UPDATE: Mod completed: Ti CR2 Ion XP-E WB Q4

[alphazeta]

Hi there,
I usually just hack away on these stress relieving mods but, I think I'll ask for some assistance on this one.
I just received my CR2 Ion today & decided to open it up as planned. I intended to put a warm binned Cree in here & the slightly off-center emitter on the ion should be justification enough for the surgery (okay, it's off maybe just by a hair of a millimeter)

Here are a few of the picts with the bezel off the head.

The reflector is one piece with the threaded head.

Here's a shot of the driver side after I removed the retaining ring & foam donut.

Any pointers on how to remove the guts from someone who's already done it? If not then, I'll eventually just attempt to get them by fashioning something to grasp that board with the hole & yank/torque the sucker. But for now, I'll be a little more patient with this one & wait for some suggestions. With the retaining ring setup, the internals feel like it's just pressed in but :shrug:

Oh yeah & after I put it back together I did put a CR2 in there to fire it up for the first time

-AZ

EDIT: Completed this mod awhile back. I don't usually post my mods but, seeing the lack of Cree XP-E posts -> I thought I might as well this one time. Special thanks for Derek (datiled) for mentioning the slight height increase when using a xr-e for this mod. Instead of living with the increased height of the pill, I gave the diminutive XP-E a try.

Sorry for the so-so pic.

Hard to say to compare to the original output (b/c I had it on for so little time) but, the XP-E creates a much throwier beam (& of course brighter.)
I might still go back to my original plan & install the warmer XR-E Q3 5A in there as I much prefer the warmer tints (That & the fact that a pin prick in my XP-E's dome creates an artifact in the beam that I don't care for:shrug
Thanks for looking.
-AZ

EDIT#2 Here's a quick beamshot snapped at a slight angle to wall @ about 1meter. The ion is on low. Notice, the very slight halo around the spot. This is due to how the XP-E was focused in this particular reflector. It's not a product of the emitter itself. On high, the halo disappears. I intend to get my hands on more XP-Es for future mods. I've found beam angle to be quite similiar to XREs & think they should provide a smooth beam in existing cree XRE reflectors.

 

[datiLED]

Re: CR2 Ion, assistance with guts removal

The driver board is epoxied into the head. Removing it the way that you describe will leave a lot of the components behind. The inside of the can is literally potted from top to bottom with epoxy.

One option would be to simply replace the LED in place as best as you can. Keep the emitter board in place with clips while you do this, as the leads are soldered to it's underside.

The downside to modding the Ion with a CREE XR-E is that the XR-E is slightly taller than the original CREE LED, and the retaining ring will not fit back in place. I think that a thinner emitter board would solve this problem better than removing some material from the head. Either way, this is a very difficult mod due to the liberal use of epoxy inside the head and the fact that the wires are also encased in epoxy.

 

[alphazeta]

Re: CR2 Ion, assistance with guts removal

Thanks for the response Derek. I didn't think I could get to the LED without getting the pill out. I'll take another look at it tonight.
-AZ

 

[alphazeta]

A quick pic of the completed mod has been posted.