âWhat did you mod today?â
I could better say; âwhat did I destroy today?â
Wanted to change the LEDs in de jaxman e2l for some LH351Dâs.
First I desoldered the driver and wires.
Then I wanted to pry out the board.
I donât know what type of glue they used but it doesnât want to come outâŠ
I lost my patience and went on a rampage, destroying the LEDs and led board.
And its still stuck in there.
Looks like Iâm going to order a host and let this one sit for a while.
Ha Thijs, since the board is toast anyway, remove the driver and heat the head up to very very hot (not so hot as to decolour the ano) and see if the glue will give in.
It is much easier to sand a bit off the new board. I use a disc sander for that, but even by hand it should not take too long, you only need to go from 20 to 19 mm.
I got the new Sofirn SP33 today, they changed up the old version to the XHP-50.2 and made some small changes, biggest of which is the boost driver of course but also an Orange Peel reflector. Mine had a horrid beam profile, so I sliced and diced the 50.2 to not only clean up the aura but also warm it somewhat, it started out very cool white, almost with a lavender hue. After removing the dome, there was still a discolored greenish center to the hot spot so I made a different centering ring work and raised the reflector about 1 mm, not completely right but much better and I can live with it. I think itâs now making a little over 2200 lumens, pretty decent.
I had put an 50.2 in a Utorch UT02, sliced and diced it this morning before the SP33 came in so itâs been a day of cleaning up flip chip auraâs.
I almost sat down to do my first proper mod â two driver swaps on my older Convoy S2 and my single C8. Unfortunately I found out (thankfully ahead of time) that I need flux to make good solders
I never could solder until I started working on flashlights. Got the Hakko 888 station and some .031 Kester solder and it suddenly got much easier. Before you know it I was stacking 7135âsâŠ
Flux helped me a bit when i tried to use lead free as a beginner. Since i switched to leaded solder I dont even bother with flux. I dont care what it says it makes a sticky mess.
I may try lead free again now that i have a couple dozens mods under my belt, but maybe not. It just works
I use organic flux, the âwasher fluidâ-looking stuff. Works a treat. No idea whatâs in it, maybe M-stoff and water, who knows.
Wiring up some small resistors to eliminate the dreaded âhyperflashâ when using LED bulbs, and needed the Evil Third Hand to hold the wire and resistor against each other, sooooooooo precariously. Slightest jiggle, and they pull apart.
Wellp, a drop of organic flux to sizzle away, apply a blob of molten solder, and itâd flow nicely⊠but almost instantly skin-over and turn ugly. Needed a coupla more passes with flux+iron to get a solid (haha) connection without snapping apart.
Without flux, itâd turn butt-ugly and might not even be a good joint.
Then again, I was going easy on the heat, not cranking it up like I usually do. Didnât want to turn the wire-insulation into âbellbottomsâ (melting, pulling-back, and bunching up).
On, say, soldering a through-hole component on a peecee board, where you can press hard and get good heat transfer, the rosin-core in the solder is often enough.
Iâve always used lead free solder with no flux other than whatâs already in it.
Not that difficult to get a good solder joint, at least now that I have a good quality soldering iron.
Eswitch wires on fet+1 boards are the hardest things ive run across and its prob cause i refuse to change tips mid project. The signal wires on L4P drivers are so easy and have huge durable pads.
I havenât even owned extra flux for decades, although I soldered thousands of my self developed boards âprofessionallyâ in the first years of my business live, back in the 80s. There is plenty of flux in the middle of the solder wire, I just had to learn the proper technique. Not much different with unleaded solder nowadays.