As I said in a previous post, I have a generic no-name torch that I managed to kill by trying to clean up the LED after the dome fell off the emitter.
I ordered a new XR-E R2 WC from FastTech and it arrived after about a week. Can’t fault them for that. 8)
Today I managed to get the time to attempt repair.
I have never soldered before and was worried that I would either burn myself, set fire to the house, totally destroy the torch or something else. It wouldn’t actually matter if I did kill the torch as it is such a cheapo.
Here is the dead torch:
And here it is stripped down:
Pill with blown LED:
New LED:
Old LED de-soldered:
New one soldered in place:
Put it back together and test it:
WOHOO, it lives again!
Only one thing left to do.
Kettle on and celebrate with a nice hot coffee in your favourite mug:
@stevetexas: JD is my favourite tipple. Followed by coffee. Tried the JD coffee but wasn’t too keen.
@JohnnyMac: I too am surprised at how clean those joints came out. One of my Mags will be the next victim. I mean willing participant. Not sure which one yet. Got a Solitaire, Minimag 2AAA, a Minimag 2AA and a 2D. Got ideas for each but spare money is scarce at the moment.
@janko: I got some Arctic Silver left over from my PC modding days. That will be pressed into action as I fear the original emitter’s dome fell off due to overheating. As you can see, the pill is hollow so only makes contact with the board on the edge cutting down on the area able to transmit heat. I know that a solid pill could be made or purchased but to be honest, for what it cost me for the torch in the first place I don’t think it is worth it. If this torch dies again it won’t bother me. At least I have proved to myself that I can indeed use a soldering iron.
For those of you who have been here, if you can remember :), is this a common theme, for a newbie (like me) to finally get forced to do something like this to repair a light that he/she broke, and that’s like the “ice breaker”? That was the way it was for me also, so I was wondering?
Thanks guys. As and when I get some spare cash, further mods will be done.
Forgot to mention, got a C8 that is multi-mode WITHOUT memory. Everytime I switch it on I get the next mode. Not good for on top of an air rifle with a thumb pressure switch really is it? This will probably (more than likely really) be my next mod.
Before any more mods are done I got to spend on my car and my optician wants to empty my bank balance too.
Nice work, I’m working on my first flashlight related soldering job soon, package is in San Francisco. You probably know this, but that is a clone or is a sipik sk68.
I think that most “production” lights have pretty conservative drive current, so probably what stevetexas said would be about right. I would guess that most production/manufactured (as opposed to custom builds or mods) would be in the 1 - 1.5 amps, or maybe even < 1 amps.
But I was curious why are you asking this question?
you really should use some thermal glue like fujik to hold the led pcb down, I don’t see any thermal paste right now 
