RR .5 watt headlamp, Anyone up for some soldering?

[fishx65]

Is anyone willing to try and put some whiter 5mm leds in a couple River Rock headlamps? I picked up 5 of these when Target cleared them out. Looks like just a remove and solder job. I pretty much suck at soldering! Maybe a MJ or SMJ would work but I'm not sure. Don't worry about screwing them up cuz I got them really cheap. Of course, I would pay for all shipping and the leds. Someone with a bunch of leds on hand could experiment to see which one would work the best. I just want to get rid of the blue/purple tint. No need for cree or seoul. I'm in Michigan.

Thanks, FishX65

 

[Jedi Knife]

Not me, thanks anyway.

 

[carbine15]

What happened to your post? I've removed and replaced my LED. If you came up with two 4-die smjleds I'd do yours and mine together and return yours back to you (pay shipping). It's pretty simple to solder, the hard part is replacing the module after you remove it. I've mastered that skill and would be happy to share if I could only get some nice high output LEDs that would work. I have the ablility to dremmel a high dome back to a low dome and polish it clear for a reflector. I've had real good results using a combination of polishing on the dremmel and using light coat of clear acrylic nailpolish.

 

[fishx65]

What happened to your post? I've removed and replaced my LED. If you came up with two 4-die smjleds I'd do yours and mine together and return yours back to you (pay shipping). It's pretty simple to solder, the hard part is replacing the module after you remove it. I've mastered that skill and would be happy to share if I could only get some nice high output LEDs that would work. I have the ablility to dremmel a high dome back to a low dome and polish it clear for a reflector. I've had real good results using a combination of polishing on the dremmel and using light coat of clear acrylic nailpolish.

Carbine, I moved my post over to the Modified section and it died. I've got four new RR headlamps just sitting in their packages. If you do find a 5mm led that works well, please let me know! Thanks a lot for the soldering offer! If we come up with the right led, I'll send one to you for sure cuz my soldering skills suck.
FishX65

 

[fishx65]

Moved it back here!

 

[carbine15]

I'm fairly confident that the wah wang 4-die led will be a fine fit for this headlamp. I'll do my modifications and post before and after shots just to be sure.

 

[fishx65]

Carbine, Please let us know how it turns out! If it's just as bright and whiter it would make this a cool little headlamp. I used the RR tonight for a while instead of my EOS, way to freakin BLUE!!!!!!

 

[carbine15]

It is "way freaking BLUE" indeed, but it's so light weight! The fact that it's so light and waterproof and has two very useful levels of output makes me want to never take it off. It could only be improved if it were less blue and maybe if it took a single cell (like a 123). I love mine and hope to rescue it from its BLUENESS very soon. Incidently if you sputter the reflector, some of the overwhelming blueness goes away and the beam is much less distracting.

 

[Omega Man]

I'm using this as my headlamp this weekend, and it's going up against my 3 friend's Petzls. I think I'd put a spare SMJ in the RR when you post some pics of before and after beams. It could definatly be more floody, I don't care for the spot. But I like the 2xAAA over 3xAAA size.

 

[carbine15]

River Rock Stock .5 watt emitter (yes it's a three die led) Very bright for a 5mm format but very blue also.
Stock .5 watt on low

Stock RiverRock on High

And now after the WahWang (4-die) led upgrade,
On low

and High:

This modification is fairly involved because of switch assembly installation, attention to polarity and soldering in tight spaces. Overall I'd say the output is increased by 20-30% (hard to notice a difference here due to the logarithmic nature of human light sensitivity) The tint of the LED is more pleasing and less blue (the real goal of this upgrade) but still far more blue than Seoul Cree LuxIII LEDs that are driven at their respectively much higher power. I also noticed that the WahWang is more blue than the Nichia CS LED (though much brighter and smoother). When on low output, the WahWang has a greenish tint (which I like very much for better color rendition.) Low draws 7ma from the two AAA eneloops. High pulls 120ma then climbs to 130ma as the led heats up. These are very similar to numbers I pulled off the headlamp before the upgrade so the runtimes should be identical. I think this might be overdriving the 4-die LED slightly as it was meant for 80ma at the emitter which may be some of the reason for the remaining blue tint in the beam.

I happen to have a pair of new 1.7 volt energizer lithium aaa cells here. On low the headlamp pulls 55ma and on high 161ma and falling. The brightness between low and high with lithium cells is much less noticeable. The high current and loss of useful low mode makes me not recommend lithiums unless you absolutely had to save weight. I'm pretty sure I know how to test milliamps at the emitter but I refuse to do it because I've already soldered them in place.


Overall, due to the minimal gains in lumens with the WahWang 4-die, and the color still being more blue that I care for, I wouldn't recommend this modification with this particular emitter. The two modifications that I still highly recommend for this headlamp are:

• a removal of the top strap to save weight and space.
• sputtering the reflector with hairspray to even out the beam and make the hot spot less distracting.