Oh boy, where can I start… This is/was a scary mod - it’s difficult taking on a mod job on a light you’ve never done before, and it’s not yours! It’s someone else’s pride and joy, and their investment, oh - and it’s the biggest, most expensive light you’ve ever worked on, and also, your first multi-emitter upgrade you ever did — no problem . So what do you do?
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the plan - only doing an emitter upgrade, that’s it. Well, upgrade the wires to something heavier, better, and XM-L2 U2’s on SinkPAD’s. Word is the thicker, bigger stars should fit fine. Take pics along the way - the pics, as it turns out, will be your reference (but I never take enough pics! Always forget).
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Tear It Apart! Well, the driver assembly unscrews - bad thing - you’ll have twisted wires (remember this later). So, it comes apart easy, 1 phillips heard screw in there to hold down that massive reflector, take the screw out, unscrew the bezel (real nice threading by the way on the bezel), pull out the massive, heavy reflector (did I mention the reflector is heavy? Again, remember this for later!!), unscrew the collar that surrounds the reflector to get better access to the LED’s
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Desolder the emitter wires - funny, why are the main wires from the driver thinner than the short wires between emitters? (think I found out why - twisting heavy wires doesn’t work well)
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pop off the epoxied 16mm stars - left some scratches, but surface will be sanded/polished anyway later, though should have been more careful
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Now sand/polish the pill top to 2500 grit, nice and smooth
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re-flow the XM-L2 U2’s onto to the SinkPAD - old frying pan method, works great again, test those reflows - looks good!
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sand/polish the SinkPAD’s to 2500 grit
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Plan on mounting the emitters - I believe AS5 is the best way to go, not epoxy. So, after they are wired, you can freely position/align them. And that super heavy weight of the reflector that’s screwed down with one center screw will firmly hold them, maximizing contact for thermal xfer. Will there be twisting pressure, putting the wires at risk? HHmm, maybe? So use epoxy on the outer edges of the stars to help locking them in to position.
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Position the stars by using the reflector, and mark the positions - perm. marker on the actual pill top. This doesn’t have to be precise because these will be on AS5 later, and will be moveable to a certain extent.
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All the above was the easy part, now comes the wiring… Plan originally was teflon coated 20 gauge, so soldered to the driver (oh - detailed pics of the driver showed me where to solder!!). I was thinking I could avoid wire twists by using the driver wired, screw the driver in, the after, solder the wires to the stars — No, stupid, that won’t work, because the driver has to be out in order to get to the screw that locks down the reflector! Ok - twist the wire then - No! Teflon coated, silver tinned wire doesn’t twist well, pretty much not at all -this won’t work. So, delay the job while ordering silicone 20 gauge and 22 gauge wire (use 22 gauge if 20 gauge doesn’t work out).
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20 gauge silicone is in - de-solder the teflon wire, solder in the silicone wire - use kapton tape to wrap the red and black wires close to the driver as a strain relief because of the twisting pressure on the actual solder connections.
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So all set, leave enough slack so the driver can be pulled out enough to get to the screw, set the stars in the AS5 in the marked positions, cut/solder wires intereconnecting the stars (use your pics as reference again!), then solder the 2 main wires. Ok - this soldering is not so easy - you are working vertically down, into the pill top, and for some reason, it wasn’t easy to get good solder connections - maybe it’s this new wire, not sure.
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Now all soldered, but you need to protect the + and - solder points because the bottom of the reflector is flat and will ground the wire connections. Now I chose to use kapton tape here. Also I re-used the XML alignment rings, but they don’t elevate the reflector much off the star, so the kapton tape does it’s thing. Unfortunately I don’t have any of those XML isolation glue-backed rings that are built for 20mm stars, only for 16 mm stars. Do they even make them?
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So now you are set to screw down the reflector, then do several CCW twists of the driver in order to CW screw it in, so maybe twists aren’t too bad.
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All done? no - assemble the bezel and collar around the reflector — ooops, something is wrong! I secured the reflector, but it’s impossible to get the collar down around it! Crap - the collar has to go on first before the reflector, duh. So, take it all apart, now screw on the collar, and now drop in the heavy reflector — wait, this thing is damn heavy and I got nothing to hold on to - I gotta let this 5 lb hunk of aluminum drop like a 1/4” onto the emitters? Well, let it drop carefully, and precisely. Did I mention this now $150 plus light is not mine? Well if I could put my greasy fingers into the reflectors, no problem. No - not an option, so, let her drop!! I did, and it seemd to work - positioned it, screwed it down, CCW’ed the driver before screwing it in. Now, easily screwed on the bezel with the glass (AR in this case).
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Fired it up - wholla, let there be light, and a whole lotta light!
If you suspect the 20mm SinkPAD thickness may be an issue, I dont’ see it - the reflector may be raised somewhat, but there are so many threads on that bezel, and the way it seats, I don’t see anything noticeable. I really like all the threaded connections on the Shocker - seems to be quality and lots of threads.
HHmm, did I mention the reflector is slighty over-weight? I really can’t understand why - don’t see how it could be used for heat sinking…
PS: I’m sure I left out some details (and mistakes) either forgetting or too embarassed to admit .