color change on a A2

I have several colors of the A2. I did not like the green color and wanted to change it to the same as the red that I have. More useful color for me. After calls to surefire resulted in not being able to purchase the other color board and led's I set about to figure out how to change them. I found that on the red board I have the surface mount resistors were 100 ohms and on the green board 33 ohms. I purchased two types of LED's from Radio Shack. 276-307 and 276-309 first ones were 3000 mcd and 12 degree led's and the second was a 800 mcd 40 degree "wide angle " LED. Paying attention to polarity I replaced the greens with first the wide angle led's. All artifacts were gone and brightness was a little less than the stock surefire red leds in my stock un altered A2. I then removed the 800 mcd wide angles and tried the 3000 mcd regular LED's ( its the Tim Taylor in me ) and found same brightness as the stock lights and less Artifacts in the beam. I am sure there may be a small difference in run time but I can live with that. JUST FYI for those of you who have other colored Aviators and want to change to red for Night blindness issues.

I had found a lot about not being able to get different color led rings for these before I bought mine. So I just bought the white, and use filters to changes colors. But that still only allows me one color without removing the filter. This is one bandwagon I wish SF would get off from, and make the other rings available. Thanks for the info though. I might get creative someday, and try to make complete new rings with different colors since SF won't provide them to us "high" payng customers.

An enterprising modder could likely find a ready market for for a few batches of LED rings for the A2.

I continue to be amazed at (IMHO) the incredible stupidity of SF's marketing for not selling these. Few people will buy a whole new A2 just to get a different color LED ring, but I'd bet quite a few people would buy an extra set of LED's if they were available.

Aside from stupidity, is there some reason I haven't thought of that SF isn't willing to sell the different LED rings for A2's? Any reason at all? I sure can't think of one....

I have never opened my A2, to see how the LED ring is installed and how difficult it is to change.

If it is fairly easy, without to much chance of damaging the light, I agree there is a very good opportunity for one of our talented modders to produce and sell these in different colors.

As far as SF, they sell every light the can make. Their viewpoint is purely, if you want blue LEDs, then by another A2 in blue. A lot of people do just this.

At a reasonable price point, ($30-$40??), I think many of us would buy several of these. I can just picture a little ring sized box with slots holding a selection of color discs for my A2.

Can it be done in a practical and affordable way? ANYONE?

Mark

SureFire's "Marketing" may want to be able to offer the rings.
However, SureFire's manufacturing & assembly may not be able to manufacture and assemble enough LED Rings to support the demand of selling them as accessories.

May be if SureFire were not so busy...

Al

I suppose it may depend on your A2 how hard it is to get the ring out. I've taken the ring out of mine a couple times and it requires a tiny phillips screwdriver and then rapping the head on a hard surface to get the ring out, there's not much to grab with tweezers except some contacts that you don't want to break.

The head is a marvel of machining and tolerances are tight. It would probably be more expensive than the ring alone, but it might make sense for Surefire to sell A2 heads seperately. It would be faster to drop the lamp into a spare head and screw it on the body, than fuss with the tiny screws and the tight fit of the LEDs and the LED ring.

With all due respect, with my mechanically inept hands and limited tools, I found taken out the lED ring quite easy and straight forward. What's so hard about unscrewing three screws and take out a ring with needle nose plier?

Personally I would love to see the rings avaiable seperately. The idea is to have a cheap sapre ring, and with the extra head the price would be too high to justify...

Nick

[ QUOTE ]
Size15's said:
SureFire's "Marketing" may want to be able to offer the rings.
However, SureFire's manufacturing & assembly may not be able to manufacture and assemble enough LED Rings to support the demand of selling them as accessories.

May be if SureFire were not so busy...

Al

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder how things will change in the inevitable, hopefully near, future when SureFire's supply of flashlights exceeds the demand...?

When they no longer have huge Defense Dept. contracts, and once again must depend on budget strapped police departments, and God forbid, may actually have to respond to the things common citizens (like CPF members) have been, and will be asking for.

Pleasant thought... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif