gladius upgrade

I saw this and was wondering, should I do this? upgrade it to 160 lumens?

http://www.order-gear.com/product-nop.asp?0=973&1=1368&3=8214

It sounds nice to have a Seoul P4 in my gladius, but I dont want to void my warranty. I only paid $150 for my gladius so its not a total waste if I destroy this light. but im jsut concerned about this. if i keep it in its stock form I have peace of mind, that I can always take it back to BH for repair.

I had a member here from the US mod my Gladius with a P4 emmtiter.

It makes a huge difference to the output and has put the light back into my carry line up for work.

Solscud007 said:

I only paid $150 for my gladius so its not a total waste if I destroy this light.

Click to expand...

WOW! you have a great job.:huh:
Go for the upgrade, you'll like and use the light more.:thumbsup:

I say go for the upgrade and enjoy it. The likelyhood of anything going wrong with the BH is slim.

I had the upgrade done to two Gladius lights a couple of years ago. They turned out great and I've had no problems since. :twothumbs

Do it yourself. It is very easy. This was my first mod and was a piece of cake. I put in a U bin Seoul with a .030" copper shim underneath the LED. More than doubling the perceived output makes the strobe so much more disorienting and the combo of greater spill and larger and brighter hot spot make this a must have for this light. You can do it yourself for less than 10 bucks. It will increase your low level marginally but still very suitable for reading maps in the dark or navigating the bedroom without waking the wife. My run time was slightly increased with this mod too. Order your LED from DX and get some of their 3.0 volt Lithium rechargeables and 3.0 volt nano charger while you are at it. You will be very happy. I have heard of two guys on here using 3.6 volt rechargeable batteries in their light but the general consensus is that it may smoke your driver. I have the 3.0 volts and couldn't be happier. Also you can get the Insight H2X Typhoon (same light made by the manufacturer of the Gladius here in the USA) from a guy's store on Ebay for $133.00 shipped! His store is called PracticallyStealing. Here is the link:
http://stores.ebay.com/Practically-Stealing
I ordered two new lights from him in the last two months and modded them both. He also has the Insight H2X2 Typhoon 2 which is the same light, with the LED already upgraded by the factory so you dont loose your warranty. Insight uses a Seoul LED as well for that model and advertise 170 lumens but I dont know the bin. I think my mod is around 200 lumens with a U bin.
Fletch31

I would love to upgrade my Typhoon. A local agent mentioned this upgrade and speaks highly of it. I don't know if they upgrade the Typhoon, though.

Strategos is a pretty interesting company. I went to a shooting match last fall and they had a representative there who gave a demonstration/informal training. They even gave away two or three NightOps lights including a Gladius. (No, I didn't win anything, darn it!) I wish I had the time/money to go to some of their training.

I would try the upgrade myself, but lacking the tools and step-by-step instructions I am afraid I would royally botch the job! Sixty dollars doesn't seem like too much for a professional upgrade.

-- Frank

I've ordered an Insight H2X Typhoon upgraded to SSC USW0H on CP-MP. I hope to be able to give you feedback in a few days.

If I like it, I'll send in my Gladius and have it upgraded as well.

:popcorn:

fletch, you are lucky that your Gladius opened up easily. I can't get mine open. I probably have to find my heat gun and apply higher temp. I've only gone the boiling water route so far. I also may have to use a bigger lever arm rather than the small strap wrenches I have now.

Hey FrankW438, I'd be happy to write down the instructions and post them up here for a step by step guide to upgrading this light with a Seoul. It is really hard to mess up. In fact, a Sheriff's deputy friend just emailed me yesterday to see if I could get him a light like mine so I will be ordering a 3rd today and upgrading it for him. I could throw up some text for the upgrade later today and then take pictures and document the upgrade I do in a week or so. Strategos will not upgrade Typhoons by the way.

I understand Strategos/Blackhawk designed and created the Gladius but because they are only a marketing/brand managing group, they contracted with Insight to manufacture it. Somehow Insight was able to make it themselves under their own brand (the Insight H2X Typhoon) after some time through some poorly worked out contract. It has been a bone of contention between the two but it would appear that both are here to stay.

Insight sells the light already with the factory warrantied upgrade as the Typhoon 2 and does not offer upgrade services for existing lights. Strategos is the middleman for an upgrade service for the Gladius only and offers a 1 year warranty done on the work through them. Your existing Gladius lifetime warranty is null and void though. Last I heard, they were having turnaround issues on their upgrade service. Insight offers a lifetime warranty on their Typhoon 2 which has the upgraded Seoul LED in it already but I am unsure of the bin they are using. They advertise 170 lumens output. A U bin Seoul should put out around 200 lumens at the 975 mAh these lights run at.

So your options are:
1. Mod either light yourself and void your existing factory warranty but have 200 or so Lumens. It’s a solid mod and difficult to mess up. If you light works well before the mod, it will work well after the mod.

2. Have Strategos supervise the modding of your Gladius and void your lifetime warranty. You will however receive a separate 1 year warranty from Strategos on their work. There is a potentially long turn-around time for their service and it costs 60 bucks. They don't do Typhoons.

3. Buy an new model Typhoon 2 that already has the factory Seoul upgrade from Insight with a lifetime warranty for less than the price of an unmodded Gladius (about $165.00). Its factory advertised as having 170 lumens which may be conservative. Bin is unknown though is likely a T or U bin.

4. Keep your light as it is, knowing that you could have more than double the perceived output, a longer run time, and full water-tight integrity if you had the sack to choose another option. :laughing: You will still have the best UI of any flashlight ever created in my opinion.

I recommend option 1:twothumbs. If you guys want some step by step instructions to do the mod, I can post some up later today.

Hey Justin Case, I have been modding Typhoons but would assume that the Gladius has the same threadlock on the head. Luckily the two I have done have come off with just my hands, a bit of straining and bulging blood vessels in my forehead :laughing:. Strap wrenches have worked for other guys but I didnt have any that could grip tight enough on such a small diameter. Mine were for removing oil filters. Both of the typhoons I modded had threadlock for about 2 threads at the base of the head. Boiling in a zip lock bag didn't work for you? A heat gun used for stripping paint should do the trick. Just keep it moving and concentrate on the base seam. It shouldn't be a problem if you have an anodized Gladius as I have used a heat gun on that type of finish before without damage. If you have a older ceramic finished Gladius I wouldn't think that it wouldn't be an issue but can't speak from experience.
Fletch31

Please post the exact steps and the links for the products I must buy. I have three of these and this will be my first mod also.

I have an electronics guru friend that will do the soldering for me.

Thank you so much. Pics would be great

Righty

The lifetime warranty on the Gladius must depend on when you bought your Gladius. My warranty says that the light is covered for the life of the original owner for defects in parts and workmanship. The warranty covers the LED, but not batteries, bulbs, and associated electronics. Electronics are covered for only one year.

So for my Gladius, all that really seems to be covered for life are the LED and the flashlight shell (e.g., glass window, ceramic finish, o-rings, reflector, tailcap mechanism).

I am looking at the warranty statement on the warranty card, which differs from and appears to supercede the statement in the owner's manual (that statement says that the Gladius has a limited lifetime warranty that covers parts and labor on everything except the LED and batteries).

In my case, the warranty is not a compelling factor to dissuade me from modding the light.

Good point regarding the warranty. It was not a factor in me modifying my lights either. I will have to look at the card for the Typhoons when I get home. I have read of people having their tailcaps replaced on their gladius well after a year on other police forums so it seems they will work with you still at least on that after 1 years time. It also would be difficult to show whether it was a fault in the driver or the LED should the LED go out for some reason. Both could suffer damage should one of them go. Blackhawk has done well honoring a lifetime warranty in the past with police officers according to what I have read.

I'll post up how I did my mods later today with sources for materials.
Fletch31

fletch31 said:

Somehow Insight was able to make it themselves under their own brand (the Insight H2X Typhoon) after some time through some poorly worked out contract.

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• I heard that Insight had lost a patent violation to a competitor long time ago. This resulted in an agreement that they would not be allowed to sell flashlights under their own brand for a few years. This agreement ran out when the H2X was announced. [Unverified!]
• Ken Good wrote in an email to me: "Insight manufacturers the Gladius and the Typhoon H2X (same light under their brand name). These lights are our design not Insight's."

fletch31 said:

4. Keep your light as it is, knowing that you could have more than double the perceived output, a longer run time, and full water-tight integrity if you had the sack to choose another option. :laughing: You will still have the best UI of any flashlight ever created in my opinion

Click to expand...

Correct! It is even second-to-none compared to the SureFire UA2/UB2 GUI. :sigh:

Does anybody know if Insight offers other colors than black for the H2X/H2X2? I love the desert tan on my Gladius, and always wanted an OD green H2X2...

I would imagine the reason the Insight Typhoon is significantly cheaper than Blackhawk's Gladius is because they did not have to invest any $ in R&D. The lights are identical in every respect except name only. I do know that Insight is manufacturing their brand of lights legally so I do not have a problem buying them over the gladius. Its a sensitive subject for Ken as he assisted with the design. He has since left Blackhawk and advises for Polarion I believe.

Ok, so here is a guide for modding your Blackhawk Gladius or Insight Typhoon. Feel free to add your tips or suggestions if you have gone through the process yourself. This is how I did it. I obtained these pics from another forum showing the dissassembly of a modded gladius. I will update these pics when I mod my third light in a week or so.

Suggested Materials:

SSC Seoul P4 (U-bin) SW0 Bare Emitter $5.56
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2026

-You can choose to get the newer U2 bin from another source for a 20 or so imperceptible lumen increase but it has a higher forward voltage and will reduce your run times slightly.

FUJIK Silicone Thermal Glue (50ml Grease-Like) $8.44
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4579

-You can mix some thin set epoxy with arctic silver compound to make a suitable thermal adhesive substitute if you wish.

Arctic Silver Compound (optional)

.030 copper spacer for Seoul (2 pack) $.50
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?products_id=945

- You can also make your own spacer from a copper plumbing fitting. Just dremmel out a slightly smaller than 1/4" diameter disc and hammer to thickness.
Isopropyl Alcohol and Q-tips– for cleaning the dome of your Seoul LED

Exacto Knife or razor blade

Needle nosed pliers

Soldering Iron
Rosin core solder
Water soluble flux
Desoldering wire (or make your own)

A sense of adventure and can-do-it attitude.




Begin by removing the tailcap of your light and removing the batteries. You don’t want to use the tailcap as a grip point when you remove the head as you run the risk of over tightening it and stripping the threads.

Now the process of unscrewing the head of your light: There is some locking compound on the head’s threads that you will need to overcome either by grasping the light with your hands and twisting firmly or by using strap wrenches. Fortunately the two lights I have modded came apart with just my hands and some exertion. I have not found strap wrenches small enough for this but others have had success using them to open the head. Boiling the light in a zip-lock bag with batteries and tail cap removed is reported as effective, as well as using a heat gun or propane torch. Just be careful going this route and don’t hold the heat in one spot for long. Concentrate on the seam of the head and the body and frequently test opening the head with your hands. Wearing gloves might be good if you have heated it.

Once you have broken the head free, open it over a towel laid out on a table or your work bench. There is a small ball bearing that will fall out and you don’t want to have to go chasing it. It is easily lost and is used to keep the driver and trace ribbons from spinning when removing or replacing the head. Without it, you will likely tear the trace ribbons off the driver.
Here is a pic of where the bearing sits and another of the tube being removed.

With the head removed, you will see the IM27 reflector inside the head with a metal sheath around it to aid in alignment and support. I recommend not disassembling it to avoid getting finger prints on your reflector. You will never get them off satisfactorily without removing some of the vacuum deposited reflective material. Just place the entire head lens down on your bench and cover it with a dust free cloth to prevent contaminants from falling in.

Examining the body, you will see the exposed Luxeon star and emitter. Using your soldering iron, desolder the leads of the luxeon and pry them up from the star with an exacto knife or razor blade to ensure the cooling solder does not reattach them to the contact pads. Once all leads are free and clear, grasp the Luxeon LED with some needle nose pliers around the black surrounding housing of the LED. Twist parallel to the star face to loosen and pop the LED free. I have not been successful in preserving the Luxeon in both of my attempts at removal on this light. It is epoxied on with some thermal adhesive and I have crushed the black surround or popped off the lens both times. No matter for me as I had no use for them anyway being that I would use a Seoul LED in any instance where one was being used anyway. Some have been able to remove it intact. You may experience a sinking feeling as you crush it with your needle nosed pliers as there is not going back now but fear not. All will turn out fine. As you twist off the LED, support the star and driver to keep them from spinning as well. I believe I removed the entire internal assembly tube to keep from damaging it when I removed the LED. Notice the black tube has a tab that fits in a groove milled on the inside of the body. Just be sure to align that properly when you reinsert it if you go that route. Here is a pic of the removed tube. Note how the tube is attached to the driver.

Now with the LED removed, you will see a hole in the center of your star that the Luxeon sat down in. Scrape out any residual thermal adhesive and be sure you do not have any globs of solder remaining on your pads. If you do, remove it with desoldering wire or take some scrap braided copper wire, flux it and use it to wick up the solder heat it while touching it to the pad of excess solder. There will likely be very little solder build up anyway but just in case….

Now use thermal adhesive to glue down your circular .030” copper shim in the hole left by the Luxeon. Use as light a coat as you can use but ensure that the entire disc is covered. If you have purchased your discs from the sandwich shoppe, it is recommended that you tap the disc flat with a hammer as there usually is a slight bulge on one side from the punching process when they were created. Also file the edges lightly if there are any burrs. It is important that the disc is flat on both sides to ensure maximum heat transfer.

Now take your U bin Seoul LED and notice the 4 leads protruding from it. The side with the notch in the leg is the negative side. That means both legs on the same side as the notch are negative. You can use either one to make the negative connection. The other side of the LED has two positive legs. The bottom slug of the Seoul LED is also connected to positive so you will need to isolate it with a thin layer of thermal adhesive. The thinnest layer you can make the better. Ideally, if you glued your copper spacer down properly, the top of the spacer should be electrically isolated from the negative on the star. Test this continuity with a multi-meter. If you did this successfully, there is no need to put a thin layer on the bottom of the Seoul and let it dry for purposes of electrical isolation at this stage. In both of my mods it was not necessary either. It will be better for heat transfer if it is not.

A common misconception to many is that Arctic Silver thermal grease is electrically conductive. It is not. It transfers heat but does not conduct electricity. Even though there are silver particles in it and silver is conductive, they are in suspension and the compound is not electrically conductive. I filled in any gaps on the side of my spacer with Arctic Silver compound to maximize heat transfer. You may choose to omit this step but I have not done it any other way and my lights get marginally warm near the head in use after maybe 15 minutes. I can tell the body is dissipating the heat generated rather quickly so I am happy with that extra bit of insurance.

Pre-tin the leads of your new Seoul LED.

Now you will have to perform these next few steps quickly, within 5 minutes or so. Place a thin layer of thermal adhesive on the copper spacer and place your new Seoul LED on top, orienting the negative and positive legs to the positions marked on the star. You will see that you are diagonally straddling the old LED placement. Solder the positive leg down first using as little solder as you can to make a good joint. Quickly test for continuity from the positive leg you have soldered, to various points on the negative pads on the star or interior of the flashlight body. This will ensure that you have done a good job in electrically isolating the positive slug on the bottom of the LED. Leave the other leg unsoldered for now.

Note on the bottom of the reflector, there are two cutouts designed to straddle your LED legs that you have soldered. You need to cut these ridges off the bottom of the reflector or they will slice the leads off your Seoul. They were designed to straddle the Luxeon you just removed and are no longer needed. Just be careful not to let the pieces fall inside the reflector and don’t enlarge the opening.

Replace the ball bearing back into its obvious pocket and screw the head back down to self-align the LED in the reflector opening. You will see it sits deeply in the reflector if you have it right. The copper shim is lifting the LED up into the reflector to compensate for the difference in height of the new LED’s die to ensure a nice beam quality. After centering, gently unscrew the head and reflector (Keep track of that ball bearing) and solder down the remaining negative leg to the star.

Wipe off any fingerprint smudges or Artic Silver compound (the stuff can get everywhere if you are not careful) off the lens of the Seoul LED with isopropyl alcohol. No harm will be done to the gummy lens.

Correctly orient and replace the head assembly once again, replacing the ball bearing and o-ring. Replace the batteries and tail cap and go to your bathroom with the light off and the door shut. Switch your light to channel 3, fire it up and be amazed at the fact that you have successfully doubled the output of your flashlight. Switch to channel 2, Strobe yourself in the mirror and giggle with glee. You are a modding God! Check out your low mode and cycle through ramping your light levels on Channel 1. Stumble out of the bathroom as you see a nice bright spot in your vision and go annoy your wife and friends. There are lights that will out throw you but they wont be the complete package that your light now is and they sure as heck wont have the fantastic UI that you have. Think of where your light was and the awesome level it performs at now. Your Gladius/Typhoon is once again relative and useful in the tactical flashlight world.

This is a great mod and well worth your time. Should take less than a half hour to do. The threadlock is not necessary to replace to maintain watertight integrity. It was there to prevent doing what you just did and voiding your warranty. :naughty: Dont worry. This mod is solid and will last just as long as your light would have otherwise.

If I haven’t made something clear, feel free to ask any questions. I will post up some pictures and links for materials later.

Fletch31

Any reason to favor the Fujik thermal glue over Arctic Alumina (not the Arctic Alumina adhesive)?

fletch31 said:

Ok, so here is a guide for modding your Blackhawk Gladius or Insight Typhoon.

Click to expand...

Wow! Thank you very much for the guide.

Can you please provide your PayPal and mail address, so I can send you my Gladius for an upgrade? :crackup::D

Fletch:

Thanks for the instructions! Hopefully I can figure this one out and do it myself.

I really appreciate the work you put in to posting this for us.

-- Frank

Justin Case said:

Any reason to favor the Fujik thermal glue over Arctic Alumina (not the Arctic Alumina adhesive)?

Click to expand...

Edit: Actually just noticed that you were specifying Arctic Alumina compound. The website you linked to said it thickens over time but I am unsure if it sets up to bind the LED to the spacer and star. For heat transfer purposes it fits the bill but you do want some adhesive property to your thermal compound otherwise the LED is being held only by the strength of the soldering joints. That stress can lead to intermittent failure at the joint. The LED should be fixed firmly with thermal epoxy or thermal adhesive for that reason. I only suggested this other stuff because you could get it all on one order from DX. There are other thermal adhesive that would work just fine as well.


Those doing this mod and ordering from DX may also want to pick up these as well.

17335 Li-ion rechargable 3V 1000mAh CR123A Battery 2-Pack $4.46
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4419

-At 3 volts, these batteries are safe for use in your Gladius/Insight so you can be free of primaries. Overrated at 1000mAh but more like 650mAh. Still they work great and will last around an hour on high.

Nano Li-ion Single 3.0V CR123A Charger $5.70
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1191
Simple, compact and works as it should. This is 3.0 volt specific for the batteries above.