Is it possible to mod Aurora 2AA with Luxeon 1W

Hi,

I'm new to the forums here.
A wile ago I bought an Aurora 2AA flashlight with a 1.5W Nichia Jupiter led

Would it be possible to replace the Jupiter with a 1W Luxeon to save battery power and get the same amount of light? Both leds seem to operate on 3.7v I'm not sute what mA is needed... the jupiter seems to handle max at 500 mA but If is 350 mA according to the Nicia website.... is If the normal operating current? I'm not familia with these terms. Due to moving I haven't got my multimeter at hand, I know I should measure it. I'm asking because I can purchase a Luxeon for a good price and that made me wonder about modding my flashlight.

Should I purhase a led mounted on a star or just the led? The Nichia jupiter is mounted directly on an aluminum plate inside the Aurora.

Anyone tried this before? Am I correct that this is possible?

Thanx!

I bought one of these (as a River Rock, but functionally the same light). Opening the head is a PITA, made more difficult by the body construction. Seems the body is really two pieces held together by a heavy crimp or some such - I managed to loosen this connection while trying to remove the head, and the electrical connection was intermittent from then on.

There's some good threadlock on the head, but heat will loosen it - the lens is plastic, and may soften, but this was okay by me, as I wanted to remove it anyway.
The threaded connection is directly below the knurled portion of the head, so try to keep your tools as close to it as possible.

Once you've got the thing open, replacing the Nichia isn't too hard. It's held on with some thermal epoxy which is fairly soft. I was able to cut into it, and essentially pry the Nichia off. There's a depression cut into the heatsink that's actually larger than necessary for a Luxeon emitter. At this point, it's a matter of epoxying the Luxeon in place, reconnecting the wires, and refitting the thing together.

The "reflector" in the River Rock was a bit of black plastic, which might explain why the beam isn't very strong. If you remove the lens, a lightly sanded IMS20 reflector will fit snugly, and provide a much better beam. I test-fit everything in place, and used a small bead of epoxy to hold it in place. Threading the head in place holds the light engine snugly, so the reflector isn't load-bearing. Make sure you like the beam, add the epoxy and let dry.

I made a replacement lens of some 2mm lexan sheet, beveling the edge, smapping it into place and epoxying it as well - it didn't look as good as the stock assembly, but did offer some protection to the LED. There's no good way to replace the lens, and it needs to be removed to fit the 20mm reflector - you could fit a 17mm easily, but holding it in place would be tricky, and might not add much to the optics.

I didn't take a measurement at the LED, but my River Rock drew 500 mA from alkalines, so I suspect it's feeding more than 350 mA to the LED. The heatsinking is fairly good, though, so I wouldn't worry too much. A nice R-bin or S-bin should be much brighter than the stock Nichia. I'd use an emitter, as I think you'd have to trim a star to fit it, and the extra thickness could be a problem.

Since I had problems with the body, and couldn't get the ground path to be reliable, I ended up removing the light engine and fitting it to a cheap 2C bike light. It's a lot brighter than the 1.2W halogen bulb, and with 2AAs in adaptors, a lot lighter than stock. There's not much cooling, but it seems to work fine. I may try fitting the assembly into a 3AAA light, as the diameters seem close.

Anywho, short story is it's definitely possible - should be brighter, but it will be overdriving the Luxeon - that's just how the convertor works, and not something to worry about. I doubt you'll get longer runtimes, but it will work great with rechargables.

Best,
Jon.