Ok good deal. No the light never turned on the tail cap lit up until I pressed play.
The emitter should be OK… if in fact +B shorted to -B… I think the LED is completely outside that circuit loop, its just +B => spring => short to body => spring => -B… with the 18650 in between +B and -B.
It might help to take the driver out and inspect it too just in case.
Yep will do when I get back home if I can get that dang reflector off sucker is on there.
Maybe the insulating disc melted?
I dunno… That could be though cause I thought it was glued. I’m guessing a reflector contacting solder joint can do that?
The Sipik I just modded melted it’s plastic ring at only 1A( not a short just an example of poor thermal transfer to a hollow pill) so I’m guessing it’s possible a reflector short would be close enough in proximity to do this. Is that an X5? They do indeed have screw in reflectors though mine does not have a centering disc at all. Maybe it’s simply cross threaded, my SO is a swimmer so we use swim caps as lid removers and strap wrenches. The trick is finding two things that give you a good grip. One other possible location for the short is between the mcpcb and the head. If no screws were used to secure the mcpcb then it’s possible for it to rotate and “scissor” the wires where they pass through the head. This happened to my A6 though fortunately just L-.
If those pictures didn’t show up I’ll post the link again. I don’t see anything wrong yet?
Crap now I want some goldfish.
Upload them to photobucket and paste the share link here.
First set I can see but not the latest ones. Basically there are two kinds of shorts, before the led and after the led. You got the first kind, no light and melted springs. The second kind gives light but no mode control as the short bypasses the control of the driver, or, if it occurs in the tail cap, the switch. This can also result in melted springs when powering triples but is less likely to do so with single emitters mounted on DTP stars. It can however blow emitters with a poor heat path but they turn blue as they die(this process can be greatly accelerated with single emitters powered by large or paralleled cells). :zipper_mouth_face: A short at the switch leaves the driver in control but makes it impossible to interrupt power to change modes or turn the light off.
Here let me help you out with the pic host…
It looks like the reflector dish may have cut into the +B trace and shorted it across to the -LED trace on the MCPCB.
Lol my kids love em.
Ok. Help me see what you see. Also what would be the fix?
I think you’re right. Just over tightened too much. :confounded: Done right flashlights can be awesome but there are plenty of ways to pooch the screw. I think RMM also has thin self adhesive discs for XML/XPG. Kapton tape is even thinner but also easier to cut with the same result. Easing the bottom edge of the reflector would help but you have to be very careful of the coating, it’s easy to scratch and hard to clean.
See what I see, the circle cut through the white solder mask around the led. It allows the reflector to act as a jumper between the copper traces that connect the led to the solder pads. Led boards are like printed circuit boards but have a metal core instead of fiberglass. On top of the core is an insulating layer, above that are the separate traces, and covering both is the white (in this case) solder mask. The solder mask creates the footprint for the led and solder pads and protects them from this kind of short but it’s just fancy paint and not very tough. DTP stars have no insulating layer between the core and the led heat pad(center pad under led) and do a superb job of wicking heat from the led die.
As mentioned above, heat resistant tape(kapton), a thin insulating disc, or repaint the solder mask. A very thin layer of JB weld would do. JB can be thinned with a drop or two of rubbing alchohol. It’s ok to get it right up to the edge of the square substrate just try not to get any on the yellow die itself. It cleans off with RA but it’s much easier to prevent than clean up, a tooth pick works to spread it. Let it cure 24hrs , the RA will also delay cure a bit and you want full strength before you bring the reflector back in play.
The reflector scraped through the protective layer of the mcpcb and caused a short between the + & -…you need to put something between the reflector and the mcpcb so it doesn’t short again.
Awesome thanks guys.
i would NOT trust hot snot even high temp to work in anything that gets hot.it starts softening at too low a temp.