Some times the optics spin when undoing the head which makes the LED board spin which could have torn a LED wire? Ive had it happen.
At some point you shorted a lead with a cell installed, which permanently fries the moonlight mode on the Olight drivers. I believe it also breaks the switch indicator light on the S1R II. No idea which component it damages since there isn’t anything obvious, but I’d love to know if anyone ever figures it out.
Thank you for you answers so far guys :+1:
Hum, the LED is almost similar, as I was trying to use a XML2. I went back to the original one, as I thought it might be something LED related, but it isn’t 
About the intermittent connection, yes it is there, and I guess it makes the led flicker somehow. Still, I’m not sure if it its a wire or a driver problem :zipper_mouth_face:
Hum, the thing is, I also tried to use another MCPCB and Led (the original MCPCB of my Lumintop Tool AA with XPL-HD led) and it behaved the same way.
I am remembering that when I tried to unsolder the first time, I didn’t manage to do that at first, maybe because the solder wasn’t hot enough so I might have stayed with the iron on one of the wires for a longer period. Could it be that the heat damaged something on the driver?
About an eventual damage in the wire… it is so short now that I cannot check it properly unless I could remove the whole pill and driver…but I don’t know how to do that and surely don’t want to continue damaging the light more… :weary:
I believe in this case the optic doesn’t have effect as it started acting funny before putting it over the led. Also they are not screwed not press fit (only the bezel is).!
When I was modding , I took the battery out to prevent shorts. When I put it back again to turn the light on, it immediately started acting like that
The switch had some trouble working properly I guess, but now it seems to be working fine. As I mentioned above, I am now thinking that some component might have been damaged while I was trying to unsolder the wires the first time.
Could it be that?
Also, does anyone know how to remove the entire pill? Just in case I wanna end up ruining the light :person_facepalming:
Thanks again for you answers 
Did you checked BEFORE installing the board with the new LED if there was a short between + or - and the MCPCB ?
Since it’s DTP, it could have shorted the driver because the body/head of Olights is connected to the battery + !
I already fried an S1RII driver because of that, and now it has 4 modes : Ultraultralow, ultralow, verylow and not-bright-Low… a good childproof Olight 
LOLOL, you made me laugh with those modes Sorry for your trouble too mate :zipper_mouth_face:
Well, I didn’t check it before, no
I did what I normally do on flashlights, I unsoldered and soldered normally (apart from that eventual longer time over one of the wires on the first unsoldering attempt…), and only after noticed the issue.
I never used the battery inside while doing the mod, but still it may have cause the short? :person_facepalming:
Well, the ultraultralow mode I get may be used as presence light, leaving the light ON all night on the bedside, just like a lighted tailswitch :person_facepalming:
EDIT: I should have stayed still and just put the GITD tape :confounded:
Don’t be ashamed, I recently fried my S2RII too… while trying to put an LH351D in it
Well, I never really liked it anyway… or did I ?
Whaaa? 
Did it happen something similar? And no functioning at all?
Well, I’m just upset, I’d like to keep this one working fine that’s all!
I guess I should report it on “”what did you break today”:https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/40266” thread xD
The funny thing is, I wish the moonlight on my S1 were lower.
Realizing an emitter swap is possible here, I'm tempted to try on my S1, but then this is a thread about how it goes wrong, so maybe not...
Well, it was also proven that it works, mine was just a bad example 
I guess that the soldering iron will make the difference. A thin tip and a being hot enough to unsolder without having to touching for a long time may do the difference.
The more I think of it, the more I remember the beginning of the process yesterday, the more I realize that it may have been my mistake. It happened something similar when I tried to disassemble the Sofirn SP10A: the heat in the wire made a component burn (or at least get damaged).
So…get a good soldering iron with nice tip and …maybe it work 
OTHO I’ve swapped every other Olight S series lights and neve encounter any problem… until the S1RII/S2RII
I’ve swapped : S1, S1R, S10RII, S10RIII, S30RII, S30RIII, M2R, H1, H1R, and also made triple in some of them
Did you remove the pill/driver of any of them? If so, can you share how? Like, tiwisting it, or pressing from head or tail?
You surely have a nice Olight collection 
That's really encouraging. I'm much more likely to take a crack (hopefully, not literally!) at my S1 then. It's a useful little dude but the cool white is so angry blue, it's hard to carry at all. I'll admit though, when I do carry it, I'll clip it somewhere I can idly thumb the funny-shaped TIR when I'm standing around. I actually rather like that TIR's beam.
I’m not trying to say you weren’t careful with the mod, but I know it happened at some point because I have several dead Olight drivers with identical symptoms in a box beside me. All it takes is the tiniest slip with tweezers while you’re doing something like positioning the optic. I’ve done emitter swaps on dozens of Zebralights with only a couple duds, but my failure rate with Olights was basically 100% until I realized just how fragile their drivers are. The cell stays out of the light unless there is no possibility I will be touching the MCPCB.
As far as I know, removing the driver is the same as outlined in X3’s S1 Mini teardown. I have disassembled quite a few Olights and it isn’t a very fun job. Unless you are fairly competent at diagnosing electronics issues there won’t be anything you can do with the driver. From the way the UI behaves and the separate moonlight failure mode, moonlight is distinct from the rest of the modes on the driver, but I have no idea if it’s part of the IC failing or some easily replaceable component. Personally I would just put it back together and accept it no longer has a useable moonlight mode. It’s definitely the driver, not your choice of LED or anything like that, and the damage is likely permanent.
I actually posted a cautionary note about this in the same S1 Mini thread:
Hey Bob, I was probably careless with some stuff :zipper_mouth_face: :person_facepalming: I am a bit messy, specially when soldering :zipper_mouth_face: But one thing I know, is that it wasn’t due to the cell, because it was out of the light!
Also, sorry for your dead drivers, not a nice situation, specially being these good and expensive flashlights!
Thanks for pointing me that thread as I hadn’t look to it before! I will do it, but I will probably not venture on opening the light! I will stay as it is, for the good and the bad.
MEANWHILE, I bought a small multimeter (Uni-T UT33D), nothing fancy but it may help solving the case. I just don’t know how as I never used a MMeter before :person_facepalming:
ALSO, when I arrived from work and went to test the light with the MMeter (I don’t know what to search so I started touching things…. LOL) accidentally one probe touched the POSITIVE wire (solder) and the head’s wall (bare aluminium) and it lit up on the true moonlight.
SO, I guess the driver is not damaged as the ML mode works, but something is not making the right connection. When I touch both the wall and the + wire, the ML mode activates. I tried to put solder from the wire to the wall but that gives a continuous ON even the light is…OFF.
But now I know the driver may still be OK, just any connection is not being done correctly.
What do you think it may be?
And will the MMeter be useful to detect it? If so, how?
I am sorry for so many questions And I thank for your information and help in advance! :+1:
So, when I pick the multimeter on the “diode test” (?) and put the negative probe in the negative wire / positive probe in the positive wire, the led lights up (as it should).
When I put the positive probe in the positive wire and the negative probe on the wall of the pill/head, he multimeter gives a sound and some values appear in the screen!
Does it mean I have a short somewhere?
I really don’t know what to do diagnose this… 
EDIT: I tried the same test in other lights and they don’t act like this, namely on the second part of the test.
On those Olights, the head is battery+ which is also what the led+ gets. Then led- goes to the driver, and batt- comes out. So led+ should have continuity to the flashlight body on that particular light.
Most lights, batt+ basically bypasses the driver and goes straight to led+, then led- to the driver, and batt- is the body of the light.
This is because of the type of power regulators we use in drivers. There's also some details glossed over here, like the driver leeching some power off of batt+ that goes through it to batt- and never to the led.
If you can still work it with the bezel/reflector/etc. off, try pushing down on the LED’s dome lightly with a fingertip or eraser-end of a pencil, see if it goes to normal brightness.
I had an issue with a TK05 where it “worked” (all modes, etc.), just at about 1/10th the brightness. “Loose”(??) LED? Either way, reflowing/resoldering fixed it.
Thanks for the clarification Scallywag! I tried some stuff but itt didn’t help after all! Still, now I know how it works
Thanks for the tip Lightbringer.
After testing and trying some stuff, last night I decided to call it a end! Pressing the led or the board didn’t help, the only thing that made contact were the tweezers but on the wall.
So, I decided not to invest more time trying to fix it, I replaced the XML2 in the DTP copper board for an XP-G2 (S4-3D, apparently) and put everything back on place and closed the light.
So that you know, the ML mode is lower than the Reylights have (I have an Amutorch SS light with that driver and compared it).
Despite I don’t have the 0.5lm moonlight, I can live with the current one. And the tint of the XP-G2 will suit me better
Thanks for the help, the information, the time and the tips! All are much appreciated
After emitter swap, the moon mode of my S1R is slightly higher now. Hard to tell. It is higher than moon on my S1RII I think. I guess it’s just forward voltage. Hopefully. Still ok to preserve night vision, and much nicer due to the warmer tint.
However: I noticed something similar in my RRT01 2019. When on lowest position, there never was any light before emitter swap. Now there is, even if only visible in total darkness with eyes adapted to it.
I saw your mod and was going to comment and to congratulate for doing it without the flashlight “tripping”. But…it seems you’re facing some issues too! :zipper_mouth_face:
Unlike mine, your moonlight went higher, but I’m glad it still works
And giving that it is warmer tint, it will look less brighter than if it was a cool tint.
There may be something happening on these drivers when we mod the lights.
BTW, on mine I am having issues with Turbo and Turbo S, it doesn’t hang on there as it used to :zipper_mouth_face:
Even with the battery fully charged it decreases fast. I am not sure if it is something related to the driver or the LED, but it only gets there for few seconds and then decreases….
Hope you’re more lucky than me