What did you mod today?

Glad I never found that out, I wouldn’t have been able to do the 500+ mods I’ve done as I don’t have flux nor have I ever… :wink:

You have trust in your skills, it works as a fine substitute :smiley:

I never could solder until I started working on flashlights. Got the Hakko 888 station and some .031 Kester solder and it suddenly got much easier. Before you know it I was stacking 7135’s… :wink:

Flux helped me a bit when i tried to use lead free as a beginner. Since i switched to leaded solder I dont even bother with flux. I dont care what it says it makes a sticky mess.

I may try lead free again now that i have a couple dozens mods under my belt, but maybe not. It just works

I use organic flux, the “washer fluid”-looking stuff. Works a treat. No idea what’s in it, maybe M-stoff and water, who knows.

Wiring up some small resistors to eliminate the dreaded “hyperflash” when using LED bulbs, and needed the Evil Third Hand to hold the wire and resistor against each other, sooooooooo precariously. Slightest jiggle, and they pull apart.

Wellp, a drop of organic flux to sizzle away, apply a blob of molten solder, and it’d flow nicely… but almost instantly skin-over and turn ugly. Needed a coupla more passes with flux+iron to get a solid (haha) connection without snapping apart.

Without flux, it’d turn butt-ugly and might not even be a good joint.

Then again, I was going easy on the heat, not cranking it up like I usually do. Didn’t want to turn the wire-insulation into “bellbottoms” (melting, pulling-back, and bunching up).

On, say, soldering a through-hole component on a peecee board, where you can press hard and get good heat transfer, the rosin-core in the solder is often enough.

I’ve always used lead free solder with no flux other than what’s already in it.
Not that difficult to get a good solder joint, at least now that I have a good quality soldering iron.

I’ve always just used butter.

Eswitch wires on fet+1 boards are the hardest things ive run across and its prob cause i refuse to change tips mid project. The signal wires on L4P drivers are so easy and have huge durable pads.

Here's the Convoy L2 with 1mm White Flat hitting a white Van at 480m.

I haven’t even owned extra flux for decades, although I soldered thousands of my self developed boards “professionally” in the first years of my business live, back in the 80s. There is plenty of flux in the middle of the solder wire, I just had to learn the proper technique. Not much different with unleaded solder nowadays.

Time for a quick one before I put the dinner on and the beers start to take effect... :-)

Added some 3K carbon fibre tube to the CRX SR4-Cu and an o-ring & CF stop to the end of the battery tube.

This covering gives a little buffer before cooking the hands with the light on full tilt :D

CRX SR4-Cu-CF

Copper, brass, carbon fibre & titanium construction
Quad Nichia 219C 5000K emitters
20mm Copper DTP MCPCB
20mm x 7mm solid copper heatsink
22mm x 2mm dual coated ARC glass
Green GITD glow bezel
Emisar D4v2 ramping driver
Copper, tritium & glass electronic tail switch
Lockout-able
Magnetic cell contacts
56, 2mm x 2mm magnets in tail
18650 cell compatible

Max 3400lm
Length – 97mm
Width – 27mm
Weight – 241g (with 18650 cell)

Nice addition, and good luck with the cooking. (I’m off-duty, we are going out for dinner this year in an hours time :innocent: ).
Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas :slight_smile: :beer:

Main reason for it is that I damaged the inside of the head a bit.

But I didn’t want to wait till Thursday I looked around in my workplace what I could use, then I remembered I have a Dremel tool. :person_facepalming:
So I used the Dremel with a small drum sander the enlarge the inside of the head and removed the damage. Also sanded the board a bit smaller with a nice bevel on the underside so it will sit flush.

And, after replacing the springs for those beautiful springs from Blue, the light is assembled and is working. :partying_face:
Used the small spring on the driver and the big one on the switch. Have to say that the springs are a but large, you’d need to use some force to put the tailcap on.



Always nice to save a light!
Fijne kerst, thijsco!

What is the purpose of that rim that forces u to sand mcpcb? Ive assembled 3 or 4 of these and never considered it.

Yes it is!

With the LH351D’s there is a slight hint of green in the beam (as reported by many others), compared to the XP-G2’s 5500K that where in there before (RIP! :cry: )
I don’t find it to be that bad, probably not noticeable in real life use.

Fijne kerst Djozz! :beer:

Extra flux really helps my rework, though more recently I’ve found that adding a bunch of fresh solder (and the embedded flux) works well too, and with the added bonus that it can heat multiple legs at once on chips like the 7135.

Same story in my case but it started just a year ago. My first mod was replacing a ref in S2+ with a shaking hands. A few months ago started soldering and that gave me the ability to assembly a flashlight from components which is great. I learn how the things work but there is still a lot to get know. I appreciate this forum a lot :wink: thanks guys!

Changed the Driver of my eagle eye X7 with Luxeon MZ 90CRI from original with resistor mod to Biatro Driver from Lexel.
Got 1800 Lumen instead of 1200.
and with bypassed switch and spring I got 2200Lumen.