Need to know some things for Arc Mods Please.

I am planning to do a few Arc LS rev2 mods soon, and was needing to know a few things first.
(I know some of these things can be purchased from Arc, but I am just trying to find all my options)

- Where can the retaining rings be found, or are they a custom machined piece?
- Are they absolutely needed?

- What size are the rubber o-rings used in the Rev2 heads, and where can I purchase those?

- Does the optic in a rev 2 head require the delrin retaining ring, like the rev1 does?

- Is a lens nessisary when using an optic?

- Has anyone made heatsinks for the rev2, that hold BB and MM converters?
(I know there wasnt really room in the rev1 to use those converters, but I think the rev2 is deeper)

Thanks alot guys.

-John

Retaining rings, available from ARC of course, but I remember a post a while back where someone found a faucet ring at a hardware store that had the same thread pitch.

The ring is part of the ground path, along with a copper wave washer that is necessary to avoid flickering. They also keep the heatsink from shifting around in the head which could be important when using an optic that likes a centered luxeon. You might be able to machine a groove and use a retaining ring instead.

O-ring, if it's a stock size it should be listed by size in the McMaster-Carr catalog/website or at a similar industrial supply house.

You could probably get away without an optic retaining ring because the luxeon collar pushes up against the optic. Centering may become an issue. But drop the light/press on the optic and all that force goes right on the luxeon and can crush it (don't ask).

The lense is mainly there to protect the optic and improve water sealing. Given the expense of a good lense, it's not that expensive to just replace the optic if it gets scratched up, assuming the optics are available somewhere like the Sandwich Shoppe with no minium purchase. I see no problem using the optic as a lense, but I suspect others will have a very different opinion.

The issue with the BB and MM in a rev. 2 LS is that you have to figure out where to accomodate about an extra .2" in internal length. ARC puts the driver on top of the heatsink around the luxeon, the BB or MM would have to go between the heatsink and the batteries. You can get a little space by leaving out the lense and making a thinner heatsink but I've looked at this and I think you will still need to play with the depth of the battery pack to get an extra .1" or find a shorter optic/reflector. It sort of depends on how far you want to be able to cover the o-ring on the battery pack

I did an Arc-LS mod without the plastic threaded retaining ring that holds the optic, use the S017XA-Reflector instead, you have to use the thin delrin plastic ring to keep the reflector from moving, copper washer and metal threaded retaining ring that holds the pcb and of course the lens to protect the reflector saves you 4 bucks and IMHO a lot better than any optic.

The only delrin ring I've heard of in the Arc LS is the one that holds the optic in place?

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cgpeanut said:
I did an Arc-LS mod without the plastic threaded retaining ring that holds the optic, use the S017XA-Reflector instead, you have to use the thin delrin plastic ring to keep the reflector from moving, copper washer and metal threaded retaining ring that holds the pcb and of course the lens to protect the reflector saves you 4 bucks and IMHO a lot better than any optic.

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Endeavour,

I think he ment that he needed to make a special dlrin ring to hold the reflector in place, sence it is not the same shape and size as the optics.

Ah, ok.

Well, a question on my end for everyone: I had to grind down a Rev1 hybrid board (Hours... I don't recommend trying it), and it seems I accidentally broke part of the ferrite core of the inductor.

Now it flickers randomly, and I'd like to get that fixed, does anyone know the value of the inductor, and the size, or a link to buy one for that matter, so that I can get it fixed?

Thanks.

Wow, mahoney's explanations cannot be any clearer. Like he said, the lens is only for protecting the optic and water resistance. Removing the lens would prolly give some more space for BB/MM, but i am not sure. However, given the price of a good lense as $7, i think it would be better to use lens on the head to protect the heatsink, so you don't have to go through centering again, and replacing optics can be costly at the end.
I was also thinking for some custom heatsink to be made. the original heatsinking is not that good, IMHO. In the original head, the metal retaining ring is the one that transfer the heat onto the head, not the heatsink below the circuit. That heatsink does not even touch the head (at least not in mine). This resulted in a not-so-good thermal transfer.
Crushing luxeon from optic is not impossible either, like what happened here . Like he had said, all that force go to that poor luxeon. However, i think it is mainly because how bad the NX05 was designed. it presses right into the tiny gap between the luxeon dome with the black plastic encasing it. Using Fraen or the SO-something reflector would yield better result, i think as they stand in the black plastic thingie. Also, SO-reflector in its original form make its stand by giving all its weight and the pressure to the board, so no hard pressure for the lux itself. Beside, it auto-centers itself /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
With the optic (NX05, for that matter), you need delrin to keep the NX05 from moving to the side, and without the delrin, centering would be next to impossible.

I've modded 2 arc-ls originals and each time they have a thin delrin ring that keeps the NX optic from moving, this is NOT the same as the threaded plastic ring that holds the optic from the bottom, this thin delrin ring is placed after the UCL lens and will fill the gap between the reflector and aluminum body. Try and get a 1/2 copper pipe cut it as thin as you can to make a washer and use this instead of the thin delrin ring .18 cents vs 4 bucks the point is, keep that reflector centered .

Endeavor , Sorry to hear about the broken choke on your hybrid maybe you can substitute a dorcy 1-aaa choke if it's value is 22uF. I DO NOT know the value of the ARC-LS choke but if its 22uF then youre in luck, You might try contacting Peter Grannsse at Arc maybe he'll tell you.

I've trimmed down one hybrid pcb by removing it from the heat sink using an xacto knife then making a hole in the center of the empty slug, attach it to a dremel grid away on a sand paper/sharpening stone. Of course you have to make the circle trace of the board make sure you don't cut too much then glue it back with two part artic alumina. too time consumming but it worked.