[Dominik]

I guess that everyone knows it - one of the ugliest headlamp on the market, black-brown body, a little plastic and headband . But at the same time, robust, well sealed, reliable, built-in diffuser or removable color filters. For years serves to many people at home and on the trail. Last year was displaced from the shops by its more colorful successor XP 2, but in my opinion it is still worth interest when you are choosing the new headlamp - especially if you are not unfamiliar with soldering iron . And there is also that beautiful black-yellow HAZLOC version



Quite large buttons:



Solid piece of gasket and battery status indicator on the side:



Mod

Classic set for the most of Petzls: headlamp & Torx 6 .



Cree XP-G on micro pcb



Some thermal adhesive i.e. Arctic Alumina or other glue - I'm using 3M 467MP 0,05mm adhesive tape, some tin, 2 pieces of wire and soldering iron

After removing the three screws from the battery compartment you can easily push everything out by pressing gently on the top lens. Usually a small piece of ferrite is going out somewhere - you cannot worry about that . By the way you can see now another gasket on the lens.



Take the old and using a sharp knife remove everything, only to leave an aluminum plate that will serve you as a base for centering a new led. Now you have only to glue in the center the mcpcb with cree xp-g on board and connect the power. Purist technicians can replace the entire wire - remember that it have to be adequately thin to fit between the star and the holder.



Now, put on the holder and center the led gently pushing the star in the direction you want.



It’s done - now you have only put everything together and test your new powerful headlamp .

To mod, or not to mod ? Or simply, for what ?

Certainly for a better color, switching from a SSC P4 to the XP-G you can select the neutral white or even warm led . The difference between the neutral white and cold will be significant and with the warm led you can feel almost like with an old Incandescent bulb . In addition, you will get more light and better focus.

But is it worth it? Compared between Tikka XP 2 (45$) and modded Tikka XP (in the shop 45$ + 10 for the led) - you have to make a choice .

high xp2 vs. boost xpg



high xp2 vs. high xpg



Modded XP on SSC P4 vs XP-G boost.



Modded XP on SSC P4 vs XP-G high.



Rest of the test photos you can find on my website : http://www.light-test.info