Tear Down (and upcoming mod) - Boruit RJ-02 Headlight (Pic Heavy)

Thanks for the pics. Always nice to see what’s inside.

You’re very welcome MG. I have a ton more close ups if anyone needs something specific. Otherwise, I think I will stop with what I have posted above.

Thanks Wheelr.

Been curious about it coming apart but didn’t want to render my only decent headlamp useless.

Looking with interest. :+1:

Thanks guys. Put in a little more tear down info in the OP. Not sure if anyone noticed, but this light has a real li-ion charge controller. Pretty awesome for a sub $10 headlamp.

Haven't had much time to mod, but did do some work yesterday. Will try to finish some night this week.

Converted emitter pad from XP footprint to XM footprint by cutting out some of the inner "+" and "-" pads and then scrapping off the solder resist where the XM-L2 pad will sit. Also, scrapped off the resist from the thermal pad trace that extends out from under the emitter. I will solder copper sheet to it to better move heat to the headlamp body. I know, the work a bit sloppy, but it doesn't matter for this light. I won't be pushing this headlamp beyond 2 to 3 amps.

I purposely moved the pads over towards the IR sensor because they were not centered stock (see below).

I forgot to round off the corners of the emitter so that the emitter would fit in the optic. So put some tape down to protect the MCPCB and filed the corners down.

After filing off the corners of the emitter, Kapton tape was added so that the copper sheeting to be added for heat sinking would not short on anything.

Then copper sheet was reflowed to the MCPCB. I just lapped the sheeting flat, but didn't sand down until all the depressions were good. Should be adequate for the intended max current.

A straight by pass of the current limiting resisters increased current to 5.x amps. Something started smoking within a few seconds. So I disconnected before getting a solid reading. I think the smoke was dirt on the emitter because there were black spots (that wiped off) on the dome after words. Gotta put some resistors back in there. Also added a spring by-pass to reduce resistance for longer run times.

Mods remaining:

  • Remove some material from the plastic battery tube insert to accommodate the increased thickness of the MCPCB.
  • Resistance mod the screw on tailcap.

This is an orsm mod . Hope it all ends well. :+1:

Nice work! I have the same light. I only want to change the led to XP-L

Great job waiting for the resistors to change and what improvement in lumens it will show.

I totally agree with you memory with the ir sensor would be amazing instead of always turn on in high.

Thanks for sharing your mod

Thanks guys. Sorry for dragging my feet on this one. Life is getting in the way quite a bit lately. Hopefully, I can finish the mod post (#6 above) this week.

You don’t have to open the light up to swap in an XP-L. A good XP-L will about double your output. You do have to have a hot air gun and know how to reflow an emitter though. Here’s how:

  • Just remove the, plastic battery tube holder, unscrew the bezel and and remove the optic.
  • Then just slightly push the LED’s MCPCB so that the body doesn’t absorb so much heat.
  • Then just heat up the small area around the emitter to remove it and reflow on your new emitter.
  • Reassemble.

See this post for a little more info:

do you have any new info about the parts inside ??? there are still a few parts unidentified right ….

Thanks for the tear down ImA4Wheelr. I managed with your help to fix one of these with a dicky switch. :+1:

Thanks for the pics, info, and inspiration.
Ashamed to say that after probably 100 emitter swaps I’ve never used the hot air attachment on my butane torch, used it tonight and it worked perfectly! I normally just heat the board up from underneath with corded soldering iron. I used your method of slightly pulling away the board, (wedged it 1/8” out with a shim).
To get the most out of those heat sink fins around the optics I’m gonna try to squeeze some thermal paste onto the board under the circular area of contact around the emitter.

It’s a pity the IR mode doesn’t echo the last used level but that won’t ruin the feature for me.
At work my hands are often covered in coolant, oil, and filth which makes me hesitant to turn on/off headlamps, this will be great when working on broken machines and such. ON/OFF with a wave of my hand!
It’s a harsh environment for nice electronics so I won’t feel so bad if this light eventually succumbs to the torture, at this price I ordered a spare.
Thanks again!

Thank you for the kind words and welcome to BLF bansuri. You're talented. I tried to use a butane torch to reflow once. It wasn't pretty. I will need to google the hot air attachment you mentioned.

I like the lamp for the same reason. My favorite for doing dirty work like automotive repairs, etc. Congrats on the successful mod. What emitter did you swap in?

I had a neutral XP-Something that was pulled from something else.
Had to really dial the heat back on the torch, it will bubble the dome. Did a test on a board with a different emitter to get a feel for it. Doesn’t take much.
Aimed the heat off to the side but not at the light body. I’ve never really used it but now I can’t wait to do it again! May squeeze the opening shut slightly to allow for more precise application of heat.
It’s just a little butane soldering iron with torch and heat attachments, got off ebay second-hand.
I used the 70-01-52 attachment in the pic. I had also previously made an internal adjustment on the adjustable gas control to allow it to reach lower temps. If you remember the old Bic lighters that had an adjustable flame, it has a lever that rotates to reduce the flame like they had.
Squeezed in a little thermal paste around the circular contact point around the emitter, put some DCfix tape on the lens and it’s ready for work.

i’m well into the “long range” test of this headlamp? easily one of my favorite lights.

i was afraid to really try to get it open, cos until i get a spare? i do NOT wanna risk hurting one of my favorites.

i was at first put off slightly by the fact the on/off IR is only “hi mode”? But, after using it a few days… i realized that just like you reported its hard to “catch” the absolute lowest setting on ramping? its equally impossible to try to catch the HIGHEST output either…

so… IR on/off is my best way to know i am using “max” if i want to see across the yard…

you get pretty used to “catching” the LO-est mode, or close enough it’ll run forever… i have used it for HOURS on LO mode, and its great.

i think i am in the “camp” of just wanting to swap emitters. maybe a HAIR higher output? but… its no deal breaker… its actually useful power as it is. This light is an actual useful TOOL for me, and i use it a lot. Its not a TOY i want to white wall hunt and show off the 10 minute run time, lol… I mean, i just dont need this thing to eat an apple and sh!t a fruit salad, I just need it to “be a light” for me.

starting to think a NICHIA hi-cri maybe makes sense… raw power is not needed for my applications. If i want THAT, i would buy one of the many “star wars” head lights out there, with multiple battery packs and multiple emitter heads, lol, and make a “high power toy” out of that…

Hi sedstar,

Swapping in a good XPL should about double your lumens over the stock generic Chinese emitter. It will also make the lamp run cooler due to higher efficiency. It will change your beam pattern though. The stock emitter is large and gives a nice floody smooth beam. The XPL is smaller and will narrow and take some of the smoothness out of the beam. I actually bought another headlamp that I keep stock for the floodier (and nice neutral tint) beam. I use the modded lamp for moving around outside.

Nice info. I have a couple butane solder irons that are really great for when I need to work out in the rain or when I just don’t want to bother running an extension cord to out to where I’m working on something. I think I will order one of those hot air attachments and mod of of my butane irons to run lower like you mention. Thank you for learning me some stuff today. :slight_smile:

Received 2 of these lights. Pretty nice for the price point. Output was a nice crisp cool white on both (thought someone posted they were neutral white). Stock output measures 1.25A on one, 1.29A on the other but the amps continue to slowly rise. Rear cap on one came off without tools easily, the other took some negotiating with a flat tip screwdriver.

Modded one to a 4000k XP-G3 emitter. Wasn’t easy to change out the emitter with a soldering iron! Destroyed the original getting it off and struggled to get the new one seated properly without the pads shorted underneath. TIP - scrape the traces wider & longer so you have a location to apply the iron. I tried from below, but couldn’t get solder to melt on top; finally just worked from the top (i.e. the front).

I also tested using a 30x60 elliptical optic from LEDDNA which looks like it’s going to work nicely. I had to trim feet off the optic and I’m going to need to watch screwing the bezel on pushing the emitter board away. I’ve not reassembled yet. I think this may replace my mule headlamp as my goto headlamp! And since I still have one in stock form I may take lumen measurements on before & after.

-Garry

Sounds like a nice mod gb. Any chance of some before and after night shots? :slight_smile:

Maybe. Depends on if I feel like it :slight_smile: . Being a floody headlamp there isn’t a lot to showoff in beamshots.

I might post some pics of the mod too.

-Garry

Think you were the one who pointed me at it. Now got 4… or is it 6? Gave a couple away, really handy!

Seems to be a linear ramping, not logarithmic. So big changes at its brightest look like little to no change to the eye. Conversely, small changes at the low end look rather huge (and fast!), so yeah, it’s hard to catch it at its lowest. Takes me a few ramps up’n’down to get close.

When we got the last big batch o’ snow, it was only a few inches up front, it seemed, but I got a big drift blown right up against the back door almost a foot high, which quickly turned to ice. Door opens outward, so it was completely unopenable. Gates to the backyard were similarly frozen in place, so had to go out the side door, sliiiiiide down the ice, chip away the ice on the stairs to get up the patio, slide on top of the igloo that formed on the patio, then chop away at the igloo to be able to open the door.

At night.

So even on its near-lowest setting, the good ol’ Boruit let me hack away at the ice for the better part of an hour with both hands, with plenty of light even on low, and I was in no danger of even remotely running low on juice even though I’ve been using it around the house forever on pretty much its first and only charge.

Funny thing is, I’m running an LG pull from an almost unused power-pack (digital display went wonky, so of course cracked it open to salvage the innards), so it’s not even a panny-B or 30Q or anything fancy.