I’ve got my hands on a Nitecore EC25W Cobra with a defect switch and would like to open it up to replace the LED and mod it with one of my own drivers. I’ve done a little searching on it and I can find anyone who has. Closet I’ve found is that the head is probably glued.
Some violence is OK, I only paid for shipping costs, but I’d hate to ruin the host as it’s a nice one. Any tips before I bring out the drill?
If you are handy enough, you can try all the tricks like boiling it for 10 min in a zip bag. wrap it with leather and use big pliers.
I did not even try these myself because I cannot mod it even if I opened it.
I was looking for someone who can mod it most than one year ago. Vinh on CPF said he could change emitter for me. But I called it off.
I was able to get it apart by the hardest—I placed it bezel down and repeatedly sprayed kroil around the joint—you can see it closest to the switch—after about a day I mounted it bezel side up in my vise with wood lining the jaws- finally heated it with my heat gun slightly —strap wrench took it right apart—heat might have done it alone
Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a go, first with just heat. Just to be sure, the joint in question is the one between the EC25W Cobra label and the switch?
Yep that’s it—be careful if using a heat gun—if you heat it too much the Ano will change color
Thanks for the tips. I was probably a bit to eager, didn’t heat enough and used insufficient protection for the pliers. It’s scraped, but it’s open.
how bad did you scrape it—I have one with a bad driver
Let’s just say enough to not want to post a photo 0:)
I had to use a great deal of force and used the wrong choice of protection between the light and pliers. I should have tried more heat before more force, but the scrapes are not so deep so a little water resistant black marker will be OK. I’m not too picky about these things because the lights I build get put to use in dirty environments.