LRI Photon Freedom

[lampeDépêche]

Well, I tried and tried some more. I can not get the LED out of my Freedom Covert.
From what I understand, I should be pushing from the inside, to make the LED exit from the front of the covert hole.

That's correct! I don't know why it's not working for you, but here are some thoughts:

1) shine a light into the front of the LED, and then look into the body of the case. You'll see your light coming through the epoxy of the LED, and you'll see that only the lower half of the LED is visible from the inside of the case. The upper half is obscured by the way the case was molded. That continuous molding along the upper half is why the LED had to be inserted from the front.

2) The Covert nose has a retention ring molded into it, which engages with a groove in the body. It's like an O-ring to seal the Covert nose in place, only instead of a loose rubber ring, it is a molded ridge running around the circumference of the nose, and part of the same extrusion process.

3) I just disassembled one using a Bic biro (ball-point) as the means of applying pressure to the base of the epoxy, roughly between the leads. Whatever you use has to be small enough to go under the continuous molding of the case, and avoid deforming the leads. In an earlier post I suggested a small pin about 3mm or 1/8" in diameter. I now see that this is too fat, as it would cover the bases of the leads and apply pressure to them. It's better to use something thinner so that the pressure is applied to the epoxy and not the leads.

4) How much pressure did I apply? Maybe 5-10kg? I'm trying to gauge this by pressing down vertically with the Bic, lifting vertically with my fingers on the case, and imagining what weight I am lifting. It's not that much, and I am not a strong person.

5) I would be very surprised if they started gluing these in. I have never encountered one that was held in with any glue. Just press-fit.

6) Good luck!

 

[phosphor22]

Well, I tried and tried some more. I can not get the LED out of my Freedom Covert.

From what I understand, I should be pushing from the inside, to make the LED exit from the front of the covert hole.

With the Photon Freedom open and upside down on a flat surface, try pushing the LED out toward the bottom of the LED. In my Photon Freedom the other half is 'blocked' by the plastic.

EDIT -- apparently LampDePeche and I are on a similar wavelength : )

 

[scout24]

The covert nose and LED are press fit so to speak. It's easier if you get the nose off first. It's thin and plastic, and I've split more than one over time. Pliers will leave marks, it's best to try rotating and rocking it bare handed for lack of a better description. Once the nose is off, I've used a whittled down chopstick to push from the inside, holding the body of the light while tapping gently on Mrs. Scout's kitchen counter...

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks everyone. I'll try those suggestions when I get home later.

 

[lampeDépêche]

Thanks everyone. I'll try those suggestions when I get home later.

I don't want to be a jerk here (though I am clearly a jerk), but I would recommend against Scout24's method. You should not need to take the nose off first, and trying to do that with pliers etc. will result in the damage that he warns about. Doing it with your fingers won't damage the plastic, but if you have the hand-strength to pop off the nose without tools, then you will find it easy to push out the LED and nose all in one go.

This method also works on the non-Covert Photons, where there is a short sleeve with the same retention-ring molded into it (sometimes made of black plastic, sometimes of clear plastic). That's why you can convert Photons from Covert to non-Covert easily, by swapping noses for sleeves or vice versa.

When removing the short sleeve, you *have* to use the push-from-inside method, since there is nothing on the outside to grab onto. So you might as well practice your technique on that one.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Well, I got it out and performed the mod. When I pushed from the inside, the covert and led came out as one unit. I think the replacement led is ever so slightly wider than the original. I pushed the replacement led into the covert housing, then put it back into the casing, as a single unit. I really had to push to get it back in there.

That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about the end result. It's so much dimmer, or appears to be, than the original configuration.

I'll know more tonight when it gets dark.

 

[Tixx]

Well, I got it out and performed the mod. When I pushed from the inside, the covert and led came out as one unit. I think the replacement led is ever so slightly wider than the original. I pushed the replacement led into the covert housing, then put it back into the casing, as a single unit. I really had to push to get it back in there.

That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about the end result. It's so much dimmer, or appears to be, than the original configuration.

I'll know more tonight when it gets dark.

I guess I should try a side by side pic, but in real life and in pics of each solo for me, the difference in brightness is not much other than the original LED being more focused than the replacement.

 

[Tixx]

Here are my pics. Piece of green playdoh so I could center the beam and add a color.

 

[archimedes]

Great beamshots ... the Yuji looks so much better to me

 

[Tixx]

Great beamshots ... the Yuji looks so much better to me

I wrote photon and gave them these beam shots and asked why they were not doing this and still not doing it. The upgrade is amazing! Around my neck for 3 years and now its like a new love all over again!

 

[lampeDépêche]

Those two shots of the rug are a good example of the Yuji's ability to bring out the whole range of browns.
No other light that I have makes wood look as wood-y, or autumn leaves look as leave-y. My cool lights turn a carpet of fallen leaves into a uniform shiny haze; the Yuji shows me that each leaf has a slightly different hue.

I have a crappy little UV light with a shower-head arrangement of 9 5mm leds, running off an unregulated battery carrier of 3xAAA. I am thinking of replacing all of the LEDS with Yujis, to give me a light with a bit more output. All of my Yujis are single-emitter, either Photons or the Gerber Ultra Infinity mod, so nothing above 10 lumens. Given that they beam is such a uniform, mule-like beam without hotspot, the 10 lumens feels dimmer than it is. Getting it up to 50-80 lumens would be interesting.

 

[Tixx]

Those two shots of the rug are a good example of the Yuji's ability to bring out the whole range of browns.
No other light that I have makes wood look as wood-y, or autumn leaves look as leave-y. My cool lights turn a carpet of fallen leaves into a uniform shiny haze; the Yuji shows me that each leaf has a slightly different hue.

I have a crappy little UV light with a shower-head arrangement of 9 5mm leds, running off an unregulated battery carrier of 3xAAA. I am thinking of replacing all of the LEDS with Yujis, to give me a light with a bit more output. All of my Yujis are single-emitter, either Photons or the Gerber Ultra Infinity mod, so nothing above 10 lumens. Given that they beam is such a uniform, mule-like beam without hotspot, the 10 lumens feels dimmer than it is. Getting it up to 50-80 lumens would be interesting.

That would probably make a really nice light mod! Turn a little crappy light into quite a desirable carry!

 

[archimedes]

I wrote photon and gave them these beam shots and asked why they were not doing this and still not doing it. The upgrade is amazing! ....

Those two shots of the rug are a good example of the Yuji's ability to bring out the whole range of browns.
No other light that I have makes wood look as wood-y, or autumn leaves look as leave-y. My cool lights turn a carpet of fallen leaves into a uniform shiny haze; the Yuji shows me that each leaf has a slightly different hue....

That is an excellent comparison photo @Tixx ... and such a good description in words @lampe

The browns just "pop" so much better. I only see two different browns in the first photo (both brownish-green lol) but I can easily count at least six or seven distinct browns in the second picture[emoji106]

 

[iamlucky13]

I wrote photon and gave them these beam shots and asked why they were not doing this and still not doing it. The upgrade is amazing! Around my neck for 3 years and now its like a new love all over again!

If they're worried about throw, Yuji says they can also make 30 and 15 degree versions. I guess they only do that if a customer wants enough to buy a full production batch, rather than one of those "little" orders of 1000 they offer on their web store.

Fenix also needs to do the same with the E01. I suggested it a while back, and got a courteous response that they forwarded the idea to their development staff, but as far as I know aren't doing anything with the idea.

 

[lampeDépêche]

I'd be very interested to see a 15-degree Yuji.

I'm not sure that I would like it *better*, since the mule-like evenness of the 90-degree output has virtues of its own. For inside work, the lack of hotspot is a plus.

And of course if I want a thrower, even a small pocketable one, I'm not going to rely on a 5mm emitter any longer.

But I would still be interested to see a narrow-beam Yuji, just to see what it is like.

Among other things, the smoothness of the beam in their 90 degree LEDs makes me think that (perhaps?) they could pull of a tighter-beam LED without the rings and artifacts that so many tight-beam white LEDs have (esp. the E01, and also some of the Photons).

Do I want to order 100,000 of them? Uh, no. Not for the price they will want me to pay. Plus, I don't have any showerheads large enough to mount that many.

 

[neutralwhite]

is someone modding these lights ?
I could do with a 3200k Photon if anyone can do.
thanks.

 

[gurdygurds]

I'm sure I'm confused (happens a lot) but this is the video where Kitro modded his photons with yujis and was saying that the 2032 was brighter than the pair of 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=botDJE-dFCs Right around the 9:50 mark is where he is comparing output.

Just to make sure I understand you: the Yuji is brighter with the 6v, 2x2016 set-up, right? That's how it works for me, Yuji no different from stock emitter in that regard.

One thing about the Yujis--in my experience, they have almost no hotspot. I have one that I put into a Gerber Infinity Ultra, and the beam it shines is pretty much like a 90-degree mule.

That's good if you like even, smooth light. But if you want your Photon to throw, then it will not. The Photon stock LED probably gives you about 3k-4k lux, with a fairly ugly color and artifacts (not as bad as an E01, but in that direction). The Yuji probably gives you sub-1k lux with perfect color and no artifacts.

For my uses, that's okay. But don't expect throw!

 

[wacbzz]

So I received my Yujis (thanks Scout!) and did the Freedom mod. While it wasn't hard by any stretch, it was meticulous as my first mod ever. The legs of the emitter are definitely kinked at an odd angle - I'll try to get a photo up tomorrow of the LED that I removed to show this.

Despite it's hard simplicity laughing, the beautiful output makes me want to order a dozen more of these lights and do the swap. I sanded the Yuji before putting it back in the case and I feel like for me, this is a vast improvement for the purpose of the light. The color is very close to the V modded E01 that I have.

This swap is a winner all around. I'd like to try this with the covert version....

 

[Tixx]

So I received my Yujis (thanks Scout!) and did the Freedom mod. While it wasn't hard by any stretch, it was meticulous as my first mod ever. The legs of the emitter are definitely kinked at an odd angle - I'll try to get a photo up tomorrow of the LED that I removed to show this.

Despite it's hard simplicity laughing, the beautiful output makes me want to order a dozen more of these lights and do the swap. I sanded the Yuji before putting it back in the case and I feel like for me, this is a vast improvement for the purpose of the light. The color is very close to the V modded E01 that I have.

This swap is a winner all around. I'd like to try this with the covert version....

Sanded it? What part was sanded and why? What grit?

 

[wacbzz]

Sanded it? What part was sanded and why? What grit?

Before I did the swap, I sanded the whole emitter with a 300 grit pad to make the output more floody. Since I don't have the covert edition, I wanted a more evenhanded "area" output.