Nitecore PD10 upgrade

I have an old nitecore pd d10, and would love to upgrade it to a modern led. do you guys know what the best led that will fit in there is? who is a good guy to do that? thanks, jason

I put an XP-G2 in mine as its a smaller LED and will give better brightness and I used a higher CRI LED. It's fairly easy to do if you have some basic soldering skills, I'm not sure maybe try one of the forum modders for it like Vinh.

Also if you need any pics of what I did just let me know. These lights are actually pretty easy to take apart if you know the trick to it and when modded with a newer LED I estimate I'm getting 200-225 lumens from the XP-G2 on Eneloop and probably much more if I used 14500. Eneloops give me plenty of light so I don't risk blowing the driver with a newer led and higher voltage battery, especially since it's one of my favorite lights and incredibly difficult to find. I also put a Nichia in one of mine which works great! Feel free to ask me any questions or PM me.

Hi, I'd like more information on this mod. I'll PM you.

Just let me know and I'll do my best to help you out. Also I can post pics in this thread if needed as a step by step or what the final product looks like with a new emitter. I've done Nichia, XP-L, XP-L HI, XP-G2 and XM-L2.

It would be so great if you could help me out. Starting with which emitter to mod with, where to buy it from and the step by step. I have the technical skills necessary, I just need to know what to do.

Which emitter do you suggest?

Mr. LED said:

It would be so great if you could help me out. Starting with which emitter to mod with, where to buy it from and the step by step. I have the technical skills necessary, I just need to know what to do.

Which emitter do you suggest?

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The best results for me came from a neutral XM-L2 and from a XP-L HI emitter. The HI emitter actually gave a slightly tighter hotspot and the XM-L2 will be similar to the original led hotspot. I recommend Mountain Electronics for ordering them from, Richard is great with excellent prices and quality. If you're able to reflow the LED yourself I would just buy the bare emitters you want then reflow them onto the original led star. If you want better heat sinking he sells 10mm copper boards to mount it on or he can reflow the emitter on it for you. You'll need to sand the copper ones down a little on the underside as they're thicker than the stock ones, this is easily done with sandpaper or a power sander or file. Just be careful not to damage the LED when doing so. I can post the step by step for the emitter swap portion tonight after work, there are a few guides here on the forum and I'll try to link one of those and answer any other questions. It's definitely worth doing for these great lights as you'll get better color temp and a few extra lumens too.

Im interested too! I have a d10 with golden dragon led, so maybe xpg 2 would be best in my case? Is it a 16 mm board?

Paul6ppca said:

Im interested too! I have a d10 with golden dragon led, so maybe xpg 2 would be best in my case? Is it a 166 mm board?

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This thread here details the process of taking apart the D10 to access the pill and led. I will urge caution in that removing the brass ring is the most difficult part and care must be taken in this step. Too much force on it could cause it to lose its shape and not work properly after reassembly. I recommend using something to get up under the edge of the brass ring and gently pry up on it, working in a circle until the ring pops loose. Some D10 lights it's fairly easy and others it takes awhile. Once you get the ring out you can use needle nose tweezers to put in the two little notches on the outside of the circuit board/driver and gently twist. Some models have thread lock so it may take a little force, just be careful not to knock loose any of the chips from the driver.

After you you get the pill out its an easy process of desoldering the original led and putting a new one in. I believe the largest size led star that can be used is 14mm, which seem hard to find. I used 10mm copper for mine but if you can find a 14mm that would work better. Richard at mountain electronics does sell a 14mm star with XM-L2 mounted. It has a nice color temp of 4250-4500k and good CRI for less than $5 which I would recommend. I used one of these in my D10 with excellent results.

Regarding emitter for your golden dragon, definitely use a xp-g2 or Nichia. Any other emitter would be too large for the reflector without modification.