Trustfire R5-A3 (SA-2) strobe delete and XM-L conversion.

Sorry about the next to invisible circles guys, they look really bright on my PC but on my laptop they were hard to see, so I should have assumed some other folks might have the same problem.

Heinzeins that light has a different PIC than the one in this post, it might be doable but not with this method. The light I originally got shipped from DX in January and as far as I know the newer ones and some of the older ones have a different PIC like yours. I have the one from KD on order because that one is supposed to have the PIC that is modable. I will update when I get the light from KD.

Thanks for the info, nonetheless will I put a XM-L in it, just ordered some at Shiningbeam

I just made the strobe and xm-l mods.

I ended up with a four mode flashlight, High, Mid, Low, Fast strobe. I probably made a poor soldering job.

I noticed that the build quality of the Kaidoman flashlight is really lower than my previous DX version (with a non moddable driver), the crown is not deburred and not perfectly aligned with the body, the tail-clip a lot more flexible.

Ps : I just noticed that I didn't put the blob of solder on the right place ! I shunted the little resistor on the second leg from the left instead of adding solder on the third leg !

I was thinking of getting one [ R5-A3 ] , but realizing there were two different drivers , its sort of pot luck .

Boaz: The B- terminal is there, big white printing silkscreened at the very bottom of the pcb... it's like the only thing in that area that stood out enough for me to reference. although with my solder skills, I might end up blobbling all the terminals together and making it a direct-drive light!

moral of the story? 8.9" netbook screens suck. suck worse than smartphones. suck suck suck.

Ive got the same driver as you, and what a bugger it was to get out. I had to remove about half the brass retaining ring with a dremel tool to make enough room for the driver to slide past it. If you find a way of deleting the strobe on this driver, please let us know. Like you, Im modding mine with a XML.

I noticed that you chipped your inductor spool. I did the same. My fingers are crossed that it will still work after all the abuse I just gave it during surgery.

I had no problems getting the driver out: I removed the outside plate with an soldering iron and could ecxtract the driver board with my fingers. I'm quite sure the spool looked like this before. I haven't changed the emitter yet, but the XP-G still works perfectly.

I'll let you know if I find a way to delete the strobe, but I'm not very optimistic.

I finally got my R5A3 from KD today and looky here it has the modable PIC.

After my 5 minute solder mod, so ugly but good enough to do the trick.

This is a great deal at $14 bucks to have a 3 mode R5 light with no stupid flashy BS. Get one before they are all gone.

Thanks but my driver no longer works. I think mine was made as an experiment. With the brass collar as thick as it was, it must have been pressed in after they inserted the driver. Even after spending ages dremeling the brass collar to make it thinner, it was still incredibly tight removing the board. By the time it came out, all the poking and pulling had taken its toll. Another nice surprise on mine; it came with an XPE! Not an XPG. No wonder it never seemed that bright. I removed the emitter dome to experiment with the beam pattern before removing the star and commencing with the driver removal.

I think a 17 mm driver ground down to 16.5mm will work. Can anyone recommend a good AA/14500 driver?

If not, I might buy a 2800mA 7135 based driver and remove one of the 7135 chips to make it into a 2450mA driver. Even that doenst sound to good given the limited capacity of 14500's and that it wouldnt run in regulation more than a few minutes.

Any thoughts guys?

Hey Flashpilot that really sucks, I had a hard time getting the first one apart. I think the heat cycles this light goes through welds it shut, it gets really hot on high and then cools and that welds the whole pill together. The new one I got today came apart easy, but I only tested it for a second to make sure it worked. If I was you I would get the NANJG 105 2.8amp driver from Shiningbeam and the 14mm XML also from them and just use high as a turbo mode you would still have a really bright usable medium and the low would be about the same. You wouldn't be able to use AAs anymore, but you would have a very impressive pocket rocket.

I burnt mine up just like that .. There was nothing in between my reflector and the emitter to keep if from shorting out .It's got a metal reflector why no plastic ??. It did it on a 14500 too ..Dang that's the first one I've had that happen to ..And I just finished modding 2 nitecores..I guess I'm happy it happened here on a cheaper driver ..rats . :(

I just received a Trustfire S-A2 from DX today 11JUL11 and it has the same driver as the R5-A3 so this tutorial will work to strobe delete this light as well.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/trustfire-s-a2-cree-xpc-wc-q5-3-mode-230-lumen-led-flashlight-1-aa-1-14500-36358

I just wanted to update this post. The driver from the SA-2 is now in a stainless C-3. I sold the SA-2 and the new owner was disappointed that I did the strobe delete mod so I swapped the pill with the SA-2 pill they have identical threads and are fully interchangeable. I now have a really cool stainless C-3 with an XPG and no unneeded flashy strobe modes.

After breaking my driver, Im now running mine direct drive on protected 14500's to an XM-L. So far, Im very pleased. The thick heavy host takes a few minutes to heat up to the point where its hot. Im glad its not a thin walled design.

1 mode. 3.42A at the tail... darn bright and no poof yet.

Wow! You’re getting 3.4A at the tail from just a protected 14500?? I didn’t think they pushed more than 2A unless it was an IMR 14500.

I had the same experience with a sipik 68 I XML'ified and did direct drive with. 3,1-3,4 A. Fun light!

But it is WAY over the consensus limit of 2C for the 14500 battery so i modded it back to original. Did not want a pipe bomb, however small it is.

Today I got my R5-A3 from kaidomain and it is the new version with red driver that is using the 10 pin mcu. I tried to remove solder that is connecting two legs (2,3) and got 5 modes (h/m/l/strobe/sos) instead of default 3(h/l/strobe) but I don’t know how to get h/m/l :frowning: I believe that it is there but I just don’t know what should i connect together. Shortening pins 3,4 didn’t work. Maybe someone realised how to do that?

Hey guys,

Tried to avoid the “flashlight bug” for a while, but couldn’t fight it for too long and ordered a few goodies over the last couple of weeks… darn… :).

I dropped my R5-A3 the other day and can’t get it to work again.
Guess it is time for my first mod :D.
Either the driver or the LED must be dead, as the clicky from my spare R5-A3 did not do any good either.

Can’t get the pill open even with brute force. Will try tomorrow as suggested by heating with a soldering iron first.
Could you guys please recommend me a driver and XM-L LED that will fit the R5-A3?

Regards,
brunswick

Does anyone know if this Trustfire R5-A3 from Fasttech can be modded, to delete strobe and add a lower low?

Has anyone found a way to remove the strobe from the red PCB one?

Thanks!