I’m really tempted to attempt a mod on an older Zebralight, but I’d like to hear from others who’ve gone before, if you’re out there. I know the stainless rings around the bezel and switch are just pressed in, but how do you even start at getting them back out? I tried feeling around with a tiny precision flat-blade screwdriver but I couldn’t get any traction. Likewise with a small pick. I can’t even feel a gap with a needle. Should I just lay something in place and smack it? Sacrifice the glass if that’s what it comes to?
Any guidance?
At this point all I really want to do is an emitter swap. Pull out this old XP-G and drop a 219c in its place. Should be doable if I can only get in there…
Well that’s an interesting idea. It is two different metals — a steel ring in an aluminum housing. Maybe the properties of the two mean that one would contract more than the other?
I’ve done it by sliding a sharpened flat precision screw driver between the glass and stainless ring. If you press down on the glass, it should help get the tool in as the o ring compresses a bit. Then go around a repeat until you get it out.
Do the same for the switch ring after, but if I remember correctly, it took more force to get it out. This was on a ZL SC600MiiL2
I’d suggest you first try to remove the switch ring, then you’ll access to the inside and you should be able to pop the lens out without braking it.
If it’s an old Zebralight, you’ll probably see some screws inside, and the led will probably be on a separate star (not soldered amongst driver component). Good luck, and don’t forget to post pics!
(at the Rover factory, liners in the cylinders (steel) were put cold on a hot engine block (aluminum), then the block was cooled, the liners were stuck in place. Well that’s the theory because that didn’t go that well for the Rover engine, but that was good enough in the 60-70’s!)
I have a SC600 that I been wanting to replace the XM-L for an XM-L2 but I think mine has the driver and Led on the same board, is there a way to replace it without damaging the driver? Does ZL offer a replacement board with updated led if I send it in? just wondering…
Is it feasible to pop out the retaining ring for the switch and reseat the rubber cover without any serious cosmetic damage? On my SC600w HI the rubber cover has loosened and now domes over the switch, making it feel really mushy. I use it every day and don’t want to wait months and play the ZL tint lottery, so if I can improve it myself I’d love to give it a shot.
Since this thread is still getting some interest I thought I’d post a short update. I tried going at the switch bezel with a pick but I couldn’t get it to move, and I was afraid I was about to tear the boot. So I froze the light as was recommended, just using my household freezer. It really did seem to help loosen up the bezel. Unfortunately it also made the glass very brittle, so I wound up cracking the lens. If anyone is interested, here’s what it looks like down in the head of an old SC80:
Looks like a pretty simple emitter swap from here. Maybe a bit tight down in there, but doable. And I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with some of that wiring, but I don’t have to understand it to put it back like it was. I’ll tackle it one night next week. Now I’ve gotta source a new lens though. flashlightlens.com doesn’t have anything exactly the right thickness (1.2mm) but hopefully something there will be close enough.
Thanks for all the input guys. I think the freezing trick definitely helped, and it’ll help with reassembly even more since I can freeze just the ring and not the body, too.
I’ve never had much luck swapping LEDs in place. Wish I could justify buying one of those nice “tweezer” soldering/rework stations but I don’t have that. So I’ll remove the board and reflow it.
So I actually performed the emitter transplant tonight. I unsoldered all that mass of wiring and removed the mcpcb. I was kinda surprised to see no sign of thermal compound under there. Its even fully anodized:
Terrible thermal control there, but I guess this little light isn’t driven hard enough to need it? Not sure, but its at least getting some thermal compound before I put it back.
My first swap was with one of my new 90 CRI 219c’s. Turns out the Zebralight driver doesn’t like it at all. The light comes on in sort of a medium mode, with some flicker. Any sort of switch holding or double-clicking causes the emitter to pulse a little, but not actually change. I can only assume the low Vf of the 219c is messing something up, but I don’t know enough about the electronics to say for sure.
So I pulled it again, this time swapping in a 219b:
This one works great! Its not as bright as the 219c would’ve been, but that’s okay. I love 219b’s anyway, and so does this Zebralight apparently. It’s alive!
Its also still disassembled, because my fasttech lens order hasn’t arrived yet. But the hard part is done!
PS: Sorry for the bad photography. All I had handy was my cell phone.
I had a batch of Luxeon rebel that flickered when powered with moderate-high power (and of course in the flashlight grr), but was fine at low current. Turned out they were not correctly reflowed, maybe that was just the case for you? Don’t know, just a suggestion
(after all, doesn’t this beautiful SC80 deserve the current state of the art high CRI emitter?)
so good luck
