Changing LED chip

Hello,

I've got cheap Chinese led flashlight Ultrafire and I'm planning to change the LED chip to brighter. My question is can it be done and will it work? Chip I'm planning to use is Cree XM-L series. http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=XMLAWT-00-0000-000LT40E3CT-ND

Flashlight


Led chip


Is it possible to hand solder that chip? Do you think the driver can handle this chip? It was advertized to have XM-L T6 chip and 2000 lumen which is a joke. My Led Lenser H7 which is 180lumen lamp is brighter.

Thank you for your help.

Yes you can swap it but I suggest a driver upgrade as well. No you don't want to hand solder that kind of LED, use a heat gun, hot plate, reflow oven or in iron will work in a pinch but be careful not to cook the LED or delaminate the star board.

Alright, thanks. Please suggest nice driver for that chip? I'm feeding that lamp with 18650 batteries.

Check out the drivers at mountain electronics. I'd probably go with a 7135 style for that light.

Finally got this modification done. I got the 7135 style driver (3.3V 2.8A) as well like FRITZHID suggested. Too bad I got wrong function group of light 100%, 25% and strobo as it was not clearly indicated which star to solder. Driver was 17mm when the original was 20mm so I had to fabricate spacer.


Little bit epoxy to make it sit still:


LED chip was considerably bigger than the original. Dunno what it was. It draw ~520mA at 2.9V and 800mA at 3V. Here original chip still attached and new Cree XM-L beside it.


I used hot air gun to heat that star and solder with solder flux new chip on. Succeeded considerably well. Good thing that I didn't mess with soldering iron..


Well, is it brighter than original? Sure it is. Is it brighter than Led Lenser H7. Yes it is. But it's not insanely bright. I wonder am I getting ~700lm like it should with that current. Cant tell as I don't have anything to measure it but I'm happy. It was fun to do the mod and it is as bright as I wanted it to be. Thanks for help FRITZHID.

No problem, it's what we're all here for.