Ok so Iam the newbie you sucked in, I have never seen this before. I have an old Arc AAA that has been laying in a drawer for years because its such a weak suck light the way it is. What and where for the Matterhorn? Is this a little light you can pick up somewhere? You have to grind the base of the matterhorn head to fit the Arc tube? The threads are the same? What about running a little more voltage to the three led head, possible? Stuff two little 1.5 batteries in the tube? What about a small 3v rechargable battery with a spacer to make it the same length as a aaa battery? Is the end product you have there brighter and better throw than like a Fenix LOD? Please help a brotha (newb) out! I was also lways impressed with how well the arc tubes were made and how nice the knurling and ano work was.
Thanks!
Matt
The Matterhorn is made by Peak LED Solutions.
http://www.peakledsolutions.net (forgive the clunky website, it's a known problem.) I got the 3-LED version, with the higher "Ultra-Power" driver that is good for 110 candlepower in the center of the beam.
Yes, the threads are the same. Supposedly Arcs and Peaks are made at the same machine shop, or used to be anyway. The back of the head has a brass contact on it that I estimate to be ~3/32" long, and it has to be ground down for the head to screw in far enough for the O-ring to do its job. I don't know how the contact is attached to the circuit board, but I do know I destroyed a 1-LED Matterhorn head by grinding it too long and not cooling it off to keep the epoxy hard, and the grinder eventually tore the contact right off the board.
Oops.
The exact process I used to grind the contact down was, I held it lightly against the side of the grinder wheel for a quick count of five (probably 3 seconds), then dipped it in a coffee can of water, then tested it on my lip to make sure it was cool before repeating. When I got the contact almost flat with the back of the head, I switched to using a sharpening stone so I could be more precise. It took ~20 minutes total to do it just right. Then I coated the epoxy with a single coat of clear nail polish, being careful to not get any on the contact itself. I was going to put a bead of silver solder on the contact, but I decided there wasn't enough room to do that and I'd end up grinding it all back off anyway.
The hotspot on my Arc-Matterhorn is about as bright as the L0D on high mode, but it doesn't have the spill. That doesn't really matter to me though, because I use my Arc when working in small places where I don't need spill anyway. Here's a beamshot of the two together:
My camera liked the light from the L0D better, and it keeps showing Peak's "snow" LEDs as a lot bluer than they really are. In real life, they are different colors as shown, but the same brightness in the center of the hotspot. My informal testing shows it's good for lighting up license plates and reflective stickers about 50 feet away. (at night, duh.) Best of all, despite its brightness, Peak says it'll run for 12 hours on an AAA battery (probably ~5hrs to 50% brightness), vs. the 1-hour rating for the L0D on high. (You could put an AAA-size 3.6V lithium battery in there, but be forewarned that it doesn't have the circuitry necessary to protect the battery for you.)
Interestingly, the Matterhorn's head makes a hissing sound when turned on, almost like the sound a drop of water makes when it hits a hot frying pan, only much, much quieter. (I only noticed when I held it to my ear.) Something to do with the voltage booster circuit, I guess. It's also the only 5mm LED light I've ever seen that actually gets warm! Not as warm or as fast as the Arc6 or any other super-LED light, but it does warm up. I don't forsee it causing any problems down the road, though; it's not that much heat.
Anyway, do this at your own risk, because it's fairly precise work, and bench grinders are not very precise things.
