harbor freight quantum 588 lumen zoomie

this is a much cheapened version of the common x700 zoomie with an xp-l.
too short stock to take 18650 without removing spring.
and worst yet is optic is pressed in with a ring.
least mod friendly generic zoomie so far.
out of package it works fine other than aaa cells are a lousy power source for this type of light.

Maybe a 18500 would work? Usually, the 3xAAA holder (or 4xAAA in this case) is long enough that a 18500 would fit in its place. You’d need something to take up the slack in the diameter, though. Is there no way to get the head open, to get access to the LED and driver?

Also, with 4xAAA, you actually have overvoltage, so the driver may be a buck, in which case, you’d get just a little more current to the LED than you’d expect from AAA. You could try Eneloop, since the lower voltage of rechargeables shouldn’t be a problem when using 4xAAA. Eneloop can support a surprising amount of current draw.

its not a buck.
looks like 4 sot-23 mosfets and a 8 pin micro.
desoldering the spring from the driver and spreading the solder to the center of the pad to build it up a bit allows an 18650 to just fit.

Ok. Thanks for answering.

Any detail leads on MODS?

Related note : used 18500 to power this with couple to avoid rattle. Works pretty good.

its not very mod friendly.
had to glue the optic back in when i was done. the retainer ring got trashed on removal.
already has a decently driven xp-l so not much to gain anyway.

True indeed. On related note, the light is not water resistant at all. Accident dropped in water. Water seeped into barrel and flooded the lens. Condensation on lens. Can not open to wipe clean. No more worthless junk from HF for me.

well i wound up with a pile of these with the spring broke off the driver.
one of my regulars gave them to me as they didnt work and the carriers were broken.
well after touching up the pad on the driver and loading an 18650 they are fine.
but i just had to upgrade a few to 4000k nichia 219c since i have a reel of them to use/sell.
the stock led is a xp-g3.
i would say 7000k
the star is held down with a pressed in white plastic retainer.
has a brass slug under it sitting on a narrow shelf in the hollow pill.
this assembly screws into the body.
dealing with that retainer was about the only tricky part.
reflow a 219c onto the stock star and reassemble.
no more nasty blue.
i carefully laid a bead of medium ca in the head and set the optic back in.
then zip kickered it.
ca did not fog the optic.
like i stated these are not mod friendly but free turds get polished here!

and i just noticed these step down from high.
will time it later.

turbo timer sneaks in around 5 min.
some more notes.
a good high drain li-ion pushes the 219c over 3a.
nice.
but the stock mcpcb cannot transfer heat well enough and she shifts blue.
so to fully polish this turd requires a dtp copper mcpcb.
ones like noctigon are thick so one can do away with the shim.
and these can take a 26650 like the 5000mah ebl.
its a tight air displacing fit.
well on my few samples.
there could be a dozen variants like there are with the free magnet lights!

I really hope no one in history ever paid 15bux for these…

Anyhoo, I got a LuxPro 4×AAA that also relies on the internal resistance of those hateful little alkaleaks to limit current to the LED in lieu of a dedicated ballast resistor, but at a higher value than the craplights that take 3×AAAs with a bunch of 5mm LEDs. Difference is that the driver for the LuxPro is in the tailswitch. Crowbar it with the cap off, and it’s a 1-mode (high) light, which I’d be okay with.

Yeah, you can cut down the springs and throw in a generic driver board to run a decent LED. Yours probably has just a “driver” board with FET switch and µC to PWM it, no ballast resistors to speak of, hence the 219 going blue when powered DD via the FET from an 18650.

the first one where i “took one for the team” was around $7 after a sale and a 25% coupon.
only a fool shops hf without coupons!
a random $3 shipped from china is better other than the xp-g3 led in the hf.
the others were free.
and you are correct on the fets.
4 paralleled and pwm.
no current limiting at all.
why use 4 tiny fets and complicate pcb layout?
the tiny(sot23) fets are probably fractional penny parts in the qty for a run of these lights.