Old Led Lenser 3 x AAA - mod ideas ?

[koti]

This is my very first led light I bought years back at an airport somewhere for a ridiculous amount of money. The IMR 18650 in the pix is for size comparison. As You can see, this lights tube will take a RCR123 with a spacer which probably is the strongest battery setup for this light. I would like to mod it with some kind of an emitter and/or reflector that would give more juice, any ideas ? Note the weird relfector...they used some kind of optic...

 

[Hack On Wheels]

A few things...

I think you meant to post this one forum up, you'll get more views/responses there.

Would an 18500 fit? Check how long that AAA holder is. It probably wouldn't have to be an IMR either (they have less capacity due to their chemistry).

Hard to tell from the picture, but is the pill solidly glued into the head? I see two holes at 180 degrees from each other that look like they would be perfect for some split-ring pliers to unscrew. I'm assuming that picture is of the head and not the body/tail?

 

[koti]

A few things...

I think you meant to post this one forum up, you'll get more views/responses there.

Would an 18500 fit? Check how long that AAA holder is. It probably wouldn't have to be an IMR either (they have less capacity due to their chemistry).

Hard to tell from the picture, but is the pill solidly glued into the head? I see two holes at 180 degrees from each other that look like they would be perfect for some split-ring pliers to unscrew. I'm assuming that picture is of the head and not the body/tail?

The IMR 18650 is for size comparison only, I have regular 16340's and 18650's, this one was just at hand
The AAA holder is exactly 50mm in length so an 18500 should fit (I dont have one to check unfortunately)
The picture is of the head like You assumed.
The pill is extremely well glued to the bezel...I tried unscrewing it with needle nose plierts but no luck...I already ordered a pair of snap-ring pliers from DX (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8484) I should get them in 3 months or so

 

[Hack On Wheels]

The IMR 18650 is for size comparison only, I have regular 16340's and 18650's, this one was just at hand
The AAA holder is exactly 50mm in length so an 18500 should fit (I dont have one to check unfortunately)
The picture is of the head like You assumed.
The pill is extremely well glued to the bezel...I tried unscrewing it with needle nose plierts but no luck...I already ordered a pair of snap-ring pliers from DX (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8484) I should get them in 3 months or so

If you have 16340s then just use a spacer, though a 18500 might double the capacity, not sure.

Hopefully the snap-ring pliers help but if it has that much glue you might still have a hard time. I'd recommend using a heat gun or some other method of heating the head before you try to unscrew the pill; be careful, it'll be easy to mess up those holes.

 

[koti]

I found a big a33 wrench and used a piece of rubber to hold the bezel down while unscrewing the emitter. It worked...I was able to unscrew the damn thing without damaging anything, here are the pix :

The emitter looks very similar to an R2 in size but its impossible as the light is more then 5 years old. This emitter gives, hmm...I would say between 10 and 20 lumens...My Fenix LD01 running a LiIon gives Id say more then 6 times the amount of light. The light itself is beautifull...well built, looks and feels great. Its a shame its such poor performance. I double checked and an 18500 should fit nicely ( thanks for the tip Hack on wheels)
Any tips on what I could do with the emitter ?

 

[Hack On Wheels]

I found a big a33 wrench and used a piece of rubber to hold the bezel down while unscrewing the emitter. It worked...I was able to unscrew the damn thing without damaging anything, here are the pix:

The emitter looks very similar to an R2 in size but its impossible as the light is more then 5 years old. This emitter gives, hmm...I would say between 10 and 20 lumens...My Fenix LD01 running a LiIon gives Id say more then 6 times the amount of light. The light itself is beautifull...well built, looks and feels great. Its a shame its such poor performance. I double checked and an 18500 should fit nicely ( thanks for the tip Hack on wheels)
Any tips on what I could do with the emitter ?

Good work getting it out!

Looks like it's an old Lumileds Lux. I can't tell the difference between Lux I and Lux III though. Do you have any idea if it is glued down or just pressed into the heatsink and soldered? If you de-soldered it and were able to remove it from the heatsink you could try replacing it with an SSC P4 emitter.

The P4 emitters have almost identical package size/shape as the old Luxeons but with higher output. The highest flux (output) bin of the P4s is the U-bin, but that is now divided into U, U2, and U3 (higher number means higher output). The tint is indicated by three letters, for exmple "SVN" is a warmer tint than most but can potentially be slightly "green" (I like this tint though).

Another letter will represent the Vf of the emitter. I forget the numbers associated with the letters though. You might want a Vf around 3.5V though, lower Vf will mean the LED will recieve a higher current as it is a direct drive light. You want to match fairly closely to the battery voltage if you plan to use the light for extended periods of time.

So, you would look for something like this: SSC P4 U3SVNH. (The Vf bin will probably be H, I, or J... not sure.)

 

[Hack On Wheels]

One thing to note though: while the P4 is very similar to the Luxeon in a number of respects, the focus with that optic may be effected by the change. The beam might improve slightly, but it could also be a bit worse. Typically I've noticed beams to actually improve when going from Luxeon to P4, but this isn't a guaranteed thing.


Edit: And you might want to remove/resize that big pic. I think the forum rules limit images to being 800 pixels wide.

 

[koti]

I sized down the images, sory about that.
Heres a comparison between the LedLenser emitter and an R2 in P60 format :

As for desoldering the emitter it will have to wait untill I get a soldering iron as the one I have just stoped working and its real crappy anyway. Thanks for the tips Hack on Wheels, I will try to desolder the thing tomorrow or the days after and will post the pix

 

[koti]

Hack on Wheels, where can I find that SSC P4 warm tint bare emitter?
DX only has the SW0.

 

[Hack On Wheels]

Hack on Wheels, where can I find that SSC P4 warm tint bare emitter?
DX only has the SW0.

PhotonFanatic is probably the most reliable and professional source for a CPFer: http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=169435 (note: If you aren't also registered on CPF Marketplace just register there with the same username as here on CPF proper)

SVN isn't actually warm, it's still a cool white (pure white as some call it), but it leans closer to neutral white than most are. Warm white would be like an incandescent in colour temperature.

Take a look here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=156772

^This thread is full of great information about flux/output, Vf, and tint binning for a variety of LED types.

This is the graph for P4 tint bins: http://img170.imageshack.us/i/ssczpowerpwfullyv7.jpg/
Note that the colours represented in the graph aren't the exact tints, but they give you an idea as to what off-white colour tints you might see a bit of in the output.

 

[koti]

PhotonFanatic is probably the most reliable and professional source for a CPFer: http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=169435 (note: If you aren't also registered on CPF Marketplace just register there with the same username as here on CPF proper)

SVN isn't actually warm, it's still a cool white (pure white as some call it), but it leans closer to neutral white than most are. Warm white would be like an incandescent in colour temperature.

Take a look here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=156772

^This thread is full of great information about flux/output, Vf, and tint binning for a variety of LED types.

This is the graph for P4 tint bins: http://img170.imageshack.us/i/ssczpowerpwfullyv7.jpg/
Note that the colours represented in the graph aren't the exact tints, but they give you an idea as to what off-white colour tints you might see a bit of in the output.

Thanks for all the usefull info This will guide me just right.
Oh...and unfortunately Ive been registered on CPFMP for a while now...at least a 3K USD while.

 

[Hack On Wheels]

Thanks for all the usefull info This will guide me just right.
Oh...and unfortunately Ive been registered on CPFMP for a while now...at least a 3K USD while.

You're welcome! It's sure a nice looking little light, even if it is pretty simple. A great mod project, imo.

:laughing: That's an interesting way to measure how long you've been registered at CPFM! I haven't quite been registered for a 3K while, but still more than I'd like to think about.

 

[koti]

Well...a few days ago I bough a Fivemega turbo C head for an incan P60 host running FM1794/CL1909 bulbs on 3 x IMR 18650, an extension tube, a few spare bulbs, a nailbeneder SST-50 module, a Solarforce L2P host for it, a few batteries, etc. I just noticed that I spent over $400 in 2 days and I figured that instead of byuing more stuff for now ( I already have my eye on more crap) I will spend some time to finaly mod something myself.