Brinyte B158 mod thread

Nah I don’t usually sell. I’ll cover the emitter with a straw to protect it, but worst case scenario I have to replace a $2 LED

Why not? You can buy 5 B158 sell 4, one stays with you for free :)

But mostly "poor" people like myself have to think this way. If I would have decent monthly incoming I would definitely not do this selling stuff.

Selling is too stressful. I sell things that I don’t want anymore, but I rarely buy things for the purpose of selling. I can accept when something doesn’t work perfectly, but i wouldn’t sell something like that. It drives me nuts.

I received my red light b158 yesterday. I am having a hard time removing the driver. How do you remove it? And also the mcpcb is difficult to remove because it’s glued to the pill.

- Put driver in bench-vise.

- Desolder +- wires from mcpcb.

- Take one tiny nail and put it through +- wire holes

- Take heat gun (or butane torch) in right hand(or vice versa if you are left handed) and start heating from bottom side of the driver

- At the same time time try to press (bit harder) nail from upper side of the pill (U can use hammer or whatever you want here like lets say some wood)

- Take needle nose pliers and put it in a holes of led mcpcb and twitch left or right :)

Same methode than Luminarium iaculator, except i didnt use heat, the nail i used had a blunt rounded point, i tilted it when inserting it in the wire hole so it would rest on the outer part of the driver/contact plate where it meets the wall of the pill to avoid damaging any component, a small deliberate blow on the nail head with a hammer was all it took to free the driver.

Hello everybody
This is my first proper zoomy and my first attempt to dedome a led. And it all worked out beautifully :slight_smile:
XP-G2 S4 2B dedomed with arctic silver, BLF A6 A17DD-L from BG, 18AWG wires everywhere and I’m reading 4,5A in the tail.


Since I didn’t have heat resistant paint I used black marker and sugru around the led. It should be heat resistant to 180°C (356°F). It’s not pitch black and not 100% matte finish, but I wanted to try it out anyway. Black permanent marker leaves way more reflective surface. The plastic ring is underneath, so it should be 100% reversible, if need be.
And some pictures of my badass amp reading setup featuring X6 in the last picture


Nice :) Your A readings encourages me that my uni-t clamp meter readings could be correct. Which battery did you used?

Really interesting way of tail current readings with analogue meter.

Did you noticed lower A readings when gently pressed? (gentle press on battery - and exposed aluminum = lower A readings, fair and hard press = higher readings)

I knew I missed something…
I used a fresh samsung 25R and amp readings always depend on how good is the contact between the materials. That’s why I wanted to show off my amp reading setup, witch has a really nice flat contact surfaces :wink:
But metal surfaces are never ever 100% flat, so pushing down a bit harder just improves to contact = a bit higher readings.

Thanks, I already removed the driver but the aluminum mcpcb is very hard to remove because of the glue. I already damaged large part of the soft aluminum mcpcb and still it won’t come off.

Mine took a bit of force. You need to find the right-sized thin flat-head screw driver. I worked on several points around the edges and pried. It took me a bit longer than in the video. Even if you damage the board, you can always get another copper board and reflow the LED onto it. Just be patient and work on it slowly.

For stubborn MCPCB's, I've used a screwdriver or nail set and gave it a couple light taps from a hammer on the edge of the MCPCB, sideways force if you can - I think it worked every time for me, to loosen them up.

Yeah the mcpcb was harder than the driver for me. The driver was easy because I didn’t care about saving it. I just torched it until whatever glue/solder that was holding it in went away and it came out pretty easy. The little brass ring stayed right where it was.

Yes guys that is because you don't heat enough pill after driver falls off :)

You would be surprised what heat does to even hardest glues like artic alumina. This on B158 is baby compared to that :)

Edit: Done 2 of them again with same results. MCPCB's almost unglued itself from pill with heat treatment (I just slightly twitched with needle nose pliers), emitters(red) stays on their place (not that I will ever use them :) but they survived).

Nobody commented but Zipelgas method of current measurement looks very good and cheap :). If I only new that before I would not bought uni-t clamp meter cause his method look much simpler and better than clamp meter.

Oh I like it! I wonder how many different lights that rig will work for.

Do u guys understand that amp reading setup? I don't get what it is...

Also,as djozz uses this method - low value high watt resistor (0.01 ohms or so, 50W) in series with the cell, like a DMM, but you measure voltage across the resistor and calculate amps - supposedly more reliable than amp meters, clamp or DMM's. The resistor is anywhere from 5$ to $8 or so. Mouser has a good Vishay Dale one, 1% accuracy, for like $8. I got a 0.1R on order, and got a great quality 2 post connector all set to go in a small plastic enclosure (connector and enclosure provided to me). Thinking the connector will help with the setup.

This is the one I'll get in my next Mouser order: mouser.com RH050R0100FE02, probably can be found else where, just couldn't find it at a good price.

Ohhh - got my B158 today, finally - shipped Dec 7th - gonna open it up in a few...

I like the zipelgas rig- simplicity and ease of use at it’s finest :slight_smile: Besides, I’m a softie for analog meters. I think it goes with me getting old and nostalgic (but not nostalgic enough to fix my Heathkit VTVM and start using it again!)

Phil

Now i successfully removed the mcpcb using the heat method, very easy :bigsmile: . Thanks

I’ve used it on almost every flashlight powerful enough, for me to care about amps and no problems so far. Additionally you can always attach heavy duty leads and use it in whatever situation.
But I don’t want to highjack this mod thread, so I created another with a few more pictures.