Olight S1 Mini teardown

EDIT : The simplest way of doing it is to drill in the optic and light the bezel with a tiny flat screwdriver.
The optic will be ruined, but you can swap it with any 17mm optic from Yajiamei on Aliexpress.
Everything else will be saved, so don’t think twice about it.

Original post :

Yeah, I know I can’t help but destroy everything…
Still, I finally got to open the brand new S1 Mini that Oligth sent to me…
I’ve received two S1 Mini today : HCRI XP-G3 and XM-L2 CW so I decided to sacrifice the HCRI to see what could be done with it.
Let’s be honest, this one is NOT modding friendly AT ALL.
I had to decide that it could possibly never work again after this operation but I still wanted to show everyone if it could be done.
IT CAN.

Steps :

- remove battery

- pry the button bezel (you’ll scratch the light for sure…) with a blade

- remove the rubber button

- remove the black plastic washer in the battery tube (protecting drivers components)

- push the driver by the switch opening to TEAR THE WIRES (really, or maybe unsolder them but I never saw a thin enough soldering iron…)

- remove the driver

- remove the remaining wires to free the two holes from the LED shelf

- put some thin pliers down in the battery tube to allow pushing the optic through the wires holes

- HAMMER ! well, I used a wall to tap against the pliers handle, thus push hard on the optic (that will let some scratches under the optic…)

  • DONE

Pics :

Alu MCPCB… we’ll see if I replace it.
Now I have to choose an emitter, I think it’ll be a 219C 3500K 9050.
I don’t want to open it again…

Thanks :+1:

Ouch. This is approaching Zebralight levels of mod-unfriendliness. Or perhaps it’s even on par now?

Thanks for your determination!

While I understand the design choices by Olight to make this thing as short as possible, I’d prefer the lights come with a disassembly manual and tools :wink:

Interesting to see how the optics work with a Nichia. Would actually be nice to see several different emitters tested with it (Oslon, Luxeon, Samsung…) before you put it back into the light for good.

I could try Oslon square, 219B, 219C, XP-L, XP-L HI and XP-L2.
I’m not sure to use the light in the end, so I’m not in a hurry to re-assamble it.

WOW, you’ve done some risky business trying to open the light. One wrong move could made the light useless, at least in stock form.

Ill probably stay away from this one. I just cant risk it. To expensive to ruin it.

Thnx, x3. Conclusion if you want this light, hurry and buy one of the discounted old s1 mini’s.

I await your success!

fwiw
the Ti SMini is on sale here for 30% off w code blacknovember
also
the black copper s mini is on sale for $35, no code required
but neither has the XP TIR, so no Nichia…

some people don’t mind CW, and others are fine with Low CRI NW

Im tempted by the Copper SMini, but low CRI is not my thing… and I have concerns about its Flicker Index… I also wish it had the low battery warning of the Aluminum SMini… in fact, I wish it had the battery level indicator of the Klarus Mi1c too…

but my buy it now finger is twitching, sometimes it does not respond to reason :slight_smile:

Do it! The olight tir in the s mini gives a real useful edc / close range beam. Love my Smini ti with 5D 80+cri emitter.

Can you post a pic with the lens face down taken from above and to the side?

So I’ve done a couple of test, with different emitters :

219 B : Beautiful beam, no artifact

219C : beautiful beam, no artifact

XP-L HI : beautiful beam, no artifact

Oslon square : beautiful beam, no artifact, narrowest beam (due to smaller emitter surface)

I’ll go with a 219C :slight_smile:

Thanks for the tests! Now, where can I send my S1 Mini to be improved? :wink:

Outstanding! Thanks :slight_smile:
I will take a CuSMini with the High CRI TIR and N219b 4500k 9080 please… where do I send the check?:wink:

Well… I’m still stuck with a non working S1 Mini, so I can’t make any promise but we’ll see how I can make it work :wink:

If only we could source this new TIR alone…

Can’t see a second image, just a “no” icon. Was it an overhead from an angle (in stead of straight nine onto back? If so can you repost?

Oof, I was hoping it would not be so troublesome to mod this.

So I managed to fry the driver… don’t know how, but it doesn’t work anymore.
I opened my S Mini Ti (my EDC), dropped the XP board from S1 Mini with a 219C reflowed on it, put the new frosted XP TIR and have now the pefect EDC.
Nichia tint, Olight UI !

Congrats!
jealous with admiration
When can I get one in Copper?:slight_smile:

You and maukka gave me such low expectations for this light that it turns out to be not as bad as I thought! Still disappointing, but not as much as it would have been otherwise. Do you think you will be able to come up with a non-fatal way to mod this?