Anyone sell spare board/driver for an easy fix?
I am a total newbie but I suspect you only need to reflow the LED. Maybe Jason can chime in on that.
I kind of suspect ttylamg can’t do a reflow. You can try adventure sports flashlights and see if Matt has a big 5050 mcpcb he can put it on. Otherwise you can buy just the led from overseas at Kiadomain and reflow it yourself. It seems the 3v is still a bit hard to find.
You also need to check if the driver is damaged or not. The MCU runs at a lowish voltage and uses a resistor to bring the voltage down some. The operating max voltage is 5.5 volts. If fed 8.4 volts the resistor probably won’t bring down the voltage enough. I don’t know for sure.
I would take a spare 3 volt led, xml, xpl, whatever and install it just to see if the driver is still working. You’ll probably have to test it with the reflector out so use a weak battery or be careful not to ramp up too high.
If the driver is still okay, then consider ordering a proper replacement led.
I will ask around about whether the driver will survive or not.
I contacted Mateminco, they offered me a new LED and driver for a low price, however shipping was more expensive than all parts, i remember shipping was something like 9 or 10 dollar
I still have a spare CW LED on DTP, don’t know how much shipping will be, let me check
EDIT, regular post is 5 Dollar
The button aux light still runs and operate with all the commands, does that mean driver is still good?
Awesome, yokiamy, I’ll pm you for detail thanks
I just heard back from Texas_Ace, he says the MCU will survive most of the time. It sounds like your driver might he okay and you just need a new led.
If the led blew quickly, that is the only thing needing a change. However, sometimes the led does not blow right away and it can overload the FET / 7135’s as well and damage them.
Do you have any 3 volt led mounted on a mcpcb that you could try out? If you used a wooden stick or something to press the mcpcb down to the flashlight base (for good heat transfer) you could ramp up all the way testing the 7135 chips, then double click briefly to Turbo and verify the FET is okay. Use a very weak battery maybe around 3.0 to 3.4 volts or so just to make sure Turbo doesn’t blow the led. Your spare led might not handle very high amps - depending on what led you might have laying around.
The parts don’t cost that much and I was thinking this level of diagnostics is a bit much, especially for someone like me. I am hoping a direct replacement since I am going to do an aux board from lexel, maybe he can build a replacement board with aux led in it or attached for me :). Then I just switch it out… I really appreciate everyone jumping in to give ideas. This conversation will probably help others.
They should put some warning to not do what I did. The instruction sheet was so small, I can barely read it, and thought to myself “bah there’s nothing in here that I don’t know”. And since I was taking the 28650 out of my chase light I immediately thought “hmm if this is a single battery I wonder what double voltage will do (like how bright)”. With out even thinking it through. Now I’ll never make that same mistake again… just glad I did this on this light and not a more expensive light.
I have a sst-40 fwiw, still 3v tho.
Ok, I tried to take it apart while waiting on vendors response for repair parts. Online video shows while the disassembly while its doable, but its getting into the “a bit more work than I care to do” territory. because of the retaining hw, it requires hunting down a tool I don’t have, and because of head button, the assembly is a hair more tricky.
while looking at the board, I tested the following with a voltmeter.
1+2 has good voltage
3+4 also has good voltage 3.65
Does this mean the led is the only thing i need to change out? so I just need to source a sst-40 dedomed (upgrade I was thinking :laughing: and solder it on?
thanks again.
I just dropped my FT03 from about 3 feet and put a crack straight across the lens. No luck finding a replacement lens. Does anyone know where I can get one for a reasonable price?
You can’t really test a driver this way. It changes current, not voltage. The number 1 in your pic, red wire, is straight battery power. If you put your negative probe to the aluminum body you will always get battery voltage.
Do you have any old LEDs already mounted to a star or an old junk flashlight you can take the led out of?
You need a cheap pair of snap ring pliers to loosen and tighten the driver retaining ring. I use a cheap $5 set like this.
https://www.harborfreight.com/snap-ring-pliers-with-interchangeable-heads-63845.html
I don’t even use the handles usually, I just hold the interchangeable tip and twist it with my hands.
This is a highly recommended tool for flashlight modders. You can usually find similar at local hardware, auto parts or tool stores.
Measure the diameter and thickness and search the internet. I replaced the lens in my Q8 from a shop on Aliexpress and total cost was $3. It was not fancy AR coated, but that is no big deal to me.
Okay will do thanks.
Edit: Bought from this seller on Ali - the size is 0.9mm smaller in dia but I don’t think that will be critical, in fact it might save it from cracking if I drop it again.
Ok, I got the tool and opened it, now I can see the led is well sealed on a copper heatsink, the while film probably helps reflect light and hide the board, and I am not sure how I would remove the led when it’s time to replace. Funny enough luminous hq is local to me, if I can only get them to sell me a sst-40:)
I bought a cheap flashlight from dollar store to plan on using that led. For diagnostic can I just run 2 wires from the sst-40 to a good led? If it works with some ramping on 3.3v (3 old aaa) what’s next? It seems the sst-40 is difficult to remove/install.
There is no white film. that is just the centering ring, it lifts right out.
The board is held in by two screws.
Just desolder the two wires and remove the screws and the board comes right out.
Can I test this without desoldering? Considering that this is on a heat sink, it’s gonna be tough to desolder. After desolder the screws are shown? Meaning the solder is on the screw right now? Looks like led is either on the copper by itself or the white part is a very thin board that’s some how stuck to the copper.
You are making this way too complicated. And I am a newbie!
Put the screws back in. All it takes is a touch of a good soldering iron to remove each wire. Just hold it with a tweezer or needle nose, touch the soldering iron and pull it off. THEN take out the screws and remove the copper board.
You can put in a new board or reflow the LED. Search for that.
Where is the screw, I just don’t see it. The other thing I was thinking of was to cut the wire instead of soldering/desoldering
There are normally two screws holding the board down. They do not appear in the photos
Why in the world would you cut the wires when you know you have to solder them to connect them back?
That’s what I am saying, if I am replacing that copper assembly then I can just cut it and use twist and shrink wrap / tape. I guess I need to find out what I am replacing either just the led or that assembly. If it’s just led I don’t see how that can be done…I don’t know how they’ve attached the led to the copper