I ordered a couple the first day Hank put them up on his site. He also had B grade Balder SE2, but they're no longer listed.
I think these were the new XinTDs with the soldered Noctigons that people were complaining about because they were off center.
For $15 it seemed like a good deal. I had to think about how to place an order before I figured it out.
http://intl-outdoor.com/b-grade-product-sell-and-stock-clearance-p-802.html
I’ve got 4 on the way. I’ll be modding them with blf17dd and switching out a couple of the xml for xpg2.
We don’t know what emitters they come with. Hank had XP-G2 versions too.
Yeah - that (which emitter) was what I wondering about - if they have XM-L, and wanted to switch to XP-G2, the star would have to be replaced, right?
Yeah. You would have to use an XP-G Noctigon. Anyway, they should have either XM-L2, or XP-G2. I never thought to ask Hank if you could have a choice. Probably not.
You’ll need a torch to desolder the Noctigon from the pill.
Or simply put an XP-L on it, XP-G footprint with an XM-L size die. Works great de-domed with a V5 2A. Slightly warm, very nice.
I stick 2 toothpicks in the driver wire holes to keep the star aligned while it cools. Works ok, requires due diligence.
What would an off center led do, make a bad looking beam ? For someone that’s not to fussy it would be an ok light for the glove box or tool box for a non modder ?
Edit to add…
Ok, well I ordered one, going to use it as is , have been wanting one of these for a while now!
I don’t know exactly how (badly) off-center the emitters are, but I’ve had lights where, when I was screwing the head down, the emitter would move off-center, and when that happens, the beam gets really ugly (more like a “smear” of light. The beam is also way less bright than when I can get the emitter more properly centered.
I’m wondering if a heat gun could be used to re-reflow the emitters on these lights, since the star is soldered onto the head? That (using a heat gun and solder paste) is the way that I reflow emitters nowadays, and when i do that, I have the star sitting on a big chunk of copper, which probably absorbs a lot of the heat, so it should work with these, unless the pads on the stars themselves are “off”.
The stars (Noctigons) themselves are soldered onto the pills slightly off center. A small torch would be needed to heat the pill until the solder under the Noctigon melts. I’m sure that placing the pill on a frying pan on the stove would heat the pill until the solder melts too. You have to be quick and remove the the star because the pill will hold hold and intensify the heat to the point it could damage the LED.
Very tempted, but my OCD about a centered LED is gnawing at me already, and I really don’t want to have to fuss with it… Gifts maybe?
I’ve never removed an LED from a star before. Could you possibly heat it upside-down until the solder melts and then the led just falls off at that moment?
Surface tension will keep the LED from falling off.
Why do you want to remove the LED?
The solder holding the star to the pill will melt before the the LED releases.
Once the solder under the star melts, remove from heat and center the star until solder resets, or remove the star completely and reinstal it with thermal paste instead of solder.
You can heat the pill with a mini torch, or place it on a heavy pan on the stove until the solder softens …remove from heat immediately.
I thought my idea was an innovative way to remove LEDs in cases where you wanted to transplant it onto another star. Just an idea!
Never mind me 