# Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died [UPDATE: Patient #2 LIVES!]



## DonShock (Feb 5, 2009)

JOJOBOS recently gave me a ZebraLight H30 to try to use as a host for a modification. JOJOBOS had already removed the switch assembly but could not get the driver or LED out. Based on what I could see of the construction, I was pretty certain I would have to kill the LED to get it out, but I had hoped to disassemble it without damaging the circuit. I was able to get it disassembled, but due to a misunderstanding on my part about how it was assembled, the driver was also killed in the process. However, I think I learned enough in the process to give others an idea how disassembly may successfully be done in the future.

I'll try to describe what I did, along with my errors, and offer some suggestions along the way. I received the light with the switch assembly already removed. The retaining ring for the switch cover is attached with three small screws which are easily removed. Once removed, you can desolder or cut the wires going from the switch PCB to the driver PCB. After this is done, you will see the heatsink and top of the lens over the LCD. This appears to be epoxied in place. This was where my personal adventure began.

To start with, let me explain my main error that killed the driver. Looking down the battery tube, it appeared to be a solid piece with just the positive contact in the middle. I hollowed the center of a dowel so I could apply pressure to the outer edges and drive the LED/PCB assembly out the switch end of the light. WRONG!!! What appeared to be a solid ring was actually just a cover over the SMD components on the driver board.



By applying force, I broke several off in my attempt to drive out the assembly, thus killing the driver. 



After getting no movement when applying force from the battery end, I applied force from the switch end. I knew I was in trouble when something tiny flew out the end of the battery tube as I turned it over. Unfortunately, it was lost in the carpet so I didn't see what it was. Oh well, no turning back now!

Applying force from the switch end did produce a little movement. The LED didn't budge, but I was expecting that since the covering lens protruded through the hole in the case. Since my goal was to eventually swap in a red LED, I was prepared to destroy the LED anyway. I was using a punch in the center of the heatsink to try to drive out the LED/PCB assembly. Since I was getting movement, I kept on going until the entire assembly was pushed out the end of the tube. The LED dome stayed in the light and the LED base was completely seperated from the driver board.


 

 


One good piece of news was that the potting compound was not hard epoxy but soft silicone. So I was able to remove it all without further disrupting the assembly so I could get an idea of how everything was assembled. The plastic lens appears to be premolded onto the LED itself. I could never get the metal ring of the Cree LED pulled out of the plastic lens even after digging out the LED die and dome remnants.


 

 

 


The hard plastic lens appears to be either cast or glued onto the LED itself. So any emitter swap will almost certainly have to skip reusing the hard plastic lens.

I think I understand how this was assembled and have some hints on how it may be disassembled. The driver PCB has the LED installed "on edge" with a couple stiff riser wires supporting the LED. This appears to be the first piece installed.


 

 


The riser wires not only provide electrical connections but allow the LED to be pushed in slightly to allow the dome to clear the edge of the recess and then pushed back out to insert the dome in the hole. The switch wires will feed through holes in the heatsink and the heatsink then appears to have been inserted behind the LED. This locks the LED in place and probably deforms the plastic dome slighly to form a water resistant seal between the dome and the body. Then the switch PCB appears to be installed on top of the heatsink and the switch wires soldered into place. The final step is putting on the switch cover and retaining ring.

To attempt a successful disassembly, the first step would be what JOJOBOS did, remove the switch PCB assembly. After that, the heatsink needs to be PULLED out the switch end. Straighten the switch wires so they will stay with the driver PCB and not get pulled out with the heatsink. A stiff hook of some type, like this ring that came with some bulbs I bought, needs to be inserted through the hole in the heatsink then hooked under the heatsink.


 

 


Care needs to be taken to avoid snagging the inductor on the driver PCB. This should allow the heatsink to be pulled out. I think the heatsink will pull off the top of the silicone potting compound. Once the heatsink is no longer behind the LED, it should be possible to push in the LED dome enough to clear the edge of the hole. Then the LED/PCB assembly should be able to be pushed out the battery tailcap end of the body. Once that's out, the potting compound can be pulled off exposing all the connections for modding possibilities. As mentioned earlier, if the LED is swapped out, the hard plastic dome is probably going to stay with the old LED, so it won't be able to be used to cover the new LED.



 

 



Well, my surgery was somewhat of a failure. But I hope this post helps others in their modding efforts. I may still manage to turn this into a direct drive red LED light for use with my telescope. *I want to also make sure to make a special thanks to JOJOBOS for sending me this light for free. It made my error in this case a less painful event than my past modding mishaps.* I think I'm going to have to pick up another H30 to make a second try at an emitter swap.

*UPDATED 3-7-09: Second patient survives surgery, see Post #40 for photos and details.*


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## gillestugan (Feb 5, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Nice pictures! Sorry for the broken driver, maybe the parts can be soldered back? They are usually quite tough.

I wonder what kind of lens they use. It looks similar to the Khatod PL111806 but i assume it is custom made.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 5, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Good work, man!

Now that we know what's in there, or more importantly, where, mods may now be possible.

This is not a failure at all! You didn't know what was in there, so permanent damage to the driver was probably unavoidable. Even the most experienced and knowledgeable modders would have to have gotten lucky not to damage the driver.

Yes!!!, I've got some WW XR-Es on the way.


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## jojobos (Feb 5, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Thank you Donshock for taking the time to put together a very informative post!

_
"A stiff hook of some type, like this ring that came with some bulbs I bought, needs to be inserted through the hole in the heatsink__ then hooked under the heatsink."_

I may add that the top of the heatsink (including the hole) was filled with grey rubbery adhesive. I just took a small screwdriver to scrap everything off. So if anyone can't see the hole, it will be underneath a layer of the rubbery stuff.


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## tnuckels (Feb 5, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

For some reason I see *Mr. Shock* in an old B&W movie, standing atop a hill as he tries to quiet the surrounding mob beneath him who are all armed with pitchforks and burning torches.

“It was all done in the name of SCIENCE!”

“burn ‘em, Burn ‘Em, BURN ‘EM!”


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Thanks to your courageous prep work, I was able to disassemble my H30 without any damage, not even the LED. 

XR-Es won't be here until Monday, so I won't be able to finish the job until then, but so far so good.

Hear is how to do it...

1. Remove screws, then the retaining ring.
2. Remove switch boot.
3. Pull up on the PC board that the switch is mounted to, just enough until you can snip the wires.
4. Remove excess goo.
5. Pull straight up on the heat sink. (I did this by running a tap into the extra hole in the heat sink, you only need a few rotations, just enough for it to grab firmly, then just pull up. It came right out without much force.)
6. Carefully remove any goo that is in the way of the emitter rocking backward.
7. With a small flat-head screwdriver or similar implement, push down on the driver board all the way on the opposite side of where the emitter is mounted. Try to get the tip of the screwdriver as far against the body as possible as not to damage any components mounted to the PC board. DO NOT TRY TO PUSH THE PC BOARD ALL THE WAY OUT AT THIS POINT. Just push enough to dislodge the PC board.
6. Push the LED inward, while applying downward pressure on the PC board as needed. LED should rock out of its seat and entire PC board should come out the bottom of the flashlight.
7. Carefully remove the rest of the goo.
8. Disassembled.

I don't know what to do about the lens either. I guess I'll have to figure something out.


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## Cuso (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

OH the horror!!! Poor Zebra....:devil:


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## russthetoolman (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

What sucks about this revelation is that I thought my ZebraLight was my only light safe from modding.....damn!!


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## DonShock (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



LLCoolBeans said:


> Thanks to your courageous prep work, I was able to disassemble my H30 without any damage, not even the LED. ......


That's great to hear! That was my main purpose in posting this thread, to save somebody else's H30 from the same fate. I'm proably going to order another H30 and some red crees next week.

Update on the lens dome: I was able to pry out the cree ring and lens from the protective dome. It is very similar to the Khatod lens posted by gillestugan, but is not the same. There does not appear to be a lens shape built into it, just a dome. And it is also smaller. It's a little difficult to get consistant measurements on it because the edges are damaged from the force used to get the parts out, but here's the closest I can get:

Overall diameter: 9.7 mm
Dome diameter: 8.4 mm
Overal height: 5.0 mm
Lip height: 1.5 mm
Inside recess diameter: 6.7 mm with a 6.8 mm step for the metal cree ring
Inside recess height: 4.0 mm


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 6, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

I was able to remove the dome lens without damaging either the emitter or the lens. I used a really super thin screwdriver bit to gently pry a little bit at a time working my way around the lens until it popped off.

All I need now is a warm white XR-E.


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## brucec (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

LLCoolBeans, you never cease to amaze. You think you could get a high CRI Nichia in there? That would be my dream H30.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



brucec said:


> LLCoolBeans, you never cease to amaze. You think you could get a high CRI Nichia in there? That would be my dream H30.



I'm reluctant to say it would be impossible, but that would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

SSC doesn't fit in the lens.

MC-E does fit in the lens, but the base of the MC-E is just a couple of hairs thicker than the XR-E, so without machining the heat sink or lens, the heat sink won't slide in behind the MC-E.

I'm also assuming the MC-E would generate more heat than the H30 can handle. It could be made to fit with only minor modification, though. So I'm tempted to try, just to see what happens. I have a 5A on hand, hmmm should I try it?

XR-E is really your best bet.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Kinda looks good in there.


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## brucec (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



LLCoolBeans said:


> I'm reluctant to say it would be impossible, but that would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.



Ah, I figured as much. And I'm guessing since the Nichia does not have a dome, it might sit a bit too far back even if it would fit. It's too bad because I think the drive current is probably pretty suitable to do the Nichia.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



brucec said:


> Ah, I figured as much. And I'm guessing since the Nichia does not have a dome, it might sit a bit too far back even if it would fit. It's too bad because I think the drive current is probably pretty suitable to do the Nichia.



Do you know if there is enough current to run the MC-E. I'm pretty good with flashlight mechanics, but my knowledge of electricity and electronics is pretty limited.


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## jzmtl (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

I don't think the stock driver push enough current to make a difference between xre and mce, unless you want to replace the driver too.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



jzmtl said:


> I don't think the stock driver push enough current to make a difference between xre and mce, unless you want to replace the driver too.



Oh, well, no big deal. I'll just wait till Monday for my XR-Es.


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## brucec (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



LLCoolBeans said:


> Do you know if there is enough current to run the MC-E. I'm pretty good with flashlight mechanics, but my knowledge of electricity and electronics is pretty limited.



The current would have been relatively easy to measure, BEFORE you disassembled your light.  Anyway, I did the standard tailcap measurement and I'm reading 475mA on high, 55mA on med, 15mA on low. The 475mA means about 400mA to the emitter, which would be a bit high for the Nichia to handle. On the bright side, since an MC-E is something like 320lumens at 350mA, that's a heck of a lot brighter than the XR-E while still maintaining the 2.5hr runtime. With the H30's flood beam, I would hate to be your caving partner if you were using a MC-E H30! Looking forward to your successful swap!


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## jzmtl (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



brucec said:


> On the bright side, since an MC-E is something like 320lumens at 350mA, that's a heck of a lot brighter than the XR-E while still maintaining the 2.5hr runtime.



Is that in parallel or serial? I recall mce is actually less efficient than xre q5.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

I thought an MC-E might be a good choice because of it's ultra-floody output.

So no one knows for sure if there would be any advantage to swapping with an MC-E?


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## jzmtl (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

I'm pretty sure to get 320 lumen at 350ma you would need to connect the dies in serial, which would require high vf that the driver probably cannot produce. I suppose you can put the lens on a mce and direct drive it with a 123a for a few seconds and see if you like the beam pattern.


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## jojobos (Feb 7, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Anything with a warm tint will be great! 
So, I would love to see XR-E 5A in there!


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



jojobos said:


> Anything with a warm tint will be great!
> So, I would love to see XR-E 5A in there!



Yea, I'm just going to wait. No sense wasting my last MC-E on this application. I've got plenty of other stuff to work on today.

Warm White XR-Es should be arriving tomorrow. I don't know what bins though, dealer just listed them as neutral and warm. I'm guessing neutral is 5A, but I have no idea what "warm" will end up being.


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## TravisLight (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

great post.. keep it up


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## HEY HEY ITS HENDO (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



jzmtl said:


> I'm pretty sure to get 320 lumen at 350ma you would need to connect the dies in serial, which would require high vf that the driver probably cannot produce


yes this is correct



> I'm reading 475mA on high, 55mA on med, 15mA on low. The 475mA means about 400mA to the emitter


so MC-E wired in parallel, each die would only see 100ma.


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## Ainsley (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



HEY HEY ITS HENDO said:


> yes this is correct
> 
> so MC-E wired in parallel, each die would only see 100ma.



I'd LOVE to get a Q3 5A emitter in my H30... I'll be waiting for the finished result and the results of the lens issue.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

XREs arrived today, hopefully I'll get time to work on it tonight.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Success!!!


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## Woods Walker (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Looks great! Wonder what the output is?


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



Woods Walker said:


> Looks great! Wonder what the output is?



I have no way to measure the output, but doesn't matter anyhow, it's *WAY* more useful now.


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## russthetoolman (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Awesome !!
Do tell if you were able to reuse the lens/ dome and how you did it!!
Thanks for posting it.
Russ


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



russthetoolman said:


> Do tell if you were able to reuse the lens/ dome and how you did it!!



Yep, the lens can be pried off of the emitter with a very thin screwdriver bit. It is a tightly fit to the emitter dome, but it can be removed without damaging the lens or the emitter if you are careful.

Reusing it is very simple, just squeeze it on to the new XR-E.


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## Woods Walker (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



LLCoolBeans said:


> I have no way to measure the output, but doesn't matter anyhow, it's *WAY* more useful now.


 
Yea warm tints rock in the woods.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



Woods Walker said:


> Yea warm tints rock in the woods.



Rocks anywhere.

People look like people, things look like things. No more ghost shadow world.


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## Edwood (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Wow. That is awesome. I really hate the purple tint of my H30. Can you post pics of your disassembly process if you mod another H30, LLCoolBeans?

I'd love to put a high CRI Nichia 083 in there but the max drive current is a little too high.


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## LLCoolBeans (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



Edwood said:


> Wow. That is awesome. I really hate the purple tint of my H30. Can you post pics of your disassembly process if you mod another H30, LLCoolBeans?



I should have done that, but when I disassembled it, I wasn't sure how it was going to go.

Yes, if I do it again, and I may, I'll fully photo document the process. All in all, this is not a difficult procedure, now that we know how to do it. 

I'll be happy to walk you through the process, if you need help. Let me know.


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## Woods Walker (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*



LLCoolBeans said:


> Rocks anywhere.
> 
> People look like people, things look like things. No more ghost shadow world.


 

Yea it is funny that there are so few warm tint headlamps as it seems to me that a warmer tint would work best. Maybe Zebra light will make one but will not hold my breath.


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## StandardBattery (Feb 14, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

:thumbsup: Great Job :thumbsup:


A Warm/Neutral 5A tint is probably the 1 thing that would really improve the Zebras. I'm actually hoping I never see one or I'll probably have to replace all 3 of my Z headlamps.

I must say I'm liking 5A in everything these days. Although, not that long ago I used the H60 while putting in a new car battery and I must say it was fantastic. Even though the light is quite large, it's not too heavy and since I had on a wool hat because it was COLD, I could not even feel the lamp attached. The illumination provided was absolutely amazing and perfect for working.


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## John_Galt (Feb 24, 2009)

*Re: Zebra H30: surgery was successful, but the patient died*

Very cool!
If I had the cash, I would probably buy the H50, and swap in a red led, for night tag at camp. Sweet mod.


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## DonShock (Mar 7, 2009)

*SECOND SURGERY WAS SUCCESSFUL!*

I went ahead and ordered a second H30 to give the modification another try now that I know what I'm dealing with. I took step by step pictures of the disassembly, but once I started the LED swap I was so eager to finish I didn't take another picture until it was completed and working.

Here's patient #2 prior to surgery 



Unscrew the retaining ring and remove the button cover 



Unsolder switch leads and remove switch PCB 



Straighten switch wires, clean off top of heatsink 



Used a drill bit, twisting with fingers only, to clear out hole in sink 



Tap inserted to use as handle to remove heatsink 



Heatsink freshly removed from the light 



Here's the reletive positioning of the heatsink 



Here's the back of the LED with the heatsink removed 



Push in on the dome to tip it back enough to clear the hole.

Light engine drops out battery end of the light body.

Here's the freshly removed light engine. 



Here's the light engine with the potting compound removed. 



The bottom of the light engine 


(I was able to determine that I just broke off a single surface mount resistor on the original light. I'll need to see if I can find and scavange a 302 off of something else that's broken.)

Dome pried off LED 



FYI: Heatsink reinstalled on light engine 



Here's where I got in a hurry and stopped taking pictures. I just unsoldered the LED from the riser posts and soldered on the red LED in it's place. I also replaced the switch wires. The insulation was damaged on the white switch wire and I figured some longer wires would ease reassembly. FYI: the ground path to the body is made by the underside of the switch PCB. Also, on reassembly I found the spacing on the switch button retaining ring is not even. You need to rotate it to get the holes to line up. Marking the ring for proper alignment prior to disassembly would have helped.

*And here's the patient, alive and well, with it's brand new red Cree XR-C.*



I had been a little worried if it would work due to the lower Vf of the red LED. It was a shot in the dark if the circuitry could compensate. But it seems to be working fine. And the reletive brightness of the low/med/hi seem about the same as the original white LED. Only time will tell if it will hold up as well as the unmodified lights.


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## LLCoolBeans (Mar 7, 2009)

Alright! Good work! Nice pictorial as well.


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## Barrie (Mar 8, 2009)

well done:thumbsup:


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## jdriller (Mar 8, 2009)

Wow!


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## John_Galt (Mar 9, 2009)

BEAMSHOTS!!! Good job, man.

This lends me to ask a total newb question... Are red high power LED's more efficient than white high power LED's? As in lumens/watt? Or is that only right for 5 mm LED's?


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## ambientmind (Mar 9, 2009)

woo hoo! good job! not being able to do emitter swaps was seriously holding me back from these...thanks for showing us how!


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## gunga (Mar 9, 2009)

Yes, now, has anyone done an H50?!


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## kevinm (Mar 10, 2009)

While you guys are taking stuff apart...you can direct drive an MC-E with a single lithium ion. That's how I have my Sgt Burkett set up. BRIGHT! So, who's feeling like setting his head on fire?:tinfoil:

Kevin


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## DonShock (Mar 12, 2009)

John_Galt said:


> BEAMSHOTS!!! ........


Here ya go:

Low 

 Med 

 High 



Light was placed 4 feet from wall.
Camera at about 8 feet and off to left side slightly. That's why the hot spot doesn't appear centered.
Camera adjusted to approximate color and brightness seen by eye.


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## Shorty66 (Mar 12, 2009)

Thats no hotspot, its a reflection.


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## Yoda4561 (Mar 12, 2009)

John_Galt said:


> BEAMSHOTS!!! Good job, man.
> 
> This lends me to ask a total newb question... Are red high power LED's more efficient than white high power LED's? As in lumens/watt? Or is that only right for 5 mm LED's?



Lumens/watt is deceptive for monochrome LEDs. The short answer is yes, red leds are far less efficient in lumens/watt than a similar white LED. Lumens are calibrated according to our eye's sensitivity, so an equivalent amount of red light will have fewer lumens than a lower amount of yellow/green/white light. Not quite sure how or why since I find *ed: red * LEDs to be extremely bright looking, maybe they constrict the pupil less than blue light? It's also why the brightest blue LED die (the foundation of a white LED) have higher lumen/watt with the white phosphor applied, even though it's certainly blocking some of the light coming off the blue die.


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## Shorty66 (Mar 13, 2009)

Well, there is an easy answer to the question of effiency:
The luminosity function.

Lumens are the same as steradiant by candela. 
Candelas depend on the wavelenght of light with the luminosity function.
That means, that a LED with a wavelanght of 555nm is the most energie efficient as seen in the black curve of this wikipedia image:








To get the efficiency of a red led, just get the value of the black curve at about 620nm wavelenght which should be around 0.5-0.6. That means, that a red LED is about half as efficient as a green one.

Now what to calcutlate for a white one?
You would have to know the spektrum of the white LED to accomplish this. White LEDs to not emmit light of only one wavelenght but several wavelenghts bacause there is no such thing as a white color. White is a mixture of all colors. To get a white LED we will have to emmit many different wavelenghts in succession. The reason why white LEDs are still more energy efficient than other light sources is, that only visible wavelenghts are emitted and certain wavelenghts are left out as they are not so badly needed to give the impression of white light.

As we do not know the spectrum of white LEDs (at least i dont), we have to believe the manufacturers rating in terms of efficiency.


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## gunga (Mar 16, 2009)

Hey Bean...

Did you have to re-add some potting compound on re-assembly? Is the light still water proof (ish) after the mod?


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## Daekar (Mar 16, 2009)

gunga said:


> Yes, now, has anyone done an H50?!


 
I attempted to, but the construction is such that, after you manage to break the threadlocker on the head, the only thing you're left with is a tube with one closed end and one with nothing but a flat PCB to work with. I used a very fine blade to scrape out the material between the housing and the PCB, but the only thing I succeeded in doing is breaking electrical contact between the PCB and the housing... I couldn't move the PCB because there was nothing to gain purchase with. I toyed with the idea of a solder-blob and wire to pull with, but something told me that was a bad idea. It turns out that a tiny bit of solder melted to seam between the PCB and housing fixed the contact problem I created, but I can't see further disassembly going well.  Here's hoping somebody will prove me wrong! :duh2:


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## LLCoolBeans (Mar 16, 2009)

Daekar said:


> I attempted to, but the construction is such that, after you manage to break the threadlocker on the head, the only thing you're left with is a tube with one closed end and one with nothing but a flat PCB to work with. I used a very fine blade to scrape out the material between the housing and the PCB, but the only thing I succeeded in doing is breaking electrical contact between the PCB and the housing... I couldn't move the PCB because there was nothing to gain purchase with. I toyed with the idea of a solder-blob and wire to pull with, but something told me that was a bad idea. It turns out that a tiny bit of solder melted to seam between the PCB and housing fixed the contact problem I created, but I can't see further disassembly going well.  Here's hoping somebody will prove me wrong! :duh2:



You can't push the PCB out the battery tube?


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## Daekar (Mar 17, 2009)

LLCoolBeans said:


> You can't push the PCB out the battery tube?


 
At that point of disassembly, the head is separate from the battery tube. I would have to _pull_ the board out, rather than push it.


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## gunga (Mar 17, 2009)

So bean... DId you have to repot the led in the H30 mod? Is it still waterproof?


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## LLCoolBeans (Mar 17, 2009)

gunga said:


> So bean... DId you have to repot the led in the H30 mod? Is it still waterproof?



It would be, but I have not yet found a silicone based thermal encapsulant to replace the stock gray goo, mostly because I've been busy and haven't been looking. If one were to replace the factory goo with such a product, it would be just as waterproof as before.


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## gunga (Mar 17, 2009)

So in your current mod, it is not re-potted.

Is there any kind of seal between the lense and the body? If not, I guess any mod would render the light a lot less waterproof if unpotted. Is this correct?


BTW, I still think that's a fantastic job on the mods.


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## LLCoolBeans (Mar 17, 2009)

gunga said:


> So in your current mod, it is not re-potted.
> 
> Is there any kind of seal between the lense and the body? If not, I guess any mod would render the light a lot less waterproof if unpotted. Is this correct



Sort of.

It wouldn't really need to be repotted, I'm sure you could get away with a little dab of silicone sealant around the lens before reassembly.

I just want to use the encapsulant to make it as close to stock as possible.


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## gprefix (Mar 30, 2009)

For what it is worth I asked Zebralights about the gray thermal compound and the possibility of modding H501 for red Cree. Here is the response:

-- begin --

The grey stuff is a Dow Corning two part thermal conductive material. It's not easy to handle other
than a production environment. You might try those thermanl stuff for computer CPUs. A Cree red
LED will work in an H30 circuit, but won't work in the H501 circuit. I don't know much about the
circuit but I was told by our engineers that they had to add something else to make a red LED work
in an H501. 

Best regards,

Lillian Xu
ZebraLight

-- end --


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## DaFABRICATA (Aug 7, 2009)

Nice Mod!

How did you get the potting compound out so cleanly?


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## DonShock (Aug 8, 2009)

The potting compound doesn't adhere to anything. So it's just a matter of using needle nose pliers and a pick to pull it off. It's fairly soft so it comes apart easily.


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## wapkil (Aug 8, 2009)

I think it may be interesting for some readers to note that ZebraLight now offers the H501 light with a red LED (H501R). A red H30 is not available though.


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## DaFABRICATA (Aug 15, 2009)

wapkil said:


> I think it may be interesting for some readers to note that ZebraLight now offers the H501 light with a red LED (H501R). A red H30 is not available though.


 


I just got an Raw with a Red/Orange LuxIII and its sweeet!!

I also have a red LuxIII on the way to me....so maybe..:thinking::naughty:

My H30 and H60W came in the mail today!

These will never leave my collection...instanty satisfied!

Now I have to get the balls to swap the emitter....:sweat:


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