Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - *DIY* NiteRider Minewt 3W Luxon --> P4 SSC w/ pics

I could not find this posted elsewhere and so I took pics along the way.

Difficulty: easy
Time: <30 min
Cost: ~$8
Tools Needed:
- SSC P4 Bare Emitter http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2026
- Thermal Paste http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4593
- Soldering Iron
- Solder (I used thin gauge silver solder)
- 2mm Allen
- Non-Perminant LocTite (I used blue, but green should work fine too)
- Tweezers or knife

Procedure:
-Remove (4) 2mm bolts from the light head. You don't have to remove the mounting bracket even though I did.
Gently wiggle the two pieces apart (should come away easily)
Exploded View
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/3513/img1586bn6.jpg

Stock Emitter:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6225/img1587ne4.jpg

Unscrew the two phillips screw heads (shown above) using a small screwdriver to release the circut board and emitter from heat-sink. Once complete pry up gently on the circut board with the knife or tweezers and wiggle the board out from the heat sink.
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/2381/img1588kh3.jpg

Parts seperated. Rear housing is just a heat sink with thermal paste making direct contact with the back of the LED.
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/2781/img1589al3.jpg

Pre-solder the new LED leads with a dab of solder on each lead.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6066/img1591fg1.jpg

De-solder old LED. To do this I used a knife tip to gently pry up on the LED while touching the leads w/ the soldering iron. It popped right off. Here is the SSC (left) vs Luxeon (right) LED's next to eachother:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4362/img1592jw9.jpg

Install new LED. Since you pre-soldered the leads, you just have to position the LED onto the board, hold it w/ tweezers, and lightly touch each pre-soldered lead. The solder will flow right onto the circut board with only minimal heat applied.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9084/img1593eu1.jpg

Reassemble light. Apply a dab of thermal paste to the back of the LED so that a little squishes out when re-assembled. Use LocTite on the screws. When I pulled the light apart the first time I did not put any thread locker on the thread and when I went to pull apart the light this time 2 of the screws had backed out on their own.

Beam Shots:
Before:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2752/img1681lc2.jpg
Camear Settings: WB:Flourescent, F4.5, 1/2 sec exposure, manual focus set at infinity, center weighted metering, ISO: 200 . Target is appx 12 feet away.

After: (Same camera settings as above)
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/7079/img1683nd9.jpg


Second after shot. Since I don't have a light meter I figure my camera does. So set at the same ISO,metering, focus, F-stop, WB but let the camera figure out the shutter speed. (which it picked 1/5 sec)
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/333/img1682sr6.jpg

The camera decided 1/5 sec was the correct exposure. So if think of it in terms of light, 1/4 sec expsure would mean the camera is seeing 2x the light as a 1/2 sec exposure. So 1/5 sec tells me I got a little more than double the light output.

Color temp changed a bit cooler which is fine by me. Center seems brighter with more spill.

Good luck all

I was following the post from a few weeks ago and was wondering if you were going to do the upgrade. Really nice job on the write up & great pics! You've inspired me to give it a wag for myself.

The minewt is rated for 100 lumens - what does your mod upgrade it to?

and would you do it for someone else if they asked nicely?

The minewt is rated for 100 lumens - what does your mod upgrade it to?

The original minewt was rated at 75-90 lumens I believe, and this should put out about 150-160 lumens I believe.

and would you do it for someone else if they asked nicely?

Honesly, you would spend more money in 2-way shipping than you would doing the upgrade yourself.

whats the new runtime after the mod?

The original minewt was rated at 75-90 lumens I believe, and this should put out about 150-160 lumens I believe.

Well that's interesting, the product literature says 100. Hmm.

100 off the LED, but some is always lot in the reflector. Some company design better reflectors then others so there is a wide range in what is lost.

whats the new runtime after the mod?

Not actually sure. My commutes lately have been shorter than normal since its getting colder and I am a pansy. I run my light in flash mode in the AM and high at night. I ride 4 days a week and so it gets 2hrs on flash and 2 hrs on high (appx) weekly. Before and after the mod I don't get a low battery warning at the end of the week, if that helps at all.

I have not run a full runtime test so can't give any exact numbers.... sorry.:o

Can you install a P7 led in it?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11809

Good job! I did the same thing with a Dinotte 5W. Since I had two at the time, I mod one first and did a side-by-side comparison between the SSC P4 and the original Luxeon. No prizes for guessing which is which. :)

My hand-held light meter told me that the P4 was almost exactly twice as bright as the Luxeon. I too have not tested run time but am not expecting significant difference since the P4 is expected to be twice as bright at the same power input.

BTW, for those who are thinking of ordering the bare emitter from P4, be aware that 1. the shipping time may be longer than expected (but it'll eventually show up, don't worry), and 2. there is significant variance in light color and brightness. I ordered three emitters for a two-emitter project and one of the three was extremely bluish and had a noticeable lower output. For <$5 each, I'm not complaining though.:D

Can you install a P7 led in it?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11809

That P7 emitter is huge! With such a beast, one may run into significant heat dissipation issues with such a small heatsink like the Dinotte 200L or Minewt. The original driver may also not be suitable, so it'll end up being a much more involved project than a simple emitter swap.

what is the size of the circuit board the led is soldered to?

what is the size of the circuit board the led is soldered to?

You would also need to open up the reflector to physically fit the led.
Your beam would be much wider, but not as bright as a p4, and possibly quite ugly.
Not a good upgrade.


http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg230/LEDninja/Flashlights/SSC%20P7/p7vsP4.jpg

There is a HUGE difference… back to the drawing board.