petzl Zipka SSC-p4 U Bin mod

[Tom80]

Not sure what p4 came with the stock petzl but wanted to attempt the swap with a SSC - P4 U bin to see what a pita it would be and how well it works. Well I first cut the legs off the led and the pulled off the gel bulb - Used a set of wire cutters and carefully broke off the plastic. And then turned lamp upside down with soldering Iron applied to left over led base and it fell off🙂. I left the original led leg base on board but wiggled off the left over legs with tweezers. Then I pushed remainder leg flat.

after tinning the the tops of leftover pads I stole some thermal paste from my Tactikka XP

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whats left of the led

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New led

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Install took 20 min and I should not have slammed that cup of coffee before trying to solder.

The zipka is a cool headlamp but I didn't like the performance with eneloop's. I was hopping with a better bin led it would perform closer to stock with alkaline. My XM-L T5 Tactikka XP still blows this out of the water on high with eneloops. The swap was not hard and I think a XM-L led on 10mm board will fit - I am not sure about optic but we will see 😀

Not so blue anymore

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[tam17]

Nice mod. I've modded my Tikka XP1 with a neutral XP-G, it was real PITA and my main concern was heat dissipation.

Please don't mind my silly question, but does it heat up if left on - I don't see any serious heatsinking here.

Cheers,

Tam

 

[Tom80]

Nice mod. I've modded my Tikka XP1 with a neutral XP-G, it was real PITA and my main concern was heat dissipation.

Please don't mind my silly question, but does it heat up if left on - I don't see any serious heatsinking here.

Cheers,

I was surprised to see no real heatsinking and I hope petzl did their homework for long runtimes without issue. I have since swapped The ssc-p4 for The XM-L and If I am correct the XM-l will run cooler then the SSC-p4. I am also running eneloops instead of of alkaline or lithium so it should also run cooler. Time will tell but it should be alright 🙂

Tam

 

[Szemhazai]

The currents are so low (they are not going over 200mA) that the heat-sinking will be nice but it's not so necessary.

 

[tam17]

Thanks!:thumbsup:

Tam

 

[Tom80]

Szemhazai Thread "Tikka XP still dangerous" Is what got me started on playing with these little headlamps. His review on the Tikka plus2 and the tikka xp2 helped allot on getting started on the zipka mod. I was hoping since the Xp2 was brighter and used less power by using a better bin led that I could use the more power hungry Zipka with a even better bin and get more usable light. I trail tested the Zipka XM-L and was really surprised how much light comes out of a small package. The large hot spot and flood is really awesome and the light still seemed strong after a 1.5 hours of hiking.