This is a mod I really hadn't planned on doing.
I had a Securitying 6 x XML with the driver modded like in Comfychair's thread. It's a nice light. Then an emitter went out. I reflowed another. No dice. The trace was fried. I repaired it with copper braid, but then the center emitter died.
Okay then. That's enough of that.
I hadn't done anything with Nichias for a while, so I decided on a quickie mod using 12 or 14mm aluminum stars. Then I remembered that it put out 2A per emitter which might be a little high for aluminum.
I guess I'll have to go sinkpad. The 16mm stars are too big, so I'll have to grind them down. This is where the simple mod became a project. I didn't mind though. Once you get into it, you enter into a kind of Zen state, trying to achieve modding nirvana.
What's this? A really feeble attempt at a heat sink?
No. I just needed to glue something on the back that solder would stick to.
There was a hole directly under the center emitter. I was going to ignore it and let the sinkpad carry the heat to the surrounding area, but I knew Comfychair would post an arrow pointing at a tube of JB Weld.
I didn't have any JB Weld, so I put a few drops of Kester liquid flux into the hole with some pieces of solder. I scrunched up some tag ends of copper braid and hammered them into the hole, added more flux and hit it with a hot iron and solder. I really got it smokin'.
Then I sanded down the whole mess until there was no hole.
Next I had to grind down the sinkpads.
Why didn't anyone tell me those sanding drums take down copper really nicely. I thought they were only for wood. They're easier to use with a dremel than the grinding stones, and they don't leave burrs.
I went into Zen mode and sanded away until I thought they were about right. It was hard to tell without the emitters, so I reflowed the Nichias on and had a look.
Not quite right. Removed the emitters and did some more grinding, then reflowed them back on.
I tried the centering discs that convert XPG to XML reflectors, but the emitter holes in the reflector are larger than normal, so they slid around.
I discovered that they popped right into the middle of the stock isolators, so I used them until I could get the emitters centered and glued down.
With the reflector upside down, I arranged the Fujik coated Sinkpads onto the emitter holes. Everything was wobbly and shifting. The Nichias dont seem to snap into the discs tightly like the XPG's do. I need to make sure there were two exposed holes for the retaining screws to hold the reflector tight.
I eyeballed the two holes through the emitter plate as I carefully lowered it down onto the Sinkpads. Once it was in place, I prayed, then I tightened down the screws
I let the Fujik cure for a few days. Hopefully, after the emitters are glued, I can remove the stock centering discs and the reflector will automatically center on the XPG discs when the screws are in place.






