Thanks for the link, nothing beats good pictures . I see the led is deep inside the pill, close to the driver board on the other side, and the TIR is reaching into the pill onto the led, all making the assembly as short as possible, nice!
d*mn, just tried to remove the led/driver board of my DQGIIIAAA to make a picture of the led sitting on the driver board (I removed it before, so no calamities expected) and while removing the foam insert a current regulator was ripped off the board with it (*##@!!!). Stopped there but now it won't switch to high anymore. Too tiny to solder back I'm afraid....
Result: no nice picture to show you, and no working flashlight *sigh*.
Yes, everything can be fixed. If you dont have a very small soldering iron, wrap some copper wire around the tip. It works! Its a hack job, but it really can save some hassle. Sorry for your potential loss though. :(
If its really dead, send an email to Ric. They sell the drivers alone if you ask.
You encouraged me to try it, but at this moment I can't get the board out of the head anymore . anyway, here's how the disaster looks:
On the left side of the board is where the part is ripped off, the part still sticking to the foam is seen bottom right next to the flashlight head. Now that I see the picture, it appears like the complete solder pads were ripped off with the part. It's beyond repair after all
Getting a bit off topic now, let's talk about happy stuff again, the 18500 DQG....
Replace star with 20mm triple XP-G2 R5 neutral 5000k and put appropiate optic on top.
Remove driver and replace with contact plates for direct drive.
Add QTC at head for brightness control.
Run on IMR 18650.
EDIT: hm. maybe this idea won’t work with this light. With the LEDs mounted on the driver board there wouldn’t be enough separation from the top of the batteries.
The mini 01 is about 6 cm long so there we have a nice pocket rocket.
But the great on this is the capacity of a 18650 which is about five times a 16340 or 14500
That’s true, But I was thinking in something shorter can be made using integrated driver in LED’s board and TIR optics. Obviously you will get less runtime, but it’s nice to have a really small option. Personally, I don’t use my EDC for too much time to have a 18650’s capacity, for that reason a 16340 is enough for me. It can be shorter and brighter than an AA or AAA EDC.
got the board out, succesfully resoldered regulator, both modes worked again, assembled the light, TIR pressed board out of pill, took it apart again, tried to solder board to pill, something got too hot/got messed up (no idea), light is back to only low mode.
Now she really and utterly is dead. I did learn how to solder tiny bits though :