Quite some time ago when I discovered the world of power leds I wandered why Petzl hasn't made any mod for their duo like they made their "moduleds" 3, 5, 8 and 14. So i decided I give it a try.
Duo with default halogen buld and moduled 14
I got a kit from ebay with Q5 led, 15deg lens and a driver suitable for 4AA. I was pleased with the output and. It took several itterations and my first duo is now just an empty shell. But I learned what can be done and my next goal was to make an upgrade that didn't require any irreversible modification to the innards plus I wanted it to preserve the original look of duo. And this is how it came out.
V1: Halogen bulb replaced with Cree Q5 and 15deg lens.
Iwas pleased with performance and looks of it but not with instalation as it required cutting of reflector. I think I made a dozen of this mods to my fellow cavers. As time went by I realised that I need to make an upgrade that really didn't requre any modding of original duo or it's parts. Also lens supply was unreliable. I could no longer get the lenses with narrow soft hotspot and some lenses didn't even fit on Q5 led. I figured out how to fit the white lens from DX, ditched the reflector and came out with this
V2: Halogen bulb replaced with Cree Q5 and 10deg lens. Reflector replaced with plastic cover.
It's a tight fit. I had to cut the lens housing but I could keep the aluminum cooling fin that Q5 is mounted on.
As I realised that some cavers still have their duos with both bulbs I started making a full face mod.
Duo full face mod with Cree XPG R5 and Ledil lens.
In V1 and V2 I used single mode 900ma driver from DX. In full face I used two 5 mode drivers that provide 1A each. For obvious reasons (4AA) Id rather use 350-450mA driver for flood so i teamed up with a friend of mine that was once making 5x5mm led modules as a cheaper alternative of moduled 14. Well se how it goes.
Great idea! I kind of wish I had a bunch of people to mod lights for :-( bo-hoo
Just kidding.
But a really nice idea. I like the last one especially. That "naked" xpg - how is that flood light you get? Do you have a picture or can you try to describe it in words?
Thanks for sharing by the way. I forgot to say that because I was busy writing questions.
The bare xpg flood is actually pretty good but the bezel casts too sharp shadows for my taste plus there seems to be color artifacts near the edge. So I put some scotch tape on the inside and a cheap plastic DX lens on the outside. I used a thick two sided tape that is translucent and glues like hell but can still be removed without a trace.
Now the light has uniform color and slight forward bias. The bezel shadows are very soft and I can see them in the corner of my eye only if I stand by a white wall.
Nice modding. I own a Petzl Tikka XP and thought about modding it.. but it only delivers about 0.08 amps to the LED, so swapping the LED wouldnt make much sense.
