Fenix PD31 (First series with polished clip) mod

So for a while I was quite content with my PD31, it was one of my first forays into 18650 based lights. As time has gone on I have accumulated so many new nights and am now always seeming to favour my pocket class, neutral tinted lights.
So being that my 3 and a half year old friend had been suffering diminishing output and a noticibly cool blue tint, I decided to do something about it.
I had a spare nichia 219a 92 cri b10 bin led, an unused h22a maglite heatsink and a little spare time.
I purchased some rubber strap wrenches and a mini butane blowtorch.

I heated the PD31 head with the blowtorch directly, used the strap wrenches to open it up easy enough. Removed the mcpcb from the PD31 only to find under its standard copper mcpcb that the thermal compound was not at all on the star, pure copper. A tiny bit of hardened over heated thermal grease was still on the host. No wonder the output had been diminishing.
I put the h22a heatsink in a vice and heated it from below with the blowtorch, this made a really nice reflow tool for a single mcpcb.
I reflowed the nichia 219a in and resoldered, added some arctic alumina then reassembled and I must say I have never been happier with a nice compact hi cri neutral tinted light.
Wish fenix would do something like this from factory.
New life in an aging beast.
I favor this so much more than either my pd32ue or pd35 also.
Compact, hi cri, neutral tint and more predictable user interface!
I can see this getting far more pocket carry time now.
An old TK41i have laying around is looking like the next candidate to recieve some TLC.

Masterful reflow station!!


Completed job.

Very nice job man, the PD31 is my favorite light!

That's cool that you were able to bring your PD31 back up to snuff (or better than new). My wife loves her PD31 but it isn't as bright as it used to be either (even with new batteries). If you were going to upgrade it more significantly than you already have, what options would a guy have?
I bought her a PD35 for greater lumens, but she doesn't like the side switch...really prefers the UI of the PD31, and the more compact size.
I've done some searching for PD31 modifications and tried searching terms like "PD31vn" but I'm not having much luck. It isn't really a light that I can just buy a drop-in upgrade for is it?
Sorry about the newbie questions, but I really don't know my way around the inside of these lights and I'd like to make her PD31 brighter.
Thanks for any suggestions!

Hi jlove. You can't drop in an upgrade, it would have to be opened and modded. You could check with Vin if he can mod it and make it brighter.
Are you based in the US?

Labrador,
I appreciate the advice.
I just emailed Vinh this evening.
Yeah, I'm about smack dab in the middle of CONUS
I like bright lights..my wife thought I was nuts paying like $50 for a light, but then she latched onto the PD31 when I'd bought it (cool! :thumbsup...but now I'd like to move her up to something brighter, but she doesn't want to learn a new UI or move to a larger light. I bought a PD35 but she won't carry it, says it's too big for her purse (even though it's only like 3/4" longer) and she doesn't like the side switch..I'm not really a huge fan of the side switch either, but I like the additional lumens enough that I'll adjust. Anyway, just looking for away to increase her light's lumens without switching her to a different size and UI of light.
Thanks!

I understand your wife preference: I have 5 PD31s: 2 with am XP-G and 3 with an XP-G2! I use them with a PD32 forward clicky so I even have momentary on. I doubt I'll buy another light for a few years and don't like the newer Fenix offerings with side switches! Good luck with getting the PD31 fixed - I got Vinh to mod one of my Fenix lights and he did an excellent job!

how can I tell if the PD31 we have is an XP-G or an XP-G2? (It is stock)

There are ways to tell the XP-G and XP-G2 apart but in any case yours is an XP-G - the XP-G2 was a special limited batch available through one of the European Fenix distributors.