My zebra had a quite bad tint from the beginning and today i finally had some time to change the LED. I also went from XHP35-HD to XHP35-HI to see how i like the little light with a bit more throw.
The most difficult part was to remove the press fitted bezel without breaking the glass. Fortunatelly that went really well:
On the first picture you can see a little solder on the screws, but that had little effect and the screws came out very easy.
The next part was to remove the LED and solder a new one from KD
For the soldering i used a cheap 858D hotair station.
After the swap I used a small vice to pressfit the retaining ring, and fortunately the light even came back on after the mod
And in case anyone is interested in how i opened the light, here is a picture of the tool
It’s a small wood-carving knife i picked up at the hardwarestore. You can’t really see it in the picture, but the tip is ground slightly convex. I could slip it under the retaining ring, move it around a little, and the light popped right open.
Now i just have to test how i like the light after the mod. If i can manage to take beamshots, i will post them here as well.