I received my two 8 LED Xnova's today from the group buy. They are pretty neat little lights and the finish is pretty darn good. They were a bit dimmer than I had expected. When I compared it (visually) to a Nichia modded Photon III that I have, I actually thought the Photon was a bit brigher. Luckily, I recieved a batch of C0 binned Nichias from Grumpy's group buy today also.
I took pics of the process and I will be updating this thread with them later this weekend along with some beamshots.
I have read several threads about disassembling these things. The "freeze and pop" method seems to be fairly successful but I am way too impatient to wait for water to freeze. I unscrewed the top of the light from the body and clamped it into a vise sandwiched by some high density foam to prevent scratching.
The LED's were facing down and the chrome bezel was not clamped. I put a 11mm 1/4" drive socket over the spring and gave it a whack with a hammer and the module popped right out. There is a spacer between the LED board and the PCB for the charge pump. There is also a spring that goes between the electronics board and the head of the light. Dont lose this
Now it was time to get to disassembly and putting in the new Nichia's.
1) Desolder the spring from the PCB
2) There is a wire that goes from the center LED and through the electronics board. It is soldered to the same location as the spring. This needs to be melted while lightly pulling on the board to separate them.
3) Desolder the wires that go between the boards from the LED board. Make sure to note which wire goes to which side of the LED's
4) Desolder the LED's. I used a small clamp on the LED's to weight them so they would fall from the board when the solder melted. Once again, note the polarity.
5) Prepare all of the Nichias by cutting the leads off above the "nub" in the wire on the side closest to the LED. For the center LED, I left one of the leads long so that I could use this to go all the way through the board to the spring.
6) Solder up the LED's
7) Reconnect wires and push long lead of center LED through hole in center of board, then solder this.
8) Resolder spring in place.
9) Make sure everything works.
Now the module is done and it can be pressed back into the head. Remember to put the spring back between the head and the PCB. I used a vice for this process. Unfortunately I heard a snap when I was doing this and I think I must have broken one of the surface mount components because it didnt work after it was reassembled. Since I had another, I stole the board out of it and eveything went well that time.
I fired it up with a new Duracell AA. It was much better but definatley not amazing. I would say maybe twice as bright as my modded Photon III. My MJLED in my minimag blew it away. I checked the current being drawn at the tailcap and it was at 330 ma. I stuck an Energizer lithium in there and the current went up to 420 ma. These LEDs are being severely underdriven. I would guess they are running under 20 ma. Since I had an extra stock 8 LED lead from the donor of the 2nd charge pump, I decided to hook it up to 3 AA's in series to see how bright they could be. Well, they drew a little over 500 ma (about 70 ma each) and they were really bright. Way brighter than the Nichias on the lithium cell.
This is a pic of the modded Xnova (left) and a modded Photon III (right). Notice the angry blue color of the Nichia in the Photon. There are C0 bin Nichias in both.
So now I have to figure out a way to make these Nichias perform at their true potential. I would like to see around 40 ma to each. I really like being able to get away with regular AA's so I may try to make a new circuit that could do this. I may also look into direct drive off a rechargeable 14500. We shall see.
It is a fun light now though and the effeciency of this light should be fantastic since the Nichias are being driven at such a low level. I am probably just going to mod the light with the broken board since it doesnt work anyway.
I took pics of the process and I will be updating this thread with them later this weekend along with some beamshots.
I have read several threads about disassembling these things. The "freeze and pop" method seems to be fairly successful but I am way too impatient to wait for water to freeze. I unscrewed the top of the light from the body and clamped it into a vise sandwiched by some high density foam to prevent scratching.
The LED's were facing down and the chrome bezel was not clamped. I put a 11mm 1/4" drive socket over the spring and gave it a whack with a hammer and the module popped right out. There is a spacer between the LED board and the PCB for the charge pump. There is also a spring that goes between the electronics board and the head of the light. Dont lose this
Now it was time to get to disassembly and putting in the new Nichia's.
1) Desolder the spring from the PCB
2) There is a wire that goes from the center LED and through the electronics board. It is soldered to the same location as the spring. This needs to be melted while lightly pulling on the board to separate them.
3) Desolder the wires that go between the boards from the LED board. Make sure to note which wire goes to which side of the LED's
4) Desolder the LED's. I used a small clamp on the LED's to weight them so they would fall from the board when the solder melted. Once again, note the polarity.
5) Prepare all of the Nichias by cutting the leads off above the "nub" in the wire on the side closest to the LED. For the center LED, I left one of the leads long so that I could use this to go all the way through the board to the spring.
6) Solder up the LED's
7) Reconnect wires and push long lead of center LED through hole in center of board, then solder this.
8) Resolder spring in place.
9) Make sure everything works.
Now the module is done and it can be pressed back into the head. Remember to put the spring back between the head and the PCB. I used a vice for this process. Unfortunately I heard a snap when I was doing this and I think I must have broken one of the surface mount components because it didnt work after it was reassembled. Since I had another, I stole the board out of it and eveything went well that time.
I fired it up with a new Duracell AA. It was much better but definatley not amazing. I would say maybe twice as bright as my modded Photon III. My MJLED in my minimag blew it away. I checked the current being drawn at the tailcap and it was at 330 ma. I stuck an Energizer lithium in there and the current went up to 420 ma. These LEDs are being severely underdriven. I would guess they are running under 20 ma. Since I had an extra stock 8 LED lead from the donor of the 2nd charge pump, I decided to hook it up to 3 AA's in series to see how bright they could be. Well, they drew a little over 500 ma (about 70 ma each) and they were really bright. Way brighter than the Nichias on the lithium cell.
This is a pic of the modded Xnova (left) and a modded Photon III (right). Notice the angry blue color of the Nichia in the Photon. There are C0 bin Nichias in both.
So now I have to figure out a way to make these Nichias perform at their true potential. I would like to see around 40 ma to each. I really like being able to get away with regular AA's so I may try to make a new circuit that could do this. I may also look into direct drive off a rechargeable 14500. We shall see.
It is a fun light now though and the effeciency of this light should be fantastic since the Nichias are being driven at such a low level. I am probably just going to mod the light with the broken board since it doesnt work anyway.
Last edited:
