Armytek Prime C2 (v3) XP-L emitter swap - who has done it?







Sorry guys, I couldn’t find the Bear :slight_smile:

Indeed “premium” :wink:
The difference in hotspot size does seem noticeable though…

Couldn’t resist not to add “premium” label next to the original “premium” branding. Why AT uses premium word for such a greenium stuff?

- Clemence

Anyone mod a wizard or tiara? Similar construction?

In the russian fonarevka forum somebody opened his Wizard (XM-L2). I think the PCB was just screwed down. It’s a little bit more difficult because the bezel ist press fit instead of screwed. You need to pry it up.

Ask Dale here in BLF. He managed to pry open his Wizard. Link: TEST: Armytek Wizard Pro XPL HD Warm - How HOT Can It Be? - #6 by DB_Custom
The trick is how to remove the fit pressed bezel. Some suggest to freeze it, while I prefer to heat it up to 200C.

I could NOT get my tiara C1 open. Even cut grooves in the bezel to turn with a steel ruler (too bendy) or force it with a hammer and screw driver and got nowhere. The ring might be press fit or shrunk fit? (where it is freezed and after heating up, expands tightly into place.)

Oh. That sucks. I’m wary of their xpl neutral. I’ve seen some pretty green neutral XPL,…

To my understanding, heating expand most materials, and vice versa. With freezing as suggested by some member, you’ll only get it shrunk tighter. Al. has higher thermal expansion coefficient than SS (the bezel). Al. will also shrunk more than SS in cold. So heating is the way to go. The ideal case is to heat it up to a point where there’s no interference fit between aluminum and stainless - the bezel should fall off the headlamp. But….
Even though that most SMD should withstand leadfree soldering up to 260C for 30seconds (At least you know you’ll not ruin the components at that elevated temp), not many manufacturer use leadfree, you could make all the components fall off the board by heating up to 260C. Armytek seems to use 63/37 solder judging on the temp I used to de-solder the emitter (180C).
The PMMA optics used also rated only 120C. The red locktite will soften at 140C. The O-rings, button, and epoxy/silicone potting compound will probably much less than that.
100C is the safe side if you want to heat it without destroying all those low temp parts. Otherwise use your heat gun set to 250C.

I plan to make a contraption especially just to remove the bezel from all those press fitted flashlights. Once we get a good grip on it, adding more heat should make things easier.

- Clemence

No girls are pretty when they’re green :stuck_out_tongue:

Was yours neutral?

Edit: just saw that it was green. I mean cool.

I modded my WGW Prime. It was good ONLY in turbo mode. Lower modes = more green.
I never really use the CGW, too harsh to the eye for most uses. Also gives you eerie horror movie feeling if used in the foggy woods.

Edit: WGW = Warm Green White; CGW = Cool Green White

Before modded:

I use EXACTLY the same emitter tested/pictured here:

Any one tried the tiara c1 warm xml2 high cri? I don’t trust the warm xpl they use.

I have the Wizard v1 with the high-cri XM-L2. If you like the light from household halogen lights, you will like this LED. Is is basically identical (including the pronounced yellow tint). I used to really like it, but some of the better Nichia and Osram (and Yuji) LEDs have slowly changed my opinion. This doesn’t mean that it is bad, but there are definitely nicer LEDs these days. Two years ago it was basically the only 90CRI headlamp on the market.

Well, we tried, but we managed to kill the driver in the process. One of the parts got mechanically damaged and we can’t tell what is written on it because the potting covers the top. I will probably contact Armytek and try to get a replacement.

Hi Driver,

Have you succeeded? I’ve done several more mods with success (only minor scratches on the PCB). Once you get it, it’s fairly easy. I got 6 more modification orders for Tiaras and Primes. Still waiting for the stuff to arrive.

- Clemence

No, we killed the driver while trying to get it out (we had to because the LEDs leads were destroyed). Only the low modes still work. My modder didn’t have time the past few months. Maybe he will do it soon.

Ouch!

OK, this is my 3rd modified Prime Pro:

I'm getting much better and only made minor scratches to the MCPCB and the LED shelf.

Installed a 219C sm503 R9050. I got lucky this time, no visible green cast (to my eyes)

Left most side: OEM TIR optics + AR coated glass lens

I really like this Prime for it's interchangeable TIRs. Next to OEM TIR are the generic MIC 15°, 45°, and 60° TIR optics bought from Ebay/Aliexpress (I forget which) for about USD 1/pc. The protective glass lens can't be used anymore with the generic TIRs, but who cares.

When you buy generic TIR lenses like these from Ebay/Aliexpress, take the labels with a grain of salts. I find the degrees are not consistent with the beam shot results.

Undamaged cables, clean removal of the rivets, some nicks at the shelf. No biggies...

This time I was too lazy to coat the internal with white reflective paint, I put rolled 100 g/m2 photo copy paper instead.

You will see later that this simple paper trick works like a champ!

The paper trick is enough to make the lowest firefly mode unusable for some nocturnal. Pictures below were taken using the brightest 3rd firefly mode with the same exposure setting.

The 15° optics is my favourite. Much better than the OEM. Wide hot spot with minimal spill.

Perfect fit and best of all...still water tight

- Clemence