Want to upgrade old Streamlight TLR-1

[dcphoto]

I have an old-ish Streamlight TLR-1 I would like to mod. It primarily lives on my HD rifle. Would like a little more intensity, but more importantly would like a MOP reflector to smooth the spill out. I don't have the $$$ to purchase a newer light.

I've never modded a light before. I have some experience soldering, but not with surface mount components like this.

Put simply, I have no true idea of what I'm doing and could use some guidance.

 

[DUQ]

I don't think it would be worth all of the effort. You have to completely gut it just to get to the LED and main board.

Would it be better to sell it and use the funds to pick up something brighter?

 

[Justin Case]

Why do you say you need to completely gut the TLR-1 to mod the LED? All you need to do is unscrew the bezel, which isn't threadlocked and thus easy to unscrew. That gives you access to the LED, which is all that is needed. Then desolder and remove the existing Lux III LED. You'll probably have to clean up residual thermal epoxy. Then replace the Lux III with the LED of choice, presumably a Cree XP-G, XP-G2, XM-L, or XM-L2. You'll probably want the Cree on an 8mm diam board, and you'll also have to shim it to the same LED die height as the Lux III. As I recall, you need an 0.060" thick shim to raise up an XP-G that is mounted on a datiLED MCPCB to the correct die height.

The trickiest parts probably are determining the right shim thickness and making the shim, and connecting LED+ and LED- from the MCPCB to the TLR-1.

 

[DUQ]

The board is deep enough to cause issues with soldering and I'm pretty sure the LED is reflowed directly onto the circuit board itself. That's why I said that you have to gut the light.

 

[Lips]

I had a TLR-2 upgraded to a P4 Seoul emitter (by Jay Rob)

Worked better than the Luxeon...

 

[autogiro]

XP-G worked just fine in mine. Excellent, cheap, easy upgrade with no headaches. Works great with existing driver electronics.
Auto

Why do you say you need to completely gut the TLR-1 to mod the LED? All you need to do is unscrew the bezel, which isn't threadlocked and thus easy to unscrew. That gives you access to the LED, which is all that is needed. Then desolder and remove the existing Lux III LED. You'll probably have to clean up residual thermal epoxy. Then replace the Lux III with the LED of choice, presumably a Cree XP-G, XP-G2, XM-L, or XM-L2. You'll probably want the Cree on an 8mm diam board, and you'll also have to shim it to the same LED die height as the Lux III. As I recall, you need an 0.060" thick shim to raise up an XP-G that is mounted on a datiLED MCPCB to the correct die height.

The trickiest parts probably are determining the right shim thickness and making the shim, and connecting LED+ and LED- from the MCPCB to the TLR-1.

 

[dcphoto]

XP-G worked just fine in mine. Excellent, cheap, easy upgrade with no headaches. Works great with existing driver electronics.
Auto

Can you give some details about how you removed and installed the emitter? I'm totally new to this...