# My HDS Rotary mod



## Flucero28 (Nov 14, 2011)

Hello friends, 

I have had my HDS rotary for a while now and while I love it, it still left me with the desire for a better tint. The problem is that it was way too cool for me. Not one to leave things well enough alone, I got my hands on some cree XPG-R5 4000K emitters. Yes they are XPG-R5's, I verified that with the dealer I bought them from. The postman just left them in my box today so I went ahead and started surgery...

First off a shot of the emitters, I bought two of them.







Heres the money shot, all stock for just a few more minutes!!






I scraped the potting material out from around the board and on top of the screws. The screws are then removed. Next comes for a lot of patient de-soldering of the three small connections above and below the emitter. Last comes some VERY careful prying of the board. Take your time and if it doesnt start to come up, verify all of the connections are completely free of solder. Then the PCB comes out. You can see the heat sinking compound henry uses underneath.






Both PCB's are slowly and steadily heated until both emitters are free. 






The neutral XPG R5 now sits on its HDS PCB






Everythings all cleaned up with just a dab of the good stuff for heat transfer!











Very carefully line up the holes properly and gently press the PCB back into place. DO NOT FORCE IT IF IT WILL NOT SEAT PROPERLY!!! You can bend one of the hard wires from the driver. Once you verify all three wires have slipped into their holes in the pcb, line up the PCB with the screw holes if its not already. Now carefully re-insert the screws and slowly tighten each one alternating between the two every couple turns until they are both tight. This will help you to evenly distribute the downward force on the PCB. Once tightened, you should see a bit of heatsink compound squirt out of the holes around the emitter. Once its all tightened up, carefully solder the three connections back to the PCB. 






Clean up the solder flux with a small dab of alcohol on a Q-Tip and shes all done. I like to place a small O-Ring around the emitter of my Rotary. It fills the gap between the PCB and the Bezel making it look much better (I think anyway). 

















All buttoned up with the O-Ring under the bezel.






Now for the results!!!! This is a beamshot I took before I performed the mod. On the left is the Rotary, on the right is my HDS 170T. As you can see both beams are VERY cold. 






Heres a shot of the modded rotary on the left, same 170T on right






I think the pictures of the new tint speak for themselves!!! I have fallen in love with my rotary all over again! I hope you guys enjoyed, I know there are other similar threads but I have never done a tutorial before.

Take care friends!

Frank :devil:


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## eh4 (Nov 14, 2011)

Very Nice!


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## jake royston (Nov 14, 2011)

modding my 120 wasnt enough for ya?
very nice, clean mod as usual, always looking for a challenge!
nice work frank!


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## moderator007 (Nov 14, 2011)

Nice tint and well worth the effort flucero28. Also nice job on reflowing the xpg. You have inspired me to order some 4000k emitters.


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## COAST (Nov 15, 2011)

Nice mod! Love the tint of the XPG. Been wanting the Rotary since the day it came out.... still haven't gotten it.


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## stoli67 (Nov 15, 2011)

I love the new tint......

I may have to get one just to experiment on. Where did you get the warm XPG from?


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## moderator007 (Nov 16, 2011)

I'm also interested in where to purchase. Having trouble locating some. Maybe cutter.


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## Flucero28 (Nov 16, 2011)

Thank you all for the compliments! I got these from shiningbeam.com. if youneed warmer illuminationsupply has some high cri versions in stock.


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## jake royston (Nov 24, 2011)

visiting flucero28 this week, and we decided to do a few mods to keep us busy! (he really did all the work, i just supervised and provided parts and held the light!) we modded the hds 120 to an XP-E R2, and the rotary to XP-G R5 neutral. 


as always, very clean mods with amazing results, FLUCERO28 IS THE MAN!!!!!






heres the results, first up is the rotary.....










heres the 120 







rotary on left and 120 on right.





rotary on left, 120 on right, both on the max output.


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## jake royston (Nov 25, 2011)

heres a closeup of the XP-E in the 120 on low, ill get one of the rotary tomorrow....


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## CustomCollector (Nov 25, 2011)

That´s a cool mod for the rotary. 
I own two Rotary, think one of them i could made this, too.


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## Flucero28 (Nov 25, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments and thanks Jake for the review! Its such a pleasure transforming an already great light into something even better.


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## blackbalsam (Nov 25, 2011)

Frank, you always do great work and are always a pleasure to deal with...Happy Holidays...Robert.


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## Flucero28 (Nov 26, 2011)

Thank you Robert! Happy holidays also!


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## dajab77 (Nov 26, 2011)

Great pictures and instruction. I too, have the rotary. Are there any special tools to remove the lens?
I'm a newbie. 
Thanks.


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## bansuri (Nov 27, 2011)

Looks great! 
Do you know what size that O-ring is? Would be neat to get some GITD O-Rings to put in there.


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## nanotech17 (Nov 27, 2011)

very nice and clean mod.
very inspiring.


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## Flucero28 (Nov 28, 2011)

dajab77 said:


> Great pictures and instruction. I too, have the rotary. Are there any special tools to remove the lens?
> I'm a newbie.
> Thanks.



No special tools needed dejab77. The reflector assembly has threads on each end. The bottom obviously screws into the the flashlight head, the top screws into the bezel/lens assembly. I have noticed that depending on the lubrication of the O-rings, one end will un-screw easier then the other. If the bezel/lens assebly comes off first, a strap wrench will come in handy to help grip the reflector assembly enough to un-screw it from the head. Just be careful not to muck up your reflector as it will be exposed. 



bansuri said:


> Looks great!
> Do you know what size that O-ring is? Would be neat to get some GITD O-Rings to put in there.



Thats a great idea bansuri!!! If you find some please let me know, I would like some as well. According to my O-Ring set, this one is SAE AS 568-008 I/D=3/16, O/D=5/16 and section=1/16. 



nanotech17 said:


> very nice and clean mod.
> very inspiring.



Thank you nanotech17. I really enjoy working on these great lights.


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## davyro (Dec 4, 2011)

Great mod,if you lived in the UK i think i would have been paying you a visit & pleading with you to mod one of my HDS lights:thumbsup:


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## Flucero28 (Dec 4, 2011)

Thanks davyro. That is too bad. Is shipping not an option? 





davyro said:


> Great mod,if you lived in the UK i think i would have been paying you a visit & pleading with you to mod one of my HDS lights:thumbsup:


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## hotlight (Dec 12, 2011)

Hi Flucero,

I have a question regarding the 120 that was modded with the xpe (post #9 , 4th pic from top):


in the pic, the screws seem to be touching the sides of the mcpcb board, is it necessary to touch the mcpcb? 
or just have the ground wire(third hard wire next to negative) connected to one of the screws?


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## jake royston (Dec 13, 2011)

that is actually 2 boards. the black one is the actual pcb, and the other one, (silver) was filed down and secured below the pcb to get the pcb to the proper height. we also filed a couple notches in the bottom pcb to make room for the screws. i think the angle of the picture, but the screw on the right side is not making contact with the pcb.


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## hotlight (Dec 14, 2011)

jake royston said:


> that is actually 2 boards. the black one is the actual pcb, and the other one, (silver) was filed down and secured below the pcb to get the pcb to the proper height. we also filed a couple notches in the bottom pcb to make room for the screws. i think the angle of the picture, but the screw on the right side is not making contact with the pcb.



thanks.....
warming up the iron


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## hotlight (Dec 14, 2011)

I managed to get the stock board out after about an hour but managed to mangle the stock emitter pretty good.
only one of the screws was needed for ground (in case anyone was wondering)

for now I put in a red P4.... thought I had an extra XML laying around..













thanks to flucero, jake royston and bansuri for posting :wave:


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## Flucero28 (Dec 15, 2011)

Looks awesome hotlight!


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## davyro (Dec 19, 2011)

Hi Frank i'm thinking about ordering a 120T just after christmas & i'm not into the warm tint's that much,i was wondering what could you mod the 120T with to make it into a nice little thrower
i know it would be a bit limited in what could be done,it's just i want a HDS that can throw a bit more than my 170T.If you think it's possible i'd be trying to find out the shipping details to you.
Thanks


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## Flucero28 (Dec 24, 2011)

Davyro, I modded a 120T for jakeroyston a while back. He mainly couldn't stand the tint of the osram, but wanted something that would still offer a good amount of throw. For this reason I suggested the Cree xpe. After all was said and done I do recall it threw a bit further then my 170T and with a great cool white tint without any green or purple. I think the Cree xpe is what your looking for.


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## davyro (Dec 26, 2011)

Flucero28 said:


> Davyro, I modded a 120T for jakeroyston a while back. He mainly couldn't stand the tint of the osram, but wanted something that would still offer a good amount of throw. For this reason I suggested the Cree xpe. After all was said and done I do recall it threw a bit further then my 170T and with a great cool white tint without any green or purple. I think the Cree xpe is what your looking for.




That sounds great to me,if i sent it to you with a package pre paid to return it back would you be interested in doing the mod,ofcourse we'd have to sort the costs out
because i'm seriously impressed with your work shown in this thread.thanks merry christmas,dave


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## hotlight (Dec 27, 2011)

Flucero28 said:


> Looks awesome hotlight!



thanks!
got a XM-L in there now... awesome


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## fyrstormer (Dec 27, 2011)

hotlight said:


> for now I put in a red P4.... thought I had an extra XML laying around...


You finished the mod with a different emitter just because you didn't have the one you really wanted on-hand? That seems kinda wasteful. Why invest the effort to mod it twice? Just leave it sitting until you can buy the parts you want.


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## fyrstormer (Dec 27, 2011)

Flucero28 said:


> Davyro, I modded a 120T for jakeroyston a while back. He mainly couldn't stand the tint of the osram, but wanted something that would still offer a good amount of throw. For this reason I suggested the Cree xpe. After all was said and done I do recall it threw a bit further then my 170T and with a great cool white tint without any green or purple. I think the Cree xpe is what your looking for.


Did the Cree XP-E you installed have a higher surface brightness than the stock XP-G? If not, then while the XP-E would produce a smaller hotspot, it wouldn't actually throw any better than the stock XP-G.


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## Flucero28 (Dec 27, 2011)

Fyrstormer, the original led was an osram golden not an XPG. The XPE uses the same die as the Cree XRE so it's got really good surface brightness and is therefore a good thrower. This combined with a higher level of efficiency over the osram resulted in a brighter and throwier hotspot in this sample.


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## Flucero28 (Dec 30, 2011)

Davyro pm sent regarding HDS mod.


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## hotlight (Dec 31, 2011)

fyrstormer said:


> You finished the mod with a different emitter just because you didn't have the one you really wanted on-hand?
> That seems kinda wasteful. Why invest the effort to mod it twice? Just leave it sitting until you can buy the parts you want.



I'm guessing you think the red P4 is toast? 
Red P4 is fine....
only waste was about 1/2" of solder from the spool, some electricity, and a dab of thermal paste.

once the stock HDS board/emitter is out (about %75 of the work IMO), swapping emitters can be pretty quick/risk free.(again IMO)

I can be a patient guy, but, I didn't want to wait for the XML because I wanted to make sure the light still worked since it was my first attempt at modding the newer HDS'.

BTW- there is a Hi CRI XP-G in it now..... XML still fine.


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## davyro (Jan 2, 2012)

Flucero28 said:


> Davyro pm sent regarding HDS mod.


 

Thanks Frank,i'm not that bothered on loosing any efficency as i'm planning on getting the bigger battery pack,if there is a led anyone could recomend that would
give me 3 to 400 lumen with a better throw than the 170T that would be great,but i do trust Frank's judgement & whatever he says goes at the end of the day.


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## Lolaralph (Jan 5, 2012)

Flucero28,
nice work! I modded an older style 120T with a K2, I have always thought that the XP-E would have been a better choice, but then I thought why not get the newer version with the burst control, then mod it with the XP-E. I plan on getting the 120T, why spend more for the premium emitter just to change it out. My question is, does the 120 version come with the Osram on the same board style as the XP-G,thanks


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## Flucero28 (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks lolaralph. Yes the osram versions of the latest gen HDS lights come mounted on a similar green PCB as the XPG versions. The new high efficiency XPE R3 looks like a great candidate!


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## SaturnNyne (Jan 6, 2012)

Flucero: Was that #22995 you modded? Shall I go ahead and update its registry entry to note this mod?


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## Pöbel (Jan 6, 2012)

I put a neutral XP-E into my Clicky as I feel it's the perfect swap for an GDP. Great throw, great color and enough efficiency.

I also have a XM-L Clicky, but imho it's not very useful. Just too floody with the stock reflector. The XP-G is a good compromise, but i just prefer a little more throw.


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## eala (Sep 2, 2013)

Thanks so much for posting this "how to" Frank. Mighty fine of you.

I just modded my High CRI clicky to XPG2 5000K. Found the XPG High CRI just too warm for my tastes. Much happier now.

This mod takes patience. Prying that board out was tricky.

eala


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## Flucero28 (Sep 5, 2013)

Glad to help eala!


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