Fenix TK61 teardown and mod thread

http://www.anpec.com.tw/ashx_prod_file.ashx?prod_id=281&file_path=20090724163325315.pdf&original_name=APM2301CA.pdf

These should be the transistors that mounts the TK61 (C01C)

As you can see, the current is continuous DRAIN

3 A ~,

(I was studying modding, before you buy the flashlight, with more pictures!)

You could try to change them, the impression is SOT-23-3

strong collection of lights , and very good review. TK61 looks similar to me but i cant find to what…

Nice effort on the strip down, mod and report. You know what I believe you should do with this light so I will shut up.

Dont know. Ask Fenix.

Not a big deal though. Its still got way way larger contact path compared to say a 20mm Noctigon.

Sorry, most of the info in the datasheet is beyond my understanding of small electronics. I should replace all (?) the C01C with what? Link for suitable replacement part?

I named some of the components on the backside too in case they were hard to see.

So its one C01C on the backside and three on top-side. (Top-side is towards the battery carrier.)

Its two C00C on the top-side, and one on the backside.

MT-G2?

Send it to you?

:D

This is just a hunch based on working with other drivers and not based on electrical expertise or anything else reliable. So please don’t act on it with out reliable confirmation, unless you feel like risking the driver. It appears that Q1 - Q4 on the side with the voltage sense resistors are the ones to replace. Hard to tell though with all those traces going all over the place. My understanding is that you are looking for the FETs that connect directly to the LED feed pads. Looks like you have 2 for positive and 2 for negative, but it’s hard to tell with all the traces going under component and such in those pictures.

EDIT: Looking closer, it looks like Q1 - Q3 feed the postive LED pad via the inductor. Also looks like Q5 & Q6 my by feeding the positive LED pad too, but can’t see the via’s due to inductor blocking the view. There is lot of stuff going on in that driver.

Maybe this would work well:

http://it.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Semiconductors/SI2323DDS-T1-GE3/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMshyDBzk1%2fWi8xiIxtqdgOJKuPl%252bnjZKvw%3d

http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/427/si2323dds-254119.pdf

I'm not sure, it could be that it was designed

Network with pull-up + pull-down?

some N channel MOSFET should be ...

Why do not you try to test them with a multimeter to see if they are P-Channel

or N-Channel?

No video here, you should understand that!

I unfortunately do not! ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gloikp9t2dA

Hmmm, I am kind of a disappointed with plastic reflector and all that plastic that holds the switches, pill also looks wonky :frowning:

Plastic reflector is more then fine, it helps with the weight and i guess a bit with the cost :slight_smile:

Doesn’t seems to affect the performance at all.

Yes, but for this premium-priced light you would expect that fenix would put a bit more effort and made machined aluminium reflector.
Maybe I just expect/dreamed too much, because this light is on my “want it so bad” list :confused:

Even the RC40 has plastic reflector i think….

I got the TK61, the feel in hand is amazing, the buttons you mention, are the best i ever felt on any flashlight, the feedback is great. One thing i think Fenix focused more is the driver quality.

antoninodattola, you got a PM.

I don't mind the plastic reflector. As long as it works great and is well built. Lower weight, and no worry of short circuits if you have to replace with smaller mcpcb.

Would be nice to have a bit more mass below the mcpcb. But at the stock 3A current, I doubt it would matter. Only add more weight and cost.

On the stock light I would like to see 4,5A on Turbo and an easy resistor mod to 7A. 0:)

Wow, I think 4,7A is more than enough over-drive to be amazed, toghether with de-doming.
I’m very tempted to mess with my TK61, but I don’t have a clue on where to get a R030 resistor, nor how to “stack” it on top of the R050 one (seems just a blob of solder tho, looking at pic).

Its quite impressive at 4,7A.

But Im already used to a ZY-T08 thats pushing 6,4A with constant current to a de-domed emitter. Its not a huge difference between the lights, and the ZY-T08 is much smaller. I want my TK61 to be a good step up. Im sure 4,7A + dedome is impressive, but I would know that there is still more potential in the light itself..

If the goal is only (4,7A and) 500kcd I would probably have bought TN32 instead. Seems easy to get more power out of it. TK61 seems to have more potential though. :)

You can probably find R030 from Ebay in the correct size.

Or just use three of these smaller R100 resistors from Fasttech. ( They are the same as one R033 when you stack 3 of them). They come in handy on many mods.

The resistor mod is a 5-10 minute job.

I have not done any long term reliability testing on the light though. Except some indoor test on high until the light got uncomfortable hot.

I have contacted Fenix. They do not sell replacement drivers. So if someone screw it up. Then no more TK61 driver....

I might rebuild the light to use a HX-1175B driver that can push out around 7A or whatever I want it to do. It uses a classic mechanical switch, so its not a direct swap. If I go for that driver I might consider a better pill too. I would loose the UI and button features of the stock light. But I think that would be forgotten once I see the throw. :D

Oh well... That is my backup solution at the moment. I did not buy this light for it to only push out 4,7A. J)

I have to focus on the scratch build competition now though. This time of year is really bright here too. So I don't really need a sick thrower now. In 2-4 months I might aim for 700+kcd. Ill see if anyone (or myself with help) figures out something smart to do with the stock driver first and take things from there.

In 2015 chinese will be sweating bullets to please us :smiley:

Deleted original comment as too far off topic.

When my HX-1175b’s arrive, I will figure out how to piggy back a 105c and pull the MCU from the HX-1175b. The same connection should be easy to do with your driver here too (Your stock driver controlling the HX-1175b). You would only need to connect battery positive, battery negative, and then the PWM out from your current MCU. Hopefully, the HX-1175b won’t pull power when no PWM is feed to it.

Anglo-centric, or Euro-centric, or Western-centric, or American-centric?

So how does it throw compared to those other big heads you have?
Fenix reckon 824m, are their distance measurements more accurate than general Chinese lumens measurements?
Thanks
Anton

As seen in my last thrower beamshots comparison thread all my other big heads are modified and far better throwers than stock.

Compared to a pretty much maxed out HD2010 with domed emitters its in a different league when it comes to throw. For the TK61 to be throw as good as a my hot-rodded ZY-T08 with a harder driven de-domed emitter is quite impressive. Im looking forward to see the true potential of the TK61. :)

[quote=Flitsmal]

Fenix reckon 824m, are their distance measurements more accurate than general Chinese lumens measurements? Thanks Anton [/quote]

Their throw distanse are based upon lux (kcd/cd) numbers. Fenix use ANSI standard. Id say Fenix numbers are as close to benchmark numbers as you get them.

How that compares to Chinese measurements? Cant even remember that I have seen any lux numbers on the budget lights I have bought. And If I had seen any numbers. They would probably be as overrated, worthless and all over the place like their lumen numbers on most budget lights. :D

How does 824 meters of throw translate to real life? Well, if the air conditions are perfect and you light up a white house or something, then its barely possible to see that the light hits it. If you try to light up dark mountains/landscape, you are not going to see much at 700++ meters.

What I consider usable throw length will always be lower than the paper numbers. I would say throw length in meters are based on barely lighting up something in perfect conditions.

A 1000lumen light with 170kcd/824meters throw I would say is good for around 150-700 meters depending on how much light you need and what you are going to light up.


RMM have already (before this thread started) been working on the TK61 driver circuit, and he is not done yet. Ill wait and see what he is able to do with it. I have offered my TK61 driver circuit as a "backup" in case he wants to experiment on it.

Good luck with the new driver…
Soon you will be lighting up a whole mountain from 1 km away!! :smiley:
So this light has to be one of the best stock single emitter throwers around?
Cheers
Anton

Yes, one of the best. Probably the best if you are considering throw vs runtime.

TN32 is a very nice option too. Maybe better stock depending on what you are looking for. Its got more power/output. I would highly recommend you to check out that light too.