How to remove Gen1 KL1 Board?

Hi all,

I'd like to replace the driver in a Gen1 KL1 head with something a little different. But, I can't figure out how to get the driver out of there without completely destroying it.

Is there a trick to safely remove the board and/or battery contact?

Jon

FWIW, the board is soldered to two pins that extend from the neg. contact ring in the base of KL1. It's also glued in. Desoldering was easy enough but no matter what I did I was unable to get the board free of the glue.

So... I just dremeled a hole through the middle of the board (totally destroying it) and popped it out with a small screwdriver. I am going to drop a Wizard2 in there anyway, so destroying the board wasn't a big deal. But, it would've been nice to re-use the stock board in another mod some day.

In addition to the Wiz2 I'll be dropping in a UYOK and a 20mm reflector plus a custom copper heatsink if I can manage it.

I would imagine there isn't a big interest in this sort of mod anymore, but I thought I'd follow up anyway.

Jon

Hi, Jon.

Good to hear about this mod, I have recently acquired a Gen1 KL1 and was thinking about modding it. Once you have managed to prop it open, did you check out what was keeping it in? Was it just glue or something else I should be aware of? Will heating it up do it?

AuroraLite,

Well, the head comes apart in three pieces. Not sure if this is what you mean, but the bezel should come off first. Mine was modded when I bought it so it came off easily - normally there is glue that has to be overcome. Mine had a star in it - it needed to be desoldered and removed before separating the middle piece from the base.

The converter is in the base and is attached to the KL1 by glue and the two solder posts I mentioned. The glue was pretty easy to cut through with a 450F soldering iron, so heating the entire base might help. (EDIT: I should have mentioned that there is glue underneath the board, which is why heating the whole thing might be necessary.) I would be careful not to damage the plastic bucket that holds the + contact though. However, there's no easy way to grab a hold of the board unless you pull on the LED+ and LED- wires or possibly one of the bigger components (there is a coil or inductor). Probably not the safest thing to do though.

Something you might try (I wish I would've thought of it earlier) is to first remove the plastic bucket and neg contract ring. Again, make sure the posts have been completely de-soldered. You'll also need to desolder the wire coming from the pos battery contact (it is near the LED wires on the board). After that you might be able to yank the bucket, etc out of the back. That will give you access to the back of the board and you might be able to push it out. I really wish I would've tried this before I resorted to the dremel.

I can post some pics tonight if you'd like.

Jon