Sold/Expired ARC LSH-P upgrade

Hello, I have an ARC LSH-P, the older style one with the Fraen optic. Although, I love my LSH-P I need to have it upped a little bit, its just to dim. I mostly want the stock lux replaced with a luxIII, as well as the board voltage upped to 500mA, and if possible my lens has several nicks in it, and could use to be replaced. I do not however want the optic replaced, I want that more or less left alone. If anyone has the skills to perform these mods, and is willing to do them for me. Please either post here or PM with a price quote. Thanks.


-Mini-Moder

it's not a hard mod, why don't you do it yourself.

Well, I have no idea how to up the mA to the board, I might be able to do the luxIII and the lens, but I have no idea how to dis assemble and reasemble the head unit. And, I dont want to mark it up. If I could find a guide, that could help me out, I might attempt it.

Contact either Cy or Litefuse they both do great work with the LS. I had mine done by Litefuse before I started doing them myself. You will be happy with either on of these guys.

I'll talk you through it...i've done about 10
do you have a fine tip soldering iron?, you'll need it for the SMD resistor(to up the current)
also, a pair of needle nose pliers, with very pointed tips (i use jewllers pliers)

I have plenty of soldering tools, and other tools. As I do a lot of carpentry work. But yes I have all those tools I am not looking for a full explinationright now, but how the heck do you get that little bugger out of there?

rugbymatt, I contacted litfuse, and then he stoped PMing me, thats why I am posting here. I am considering contacting cy, if it turns out I cant do it myself.

Undeniably there is merit to having an experienced person do the upgrade if you are at all leery, but it is satisfying to learn to do it. I have a 20 photo disassembly guide I can post on my website if you wish to take a peek (it's not there yet). A few things I did not mention:
-Some of these Arcs had a LOT of threadlocker on them and are very hard to open. So hard, some people just ground the retainer ring off and replaced it. So hard, some people ruined their lights trying. I had to build a special tool. Some Arcs are so easy the ring practically falls off.
-Replacing the LED is trivial if you have soldering experience.
-The circuit has solder pads for varying the resistors and thus, the drive current (milliAmperes, not volts or mAh!). You need some very low resistance surface mount resistors. They're not hard to find at Digikey, but most folks don't have them laying around. I'd have to dig up the size and resistance specs.
-Reassembling is not hard, but recentering the LED board and tightening is hard.

I have a fair number of resistors, but I dont even know what a surface mount resistor is. I may be willing to try at least part of this by myself. Please post that guide louie.

You got it!

edit - PM me for my PDF Arc LS disassembly guide

Its out now what is required to up the mA on the board?

great pictures!, that makes much easier , can you spot the smd resistor marked R15?, there's a free spot right above it for the resistor you'll need to add

The easiest mod for upping the drive current is to halve the resistance of the drive sense resistors. Look at my photo of the circuit board. Click on the photo for a blowup. See the green rectangle on the right that says, "R15"? That's the original 0.15 ohm sense resistor. Adding another to the parallel pads just above it will halve the sense resistance and double (approx) the drive current to the LED. Unfortunately, that does not mean double the brightness. In fact, some folks are very disappointed to get just a bit more brightness and far less run time.

Note that these surface mount resistors are known as "0805" size 1/8watt, 5%. They are about 1/16th inch long.

Where can I buy them? Also does anybody know where I can get replacement lenses.

Digikey has the resistors:
http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/T061/1228.pdf
They are the type 0805, 1/8W, 5%
part # P.15BCT-ND

I assume flashlightlens.com or the Sandwich Shoppe will have a selection of lenses, probably several choices - plastic, glass, coatings, etc. I don't recall the dimensions.

Cool. Information and the most valuable asset of all, other members time and experience. Mini, if you are really interested in doing this I will send you a LS1 with board flex defect for you to practice on. Beware though -Arc mods are like a gateway drug!! This will keep you from possibly damaging a pristine Arc LS and provide excellent experience. The mods aren't hard after a try or two. You will also gain a deep appreciation of why pro modders like Litfuse and Chop charge what they do. It's of no value to me, much of my modding equipment is in the Gulf of Mexico :wave: and there isn't any time in the forseeable future for me to repair it. Did not cost me a thing. PM if interested.

Is there a place where I can buy 1 of them? I only see like order 50 for $80 on there? Am I missing something.



=====EDIT=====
nightshade, PM sent!

Louie, that photo guide rocks!! Gransee should sticky that in the Arc FAQ.

I just want to give a big cheer for nightshade, who offered me his almost dead ARC LS to practice on. Big cheers and thank you so much.:buddies:

Mini-Moder said:

Is there a place where I can buy 1 of them? I only see like order 50 for $80 on there? Am I missing something

Click to expand...

I've used these without any problems (these will double the current)

Digikey shows a minimum order of 10 for $14.03 plus S/H (near bottom of page). Yes, steep. The 0603 size from the Shoppe Red Robby mentions are just a slightly different size. Since there's plenty of room on the board, it shouldn't be a problem.

Good Luck! I think that LS1 may have some physical differences from the LSH line.