Well, I've wanted a headlamp that has a 1W LS with NX05 optics, takes AA cells, and has a low mode. I have a few Yukons and have now tried the Yukon HL, only to be disappointed in the approach they used (reflector). I tried a BD Zenix but while it has the NX05 optics, it didn't have any space for extra circuits or heat sinking.
It seemed that there was a bit of space in the Yukon, so I figured I'd get a downboy, LS w/NX05 and retrofit.
Well, getting the thing apart was somewhat painful. I was able to cut it open with a razor, but it damaged the case a bit. You can see this if you look closely at the pics.
After getting it apart, I realized that there wasn't actually much room since there was a circuit board dividing the space. I didn't really feel like doing major surgery, so I decided to leave the circuit board intact.
This meant I had to put the downboy and the LS in front of the bulkhead which didn't leave me much space.
I hacked off the bulb mount to gain space. In the process, I unsoldered the 5mm LEDs so I could take the PCB off. In the end, it make the LEDs unusable, and I replaced them with new ones that I had ordered from Wayne.
To do the hookup, I soldered some leds to the spot where the bi-pin bulb normally would sit.
I drilled out the reflector to make room to put the optics in . I assumed I would push the NX05 down as far as possible into the reflector which would provide a nice tidy install and with the optics siliconed in place, it would be nice and sturdy.
The first issue is the NX05 is too big to fit between the LEDs. I was slightly supprised, but no big deal, I'll file some notches in the optics. Ok, it fits.
Not so fast there bucko.
When I ordered the downboy from Wayne, I also ordered an LS, the NX05 and some 5mm LEDs. I was caught off guard by a couple of things - 1) the LED didn't come with a heat sink, 2) the optics didn't have a sleeve, and 3) the 5mm LEDs weren't any better than the ones already in the Yukon.
Well, the sleeve wasn't a problem because there wasn't enough space anyway. I decided to kill an old pea green LS from a reactor I tore apart and steal the heat sink.
The heat sink needed to be trimmed slightly to fit. It really wasn't as big in there as I had thought.
Due to the decision to put everything on top of the bulkhead, my idea to add additional heatsinking was out. I tried to stuff the downboy off to the side, but didn't have any luck. In the end, I decided to stack the downboy and the LS.
I put the downboy on the bottom, and then stacked the LS on top of it, which put the LS under the hole in the reflector.
Getting things positioned in there took a bit of time. While dry fitting, I noticed that the optics wouldn't fit down in there like I had thought/hoped. I didn't want to backtrack and start major surgery so I just went with it.
I put down some epoxy, then the downboy, then more epoxy, then the LS. Fiddled with it again until it was in the right place and waited until things set up.
I punted and just siliconed the optics on the front, just floating there. I'm not super happy with this since I suspect it isn't as sturdy as I'd like.
I was somewhat suprised that the optics seemed to take a lot of gunking up without degrading the beam quality very much. I got silicon on the LED, on the optics and on the reflector, but still it did OK.
Also something I didn't realize is all that stuff in there made it so I couldn't tighten the lens on all the way. It still covers the O ring, but it looks a bit goofy.
Well, it works, but it isn't pretty. I learned several lessons:
1) I didn't plan well enough. I didn't really think it was going to be that big of a deal and just jumped in. For example, I didn't measure anything...
2) Didn't take it apart prior to picking approach. This goes back to #1 of course, but if I would have checked it out carefully, I might have tried a different approach.
3) Wimping out. When it was apparent that things wouldn't work well the way I had planned, I just winged it and pressed on. In reality, for a good result, I probably should have done more major mods to make things work reasonably.
The 5mm LED beam quality has gone down a bit, but not as much as I had thought with the NX05 hanging there in the middle of the reflector.
The NX05 beam looks like any other NX05 beam.
In the end, I don't recommend the Yukon for mods unless you are ready to do a bit more serious work than I did. I think to get a good result, you need to go through the bulkhead so you can mount the optics farther back and possibly add more heatsinking.
As I said, part of my reason for using the Yukon was I wanted to do better heatsinking than the BD Zenix. In the end, I failed to accomplish that. Simply shorting the resistor in the BD pretty much gets you the same result as my Yukon mod, and it's a lot cheaper and looks better.
-john
<< more and larger >>
About disassembly with pics of the Yukon guts
It seemed that there was a bit of space in the Yukon, so I figured I'd get a downboy, LS w/NX05 and retrofit.
Well, getting the thing apart was somewhat painful. I was able to cut it open with a razor, but it damaged the case a bit. You can see this if you look closely at the pics.
After getting it apart, I realized that there wasn't actually much room since there was a circuit board dividing the space. I didn't really feel like doing major surgery, so I decided to leave the circuit board intact.
This meant I had to put the downboy and the LS in front of the bulkhead which didn't leave me much space.
I hacked off the bulb mount to gain space. In the process, I unsoldered the 5mm LEDs so I could take the PCB off. In the end, it make the LEDs unusable, and I replaced them with new ones that I had ordered from Wayne.
To do the hookup, I soldered some leds to the spot where the bi-pin bulb normally would sit.
I drilled out the reflector to make room to put the optics in . I assumed I would push the NX05 down as far as possible into the reflector which would provide a nice tidy install and with the optics siliconed in place, it would be nice and sturdy.
The first issue is the NX05 is too big to fit between the LEDs. I was slightly supprised, but no big deal, I'll file some notches in the optics. Ok, it fits.
Not so fast there bucko.
When I ordered the downboy from Wayne, I also ordered an LS, the NX05 and some 5mm LEDs. I was caught off guard by a couple of things - 1) the LED didn't come with a heat sink, 2) the optics didn't have a sleeve, and 3) the 5mm LEDs weren't any better than the ones already in the Yukon.
Well, the sleeve wasn't a problem because there wasn't enough space anyway. I decided to kill an old pea green LS from a reactor I tore apart and steal the heat sink.
The heat sink needed to be trimmed slightly to fit. It really wasn't as big in there as I had thought.
Due to the decision to put everything on top of the bulkhead, my idea to add additional heatsinking was out. I tried to stuff the downboy off to the side, but didn't have any luck. In the end, I decided to stack the downboy and the LS.
I put the downboy on the bottom, and then stacked the LS on top of it, which put the LS under the hole in the reflector.
Getting things positioned in there took a bit of time. While dry fitting, I noticed that the optics wouldn't fit down in there like I had thought/hoped. I didn't want to backtrack and start major surgery so I just went with it.
I put down some epoxy, then the downboy, then more epoxy, then the LS. Fiddled with it again until it was in the right place and waited until things set up.
I punted and just siliconed the optics on the front, just floating there. I'm not super happy with this since I suspect it isn't as sturdy as I'd like.
I was somewhat suprised that the optics seemed to take a lot of gunking up without degrading the beam quality very much. I got silicon on the LED, on the optics and on the reflector, but still it did OK.
Also something I didn't realize is all that stuff in there made it so I couldn't tighten the lens on all the way. It still covers the O ring, but it looks a bit goofy.
Well, it works, but it isn't pretty. I learned several lessons:
1) I didn't plan well enough. I didn't really think it was going to be that big of a deal and just jumped in. For example, I didn't measure anything...
2) Didn't take it apart prior to picking approach. This goes back to #1 of course, but if I would have checked it out carefully, I might have tried a different approach.
3) Wimping out. When it was apparent that things wouldn't work well the way I had planned, I just winged it and pressed on. In reality, for a good result, I probably should have done more major mods to make things work reasonably.
The 5mm LED beam quality has gone down a bit, but not as much as I had thought with the NX05 hanging there in the middle of the reflector.
The NX05 beam looks like any other NX05 beam.
In the end, I don't recommend the Yukon for mods unless you are ready to do a bit more serious work than I did. I think to get a good result, you need to go through the bulkhead so you can mount the optics farther back and possibly add more heatsinking.
As I said, part of my reason for using the Yukon was I wanted to do better heatsinking than the BD Zenix. In the end, I failed to accomplish that. Simply shorting the resistor in the BD pretty much gets you the same result as my Yukon mod, and it's a lot cheaper and looks better.
-john
<< more and larger >>
About disassembly with pics of the Yukon guts
