, the Camera makes it look brighter than it should be.
:candle: :shakeheadI had started with Mat_the_cat's pill extraction process, but quickly realized I don't have a vice big enough. so I chucked the E01 in my small vice pointing straight up, removed the o-ring, and unscrew until separation then reverse one revolution. With a pencil torch I proceeded to heat the head for about 20-30 seconds. A punch and a mallet was used to tap it out in between 30 sec heatings. When that didn't work I went with a bigger hammer, then a bigger.... By the time the five pounder came into the equation the pill dropped out on the first thunk. The LED was a mess of fractures, chips, and leads by then :duh2:, so I didn't take a picture of it. the inductor along with the other components didn't survive the unpotting process. Grr.... *burn*
:fail:Went looking for drivers from here, and decided to use a Zetex chip as a new driver, specifically the ZXSC380. I had some chips left over since I last used it in 2010 :nana:
Efficiency is about 70% and needs only one external component. Sounds good to me
First, clean up the existing PCB, locate positive and negative.
The stubs shown are the remnants of the GS. The cathode pin leads to ground, so that pin is reused. Vcc comes in through the inductor pad on the right.
With no copper clad boards on hand I just went with a spent piece of perfboard for the platform. Previous testing give me about 20ma with a 100uH inductor. With no 100uH conformal inductor on hand I went with a 220uH inductor instead :thinking:, routing its leads through the perf board on one side and soldering the ZXSC380 to the other side.
Pin's were set on the existing PCB where the driver module then sits on top of. Of the six holes on the perf board, bottom row farthest left is where the ground connection will poke through on assembly, top row far right is the Vin connection. The LED + will connect to the left lead, and the LED- is soldered into the bottom center hole. It was only at this angle can I fit the square PCB within the confines of the round PCB. Edges were filed after test fitting.
The "Tail" is the LED+ pin:thumbsup:
An unknown spec high intensity red LED was then centered on top of everything, taking note ceiling tolerances. The LED came out of a dead Microsoft mouse and has a very low Vf with a round hotspot as opposed to the usual square. What it looks like fully assembled.:kiss::thinking:
Fitting pictures, the heads pretty beat up, but functional.
:sick2:/:ironic: Theres about a 1 mm gap between the PCB and the head, so its slightly protruding.
Business end
Success!:twothumbs
Total project took about 2 hours, the driver is not repotted, so I can pull it back out when time comes to polish the reflector. Its been fun, would I do it again? probably not.
Back in 2008 I bought a red LED E01 from Chimo and posted a review. The homebrew beamshots compared here:
Left is my mod, right is Chimo's mod. Mine is brighter for flood, while the LED Chimo used had a very nice hotspot. It is not this bright in real life, the Camera makes it look brighter than it should be.
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