PrincetonTec Impact II Nichia GS mod

I don't know why but I've always had a fondness for the PT Impact II (moon spot lens) but it has been relegated to the "seldom used" drawer for some time now. I just moved my work area recently and it looked so clean and pristine that I had to do something to make it look lived in.




I had received a couple of Nichia GS LEDs recently and hadn't decided what to put them in when I ran across the Impact II again and that little LED lightbulb went off over my head. I pulled out the LED module and noticed that it's one of those that holds the circuit board to the reflector with melted plastic posts. I haven't had the best of luck getting those back together after removing them so I looked at the module to see if I could do something else.



Well it turns out that the hole at the bottom of the reflector is big enough to pull the LED through once it has been de-soldered from the board. I was able to carefully get a pair of needle nose pliers to grab onto the LED and wiggled it out. I trimmed the GS's leads a little long just in case and stuffed it back into the reflector hole.

De-soldering the LED had loosened the traces so I had to be careful soldering. I'm a lousy solderer but I was mainly interested in keeping the two contacts separated and making good contact with the trace and LED legs. The result was ugly but it works.

The beam is ringy compared to the stock LED but it's quite a bit brighter. On the old batteries the stock light was 131fc and the modded one 361fc. I figure that I might be able to kill off the rings with additional mods but for now I'm happy with the results.


Part of the ring problem is probably the size and focus difference between the new and old LEDs.


I tried to get the rings to show up better for the photo but in use it's not as noticeable.


-LT

Just wanted to show what the beam looks like outside. This shot is from about 30 feet away. The distortion rings don't really come into play out here.



-LT

Great job there :twothumbs

How long did it take you to do this mod?

It only took about 20 minutes but part of that was grinding off the tabs with a Dremel that are part way down the legs of the LED. I wanted to have longer legs just in case, then I trimmed off the extra.

I think they used the reflector in this because it is based on the incan version of the light and they already had the module pieces designed. In other moon spot lights I have there is no reflector to cause the aberrations. Probably painting the reflector black or sleeving the LED so that only the very tip shows would get rid of the rings.

-LT