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Here on the back, I wanted to point out a small round hole that is in the housing.
In THIS image, the hole is between the two battery compartments, to the upper left. It's directly
OPPOSITE of the SWITCH, (which looks like a black rectangle in the above image.)
Crack this puppy open by removing the
three screws that are located IN the 3 little feet of the unit. These are located in small holes, out near the parimiter of
the disk. You'll need a very small philips head screwdriver to remove them.
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Inside, you can remove the reflector by simply lifting it from it's position. Beneath you will
find a "house" shaped PC board, (Printed Circuit Board.) Mounted to the interior with three small screws. The board has a
hole in it, and it is aligned with the hole in the caseing of the unit. You'll need to remove the three screws that hold the
PC board in place.
The green circles in the image below, show the location of the screws that should be removed.
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If you try to install the adjustable wire through the PC Board, the
stress created while adjusting the angle of the unit just might crack the PC Board. Damage to the PC Board may render the
unit USELESS!
There is some micro-circuitry on the PC Board, and you'll have a
hellatious time trying to repair the board. My advice is to remove the board to prevent any irreversable damage to the
unit.
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I recommend using a small jeweler's
screwdriver to remove all the screws in this project.
SPECIAL NOTE*
One of the leads simply disconnected from a battery terminal on me, while
I was working on this hack. This is what is known as a "Cold Solder Joint" where the terminal had NOT been heated enough to
allow the solder to bond properly to the terminal.
It's pretty simple to solder the lead back on the terminal. BUT the terminal
WILL get hot enough to melt the plastic casing which holds the terminal in place. And it's best NOT to have batteries in the
unit while you attempt the repair.
IF this happens to you, it's best to remove the terminal by griping it gently
with a pair of needle nose pliers, and tugging, coaxingly, out of it's slots. You can then solder the wire back onto the terminal.
After it cools, you can slip the terminal back into position.
The terminal slips into two slots. One on either side of the teminal, (sort
of like drawer guides.)
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Beneath the PC Board, you will notice that the hole has a small ridge around it. Sort of like
this...
(O)
You can remove parts of the ridge, IF the wire doesn't seem to want to sit properly.
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I used some #14 solid copper wire, which
is used for home wiring.
#12 MIGHT be used, but I didn't have any
#12 wire to try this out with...
I clipped off about 8" of wire, (approx.
20 cm.) to create the bendable support. I recommend that BARE copper wire is used, as the insulation will prevent the wire
from being inserted into the hole. This will allow the largest wire size to be used, and thusly, a more durable support to
manipulate the fixture and able to retain the position that it is formed into for a given application.
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Here the wire is inserted through the hole and is protruding from the back of the casing of
the unit.
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Here I used a soup can to raise the unit
so I can use the hot-melt glue to anchor the wire into place. You can position the unit near the edge of the workbench to
allow the wire to hang free. I just found it convenient to let the unit lay flat without having to hold it while glueing the
wire into place.
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Be "kind of" liberal with the hot-melt glue. This will anchor the wire firmly. Try to get the
glue down under the wire, and as much on the ridges that surround the wire. Just squirting the glue over the wire won't create
the "grip" you want the glue to have.
Try to keep the glue from bulging too far above the ridges. This will create a barrier that
will prevent the PC Board from being positioned properly, and possibly crack the PC Board when the screws are tightened down,
that hold it in place.
If the wire has any pressure that forces the wire INTO the unit. It just might break free and
damage the PC board inside. So it's best to get the wire anchored firmly durring this step in order for the project to be
as successful as possible.
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When finished and the glue has cooled. The wire should
be anchored firmly. Before you go and assemble the unit back together, try and bend the wire a bit. Try to form it like you
would, putting some slight pressure on the glue anchor. This will test it out to see if you made the anchor
firmly enough.
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Insert and tighten the screws that hold the PC Board in place.
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When it comes to assembly of the rest
of the unit. You may want to consider changing the unit from a flood, to a spot instead.
The unit comes with a clear plastic deffuser,
which will scatter the light from the LEDs. If you prefer to allow the beam to "focus" on a smaller area, you may want to
leave the clear plastic deffuser out of the assembly proccess.
If you haven't "made up your mind" about
it...
Simply assemble the unit, and don't put
the screws in.
Shine it on a wall and notice the beam
that it throws on the surface.
Take the unit apart again, and remove
the deffuser and shine the beam on the wall again. Is this beam more to your liking? If it is, then you can go ahead and replace
the screws that hold the unit together.
If you like the "flood version" better,
replace the deffuser and assemble the unit once more. And drive the assembly screws into place.
If you change your mind in the future,
you can always disassemble the unit and remove the deffuser again.
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Unlike Humpty Dumpty...
Heres the unit all put together again.
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Bend a loop at the end of the wire.
This will give you somplace to run a screw
through to anchor it to a surface somewhere.
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I used a small sheet rock screw and a washer to anchor
the unit to the ceiling of my bedroom. The screw head is shaped something like a cone, and this will spead apart the loop
in the end of the wire. The speading will cause the loop to deform and slip over the screwhead. So I added a small washer
to prevent this from happening.
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In my particular application, I wanted
to illuminate a wall decoration that was printed on clear plastic. The light had created a reflection, and I wanted to prevent
this from showing up when viewed by guests, so I located the unit to one side, so that the reflection did not appear in the
plastic.
The unit had to be located far enough
away from the artwork, so that the light was cast over a larger area. Here in this image, I attatched a yardstick or a meter
stick to the ceiling, so that you can see that the unit was placed a bit further from the artwork.
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