TLR-1 Seoul Mod

[Supernam]

So I got my hands on a TLR-1 weapon light yesterday with the intention of putting in an SSC P4. I knew other members had already done this, but I've never seen any directions of any sort. So I unscrewed the bezel and there was the Lux soldered to the board. I took some needle nose pliers and pinched the emitter and gave it a slight wiggle to see if it was expoxed, soldered, or if it was just thermal grease. I think I was able to break it free from the epoxy when I wiggled it, because there was hardened epoxy underneath after I unsoldered it. I put some Arctic Silver in there and soldered in a U bin SSC P4. I got the emitter from DX so I can't say exactly what bin code it was, but from the tint, it looks to be SWO, and the emitter was seeing 3.3v down from a 3.4 with the Lux. So it looks like I'll be getting slightly better runtime even though it already gets 2 1/2 from the factory. Beam was exactly the same, while output increased substantially. I don't have anything to measure with, but it is definitely just as bright as my Novatac 120T on high.

Here are some before and after beamshots:

Before

After

Before

After

It was a pretty straightforward mod as long as you're good at soldering in confined spaces.

 

[scott.cr]

Thanks for that quick write-up. I LOVE your ceiling-bounce bathroom mirror shot.

 

[CM]

"output increased substantially..."

You probably doubled the output Not too shabby at all! The ones I've done ranged from about 85% to 120% increase. You should try shimming the LED. You can tighten up the beam quite a bit without giving up the all important sidespill with the proper shim.

You got lucky with the epoxy. All the ones I've done couldn't be persuaded off the board without a jig I fabricated. I did get one that popped right off when I unsoldered the leads but that was a fluke.

 

[Supernam]

Haha, yes I think "substantially" was a conservative approximation. I was actually quite nervous about the thought of getting the emitter off because I had a feeling it was epoxied down. I really did get lucky that I wiggled it loose. As for the focus thing, I didn't have to shim to get it to focus tight because I left the hardened epoxy in place which acted as a spacer. The emitter is actually being pressed against the base of the reflector. So, I got VERY lucky on many levels as this was my first time doing this mod.