Possible to do emitter swaps on Peak Vesuvius or ThruNite Ti?

so I have a few lights I plan on modding to neutral. Only problem that is presented is by the following two lights:

1. Peak LED Vesuvius (QTC head) (XM-L... T6?)
2. Thrunite Ti (.04 lumen version) (XP-E R4)

both of them I'd LOVE to try and put in a neutral emitter to replace their cool white 'factory' emitters.

But is it even worth it or possible to open up a Vesuvius (1) QTC head without damaging it? thoughts? The Vesuvius I'd mod to a NW XM-L.

and the Ti by Thrunite, can that be modded and put back in without damaging anything? I want to mod the Ti to a XP-E Q5 5C1 (@ 4000K... NW)

both lights are twistys so basically everything is in the heads and it doesn't look like the heads can be opened. I dunno?

so has anyone modded either of these two lights with new emitters?

I have a Ti and it was cracked open by its previous owner. The aluminum bezel screws down over the brass base just like on most twisty lights where the head has male threads, it's just got a bunch of Locktite holding it in place.

PCC said:

I have a Ti and it was cracked open by its previous owner. The aluminum bezel screws down over the brass base just like on most twisty lights where the head has male threads, it's just got a bunch of Locktite holding it in place.

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gotcha, thanks! so can the foam be replaced?

I've peeled mine off and stuck it back on again. I'm sure a suitable substitute could be found if need be.

Here's what mine looks like with the driver removed showing the soldering joint that failed causing my light to only come on in low mode.

I modded my Ti to a high CRI XP-G. I was lucky in that there wasn't much locktite applied to the pill. I would guess that the standard freeze or heat methods you find in the "Homemade and Modified" section might free it up for you. One word of caution; the leads are very thin so take care when de-soldering the LED.

thanks to both of you! will i need a reflow setup for this stuff?

tobrien said:

thanks to both of you! will i need a reflow setup for this stuff?

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The stock 10mm round board is thinner than those provided by suppliers so reflowing is the way to go. Otherwise there will be a gap between the head and body. It isn't hard to heat those enough to reflow.

:thanks: clg. Replaced the LED in my HL-20 with one that has a thicker star and the head could not screw down fully. Ended up using epoxy to seal everything shut. It's better to simply get a thinner star in the first place

Working on Ti's right now. The brass pill's threads are glued into the aluminum knurled outer head piece's threads using a red compound. The residue was tacky and greasy, but some of it had cured into red, plastic-y chunks.

There is also an O-ring, so dripping a solvent down in there may not be an option unless it can also burn through the o-ring, I guess.

glass is AR coated, reflector is metal, and there is an emitter isolator ring to keep the reflector from shorting out the MCPCB. MCPCB appears to be held down by the reflector, with some thermal grease under the star, even though it looks like fujik. It was definitely greasy, though, and not rubbery or solid. I don't have any info about MCPCB thickness. That's all the helpful info I can think of for future reference. I only have one opened, working on the others, but if they don't budge, I'll remember to take pics of teh one I have opened.

I used some strange combination of luck/heat/cold/force. I was using a USB cable wrapped around the threads for grip. Rubber by itself deformed and stretched too much, allowing plier teeth to reach the threads.

Any tips on what to use to get a grip on the threads, or a more solid plan other than "boil and freeze it a lot and try to open it from time to time"?

Edit:

Brute forced 2 more and noticed that these didn't have the same threadlock. The texture was different and the color was different. The firefly mode one had the red threadlock mentioned above. The two 3lm low versions had a sky blue to grayish color, and the "residue" was very powdery and dry. Almost like a fine plaster it seemed. Still very hard to open... As much as I hate to admit it, I think what I was doing that worked was flexing the outer aluminum metal so that it wasn't bonded against the hardened thread locking compound. It was still pressed up against it, so lots of surface area, takes lots of torque to turn.

Tools I used were two pliers (multitools, leatherman and offbrand) and some of that gasket tubing that is used to hold screens in screen door / storm door frames. Just because it is what I had on hand, and was thick enough that I didn't think the pliers would be able to cut through it and damage the brass threads or the anodized knurled aluminum.

I think I will quit while I'm ahead. Two folks will have to live with the stock emitter, and I'll just have to find a use for these two spare emitters