Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died [UPDATE: Patient #2 LIVES!]

[jzmtl]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

I'm pretty sure to get 320 lumen at 350ma you would need to connect the dies in serial, which would require high vf that the driver probably cannot produce. I suppose you can put the lens on a mce and direct drive it with a 123a for a few seconds and see if you like the beam pattern.

 

[jojobos]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Anything with a warm tint will be great!
So, I would love to see XR-E 5A in there!

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Anything with a warm tint will be great!
So, I would love to see XR-E 5A in there!

Yea, I'm just going to wait. No sense wasting my last MC-E on this application. I've got plenty of other stuff to work on today.

Warm White XR-Es should be arriving tomorrow. I don't know what bins though, dealer just listed them as neutral and warm. I'm guessing neutral is 5A, but I have no idea what "warm" will end up being.

 

[TravisLight]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

great post.. keep it up

 

[HEY HEY ITS HENDO]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

I'm pretty sure to get 320 lumen at 350ma you would need to connect the dies in serial, which would require high vf that the driver probably cannot produce

yes this is correct

I'm reading 475mA on high, 55mA on med, 15mA on low. The 475mA means about 400mA to the emitter

so MC-E wired in parallel, each die would only see 100ma.

 

[Ainsley]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

yes this is correct

so MC-E wired in parallel, each die would only see 100ma.

I'd LOVE to get a Q3 5A emitter in my H30... I'll be waiting for the finished result and the results of the lens issue.

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

XREs arrived today, hopefully I'll get time to work on it tonight.

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Success!!!

 

[Woods Walker]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Looks great! Wonder what the output is?

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Looks great! Wonder what the output is?

I have no way to measure the output, but doesn't matter anyhow, it's WAY more useful now.

 

[russthetoolman]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Awesome !!
Do tell if you were able to reuse the lens/ dome and how you did it!!
Thanks for posting it.
Russ

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Do tell if you were able to reuse the lens/ dome and how you did it!!

Yep, the lens can be pried off of the emitter with a very thin screwdriver bit. It is a tightly fit to the emitter dome, but it can be removed without damaging the lens or the emitter if you are careful.

Reusing it is very simple, just squeeze it on to the new XR-E.

 

[Woods Walker]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

I have no way to measure the output, but doesn't matter anyhow, it's WAY more useful now.

Yea warm tints rock in the woods.

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Yea warm tints rock in the woods.

Rocks anywhere.

People look like people, things look like things. No more ghost shadow world.

 

[Edwood]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Wow. That is awesome. I really hate the purple tint of my H30. Can you post pics of your disassembly process if you mod another H30, LLCoolBeans?

I'd love to put a high CRI Nichia 083 in there but the max drive current is a little too high.

 

[LLCoolBeans]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Wow. That is awesome. I really hate the purple tint of my H30. Can you post pics of your disassembly process if you mod another H30, LLCoolBeans?

I should have done that, but when I disassembled it, I wasn't sure how it was going to go.

Yes, if I do it again, and I may, I'll fully photo document the process. All in all, this is not a difficult procedure, now that we know how to do it.

I'll be happy to walk you through the process, if you need help. Let me know.

 

[Woods Walker]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Rocks anywhere.

People look like people, things look like things. No more ghost shadow world.

Yea it is funny that there are so few warm tint headlamps as it seems to me that a warmer tint would work best. Maybe Zebra light will make one but will not hold my breath.

 

[StandardBattery]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

:thumbsup: Great Job :thumbsup:


A Warm/Neutral 5A tint is probably the 1 thing that would really improve the Zebras. I'm actually hoping I never see one or I'll probably have to replace all 3 of my Z headlamps.

I must say I'm liking 5A in everything these days. Although, not that long ago I used the H60 while putting in a new car battery and I must say it was fantastic. Even though the light is quite large, it's not too heavy and since I had on a wool hat because it was COLD, I could not even feel the lamp attached. The illumination provided was absolutely amazing and perfect for working.

 

[John_Galt]

Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died

Very cool!
If I had the cash, I would probably buy the H50, and swap in a red led, for night tag at camp. Sweet mod.

 

[DonShock]

SECOND SURGERY WAS SUCCESSFUL!

I went ahead and ordered a second H30 to give the modification another try now that I know what I'm dealing with. I took step by step pictures of the disassembly, but once I started the LED swap I was so eager to finish I didn't take another picture until it was completed and working.

Here's patient #2 prior to surgery

Unscrew the retaining ring and remove the button cover

Unsolder switch leads and remove switch PCB

Straighten switch wires, clean off top of heatsink

Used a drill bit, twisting with fingers only, to clear out hole in sink

Tap inserted to use as handle to remove heatsink

Heatsink freshly removed from the light

Here's the reletive positioning of the heatsink

Here's the back of the LED with the heatsink removed

Push in on the dome to tip it back enough to clear the hole.

Light engine drops out battery end of the light body.

Here's the freshly removed light engine.

Here's the light engine with the potting compound removed.

The bottom of the light engine
(I was able to determine that I just broke off a single surface mount resistor on the original light. I'll need to see if I can find and scavange a 302 off of something else that's broken.)

Dome pried off LED

FYI: Heatsink reinstalled on light engine

Here's where I got in a hurry and stopped taking pictures. I just unsoldered the LED from the riser posts and soldered on the red LED in it's place. I also replaced the switch wires. The insulation was damaged on the white switch wire and I figured some longer wires would ease reassembly. FYI: the ground path to the body is made by the underside of the switch PCB. Also, on reassembly I found the spacing on the switch button retaining ring is not even. You need to rotate it to get the holes to line up. Marking the ring for proper alignment prior to disassembly would have helped.

And here's the patient, alive and well, with it's brand new red Cree XR-C.

I had been a little worried if it would work due to the lower Vf of the red LED. It was a shot in the dark if the circuitry could compensate. But it seems to be working fine. And the reletive brightness of the low/med/hi seem about the same as the original white LED. Only time will tell if it will hold up as well as the unmodified lights.