Sofirn SP40 Headlamp

Has anyone else fried a 18350 battery using the micro USB charging when the short tube is on? Once the magic smoke was released I tossed the battery and put the 18650 tube and battery back on and it works perfectly. I don’t have the courage to get another short battery and see if it repeats it. Could have been the battery.

The charger might be exceeding the maximum recommended charging current for the 18350 cell.

I tried charging a Keeppower IMR18350 in an SC31 Pro and it was using around 1.17A. The max charging current for this cell is 1.1A.

Crap….I’m sitting here reflecting and I just realized what I did. I’m such a dumbass……I had gotten a deal on Surefire CR123 Lithium’s cheap so I bought some and stored them in the same drawer (metal tool chest in the basement) right next to my rechargeable Lithium’s. They’re all in plastic cases and appear identical. BUT THESE ARE NOT RECHARGEABLE!!! Surefire makes rechargeable in this size, but these ain’t it.

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Holy F, I’m glad I didn’t stuff them into USB rechargeable lights and gift them to folks for Christmas. My mouth is open at my own stupidity. https://www.surefire.com/products/parts-accessories/batteries/123a-batteries/

Did you avoid breathing in the fumes and letting it get in contact with your skin?

There have been some horror stories about cells exploding, followed by being poisoned and then long term impact to health.

I hope so. I could smell it, which clued me in, but although the wrapper was melting, the fumes seemed minimal. It cooled off as soon as I took it out.

I can top your stupidity and raise you one. I was reloading some bullets. I grabbed the powder I needed (they put names on some brands and numbers on others) which was xxxx numbers (something like 4198, I cannot remember now). I loaded them up and went to the range and promptly blew my gun in half with a huge explosion. When I got home I tried to figure out what happened. Eventually I figured it out. I had transposed the numbers something like 4198 instead of 4891. I cannot remember what the numbers are now it was 25 years ago. But one powder burs faster and makes 3x the pressure so BOOM gun exploded.

Boy did I feel stupid. From that point on I used powders with names like titegroup, varget etc.

Oh damn….I guess you were OK except maybe mentally? I don’t have any 10mm as it’s too close to .45 which I have and I don’t reload cause I’d be the type to double charge or stuff in the wrong stuff in a round here or there. I read about it on occasion. I should take a page from my firearm caution and give my non-rechargeable Surefire CR123 away and just stay 100percent with 18350 rechargeable only.

Hopefully you took out a beat up Glock and not a Sig X6 or Colt Python.

Oh hell no on the glock, you knew it was going to be the most expensive gun I own right???
A tricked out HK 45 elite. Boom split the gun right in half. Bruised my hands and my ego. Luckily I had on some tough shooting gloves that day.

On a good note I told hk what I did and they sent a red label ticket for me to ship it back free. They fixed it and replaced most parts, reblued/blacked the gun and shipped it back one week later. All for 106 bucks. Serials didnt match but it was good as new.

Now that’s service!

Can anyone help? My son in law got one of these just after they were released. He used it and loved it for hunting for one season. However now it isn’t working. When charging the button flashes red and eventually turns green. But when you turn the light on the button only flashes red and the emitter stays on for about 30 sec on high, longer on lower settings. The battery seems OK so I guess the driver has a problem? Anyone seen this?

Do you have a voltmeter to see what the battery’s voltage is after the recharging light turns green? And have you tried another battery? If it was me I would try another fully charged battery in it first to see if it’s a battery issue. Then check to see if the charger is working working next.

Is the PIC16F1824-EST in-system-programmable? According to the datasheet, it has 7kB flash. Should be good for a decent UI, no?

You can buy a driver for the sp40 for $3+ shipping on sofirn’ aliexpress store. Installing it might be a bit tricky though if you’re unfamiliar with modding.

I’m good at taking apart things. Problem ist getting them back together so that they work.

Yes, thanks for the pointer, Sunny. Question is, if I’m able to reengineer the schematics to a point where I know what IO does what, would I be able to flash a new software with the PIC soldered in place? Of course, I’m a noob at those things. I just wonder if it could be easier to adapt and compile a FW for the PIC and flash it instead of redoing all the electronics stuff.

It might not be worth it. Developing new software to an acceptable degree requires a lot of time. You probably wouldn’t be able to port anduril without considerable effort. It’s much easier to just swap in an existing driver.

Nothing is stopping you from writing new software, just do some research. It would probably take weeks to get something working well and sofirn probably isn’t using that mcu in many interesting lights. Better yet, see if you can swap in an attiny 85 or something.

Thought I could compile one of the smaller firmwares for the PIC. Keeping the driver would also mean keeping the charger electronics. And not having to build a driver or wiring up a breakout board, oft course.

Which “smaller firmware”? I’m not aware of any flashlight firmware that is PIC compatible.

I used my Litokala charger to charge the battery so I think it has a full charge. He got a second battery thinking that was the problem and it does the same thing. Another post here says I can get a replacement driver on the Sofirn site but I don’t see it. I will probably try that. Thanks.

I enjoyed your triple C8F build in your signature. Here’s a link https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32859323105.html

Thanks for the link.