anyone familiar with the ld-25 driver?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

As per the title.

I got this driver a bit back:-

http://www.lck-led.com/constant-current-driver-board-mode-p-914.html?cPath=37_135

I was going to use it with a u2 led with my c8, so I soldered it and the u2 into a c8 brass pill, fitted it in the host to test and it worked, mode selection etc fine. However, I couldn’t get the whole set up to work in a satisfactory way - reflector, wrong size led die etc. So I put it to one side until the edc18650 was posted (think its from intl outdoor). Upon seeing this host, and the fact they decided to drive the xm-l’s at 2.5a (the ld-25 gives 2.6a) I decided I had found a home for my ld-25 and u2, could have a go at building up a host kit and fill my edc requirement in one fell swoop……. In theory.

Anyway, my kit arrived Thursday, long story short, I had a play Thursday, and soldered once, but was not happy, had to unsolder, relieve the pill then resolder, after unsoldering from the c8 pill (yep that’s four lots of heat so far) then found the wires were too long and when trying to strip the neg wire, pulled it off the board (unsoldering, resolder neg wire, resolder back into pill).

Upon finally getting the pill built up and in the host, fitting a cell and hitting the magic button, nothing. Tried various tests out of the host, the only time I got a glimmer out of the led was when accidentally putting the leads across the led connections to read voltage and leaving the meter set to continuity.

A bit of testing, I have continuity from positive spring to led positive, and get part of a reading negative to led negative (about 1 ohm, but not enough to set the buzzer off or get a reading on anything other than diode/bell).

I suspect I have toasted the driver, since according to the photos in the above link, I have resolder’d the neg wire in the right place, and I have seen the board drive this led before. I also get continuity from pill to neg ring etc.

Any other suggestions? Or should I just order another board and be done?

2

Sorry gords I cant help but if its any consolation I feel your pain. Been there many times.

3

No worries, the drivers only about four quid, just frustrating I can’t build it up tonight. I’ll order another and start afresh, the host will make a real nice edc, and its all a learning process, its probably a bit small for a first try tbh, but what the hell, you gotta start somewhere. :bigsmile:

4

Are you able to see the other side of the board? Problem could be there or a hair wire solder short.

5

My guess is there is a short somewhere. The first 2 drivers I attempted to modify were fried, but the led still worked albiet just in direct drive. Try posting some pics of the current setup, might help diagnose the issue.

6

Mmmm, pics, yeah, hmmmm.

The driver is a double stack set up, I kind of suspect a short or broken trace given what its been subjected too. Thing is, for the cost of a new one, is it worth stripping it out again, trying to sort it then refit it again?

Personally, I think not, I’m just going to order a job lot of drivers come pay day and go on an assembly/blinky elimination mission :cowboy_hat_face: