What did you BREAK today?

Ruined because of some chipping?
You are probably trying to justify your future purchases :slight_smile:

It wasn’t today, but I finally got time a few weeks ago to take apart the Rii E21 I won in CK’s giveaway. The whole reason I entered the GAW was because I had had the gear to flash firmware for months, but never gotten around to using it. Since this was supposed to be an easy host for that, I signed up, and I won.

The pill was only finger tightened in, but I couldn’t get it to budge with my fingers, so put my cheap HF snap-ring pliers on it (mistake #1), and the first time I turned it, they slipped off and busted the XML LED.

I already had a couple of XPL-HIs on 16mm boards on order from Simon because I wanted to put one in one of these just for kicks.

Before I got around to it, I broke my clavicle last Wednesday laying down my bicycle on rain-slicked asphalt. So probably no soldering for 6 weeks now.

That might be the case, and I find that if I spend enough time on BLF, it certainly is the case.

Broke a torch and a bone? Man, talk about unlucky. I sympathize :frowning:

Hope the bike isn’t broken at least :smiley:

Thanks. Just based on a quick visual inspection it looks ok. But I definitely need a new helmet. The jacket, shorts, and shirt I was wearing were all ruined.

Yeah, I already figured those would be a total loss. At least it was them and not your skin and skull; the armor did its job.

I’m so relieved that I’m not the only one who broke things :smiley:

I killed the MELD-X RGBW driver that came in a light I bought from pinkpanda3310. I transplanted it into a new host with a RGBW XM-L and it worked, but unless the head was unscrewed slightly it just lit up all the dies dimly. Left it on my bedside table and the next morning my son got it and inserted the cell the wrong way, although I’m not sure he got the tailcap back on.

Now the driver just lights up all the dies dimly even when bench testing and I’m not sure whether it was a short or reverse polarity that killed it.

Lessons learned:

  • Never leave a cell in a light with a fault
  • Keep Li-ion lights out of reach of small children
  • Good RGBW drivers are hard to find

Turned a working Samsung TV into a non-working with a preventive replace capacitors job.

my utorch ut10 suddenly died

i think it is the switch - like most of my other lights

it got stuck in a blinking pattern

would not turn off

removed battery

after that it would not do anything

seems like switch

unrepairable as far as i can tell

things are glued in-the electronics[‘driver’]

plus surface mount switch would be a pain to find the part and then solder it without burning or melting other parts

- i wasn’t doing anything but trying to use it, though i have had it 2 years or so, and i prob use it 40 times a day, so 29,000 switch cycles.

wle

I broke the atrocious stock driver in my Wuben E01 when I drilled a hole through it so I could lever it out. It had terrible visible PWM and a double-tap for strobe which meant you couldn’t change modes quickly so I don’t feel guilty at all.

Unfortunately I also ripped a component and PCB trace off the cheap single-mode driver I was filing down to fit. Now I’m left with a non-functional E01, but to be honest I think that’s still a win - the stock driver really is that bad.

If anyone knows a source of tiny multi-mode boost drivers please let me know. I know MTN sells Lumintop Tool drivers, but postage from the US makes it too expensive.

I haven’t broken anything in a while. When I do, It’s usually bones…lol.

I may have overdriven the white flat in my Jaxman Z1...

I broke my rose gold S1R Baton II. Did an emitter swap en didn’t remove the cell when I solder the MCPCB back into the light. I shorted something. FFS

Ouch! That one is worth fixing, for the beautiful host.

Shoot me a PM if you want to get rid of it though, my wife would love a flashlight that color ;)

I’ve started a new build. So far I’ve scrapped 2 parts. 100% hit rate so far. I’ve only made 2 parts and I’ve had to make both of them twice. :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming:

i broke m Aldi 1500lm zoomie today

i took the battery out and stupidly thought ” i wonder if its brighter with some samsung 30q’s”
so uhh that was a dumb idea as the led is only lighting up one quarter of the chip and even then its so very dim that its hard to tell its on

it guess i could replace the led (which i think was an xp50)

Which Aldi lights have authentic XHP50? Would love to see the light.

Maybe not so much a breakage, but a screw up for sure…

I was admiring some boards I got in from Oshpark today (am I the only one that does that?) when I realized a major flaw: I completely forgot to add the vias around the ground ring. Doh! :person_facepalming: At least the board is big enough that I could manually add a via with a drill and some copper wire.

PS - my first ever board with a crystal oscillator!

What’s the oscillator for? Why do you need a different and/or more precise signal than the MCU makes? Are you making an accurate clock for a sunset/sunrise alarm light?