Help troubleshooting a mod that went wrong :( [Olight S1R Baton]

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 :blush:

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 :frowning: 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… :person_facepalming: :zipper_mouth_face: :weary: :cry:

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 :wink:

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 :wink:

Thanks for the help, the information, the time and the tips! All are much appreciated :blush:

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 :wink:
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 :wink:

I came back to your thread because you linked it somewhere.

The S1R driver is not good. If really everything is ok, the battery new and the light warm, Turbo S sustains 1’30 or more (my timer is off, giving it about 1’40 or so). The slightest amout of dirt, cold battery or full moon, and the light behaves like you describe. A Keeppower 700mAh protected cell gives better results but is quite long. At some point, I removed the collar of a 10C cell for the S1RII and use it in the S1R since. Now the turbo modes are almost always stable.

I guess the trouble in mine was that I am now using a non-DTP aluminium board, 3535, instead of the original copper one. I am not sure if it was DTP, but I am guessing that it is making the difference in the capacity to hold a longer time on Turbo…
It was a tricky mod from the beginning so I guess I downgraded the light except in terms of tint :zipper_mouth_face: In any case, I think I’m not going back to the original one. I would like to find a 12 to 14mm diameter board, 1mm thick to use a 3535 footprint led, as I don’t want to shave/sand/fill a larger/thicker one.

Thanks for your report Unheard :wink:

From my understanding - though the testing happened before my time and I’d be glad to be corrected if I have the wrong impression - MCPCBs are the primary place in a light where copper vs aluminum makes a measurable difference, and that’s even if they’re both otherwise DTP.

An aluminium MCPCB prevents the GT Nano from working with a 10440 cell.

After trying to mod my light again, replacing the led and MCPCB, I ended up damaging the driver.
There was smoke, “that” smell when you burn things and the flashlight doesn’t work as it should.
Some kind of short circuit was created that damaged it.

I’m quite sad I did this to it as the flashlight was working “well” before.

Due to this I have a question: do you think it worths the time and money to ask Olight if they can fix it (sending it to them, paying all the shipping materials and labour)?

I really don’t like having “ghost hosts” of flashlights but given the techincallity of this repair, I can’t do it myself, so…

Tell me what you think folks!

I think from a usability point of view the S1R is one of the best EDCs ever produced, with the S1RII being technically superior (much better regulation) but of inferior ergonomics (hate that clip).

Yes, try to get assistance from Olight. Maybe they have spare parts for you.

Yeah, that tiny light is quite nice, and I actually like it more than the SIR II. I was stupid trying to mod it one time and even more to try that a second time :frowning:

So, I’ll give it a try and check what they say about it. If a new light is less expensive than the trouble/expense of sending this to them for a fix, I may have to chose that option. Although I’d really to get this one fixed.

Thanks Unheard :wink:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this. I sent a message to Olight, got the first reply a few hours later (considering we are in different timezones), and I’ve been in touch with them about the repair.

It is indeed possible to repair, I’ll need to ship it to China factory. So far I just don’t know how much is the repair fee. After more information on this I’ll be able to decide for sending it or not to them!

I just wanted to give a :+1: for their CS :wink:

Likely, for the price, it won’t be “worth it” in the conventional sense to send it for repair, since you’ll have to pay shipping in both directions as well as the repair fee. On the other hand, it will be tough to get hold of a S1R (as opposed to S1RII) now since it is discontinued. Also, if you’re looking for it with an emitter swap and GITD added… It might be worth checking around to see if any are for sale, or if any modders are willing to take that on for you (the tradeoff there would be a higher price, but reduced risk to yourself).

I did successfully emitter swap my S1, but I reflowed onto the original MCPCB (and otherwise, probably got lucky considering my track record).