I tried to open my Olight X7R to swap the emitter with the sweet 80 CRI 4000K XHP70 that I bought from kiriba-ru… and failed
I’’ve already opened quite easily both of my X7, the bezel is simply screwed on, and you only need to press it against some rubber sheet and twist to open it… but that didn’t worked with the X7R 
I put the rubber flat on the floor, pressed the bezel against it, put nearly all my weight on the tail with my left hand and turned anti-clockwise with the right hand… no success.
I’m stuck there, with a monster flooder and nice emitters to put in :cry:
possible the X7R is glued
heat helps, but on such a big light it is not easy to heat up all of the bezel to 120°C
I tried running it on Turbo mode for some time but it never reached enough heat to soften an eventual glue… no success
I don’t want to ruin the U-ring that keep the glass in place by heating it too much
With such a big diameter, if it’s really glued I will need some big torque to break it !
You can try to put it in the freezer for some time first. Doesn’t soften the glue but the shrinking and extending could help.
Let’s not waste chicken sacrifice, let’s thank him for this fine pencil beam shots :sunglasses:
I modded two new P60 drop-in's today. 4xSST-40's FET drivers. Just luck that these old sinkpads happen to work perfectly, the quad lenses I had on hand fit just right over top of them. I did one with a "perfect" de-dome and one with the slice technique. The bottom pic is the drop-in installed in a 502b with the attack bezel filed down and sanded smooth. On the "perfect" de-dome I wanted it cooler so I actually took the corner of a razor blade and scratched off a tiny bit of the yellow coating on the emitters, it's now very cool white. I wouldn't do this with a single emitter light, but with these multi-emitters it works nice because it all blends together. Just a little bit though or you end up with a very nice royal blue emitter. Just scratch one little spot and lightly at that. Yep, it gets hot fast on turbo but on high it's still very bright and can be run for a good long time. the copper ring is from a 3/4 inch copper pipe cut into about a 3/4 inch piece with a pipe cutter. I then squished the end a little bit in my vice and it actually threads onto the pill perfectly. I used a small round file to file the holes in the pipe and disc before putting the pieces together with good thermal epoxy.
Interesting. I just swapped out the sliced SST-40 in my D1 for an XP-L2 V6 1C. I’m seeing 2387.4 lumens from the little D1 now.
Those SST40’s can really pull some amperage, I tested one in my thrower that made 8.82A at the tail from a 26650, 2397 lumens. They gobble up a cell really well! lol
Edit: Checked the amperage on this single XP-L2 on a 20700A and it’s pulling 9.51A!!!
Are you slicing SST-40 when it’s warm/hot or you shave cold dome?
8.82 amps, Wow.
Yeah, that will eat up the batteries all right. But for 2400 lumens it’s kinda worth it. I have no idea how many lumens these P60’s are putting out. Pretty bright though. Brighter than a lot of the SRK’s I’ve seen.
“Are you slicing SST-40 when it’s warm/hot or you shave cold dome?”
These I did with them cold, and then (after the pic) took some sand paper to them and took them down further and finished them off with some super fine grit to really smooth them out. I actually like the soaking method better but I thought I’d give this a try just to see what difference it would make. And honestly, to the naked eye, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference, except the “perfect” ones are cooler now after taking a little phosphorus off of them. If I had to keep one and only one I’d keep the one done with the “perfect” de-dome.
The SST-40 is problematic on de-doming, so I’m told. Tend to take the bond wires with them when the dome comes off the phosphor. I cold sliced mine in a jig I made, honed a scalpel to a mirror finish to reduce marking in the silicone and then applied silicone o-ring grease so it’d slide through easier without binding. The slice is so clear it’s difficult to tell there’s silicone left.
When I tested the SST-40 in my thrower it was with a 6000mAh 32650, my D1 is using a 3100mAh 20700. Single cell in either case.
I have no problem de-doming them now but it was a process figuring it out. I put them in a jar with the Toluene and soak it in almost boiling water. It takes about a half hour or so, any longer and it will kill some of them.
It’s good to know how to do the slice tech too because sometimes it’s a better application. Like on this one, I was worried I’d hit the bond wire with the lens. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that.) Thanks for the tip on the silicone grease I’ll give that a try next time I do them.
Here’s a shot of the sliced SST-40, far left, and a couple of XM-L2’s, the middle one is hot de-domed and the far right is chemical de-domed.
Nice!!
Anyone know how to get inside this, to access the LED / Reflector, etc? It has a XP-G3 in it, and smooth refector. Large end doesn’t appear to be threaded on.
looks like press fit
So, cold slicing for SST-40, thanks guys, I will give it a try, I am not satisfied with my hot liquid dedome results.
DBC, I think you are using too much flux! There is too much gunk on and around the emitter for my taste.
When reflowing I am only using solder paste, after that I clean the led with 96% alcohol, that I do hot chemical dedome process,
when it’s done one more time alcohol bath, then distilled water bath, compressed air to blow off tiny droplets. Thats my workflow.
I don’t use flux at all. Kester solder paste. All of those emitters have been in and out of different lights, especially the middle one, it’s several years old and has seen a lot of abuse. I didn’t see any point in cleaning up anything before they get installed in the next project where they’ll get dirtied up again. For the record, the XM-L2 on the far right was not my doing. It accidentally got left in some serious chemicals for a couple of months prior to being sent to me. 
Ah, that explains a thing or two. 
I use a Q-Tip saturated with denatured alcohol to clean the star before dropping in the reflector. (and the dome too, by the way)
Edit: That emitter with the darkened substrate on the far right was sent to me as a Luminus SST-40. I took this pic to show that it was indeed an Cree XM-L2 emitter, based on the substrate style, the markings, and the dots on the phosphor all being different. I sliced the SST-40 specifically to show the substrate more clearly, then tried it in my latest build. The output was great, but throw was down significantly and this light is all about throw, so the 40 came back out. It’s been tested in 3 other lights now, and for various reason’s it’s back on the bench.