kosPap
Flashlight Enthusiast
It was a mistake that brought –in 2006- a Surefire KL1 head in my hands. Not wanting it to go to waste I bought a Vital Gear single cell body. I carried it a while but soon I found out I :needed" something more potent. Soon enough I knew I would "have" to mod it.
Parts procurement has been going on for some months now. At the right you see a new style of Vital gear switch (with contact spring) and at the left the older one with tabs
Coming the purchase of strap wrenches I managed to separate the top part of the KL1 head.
But I had to go further than this since you know what…Surefire must buy epoxy by the boatloads!
Enter a jig made from two pieces of hardwood drilled with a series of holes.
Some designer must have been in love!
Looking in
A Luxeon LED and the 20mm TIR optic
Further on.
This is the PCB side and the upper side of the middle part. The white stuff is leftovers from the LED epoxy paste
Take note of the arrows. 2 tabs are soldered there.
From the other end
Right in the center of the plastic part there was a washer and a soldered fitting.
From now on things become difficult if you are not clever or patient enough.
The round washer is the ground contact for the electronics. 2 tabs start from it and go through the PCB. (remember the 2 arrows) Well, it was late, I was drinking my beers and watching Dexter on TV, there was nos topping now…..
Since I had not asked the forum on how to proceed with the disassembly I was going with trial and error. Actually I though that the tabs were just folded in. So I tried prying them off. When a tip of my quality tweezers broke I did not stop and think. I went for my dremel. Eating away the tabs were very easy and fast. I was pleased.
Here what it looks like with the parts removed.
What shows between the 2 capacitors is a the tip of a wire soldered at the + contact of the board.
Here is the base of the electronics (at the left) and the bottom of the middle part (at the right).
and all the parts
Putting it Back Together. My Way.
I chose to use an XML U2 on a 20mm PCB. With rough measurements I knew that this TIR optic would fit. But it is a 15 deg one and I did not like the idea much. On order there is another one at 10 deg. That will sort things out.
Choosing the electronics.
That huge heart shaped hole on the LED base toned my urges for power down at 1400mA. I meant to use this driver cos I wanted it setup for High-Strobe. But that capacitor at the back would not for anywhere even at the cutouts of the electronics base. Then I toyed with the idea of adding the said driver's chip to a 4x7135 driver removing the original. But an examination shows that the chips do not use the same traces for current in and signal out.
So I was left with an 4x7135 single mode driver…..
From ordering to receipt of the parts the XP-G2 became available. It makes more sense for a 1.4A drive current, but no narrow beam optics for it at 20mm yet. Back to the XML.
Aseembly
The new driver was prepped.
I soldered a telephone wire length at the ready made PCb hole. (Yeah I know, too bad a soldering job. I overdid it with the flux).
I decided to make new tabs for the contact washer from leftover resistor ends. Upon examination I soldered one and one. Else I would have to blindly find 4 holes simultaneously to insert them.
The front part of the assembly.
The driver was epoxied with a 50/50 mix of Arctic Silver and 2-part epoxy. Here it is hwo it looks. I tried removing the excess paste off but the process moved the carefully aligned driver.
Front view of.
Upon assembly I decided to add 2 more 7135 chips. "what the hell! This is a Tacticool flashlight; it won't be used for long!"
Soldering them was difficult this way. Too little space and the almost vertical angle of the soldering tip did not help either.
Assembling the back end.
First we must place the plastic part.
Then the contact washer must be installed. For sake of demonstration I photographed the process without the plastic part.
then you just solder the square bent wires to the washer.
And here how it looks with the wiring soldered and clipped (see the arrow)
Installing the LED
Assembling this Surefire head has a peculiarity. Since you must first screw the middle part on the bottom one, you got to use the heart shaped hole to let the driver wires turn free.
Thus you got to pass the wires through, THEN epoxy the LED in. Don't ask me how I know….
The process wasn't easy. I chose rather thick wires and the fit was a tight squeeze. They ended being a bit long, I could not push the back, so that bends was the only way to make it work. Else I should have pried the LED off and start all over again!
Let alone that before you screw the middle part on you must use some threadlocking cos fit is a bit loose! I suggest making a dry run with no epoxy etc.
When all these are safe and one, then toy must redo then positive battery contact. Here the small washed was reinstalled and the wire was soldered, cut and filed/sandpapered smooth.
Next you installed the TIR optic and replace the upper body part.
Performance
I was quick to measure light output. It clocked at 670 lumens….hmm! something is wrong.
Checking current draw I saw it at 1.8A!
Now why this? It should be 2.1A. I had repeatedly checked the 7135 chip stacking at 10x magnification for signs with missed soldering. But if one chip does not work, shouldn't current draw be 1750mA?
Am I loosing 300mA on electrical resistance?
I owe a beamshot or two….maybe when I receive the new optic, cos for now I'm a totaled….
Parts procurement has been going on for some months now. At the right you see a new style of Vital gear switch (with contact spring) and at the left the older one with tabs
Coming the purchase of strap wrenches I managed to separate the top part of the KL1 head.
But I had to go further than this since you know what…Surefire must buy epoxy by the boatloads!
Enter a jig made from two pieces of hardwood drilled with a series of holes.
Some designer must have been in love!
Looking in
A Luxeon LED and the 20mm TIR optic
Further on.
This is the PCB side and the upper side of the middle part. The white stuff is leftovers from the LED epoxy paste
Take note of the arrows. 2 tabs are soldered there.
From the other end
Right in the center of the plastic part there was a washer and a soldered fitting.
From now on things become difficult if you are not clever or patient enough.
The round washer is the ground contact for the electronics. 2 tabs start from it and go through the PCB. (remember the 2 arrows) Well, it was late, I was drinking my beers and watching Dexter on TV, there was nos topping now…..
Since I had not asked the forum on how to proceed with the disassembly I was going with trial and error. Actually I though that the tabs were just folded in. So I tried prying them off. When a tip of my quality tweezers broke I did not stop and think. I went for my dremel. Eating away the tabs were very easy and fast. I was pleased.
Here what it looks like with the parts removed.
What shows between the 2 capacitors is a the tip of a wire soldered at the + contact of the board.
Here is the base of the electronics (at the left) and the bottom of the middle part (at the right).
and all the parts
Putting it Back Together. My Way.
I chose to use an XML U2 on a 20mm PCB. With rough measurements I knew that this TIR optic would fit. But it is a 15 deg one and I did not like the idea much. On order there is another one at 10 deg. That will sort things out.
Choosing the electronics.
That huge heart shaped hole on the LED base toned my urges for power down at 1400mA. I meant to use this driver cos I wanted it setup for High-Strobe. But that capacitor at the back would not for anywhere even at the cutouts of the electronics base. Then I toyed with the idea of adding the said driver's chip to a 4x7135 driver removing the original. But an examination shows that the chips do not use the same traces for current in and signal out.
So I was left with an 4x7135 single mode driver…..
From ordering to receipt of the parts the XP-G2 became available. It makes more sense for a 1.4A drive current, but no narrow beam optics for it at 20mm yet. Back to the XML.
Aseembly
The new driver was prepped.
I soldered a telephone wire length at the ready made PCb hole. (Yeah I know, too bad a soldering job. I overdid it with the flux).
I decided to make new tabs for the contact washer from leftover resistor ends. Upon examination I soldered one and one. Else I would have to blindly find 4 holes simultaneously to insert them.
The front part of the assembly.
The driver was epoxied with a 50/50 mix of Arctic Silver and 2-part epoxy. Here it is hwo it looks. I tried removing the excess paste off but the process moved the carefully aligned driver.
Front view of.
Upon assembly I decided to add 2 more 7135 chips. "what the hell! This is a Tacticool flashlight; it won't be used for long!"
Soldering them was difficult this way. Too little space and the almost vertical angle of the soldering tip did not help either.
Assembling the back end.
First we must place the plastic part.
Then the contact washer must be installed. For sake of demonstration I photographed the process without the plastic part.
then you just solder the square bent wires to the washer.
And here how it looks with the wiring soldered and clipped (see the arrow)
Installing the LED
Assembling this Surefire head has a peculiarity. Since you must first screw the middle part on the bottom one, you got to use the heart shaped hole to let the driver wires turn free.
Thus you got to pass the wires through, THEN epoxy the LED in. Don't ask me how I know….
The process wasn't easy. I chose rather thick wires and the fit was a tight squeeze. They ended being a bit long, I could not push the back, so that bends was the only way to make it work. Else I should have pried the LED off and start all over again!
Let alone that before you screw the middle part on you must use some threadlocking cos fit is a bit loose! I suggest making a dry run with no epoxy etc.
When all these are safe and one, then toy must redo then positive battery contact. Here the small washed was reinstalled and the wire was soldered, cut and filed/sandpapered smooth.
Next you installed the TIR optic and replace the upper body part.
Performance
I was quick to measure light output. It clocked at 670 lumens….hmm! something is wrong.
Checking current draw I saw it at 1.8A!
Now why this? It should be 2.1A. I had repeatedly checked the 7135 chip stacking at 10x magnification for signs with missed soldering. But if one chip does not work, shouldn't current draw be 1750mA?
Am I loosing 300mA on electrical resistance?
I owe a beamshot or two….maybe when I receive the new optic, cos for now I'm a totaled….
Last edited:
