Headlamp wouldn’t turn on, and there is damn little info out on how to open the #$@! things. I figured it out, and to pay my karma for other projects, I documented what worked for me.

So my trusty old Petzl Tikka XP2 stopped working. The top button got loose and became a flap, then even pushing the micro button directly, it wouldn’t turn on.
The first order of business is how to open the damn thing. I began by opening up the headlamp to get access to the batteries. It hinges at the bottom, some minor side force and the headband back of the lamp will pop off cleanly.
Then came the screw problem. Once you remove the back of the headlamp, and then the batteries, you’ll see two tiny screws. Those are not Philips, they are Torx screws. Specifically they are Torx T5 screws. So I had to buy a set of Torx screwdrivers off Amazon. $12 right there, but I will use them for other project.


Unscrew those two screws. Once they are out, the electronics still won’t come out of the shell. You will have to unclip the two plastic clips at the top of the battery area near the switch. Use a small screwdriver, and very little force.
It popped out with some gentle tugging. Once the electronics was out, I examined the case. The little front diffuser door popped off, but I’ll deal with that later. To fix the red button I used superglue to seal up the red rubber button to the case so it was water tight again. Then I clicked on the PCB micro switch button to see if I could figure out what was wrong.


It turned on once but that was it. As a wild guess, I assumed a corroded contactor so I sprayed some electric contact cleaner on it typically used for scratchy potietiometers.

I clicked the button over and over and…nothing. So I kept clicking then it turned on….click, click, click, click..and off. The more I clicked, the more reliable it became. Finally each click turned it on and off. Maybe 100 clicks before the contact cleaner had kicked in.
Finally, it was working! So I reversed the steps, put in the diffuser door (not sure what worked but it got back in place) snapped the electronics back in, screwed in the T5 Torx screws, and bam! Working again.
