Apex Mods / Adjustments

Well, I finally bought the Apex. However, there are just a couple of niggles I have which I need some advice on:

The reflector seems to be mis-aligned very slightly, so the main beam is not quite a nice spot (am I just being picky?). I have had a look inside the lamp - is the reflector glued to the front of the housing? Is it easy to adjust it's position?

The other niggle that I have is that 2 of the 5mm LED's are off centre resulting in 2 small annoying spots of light thrown out to the left along with the flood. The RHS of the flood beam is smooth without these spots.
All I need to do is move these two LED's outwards slightly to cure this. Is this particularly difficult to do?

Would appreciate your comments...

Steve

I've been off the forum for a few months, but am completing an Apex mod right now, replacing the Luxeon III with a Seoul P4, and the TIR optic with a cut down Khatod 20mm reflector.

To answer your questions:
1) You need to open the case to fix any problems, which voids the warranty. You can start with a search on apex+seoul, which will get you to some writeups on the procedure.
2) Once the case is open, the 5mm LED's are easy to push into alignment.
3) Unless your main beam is asymmetric, what you're seeing is probably the standard stock beam. The TIR optic is not glued, but held in place by pins.
4) When you reassemble, do be extra careful not to over-tighten the 3 self-tapping screws. It's real easy to crack the case.

Those 5mm LED's put out a broad flood, so if it was my light, I'd just leave it alone.

LedSled said:

I've been off the forum for a few months, but am completing an Apex mod right now, replacing the Luxeon III with a Seoul P4, and the TIR optic with a cut down Khatod 20mm reflector.

To answer your questions:
1) You need to open the case to fix any problems, which voids the warranty. You can start with a search on apex+seoul, which will get you to some writeups on the procedure.
2) Once the case is open, the 5mm LED's are easy to push into alignment.
3) Unless your main beam is asymmetric, what you're seeing is probably the standard stock beam. The TIR optic is not glued, but held in place by pins.
4) When you reassemble, do be extra careful not to over-tighten the 3 self-tapping screws. It's real easy to crack the case.

Those 5mm LED's put out a broad flood, so if it was my light, I'd just leave it alone.

Click to expand...

And related to number 4, don't forget to put the plastic cover that goes over the heatsink back on before you start screwing it back together. I did and that's what led to my cracking of the case.

Ummm, I forgot that too. D'oh! Didn't crack the case though.

Forgot that too. One screw goes in before the cover then the top two go in after. I was wondering why the screw got tight when 3mm still stuck out. I just bulged the case a little. No cracking.

cave dave said:

Forgot that too. One screw goes in before the cover then the top two go in after. I was wondering why the screw got tight when 3mm still stuck out. I just bulged the case a little. No cracking.

Click to expand...

Yeah. But stupid me figured it was just stuck. It wasn't until I had bulged the case out enough to crack it slightly that I noticed what I was doing. I wonder if PT would sell me just the plastics case. I think I'll email them.

cave dave said:

Forgot that too. One screw goes in before the cover then the top two go in after. I was wondering why the screw got tight when 3mm still stuck out. I just bulged the case a little. No cracking.

Click to expand...

............... lol +1 seems we`ve all done it !!

Cracked my case too by forgetting the plastic cover. Avatar28 have you you contacted PT for a replacement case? I know I can't send mine back now for warrenty since I've put in the SSC P4. Perhaps we need a group buy for Apex cases! (I need black, not orange).

5kids said:

Cracked my case too by forgetting the plastic cover. Avatar28 have you you contacted PT for a replacement case? I know I can't send mine back now for warrenty since I've put in the SSC P4. Perhaps we need a group buy for Apex cases! (I need black, not orange).

Click to expand...

I just sent the email today, unfortunately. So I haven't heard back yet. I will try to call them in a few minutes though if I can.

I just got my PT Apex in the mail today, and it didnt last more then 5 minutes without me modifying it

Got this headlight because i knew off the bat that would be great to mod and look great. I used the Seoul P4, i forgot the exact bin number, but it was rated at 7000k - 8000k. ( i had some left over from some automotive things i built)

The Mod was very simple and took me 20 minutes Max. Install was easy - didnt need to modify the reflector, just Open it up, remove the Lux III LED which was held in by pressure and thermal paste. Unsoldered it, soldered the Seoul P4, bent the tabs up just a bit as to not short it out. Put some thermal paste back in there, pushed it into place, and put it back together.

The color is perfect i think - its a very cool white.

The 4 small LED's appear to be VERY Blue at the center, almost like a solid color blue, with a white spill. Its kind of odd, but i can deal with it.

Here's *the* Apex mods thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/171344

Personally, I hate optics - they give you this hotspot with very little spill, and I prefer a reflector where I get some decent spill. So, I finally found a way to put a reflector in the Apex.

The McGizmo McR-20 Seoul fits the Apex perfectly - it looks stock with no gap around the reflector. The only problem is the reflector is a bit tall and needs to be shortened. Also, the reflector doesn't press on the emitter properly so the emitter tends to float a bit and not touch the heatsink.

So, I finally used some Artic Silver and epoxied a .030 copper shim from the Sandwich Shoppe under the Seoul, and voila! perfect fit!

So now I have a Apex with a reflector, and it looks stock, and has nice beam with spill. I wish it had a bit more spill, but it's much, much better than stock.

Toshi

I told PT that the light was out of warranty and I wanted to purchase a replacement plastic body for it. They wanted me to send it in for an RMA replacement anyways. :/

Toshi,

Did you lose much throw by replacing the optic with the reflector? I like the idea of more spill, but I also want the best of both worlds without losing any distance...

If you replace the stock emitter with a SSC P4 at the same time you won't lose throw.

cave dave said:

If you replace the stock emitter with a SSC P4 at the same time you won't lose throw.

Click to expand...

I think it depends on the reflector and maybe other factors. I lost almost all of my throw or at least seemed to. But for my uses that's perfect so I'm happy with it. Certainly, though, replacing the emitter would certainly help and there is really very little reason not to do the swap if you're going to be opening the thing up anyways.

I just put a P4 in my Apex and am extremely happy with the results. I took before and after beamshots and the output looks doubled. I used the stock optic but was wondering if a smooth reflector would add more side spill w/o losing any throw? I use my apex for hiking/hunting, and the throw is awesome with the P4, but a little more sidespill would be great.

Avatar28 said:

I told PT that the light was out of warranty and I wanted to purchase a replacement plastic body for it. They wanted me to send it in for an RMA replacement anyways. :/

Click to expand...

Me thinks PT wants you to send your APEX in so they see how you've modified it with a brighter emitter. I'd like to know what you end up doing with your cracked body.

Hi guys, I'm not too sure if this is the correct thread to air my problem, but here goes;

I recently bought a PT Apex in The USA & when I got home I found that one of the 4 small LED's is u/s. Rather than send it back -& incur big p&p costs- can someone tell me if I can get a replacement bulb & fit it myself.

I'm pretty technically able as I work in the aviation industry & have access to plenty of soldering stations.

Many thanks,

Doonhamer