What did you mod today?

I wouldn’t apply pressure as it cools. Get rid of the excess using a toothpick or something to flick it away. It will settle on its own

Tap harder. You probably have still too much solder between pads and LED.

How’s the beam of the E05 with the 219B?

I have the E05-I with Samsung Emitter. Guess the 219B would make the spot even smaller, so I’m hestitant.

I was giving it a good solid thunk, but I wasnt quick or dexterous enough with the toothpick. The datasheet stated to not keep it at 200C for more than 2 minutes and up to 260C for 1 additional minute. I didnt want to damage the emitter so I was trying to be quick.

Overall, the beam is ever so slightly narrower, but the spill seems brighter and more usable. There are some minor beam artifacts in the hotspot, but nothing noticeable in real world use.

I’ve experienced the same issue as you when tapping the LED and having the solder creep right back under the LED. That seemed to happen when trying to remove the last bit of extra solder.

I now hold the LED down with a cotton swab and then swipe away at the extra solder with a toothpick. I split the toothpick to make the end smaller and flatter to help with the swiping.

Congrats on your reflow! And if you’re concerned about the extra solder, just heat it back up again to give it another shot (quickly).

EX10 Ti, with sw45k mod
low 1 lumen (16340 same as CR123)
max 225 lumens (16340), 150 lumens (CR123)

w original XR-3
low 0.3 lumens (16340 same as CR123)
max 79 lumens (16340), 75 lumens (CR123)

fwiw EX10 runs regulated on LiIon
EX11.2 does not hold steady output on LiIon

===
centering ring/reflector spacer for xp LED

16mm xp compatible mcpcb

very nice! I think I have the same silicone work mat

thank you :slight_smile:

you have very good taste … lol

Well not yesterday, but happened within the last week. I performed the following mods on my blue anodized Lumintop LM10:

  • O-ring switch mod. Exactly the same as for FW3A. Made even simpler since the bag of o-rings I got from Amazon for my FW3A probably contained 100 o-rings of the right size.
  • File anodizing off bottom of switch pill. The LM10’s tailcap contains a pill that screws in from the back. This pill holds everything in place and feels very secure. However, I noticed that with my blue anodized LM10, the light wasn’t as bright as my FW3A. I thought this might be because all the threads were also anodized where main current needs to pass through. A very light sanding to remove anodizing on the bottom of the switch pill seems to have fixed this issue.

The LM-10 is pretty nice. Feels much more solid than an FW3A. Note that my “blue” LM-10 is actually dark grey with the barest hint of blue tint. Looks nice, but not at all like the pictures.

Back in December I picked up a couple Utorch UT01’s from eas. He described them as “These are intact lights with the flakey UT01 driver. They’ve seen a bit of use. These are probably only useful to someone who likes to make tiny drivers.” Well, that was back in Dec 2019 and I made the drivers right away, but kept running into problems. I thought something was buggy with firmware, and I set it aside for 5 months.
Well, I just dusted them off yesterday and finally got it working. As it turns out, I had mis-wired the switch. :person_facepalming:

I used the top board from the stock driver, so I could assure proper placement of the switch and it keys into slots in the driver cavity to keep it from spinning. I crafted a new (li-ion only) driver using a linearly controlled FET via a QX7138, run by a attiny412 running RampingIOS (D4V2 UI). I should have thought ahead and used a attiny816 (now that I have Anduril running on the 1-Series) because Anduril is just too big for 4KB. I could use another FSM firmware though, like Baton which will fit easily. Now this is truly an e-switch 14500 light worth using!

Oshpark link

PS - oddly enough, everyone seems to have blamed the original issue on the switch being flaky. The switch is the only original thing I’m using and it seems to work perfectly fine for me on drivers that were known to have the “switch” issue. Weird.

Are getting full 3 amps from this? :slight_smile:
Do you have the possibility to direct drive it as well?

I need to double check with my clamp meter, but yes… I should be getting 3 full amps. Not set up for direct drive, though a FET+1 driver would be pretty easy to design for this. FETs are ok, but I don’t need this to be an absolute hot rod.

Don’t forget, for FET you can buy a GT Micro driver from Lumintop aliexpress that drops right in. I couldn’t get Anduril working when I tried to re-flash it though but the stock GT Micro firmware works fine.

How is the MOSFET cooling? :slight_smile:

It sits on top of a fairly large copper pour which should hopefully spread the heat out and into the body. And with it being limited to 3 amps, hopefully the FET won’t be needing to dissipate more than 2.4 watts or so (4.2V battery, ~3.4 vF LED… so 0.8V dropped across the FET at 3 amps = 2.4 watts… if I have my math right). That’s a far cry from the 15+ amps that a lot of people are trying to put through a FET.

I just put this thing together at 2 AM. I still need to put it through it’s paces (thermal testing, etc).

Very cool, gchart. I really like these linear regime FET drivers. Have you found any higher current regulator chips?

I looked on their AliExpress and couldn’t find any drivers. Do you have to ask for it specially?

Yes, asked for it via chat and did custom order

Bling!

A light that tics a lot of boxes for me:

Rotary with stepless ramping
High CRI sw45k
Sapphire lens
eSwitch
multi fuel: Cr123/16340/AA/14500
Tritium locators
Firefly of less than 0.005 (as low as an RRT-01)
max of 200 High CRI Lumens

Wow Jon. Where do you find all these gems?

18350 tube.
SS bezel.
3000k sst-20 with zircon minus green filter.
Red Glow.

I see, thanks for the answer. :slight_smile: