Cree Flashlight Color Change

Tiny LEDs are very stubborn to remove from circuit boards. I was informed to use a solder vacuum or wick to remove the solder, and if you look very close, you can see some very small half-circles on the contacts of the small LED which are filled with the solder that you can remove. You just have to look reeeaaally close, which I didn't do, so I just destroyed the LED. You could use a dremel if you want. There's no wrong way to remove it (except with your teeth), so do whatever's easiest

I tried to push the LED off of the board with a hot heavy duty soldering iron, but got nowhere. I tried sanding the LED off with a medium grit sandpaper but that damaged the LED board a little. Then I figured I'd just chisel it off. I used a hammer with a nail, and holding the module in a vise I cut the LED clean off the board into a hundred little pieces. Careful not to warp the module too much with the force of the vise.

Unsolder one of your new LEDs from its star heatsink and apply thermal paste to its metal backside (if it's not cheap, it may already have some paste on it). I'm not sure if the thermal paste really helps or if the LED board is just copper coated. I found the most likely LED driver to be in this flashlight on eBay, and the seller says that it operates at a maximum of 1.2 amps. I measured the voltage across the LED on a full battery(4.1v) and got 3.25v. 3.25volts(1.2amps)=3.9watts which is a moderate amount of heat for the size of the LED. You might want to consider thermal paste to prolong the life of the LED.

Anyway, glue your LED to the board so that the LED contact pins aren't on top of the leads from the driver making sure the LED is as centered as possible (eyeball the distance from the LED to the 4 edges of the board as a reference for how centered you are). There is a small " - " indentation in the LED's cathode so you don't get it backwards. Then solder the pins to the leads with a firm but gentle grip on the LED to make sure it will shine straight as possible.

If you're using an LED the same shape as mine, you will have to cut the positive gold spring from the driver down half a centimeter to be able to fit an 18650 battery in without destroying it. Use hardened steel sheers, maybe the little scissors kids use in school so you don't mess up an expensive tool. You will also have to remove the small plastic retainer in the reflector for the old LED (not if you're installing another tiny LED). I already threw mine out, so sorry for not having a picture of this step. It's not glued in, so it's easy to carefully put the point of the nail on it from the inside of the reflector to press it out the back of the reflector in your hands.

Clean the finger prints off of the lens and put it in the head of the flashlight. Then the reflector and the LED module. Throw out that flat spring (it's what made it difficult to unscrew the ring). Through trial and error, screw in the retaining ring while centering the LED. Don't let the gold spring rest touching the retaining ring or it will short the battery, which might make it explode if it's a really cheap battery. Then screw the ring in tight with your screw driver, but not too tight or you will damage the reflector. The ring is tight enough when you can flick the flashlight head and it doesn't rattle. Then screw the head back onto the battery tube on the side with the round channel. The battery goes in positive first.

It won't be as well focused as it was before the operation (it's not a bad focus at all), but if you choose to use just another little tiny flat LED, it will be fine. Replacing the 1 watt LED with a 3 watt LED didn't make the flashlight much brighter, but the color is beautiful. If you replace your LED with a green LED, it will improve the brightness. It's because the peak sensitivity of the human eye comes from green receptive cone cells with a peak absorption of 555nm. I can't recommend that you swap out the old driver for a new one unless you have a metal lathe because removing the driver may leave the module wider and looser than it was. I ruined an aluminum host that way once before.

My flashlight is awesome. Compared to the original light, it makes everything look eerie is if you're walking in a giant fish tank. It's just like those annoying xenon headlights people have that make it look like they're flashing their brights at you. It's perfect for general use in the dark outside. But be wary about shining it at others' faces. It is an eye hazard, and from a yard away it's pretty much as bright as the sun a half hour before sunset.