gillestugan
Enlightened
I made this easy and cheap mod a year ago and a I'm very happy with it, so I thought I should share. Have also made one identical for a friend.
The host:
The Petzl micro is a classic pocket headlamp that uses 2AA batteries. There are quite few AA headlamps on the market, but loads of AAA lamps. A pity as the AA battery have almost three times the capacity of a AAA and is still quite slim. It has a halogen bulb and you twist the head to zoom and turn the lamp on and off. Easy, simple and reliable. My host is about 20 years old, but the rubber is still soft.
The mod:
I tore out the reflector and replaced it with a standard 26.5mm dropin with a nice warmwhite cree XR-E.
You turn the light on and off by twisting the head. Zoom is naturally not possible as the led is fixed in the dropin reflector.
The reflector is glued in place with a ring of plastiv board fixing it in the middle. In front of the reflector is a standard round soda glass lens held in place by the rubber.
In the lamp I cut a round hole between the battery compartment and the lamp so the the dropin stick through the hole when the head is screwed on.
I then bent the existing bulb leads so that one of them goes up an is pressed against the outside of the reflector and the other behind the dropin. It than gets in contact with the positive spring connector of the dropin when head is screwed down and the lamp light up.
Material list:
26.5mm standard DX/KD dropin reflector with brass pill. ($2.50)
Cree XR-E on a 17mm board. (I used a 6A P4 warmwhite) ($6.00)
Boost driver (I Used a KD 5313 5mode) ($6.00)
37.8mm glass lens from DX ($0.36)
Plastic board
Glue
Tools:
Solder Iron
Knife
The host:
The Petzl micro is a classic pocket headlamp that uses 2AA batteries. There are quite few AA headlamps on the market, but loads of AAA lamps. A pity as the AA battery have almost three times the capacity of a AAA and is still quite slim. It has a halogen bulb and you twist the head to zoom and turn the lamp on and off. Easy, simple and reliable. My host is about 20 years old, but the rubber is still soft.
The mod:
I tore out the reflector and replaced it with a standard 26.5mm dropin with a nice warmwhite cree XR-E.
You turn the light on and off by twisting the head. Zoom is naturally not possible as the led is fixed in the dropin reflector.
The reflector is glued in place with a ring of plastiv board fixing it in the middle. In front of the reflector is a standard round soda glass lens held in place by the rubber.
In the lamp I cut a round hole between the battery compartment and the lamp so the the dropin stick through the hole when the head is screwed on.
I then bent the existing bulb leads so that one of them goes up an is pressed against the outside of the reflector and the other behind the dropin. It than gets in contact with the positive spring connector of the dropin when head is screwed down and the lamp light up.
Material list:
26.5mm standard DX/KD dropin reflector with brass pill. ($2.50)
Cree XR-E on a 17mm board. (I used a 6A P4 warmwhite) ($6.00)
Boost driver (I Used a KD 5313 5mode) ($6.00)
37.8mm glass lens from DX ($0.36)
Plastic board
Glue
Tools:
Solder Iron
Knife
