Last night I tried another test. I removed the isolator and ran leads from the battery to the + & - , we have consistant light! Cool!!! At least I know the LED works ok. This morning i will desolder the back and have a look. There were several metal particles of brass and aluminum coming off of the threads in various places so I am hoping there are some on the board causing the problem. Fingers crossed!
Are defective boards common on these? Hoping this isnt the case and we just have a contaminate.
No luck finding wick at the hardware store. Try’d to make some from some cu wire covered in paste, no luck just mess. Ugh. Tried prying the thing apart after i removed some of the solder. No luck, I can see where this is going…
So after my messing around I now have consistant light from the LED, unfortunately you have to look directly at it to see that it is indeed on? If I remove the isolator and apply power directly to the pos and neg it lights up the way it should? If I completely remove the electronics and solder leads directly to the springs would it work as a single mode light, downsides to this? Have to step away from this thing for a bit.
Alright guy’s after you remove the solder is it very difficult to remove the board from the brass pill? I’ve been prying away at it and it hasn’t budged. Any tips or tricks. Wondering if maybe there is still solder down in between the two.
Mike
Sometimes you can stick something through the hole in the top of the pill (where the LED wires go in) and push the driver out from that side. That's also a good way to rip the LED wires off of the driver or damage the driver, so be careful or be ready to re-solder the leads. Usually if the driver is bad, there is no fixing it. However you might be happy with a different driver. 17mm is the most common size.
Is the board there just to provide the 5 modes? If so can I just wire it directly to the pos and neg springs?
You can modify it for direct drive, like you're talking about. Ideally the driver regulates the power as well, supplying a safe voltage and/or current. If you supply 4.2V plus the amps to go with it, you would burn it out. But realistically you can probably direct drive most LED's.
Thanks, still trying to pry it apart. Tough little bastard!
Radio Shack should have de-solder wick. In a pinch you can try the old ham radio trick of stripping some copper braid out of a length of coaxial cable and use it.
Ah thank you! I do have coax cable, will def try this tomorrow. Would love to actually see how bright this thing is.
To remove tough drivers first I use an exacto knife and cut through the solder around the edges. I usually look for a small hole in the driver near the edge, most have one. Use a vice grip and a small nail and work it back and forth until it punches through the driver. Then pry the driver up with the nail, you might have to cut some more solder after it starts moving. That should get the driver out for you. If you want to make your light direct drive remove at much stuff off the bad board you can get off of it. Hopefully if the driver isn't to destroyed from removing it you can reuse it just solder the positive wire from the led to the middle of the burnt driver and the negative to the outside edge and push it back in. Good Luck
Woohooo! Finally got it working. Thanks for the help guys, I followed your advice and removed the circut board and rewired it directly as stated above. It’s just a single mode now, full power but thats ok it works.
Mike