Guess what! I just did this to my arc ls second today about 6 hours ago. One of my arc seconds was perfect so I didn't mess with it. If its not broken don't try and fix it. However, my other arc ls's collimator looked like a cracked windshield around the center round spot in its center. Also, a real bad job was done screwing the bezel over the collimator because there was a noticeable gap between the bezel metal and the collimator surface like someone just partially screwed the bezel on and let the locktite harden leaving a gap between the bezel and collimator lens. So, I just had to fix it.
Be very careful. It is delicate inside the head. The luxeon is sitting on a circuit board that actually is not a board at all but a round piece of flexible plastic with the appearance of cellophane with the circuits imprinted on it (I think that's what it was I didn't look to carefully since my only purpose was to fix the aforementioned problems not to study the interior). A peice of solder was joining the edge of this plastic sheet circuit to the aluminum housing wall. This sheet circuit wasn't even flat; half was flat and the other half was lifting up (irritating and scary).
I got the head off by holding a butane cigarette lighter under the head and rotating but being careful to not melt the collimator or damage the interior. I would apply heat and then try to twist the bezel off. ONly when it wouldn't work I applied more heat. I kept doing it trying with as little heat as possible to twist off the bezel. You have to work up slowly so you don't cook your interior; you can never go back if you burn it. Finally, with great careful effort I twisted the bezel off with a strong sure grip; I'm very strong benching 300 lbs.
Then I used a utility contractor's razor knife to clean out the gunk from the threads very carefully. A separate ring shaped object was screwed behind the bezel holding the collimator in place; this ring had two holes in it that I inserted small punches into to unscrew it. Fortunately, it wasn't locktited or I would have been screwed. There also is a plastic piece behind this that drops out and is easy to figure out. I replaced the collimator with a new clean one from my reactor that I destroyed (it was to dim for me so I extended its battery holder and ran it off of 4 duracells till I fried its emitter only later learning 3 batteries was the limit but it didn't have good heat sinking anyway).
Then taking a cue from another guy in this forum who said to apply plumbers teflon tape to the threads before rescrewing, I applied teflon tape cut to the thin width of the threaded area and I also applied silicon lubricant for added water tightness. I cleaned the area and rescrewed everything together. Make sure to put the teflon tape on in the right direction so when you screw it on it doesn't unwind the tape.
Now my collimator and bezel were flush with no gap and my collimator was clean with a good beam pattern instead of the crappy beam I was getting from the damaged collimator (which wasn't cracked after all but was filthy making it looked cracked from the outside).
But when I turned on the flashlight it flickered and then went to a dim state. I immediately realized this was flex failure from the other threads which I can only immagine has to do with that thin weak looking plastic cellophane floppy circuit mating properly with the aluminum bezel or something. So, I slightly unscrewed the bezel just a little and then retightened and voilla! Now the light works perfectly again, just like the other guys at candleforums reported they experienced with flex failure. Unscrew a little and rescrew. Now my luxeon second is just a slightly dusty first hybrid.
However, the 2AA battery holder I orderred from Arc was worse. It is funny because the 2AA holder is not a second but I paid full price $21 for it from the firsts webpage; it made sense to lump it all under same shipping charge. The other 2AA battery holder I orderred for my other second was beautiful. However, this 2AA holder was corroded badly at the surface that mates with the arc head. Also the top level of threads were badly pitted from this corrosion. It no longer looked like a smooth screw but it was starting to resemble the metal surface on an old rusty anchor with barnacles growing all over it. But, I hate hassles if I can solve it myself; I just don't like remailing etc. because lifes to short. So I sanded a little bit and then I got my special lubricant called CORROSION BLOCK that westmarine boating supply store sells for corroded metals and electronics on ocean going yachts. I coated all my arcs holders and heads with the stuff making sure not to get any of it on the green board in the head and of course I didn't apply this stuff on the bezel but I'm talking of the threads that mate with the corroded battery holder that's all. THen I wiped off all the excess lubricant. Then I applied silicon lubricant to the threads for a more water tight seal. Just be careful of the O rings for while the silicon lubricant is actually useful for the O ring sealing out water the Corrosion Block may dissolve it depending on its composition. That's why I applied it carefully and sparingly and wiped off excess.
Now both my Arcs work flawlessly. One is very bright purple blue. THe other is very white but a little dimmer than the purple one. BOth are 400's hybrids. I loved both so much that tonight I orderred another Arc ls second and a third 2AA battery holder since wednessday is the last day of the arc ls second sale.
I'm so impressed with arc over the other lights I have that are led based that I also orderred arc's turquoise AAA from texas tactical supply (I think I paid around $20). I also orderred 6 kodak AAA 700 mah nimh batteries just for this arc from
www.thomas-distributing.com .
If arc's new 5watt luxeon will last longer than lumined's current 1000 hour estimate for the bulbs estimated useful life then I'll buy that to when I can afford it. I like the 20,000 to 100,000 hour bulb life estimates for leds. Only 1,000 hours is a little to short of a life span for my taste. My flashlights are not just for fun but go into my survival tool closet as well. Because of this I like long bulb life. Battery life is fine because I use rechargeables.
Also, I can recharge my batteries anywhere. I have a 30 watt unipac unisolar foldable portable solar panel. I have 90 watts of 10 watt unisolar flexible panels that I can christmas tree together with Y 2pin sae connector cables I got from
www.jastek7.com . I use a nesco smart voltage regulator and universal dc adapter for less than 40 watts. I use marinco marine grade battery alligator clips with 12 volt cigarrette female adapter to attach to the supplied round battery termial cables supplied with the solar panels. I use maha's 770plus charger, accucell's charger, altek's charger for all battery sizes (their best model) allof which I bought from thomas-industries. All these rapid intelligent chargers run just fine off of my solar panels even on dark cloudy days.
Now, if only someone would make good luxeon lights that use maybe Sony's best camcorder lithium ion battery pack like their diver's video lights do for under water filming:
http://www.onecall.com/PID_16712.htm
Or maybe someone could make a good lithium ion battery pack that has good capacity with the appropriate voltage to fit in regular luxeon lights (no dummy cells needed, no emmitter frying possibilities). Here's an attempt at it but it's not good enough.
http://www.aspencer1.com/showitem.asp?ItemID=11061.32
Here's another led lithium ion light but it's battery pack will not fit in other flashlights.
http://www.hdssystems.com/ActionLight48RLB.htm
Lithium ion batteries in AA and D size are sold but to be manufactured into battery packs with safety circuitry without which the batteries will explode inside the flashlight once the voltage falls below 3 volts. Saft's D cell says it has a circuit breaker and I emailed the company but it only referred me to its local battery pack assember to get an answer on the safety circuit and so I figure it doesn't have one. Plus its not practical cause it would take so many dummy cells in the flashlight the mah capacity would be really low.
