Fenix L2P-to-SSC conversion?

[Turbo DV8]

How difficult (possible?) is it to put an SSC emitter into an L2P? Would a mini-star work? Deal Extreme use to have a Cree mini-star, but not currently, and I have never seen them yet carry an SSC mini-star. It seems an SSC would have a fighting chance of working somewhat well with the existing L2P reflector without having to grind it down. Also, how hard is it to get to and mod the L2P LED? I've seen what an SSC did for my Elektrolumens XM-3, and now my poor, "old" L2P is somehow looking dimmer ever since! But the XM-3's regulation is poor, and I would love to have SSC brightness combined with the L2P's ruler-flat regulation.

 

[tibim]

The swap is simple. However getting the L2P apart may prove somewhat difficult. Depends on the light. Once you have it apart you just need to de-solder the old LED and replace it with the SEOUL. Star will not work, you need just the bare LED. Reflector will work fine for the seoul, although you may have to slightly enlarge the opening.

-tibim

 

[Long John]

The Edixeon-ermitter is a simple swap, works with the stock reflector without mods.

Best regards

____
Tom

 

[Turbo DV8]

How do you disassemble the head on the L2P to get to the LED?

 

[Hondo]

Turbo, there are just two steps to dissasemble the L1/L2 head. First, remove the head from the battery tube, which could require a bit of heat and a good grip. For the latter I like a few heavy rubber bands wrapped around the tubes. The heat will defeat any glue/thread locker that was applied to the threads. The tough part is removing the light engine from the head. Inside, you will see two slots in the edge of the brass heat sink, outside of the PC board. I, like most, use a pair of fresh, square tipped needlenose pliers to engage these, carefully, since one good slip can produce a "ramp" in the brass that will never let you get a good grip again. For grip, the above mentioned rubber bands on the head, and one glove for my hand and another wrapped around the head over the bands, so I don't burn my hand. This, unless you are very lucky, is where you will need serious heat. I found that once hot enough, it will turn fairly smoothly, although with substantial force. As soon as it cools to the point where it starts to stick, I must get back to the heat or risk slipping. I heated mine with a hobby heat gun, so going back for more was fairly quick. Many have boiled the head inside a plastic bag with success.


Once you get the light engine out of the back of the head, you can scrape/brush out the remaining glue debris, and it will spin in and out at will

. The only other tip I followed in this mod is adding a copper disc under the emitter to make up for the height difference from a Luxeon - I used .025", since that was what the hobby store had, and it seems to have worked great. I only put thermal paste under the copper, and isolated the bottom of the SSC to the copper with Arctic Alumina. This cut me some slack in being able to tweak the emitter centering after a trial assembly by touching the soldered leads with the iron and sliding the copper disc a bit on the sink (leave it a bit undersize for the "pocket" on the top of the heat sink for this to work). Good luck!

Hondo

 

[Pokerstud]

FYI, I have one of these mods, done by someone else, and it's fantastic, especially with the cr123 battery tube, beautiful beam pattern. I also have a couple L2T's modded with the SSC P4 Seoul. Simply beautiful.

 

[datiLED]

I would like to pass along my $0.02 in opening Fenix lights. I use a coffee mug heater to warm the head of light for 5 minutes, or so. Then two strap wrenches can easily unscrew the most stubborn head. If you need more grip for the strap wrenches, wrap fat rubber bands around the lights, in the direction that you will be turning the strap wrenches.

I am sure that you will enjoy your light after the emitter swap. My Seoul modded P1 is a monster... well worth the time and trouble.

 

[tebore]

I was able to open my L2P head by accident. I ran a RCR123 on it and accidentally left it on once for about 3 mins and tired to pick it up (Bad move).
Click it off then I noticed that when I opened the light I could remove the driver.

 

[Turbo DV8]

OK, thanks for all the suggestions. I followed along fairly easily when looking at the inside of the head. The body screwed right off about as easily as the tail cap. I am hoping that once I get the pliers in the grooves, the guts will screw right out, but it sounds like that may be wishfull thinking! I see no evidence whatsoever of any glue near the inside threads. If I do have to heat it, mention was made of using a heat gun, which I do have, but I know that it can get pretty damn hot, and I am a bit worried of damaging the electronics or O-ring. Do you just heat it a little around the outside, try to unscrew it, the heat a little more if necessary? Boiling water at 212 degrees sounds safer, unless the bag springs a leak!

I now have to order the emitter, so it will be a few weeks until I tackle this, but I will definitely be back here then to ask clarification on the insulating paste and such. I have done a few Cree star mods (easy) but from what I gather, a SSC emitter base must be isolated from the ground?

 

[Hondo]

I have heard of a "bag leak" before in boiling the head, one of the reasons I like the heat gun. It sounds like some of these after heating will just "give it up" even after cooling. I was worried about over heating too, and snuck up with longer and longer blasts from the heat gun until the glue liquified, then turned until it stuck again and repeated. No apparent damage to O-rings, wire insulation, etc. I kind of tried to bias the gun to the rear of the head where the light engine was, but with an aluminum reflector in my older L1, there was not much up front to lose, other than the lense O-ring. I think some later models are plastic reflectors, and I have heard of overheating warping a reflector - specifically in a River Rock light, not a Fenix, though. But since you need the big brass heatsink inside to be hot enough to melt the glue, you really can't be too local about the heating process, the whole head will need to be burn-your-fingers hot, unless you are real lucky!


A minimum of one layer of thermal epoxy, like Arctic Alumina, is needed to insulate the positive base of the LED from the grounded heat sink. With a copper disk, both sides can be epoxied, but be sure to get the emitter centered before it sets, and it is 5-minute working time stuff. The key is not to push down too hard and thin out the layer of epoxy to nothing, you need a finite thickness everywhere. Photonfanatic sells this stuff too, and I ordered it with the emitters I got from him.

Hondo