Got mine a couple of days ago; extremely well made and I love the beam pattern. I will use it for hiking in desert. I am looking forward to comparing it to my armytek wizard.
Man! Would I like to have a word with the inventor of threadlock. I finally got it open but it was not easy. Now it has an xpl and a current bump. Gives good throw. Nice light.
Tire inner tube is always a good approach, but don’t hold your pliers too tightly or there’s a risk to cut through it and scratch the anodization.
Use soft wood to hold the light in your vise.
Here is my method :
The tread lock is red and nasty. It took a lot to clean the threads after. I tried mek and isopropyl alcohol, but in the end I had to patiently scrape away at it trying to avoid scratching the threads.
I opened it by holding the head in my hobby vice lined with cardboard. I put a heat gun on the joint for a minute or two watching closely to avoid fading the finish. After heated I took an old leather belt, wrapped it around the tube like a strap wrench. Then I took some channel locks and gripped the belt from the side as closely to the tube as I could. I then used the top side of the channel locks as a lever pushing down against the belt as I pushed down on the channel locks. To do this I had to pry opposite of the normal prying direction of the wrench. Finally some force and it finally broke loose.
There were two R082 resistors in paralell. I added an R100 over the top. This increased the measured current from 2.4amps to 3.2amps. However, I never advise doing this as there could be negative effects or could ruin the driver.
Awesome!! no problem for the H03 cap being longer, that’s a good thing actually!
As you can see the H02 threads are a lot shorter than on most other lights… in the pictures you see H02 head and cap + Astrolux S1 short tube. I doubt the H03 tailcap would be long enough to cover the oring on the S1 tube but no problem for that, I have a spare tube that I’ve planned to mod for that purpose.
I believe the cap from the 03 will come very close to that oring. I can check later today. I have a short tube with h02 head as well. Right now I’m using that cap from a 503b and it covers up the oring. But no magnet.
Yes, the 503 b fits and covers the oring. I don’t care for the look though. I checked the 03 cap on the astrolux short tube and it goes up to about the center of the oring where you have it place. However, the oring can be moved to the slot right after the threads and the 03 cap completely covers the oring and it fits and looks nice.
No problem. I can’t give much more information though. I showed it to a friend and… Well, I have no more light. I do have another one. I will be trying to open that up soon. Hopefully I can repeat the results without collateral damage.