If there are exposed driver wires under the bezel, perhaps you can tap the driver out from the front. For LED flashlights I typically use a narrow metal pick or a round wooden toothpick. Press it through a wire hole to the top of the driver, feel around to try to make sure the tip isn’t touching anything important, then lightly hammer the back of the pick with the side of a pliers. That’s usually enough to break any glue.
My biggest concern with replacing the driver is not getting the stock driver out. Rather it’s avoiding burning up the laser with a new driver. I don’t know enough about lasers to know what they can and cannot take.
I’m not so sure. The driver in the bottom of the head is not in a pill. It appears to be press-fit or glued in place.
There is what could be a small copper pill visible inside the top of the light. It could be a small pill holding the laser module, but not the driver. Or it might just a retaining ring holding an internal lens over the phosphor.
The LEP module is a cilinder that looks like threaded in place from the battery side. There is probably two wires coming out of the module that are soldered onto the driver, and the driver is then glued in place. To access the module you need to remove the driver. There is no holes from the front that can get you the option to poke with something. There are two small holes in the driver though, you may use that for prying but with the risk to ruin something on the driver.
while the Ant Man may be disappointing, it seems to be the best 14500 thrower for it’s size. All other 14500 throwers which outperform it have a bigger head. Hopefully Lumintop sells enough of the Ant Man to entice other manufacturers to produce more affordable LEPs.
But they were the first to do a really small LEP flashlight, and it works (although some better than others), and it turned out a better throwing flashlight than anything before in this size. Lumintop gets my credits for that.