Macaw
Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2005
- Messages
- 565
I don't know if I'm the first to do this mod. My Ledbeam light had a rather distinct violet tint to it. I disliked this tint and resolved to replace the emitter, having finally obtained some K2 emitters in UYAN bin. Not what I consider the optimum bin but anything would probably be better than what I had.
This would have to be one of the easiest flashlights to mod. I cannot supply photos but you can see the design in this web page from flashlightreviews.com:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/ledbeam_3c.htm
I unsoldered the wires from the old emitter that was very well epoxied to the heatsink and popped it off in pieces; NO big loss there. I used Arctic Alumina epoxy to secure the emitter to the heatsink and soldered the wires to the emitter once the epoxy set up. The porper terminal polarity is that which was indicated by carbon13 in this thread, post # 282: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/106380&page=10&pp=30
It's that simple folks! The N bin Vf is just about the perfect voltage applied, which is straight 4.5 V from the three C cells used in the light.
The difference in output seems close, with a slight edge to the K2. The tint is much whiter than the one from the old emitter and at least gives the appearance of more output. A slight purplish tint, particularly in the spillbeam, which is to be expected from the YA tinted K2 but not nearly as pronounced as the older one. There didn't seem to be any differences in the focal point; the hotspot is very intense and will out-throw most of my other LED flashlights, save my X binned HD45, V binned Maglight mod and maybe my U2. Needless to say I am one happy camper! Five bucks well spent!
Now what to do with my other three K2s...:thinking:
This would have to be one of the easiest flashlights to mod. I cannot supply photos but you can see the design in this web page from flashlightreviews.com:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/ledbeam_3c.htm
I unsoldered the wires from the old emitter that was very well epoxied to the heatsink and popped it off in pieces; NO big loss there. I used Arctic Alumina epoxy to secure the emitter to the heatsink and soldered the wires to the emitter once the epoxy set up. The porper terminal polarity is that which was indicated by carbon13 in this thread, post # 282: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/106380&page=10&pp=30
It's that simple folks! The N bin Vf is just about the perfect voltage applied, which is straight 4.5 V from the three C cells used in the light.
The difference in output seems close, with a slight edge to the K2. The tint is much whiter than the one from the old emitter and at least gives the appearance of more output. A slight purplish tint, particularly in the spillbeam, which is to be expected from the YA tinted K2 but not nearly as pronounced as the older one. There didn't seem to be any differences in the focal point; the hotspot is very intense and will out-throw most of my other LED flashlights, save my X binned HD45, V binned Maglight mod and maybe my U2. Needless to say I am one happy camper! Five bucks well spent!
Now what to do with my other three K2s...:thinking:
