Petzl Tikka Gen. 1 - throw away or mod?

Hello, I have an old Tikka 1st generation lying around and wonder if it would be worth soldering some stronger led´s in or just chuck it into the bin as I might waste my time with something not worthy of modding. the problem is also, that I have no clue how to get to the circuit board from the battery compartment. No screws there, just a tiny hole which could serve a purpose, but I couldn´t find out yet.

any ideas and recommendations?

Thanks!

Michael

Everything considered a light is worth modd'n. Well at least to most of us flashaholic's. It's about the challenge if nothing else. I own several Petzl's (nicknamed "Pretzels" by some here on CPF) myself and none of mine have three 8mm LED's like yours. So I'm not too sure what voltage your driver puts out. If you have a DMM that would be a big help. That way you could measure the drivers output or even better the voltage across the three LED's.

To take your headlamp apart you are going to need to remove the battery holder. There are several plastic pieces that are holding the battery holder in place. On one of my Petzl's the battery holder looks like yours and it snaps or locks into the HL body. My other one is held in with 3 small screws. Looking at your first picture it appears that those snap together locking pieces are located on one or both sides of your aaa battery holder. A small bladed screw driver should allow you to pry each side far enough away to disengage from the outer body. But there also appears to be a hole where the center cell sits which might house a retaining screw?

Better check that before attempting any prying. Don't force anything unless you can clearly see whats going on. Chances are pretty good your going to be wasting your time as a light with three 8mm LED's is not going to have a driver putting out more than a few hundred milliamps. But if you find this sort of thing interesting than why not take advantage of this opportunity to learn? The worse thing that will happen is you end up tossing it which you've already considered doing? I say go for it unless you have a donor in mind. Like a little one who could play with it? BTW welcome to CPF.

Hello, thanks for the info, I have been successful opening the housing - with a little force I have to admit as I could not be bothered on such a crappy made lamp. Just for the forum documentation: you need most importantly lever the black plastic part opposite the longer hook (that sticks out) out of the blue housing. the engineering is appalling: the leds are soldered together, the litte toothed metal pushes on that spot, and the entire led-holder ist shoved into some plastic part with little holds, the resistor tail is bent over and gives the contact for the on/off-switch.

Well, any ideas or recommendations to use a modern led on a smd? Do I need a separate driver?

Thanks!

Thanks, m4a1usr, for the thoughts. I have managed to open it, any clue what sort of SMD I should use to put in - and do I need a separate driver?

Thanks!
peter

new driver and a high power led is a no go for you.
it needs too much resturcturing and special aluminum parts made for heatsinking...
Your best bet is to find new (better) leds of the same type.
Also, keep the old ones? If the new LEDs draw more power yuor headlamp may object (happened recently to me)
But the existence of a resistor to set LEd voltage makes that unlikely

Thanks so much for posting those pics of the Tikka's guts!

I have this headlamp... Used it for years before I discovered this forum and upgraded all my portable light sources. Though it has been deemed unreliable in recent years due to a crack in the housing, I've been loath to throw it away because it still (sort of) works. After seeing its insides, I feel better about chucking it

Which is not to say that you shouldn't try to improve it if you have the time and gumption. Subscribed.