Serp,

That is a fantastic mod! Thanks for the great photos and especially the links to the parts you used!

I do not like only a small gap between the bezel and the housing
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15681

Wabi Sabi

That gap is only a small flaw in an excellent build, take the excellence, accept the small flaw… Great work…

I am still too chicken to do more than swap TIR’s in mine…

Nice job

What driver did you use?

I think your heatsink (is it thermal glue?) is a bit too thick. The top of your carclo sit’s a bit too high for the gap to close on the bezel. Does the carclo slide all the way down? I had to sand off the edges a bit.
Or maybe you can sand down the heatsink. Or the noctigon board a bit, but that is not really nice for the already limited heatsinking maybe.
Or place an (O-)ring to fill the gap.

I don’t know these nichia’s you used. Tint looks nice. Is it bright?
I’m looking to mod a second one with the new noctigon board with the small added pad for a locator led and high cri nichia’s. Someday

Worked out nice for you! It’s really my favourite small powerhouse.
Really nice job.

Hi
>What driver did you use?
Original. Wires are soldered in place of the LED. I removed the LED on the soldering station (hot air 240С)
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15303

No thermal glue, only termalpast.
Optics sits right on the edge. In addition, Im made a pit under it
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15683

triple rests on a support of aluminum desired thickness
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15304
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15253

>I don’t know these nichia’s you used. Tint looks nice. Is it bright?
Not bright. I’m like it
It’s warm white led (2500-2700K)
0,01А-0,25А-1,05А – after change SMD resistor R35 for R50
Turbo 2,25А
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/album.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15254

i have had one for about 9 months
used normally
last week the switch broke off the circuit board
kind of a bad design
pushing the button strains the 4 solder joints every time you press
be prepared for it to not last forever
i emailed david, the creator, he seems sympathetic but does not offer help
so far

i can post a link to pictures of the break

wle

i used to be a fan of this light
but i have had one for about 9 months, normal use, and the switch just broke off the circuit board
this is a weak design
every time you press the button, it stresses 4 tiny solder joints holding the switch on the board
sooner or later it will fatigue and fall off

wle

Wle, that is good to know, on the III version, the switch is body mounted, and mine is still going strong. I use the IV version as a back up anyway.Thanks for the update!

body mounted might fix that problem, the IV has it on the circuit board, at the worst possible angle

i’m going to fix it with a switch made of 2 wires in the air, that the button can press together

wle

It looks like a drop or two of epoxy between the body and the switch would also solve the problem.

Mike

the force of pushing the button would then be held by the epoxy – IF it stuck and did not also get tweaked loose by button pressing…

wle

I have a few questions about the DQG 18650 Tiny 4th that I couldn’t find answered anywhere.

1) Is the driver in the light really constant current regulated? That doesn’t seem possible since the driver board seems to lack an inductor (though I can’t find a picture of the bottom of the PCB). At best it seems like it can maintain constant current only as long as the battery voltage stays above Vf using linear regulation or high speed PWM control (though I didn’t see a MCU either). The CNQG page, just says “Current Regulation”. I didn’t see any runtime vs. output graphs anywhere that would shed more light on this.

2) Can it fit protected 18650’s that are ~70mm long?

1) Is the driver in the light really constant current regulated?
No, it’s linear
Chip Qx7137 http://www.go-gddq.com/upload/2015-09/temp_15090911368037.pdf
http://forum.fonarevka.ru/picture.php?albumid=1062&pictureid=15208

WARNING

the switch design is very bad
mine just broke off
at the SAME TIME it also failed, so i could not even solder it back

i had had it about 8 months, daily use but nothing extreme

i emailed the company dude, ric, he did not seem to care

wle

WARNING
switch design is very bad

mine broke off inside the light, after about 8 months of reasonable use

AND at the same time, it quit working, so i could not even solder it back

emailed company head, ric, he did not seem to care

(near the letter “K”, is where it SHOULD be)

wle

wle wrote:

WARNING
switch design is very bad

mine broke off inside the light, after about 8 months of reasonable use

AND at the same time, it quit working, so i could not even solder it back

emailed company head, ric, he did not seem to care

(near the letter “K”, is where it SHOULD be)

wle

!https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8835/28776883092_b3df40509d_z.jpg!

Same thing happened to mine with only a few weeks of moderate use, bad design the switch could of done with maybe some glue from a heat glue gun or similar behind to hold it rather than reliance on just the 2 solder pins to hold it in place. shame as I liked it alot

i think it uses 4 solder pads, but still this the WORST design.

all of the force of pressing the button goes to bending it back.. it is bound to fail
sorry to say
but i did like it
i bought another one when gearbest had them for $14, has not arrived yet

manker u11 is a better light, just bigger and heavier…

wle

Cross-reference on the switch failure, as there’s a separate thread for that also:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/49297

wle wrote:

WARNING

the switch design is very bad
mine just broke off

I will add one FET transistor in parallel to the one that is responsible for the turbo mode (AOFV). Gate will be on 6th leg of microcontroller.
I could still change the transistors on the board for the best, with less resistance

http://s019.radikal.ru/i611/1612/cc/b73b1b0f7673.jpg

Does this flashlight have any kind of low voltage notification such as blinking or auto shut off? Trying to understand if non-protected cells are OK or if it’s safer to use protected ones in it.

The stock light has no protection for low voltage.

If it dims, switch battery or check it from time to time.
Or mod it

Is a faulty switch a common issue with this flashlight? I just received mine today. It worked fine the first couple of times, but now it only works sometimes. It either will not turn on or will not turn off or will not switch to a different mode most of the time. Is there an easy fix?

Edit: just found the warning thread related to this issues. I should have done more research before buying this junk.

Ok, so if I push up (toward the lens) on the switch button, it works. But if I just press straight down on it, it does not work. Is this normal?

yes it is unfortuately something that can happen.
as i had warned.
the guy from DQG used to post on here, i am not sure what happened to him.
does anyone know?

i emailed him when mine failed, (2 of them) but no response.

it would be great if the light worked

to answer other questions, it is safe with unprotected cells
what it does is step down levels until it gets to the lowest one, that one will blink to say things are getting low, then eventually it cuts off, protecting the battery
not sure what level it cuts off at but it seems OK for that function.

wle

Dutcheee wrote:

The stock light has no protection for low voltage.

If it dims, switch battery or check it from time to time.
Or mod it

DQG tiny 18650 IV?
yes it does have protection, it goes to lower modes and eventually shuts off.
wle

I just noticed in the OP photos that the head unscrews, but mine will not budge. Is there a trick to unscrew it or do I just need to eat some more spinach and try again?

it does unscrew—may be locktited in or something
doubt it
just use more juice
it;s kind of hard to grab, thin on the edge
use a rubber jar opener pad thingy

wle

wle wrote:

Dutcheee wrote:

The stock light has no protection for low voltage.

If it dims, switch battery or check it from time to time.
Or mod it

DQG tiny 18650 IV?
yes it does have protection, it goes to lower modes and eventually shuts off.
wle

I wasn’t aware or I forgot.. So, what’s the cut-off voltage?

is possible to use for this flashlight unprotected cells?thanks

vresto wrote:

is possible to use for this flashlight unprotected cells?thanks