I just found BLF a couple of days ago and remembered of a bitter-bad purchase: Ultrafire C3 with extension tube from DX. It never worked.
I ran to an obscure card box and found it. With inflamed ideas rapidly forming in my head (partially your fault guys), I wondered if is there a drop in module to mod the Ultrafire C3 P4 (single mode). Since it never worked (well, it flashed for a split second the first time I put in a rechargeable AA…) I thought it wouldn’t hurt trying to repair it, at least to cure the hurt feelings it gave me back then. After all it was my first “branded” and expensive flashlight after a couple of 12 led oh-so-simple candle-likes. After that I tried my luck with Romisen RC-G2 and I still have some new unused in the box waiting somewhere for the day they final will be used.
I tried to solder to improve the contacts and even direct driving the led, without desoldering it from the driver though.
I suppose since I am willing to get my hands dirty it wouldn’t hurt to try to upgrade it with a better Led emitter and driver, and maybe even a couple of 14500’s or one 18650 since I’m buying some protected lithium’s and charger to try in the Sipik SK68.
Best bang-for-buck or run times are not my priority, I would like a nice strong light for occasional look-for-the-cats at night kind of thing. Doesnt need to be the most up to date light-punch. I am a complete newbie, have some soldering skills but never done _that _to a flashlight, hence the ‘drop in’ idea sounds better…
Even the original P4 would be a good idea.
I’m willing to throw in some $10, not much more just in case the casing or other mechanical parts are to be blamed, and not the LED-driver set.
Any ideas?
Thanks a lot to all of you who made it this far, and blessings for the repliers.
Oh, yes, English is not my language, sorry for the weird stuff.
1. “even direct driving the led, without desoldering it from the driver”.
not sure what you mean - maybe you put some leads from a battery straight to the LED? if so, not a good idea - 1.2 and 1.5V batteries will do nothing, and charged lithium ion batteries will probably kill it, maybe instantly
2. “a couple 14500s or one 18650”
two 14500s will fry the driver, maybe the led. one 18650 won’t fit
FYI, C3s were known to have a couple of consistent problems. The one I had in all 3 I purchased was solder blobs around the outside edge of the driver, on the bottom side. In other words, the positive end of the battery never touch the driver because there were blobs of solder that touched the shoulder of the batter before it could reach the driver. A bit of solder wick and soldering iron fixed that.
About the direct driving I tried with two AA’s that provided 2,6V, but probably that wouldn’t be enough…
The idea of two 14500 is absurd and you are right, I made a huge mess in my head. I meant two AA’s or a lithium, didn’t know the 18650 won’t fit.
Thanks for the warning about the C3’s. I should probably bet my money in a reliable branded EDC. I was looking at Balder SE-1 with a XM-L T6 for its affordable price ($23) or something like that, although what I probably need is a good flooder. Anyone know a good flashlight on that budget range? ($15 ~ $30). Doesn’t even need to be small…
i haven’t had the chance to try one, and like the look of the xeno e03 better anyway. it is a bit more than your range, or maybe just inside it these days, but as long as you don’t mind the mode order (medium, high, low), it is a great light
if you want to spend less, and don’t care about the ability to use alkaline/nimh, try the hd2011 - cheap and floody
I looked at the Fandyfire hd2011 and it looks promising for the features and price ($16,50), but I’d still have to buy the 18650, and a decent one is around $10 so I’ll just invest that into a proper Xeno for $28,50 or Balder. Any other suggestions are always welcome.
First you need to take it apart and take pictures(losing a few key components in the process), then you need to spend several hours reading contradictory suggestions. After a day or two, you will begin to buy parts online, after a month(parts still not here), you wil realize you ordered the wrong stuff and order more, after another month or two you will have the right parts but will ruin them on the learning curve. By this point you will either: A) Have long since forgotten this project having purchased seven other lights or B) Persevered and electrocuted yourself playing with it in the bathtub or C) Turned out a piece of anodized flame thrower at which point you get a pin that says”I am a modding fool”(or something ending in fool). Have at it!
I finally managed to control myself and sat back on the chair (was rolling on the floor making weird noises, according to some bystanders) and decided I should properly acknowledge the view-of-the-future glipse granted by you.
Lets see:
No, don’t have the necessary discipline.
Hm… check.
I had a brief moment of clarity and decided to ask for help here first. I confess I already had a list of parts that would fit and necessary tools, such as a file to resize bigger drivers, thermal paste etc.
A) Probability around 108%
B) Not enough self pity
C) Not enough incendiary tendencies
Is this common knowledge I would eventually find after wasting, I mean spending quite a reasonable amount of time reading through this forum?
The Ultrafire C3’s are notorious for problems. Read this thread about troubleshooting. I found that I had to put some copper wire in the head and tail-switch to make one of my C3’s work consistently.
