XM-L in a Novatac 120P?

(Original Thread)

It's been a number of years since I've done any mods, and all I did was solder a new Cree star (to replace the old Cree) and driver on a Nuwai QIII.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm contemplating putting an XM-L in my Novatac 120P, to swap out the stock SSC P4.

Can I just buy a new star and put it in? Where should I buy the emitter? Will the stock reflector work? And driver?

I'm looking at the datasheets between the P4 and the XM-L, and it looks like the die dimensions are a little different. Will I need to cut down the star in order to make it fit? Any additional heatsinking required?

So many questions...

What I would do is reflow an XM-L onto an 8mm board from illumination supply. The SSC P4 is pretty much 8mm diameter so this is a great fit. I thin copper sheeting to shim under the board until the emitter is the same height as the P4 was and I Arctic Alumina epoxy it down, checking that it's centered before it dries by sliding it back into the head after adhering the board down. I use the ends of 1/8 watts resistors to jump from the emitter board solder pads to the module terminals, keeps it clean looking. Here's a picture of one I've done.




Forgot to turn macro on, pic replaced with a little better one.

Feel free to ask, I'm just a PM away. :wave:

I'm going to be having think2x modding my novatac, I was wondering of anyone had any beamshots and or other runtime/output measurements on mods that have been done to this light with various popular leds??? Help me decide!!!

Thanks for the tips! Any thoughts on where I might buy the emitter? I don't mind the color rendition of the stock SSC P4, so I'd like something in a similar tint, if possible.

I get mine from Illumination Supply and Digikey, sometimes even Shiningbeam but mostly the first 2. The stock emitter is (guessing) around 6000-6500k.

Never though of Digikey for emitters, but sounds good to me!

Were you able to source yourself some 0.5mm copper sheeting for the other swaps in this light that you've done? I see in your original swap thread that you dropped solder to make up for the difference...

Now I'm overwhelmed by the choices on Digi-Key...is this the one I want? Do I have any way to choose bins? Do I even want to delve into that additional layer?

You would need to reflow it onto an 8mm board and shim it up. I got my copper from work, we have the thin copper sheets for wrapping around grounding electrodes to close any gaps before we burn the copper wire to them with a Cad-weld.

Another good source of the copper for the shims is new copper water pipe. A short section of 1/2" or 3/4" pipe, split lengthwise will yield a lot of shims for future mods. I bought a hand punch for making the copper shims and brass battery contacts, and it was money well spent. You can also use metal shears to approximate a circle, and file it to the proper shape. I used that method for years.

Any updates? Did you get to mod it yet and if so what did you end up using?