removing internals of ARC-LS..?

I have recently received 2 extra Arc LS lights on a trade.One is fine with a nice beam however the other has a weird problem with the optic.When lit exactly half of the beam is a hazy gray color and the other half is clear and bright.I am not really sure if the problem is in the optic or the emitter.Is it possible for one half of the emitter to go bad thus causing the semi circle of brightness I see.I do know that this light once worked fine and had a complete corona of bright light and suddenly went to only half of a bright corona.
I have decided to try and remove the internals and maybe try some modding of my own at a later time.I have searched and can not find much information on removal of the factory board other than it usually has to be heated.Can anyone tell me what the tool is called that fits the lock ring and also what is the best or damage free way to heat this light to easily remove the retaining ring?
I have read some threads where people place other bezels inside a bag and boil it...will this work on the LS?..My plan for later may be to wait for the very cool kit that CY is working on to make this light modular.I am basically wondering just how bad can I mess this up if the light is already broken???

if it lights up you can still "break" it, i've been using a pair of jewllers needle nose pliers they have round, and very fine points and slip right into the two holes on the ring.
never had a problem, never needed heat either.

Thanks Red Robby....any idea of where I can get some of those or even how much they cost?...Also is that the only part I have to concentrate on?...Once I get that retaining ring off will the board and optic simply fall from the light?

If you are doing this once off, it's best to do it cheap. Like robby said, get yourself a set of nose pliers that will fit the ring holes. If you can't find a suitable one then you will have to file it down to size. If you want the proper tool to extract the ring, you need this...

I'ven't heard of a 1W luxeon with this problem though.. maybe half of your phosphor was burnt or something...

robocop,
the pliers should not cost more then $10..., once the aluminum ring is out, the board will come right out, the optic is held in by another ring(plastic), same thing goes
for that...

IF it;s held in by something that resembles melted lead (loctite) then it might hel to use an xacto knife and gently scrape it away, thats what i did with my LS1 that i repaired and it worked pretty well. If youve got a steady hand then that might make removing the ring a little easier. Just depends on how your light was sealed up.

Shane

I have taken apart several LS heads. I believe on the ones with the little blob of metal looking stuff the stuff is actually conductive epoxy. I have used an exacto knife to cut and scrape it away but that takes a long time and is rather frustrating. My prefered aproche involves a drill press and a small drill bit (I belive it was something like a 5/64 or 1/16 bit). In my experience the conductive epoxy was allways applied in one blob between the retaining ring and the grove down the head where the threads are machined away (I believe this was macined away because of the little tab that sticks off of the NX05). I use the small drill bit to verry carefillly drill out the epoxy. You may mare up the inside of the head where the threads are cut away a little bit though. This was not much of aconcern to me. But to keep from damaging the smoth part near the bottom of the head that seals with the o ring on the battery pack I angled the head slightly to keep the drill bit from making contacted there. You can cut into the retaining ring a littlt bit and aslong as you dont cut all the way through it you can use it again later. Sometines this is necicary because the epoxy will get in the threads of the retaining ring and keep you from being able to unscrew it. I have just cut out the threads on the retaning ring in that small place where they are full of epoxy. While I have never realy damaged the housing for the head I have drilled to deep and damaged the circuit board (cuting the trace that brings power from the battery contact up to the circuit). I laso have had extra retaining rings so that I was not quite as concerned with how carefull I was with the one i was drilling on.

Just some of my experiences
Bryson

I think there's a fair amount of info on the removal process in the threads, but here's more! (someone should really do some photo instructions for doing this...)

Your big problem with removing the first (metal) lock ring is whether it has a lot of Loctite or not. Some have almost none, some have so much, people end up grinding the ring away and begging for a replacement ring (hard to find now). If the Loctite is modest, any of those tools like modified needle nose pliers, tweezers, retainer ring pliers and so on work well. If there's a bunch of Loctite, those tools will probably slip and damage the ring holes, tube threads, or circuit board.

Many people recommend heat, but that did not work for me on a really tough LS of mine (works great on Surefires). I used a heat gun and it didn't help at all. The lens, optics and optic retainer ring are plastic, so I didn't think more heat was the answer. I made a special tool with very short, straight pins that I can clamp in a vise. I set the Arc on it, and use my hands to rotate back and forth until loosened. Hopefully, you won't have much Loctite.

After you get the ring out and the threads cleaned up, the circuit module with the LED falls out with some jiggling. Then you look in the tube and a plastic ring holds the optic and lens in. Note the notch in the ring mates with the tab on the optic.

The bare circuit module is easy enough to change the LED if you can solder. Center the LED by eye, as final centering is done after reassembly. After reassembly, with the final ring loose, note the two holes in the board around the battery terminal. You use your pliers to center the module as you tighten the ring. It takes me several tries, putting a battery pack on and looking at the beam.

I don't re-Loctite because I change LEDs and optics sometimes and it doesn't seem necessary.

Good luck. I would guess your LED module has shifted from being dropped, and maybe even the LED's lens has dislodged.

Thanks for all the great information...looks like I am headed to Harbor Freight today for a set of these special tools.
The strange problem I am having is hard to describe.It looks exactly half of the optic has suddenly went bad and I find it hard to believe an optic gan just go "bad" this way.I almost feel it has to be something with the LED itself.I am not complaining as I got these on a sweet trade where I got a great deal.I like the idea of not sealing the unit again as I would like to be able to remove things with ease should I have to go back inside in the future.

I see the Sandwich Shoppe has the rings for only $1.50!

louie, can you please post the link ?

[ QUOTE ]
red_robby said:
louie, can you please post the link ?

[/ QUOTE ]



They're OOS.

Peter

thank you, Peter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
i has no idea these were available...
they are for the rev 2, correct?

I DID IT...I finally got this lock ring out and discovered the problem.It was not that hard to remove and I did not have to heat it....I used a pair of needle nose with the tips filed a little smaller.
The Actual dome of the emitter had somehow been sheared off and remained in the optic when the board was removed.The yellow part was on the board along with the base of the emitter.I cant believe it but the emitter still lights up after removal and is pretty bright.I am now thinking of a replacement emitter and will keep you updated of the progress.
Can anyone find a photo of this board and show me where to add the part needed to bump the current?...also I need to know a way to identify what lead is positive and negative on this board.
I see a small part that says R15 on it and it has what appears to be a bare pad to the right of it.Is this the resistor and is that pad where I add another to double the mA?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif on the removal

R15 double mA? i don't know.. increase mA Yes...

I have found a few old threads now that show a little more of this and that handy resistance calculator is a great tool to have.I will say that now having seen the inside of this board I am even more impressed with the modders here as those solder points are very small.
I have no idea if I could ever be that precise in attempting to solder anything to this board.The only part I have to now figure out is what tabs are positive and negative on this board.I can usually tell by the little tabs on the emitter however the base looks crushed and I can not tell one from the other.It is almost like the head was torqued down very tight and broke up the emitter.I have a spare Q3J coming from LitFuse that was in my previous mod and I may attempt to transplant this emitter to this board.
Anyway I am facinated by this light now that I have it apart...so many ideas yet limited skill to work with...gotta learn sometime and now is as good as any.

look at the what current is your modded Arc? thread
it is a pretty new one and has all the info you need.

[ QUOTE ]
louie said:
I see the Sandwich Shoppe has the rings for only $1.50!

[/ QUOTE ]

Correction- Had the rings. Apparently one person felt he was entitled to buy all of them!

Isn't that nice. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Peter

A year or so ago Someone bought a kitchen sink? part from homedepot? he cut it down and fabricated his own retainer ring. I think it was brass. If anyone has the link please post.

I digged for 1 half hours and I decided quit it.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I can't find it... maybe it was lost with the old cpf.

Vince.

I have been looking for that post too, with no luck.

Peter