The There Are No Stupid Questions Thread

Thanks Robin Debbie and Jason WW for your kind and quick responses.

I have found a convenient solution: I just try putting in a 18350 cell on my new Wurkkos TS21, instead of a 20350. And it works. No need to find the uncommon 20350 cell anymore. Can just use the common 18350 cell.

I’d like to know also. I had always presumed Cainiao was the cheapest logistics transporter. Often they lose tracking somewhere over the Pacific. But on some occasions, they pulled through at record speed. And to add to the confusion, they are wholly owned and operated by AliExpress; much like AliExpress Shipping. Some kind of double standard?

Mind you I’m in Canada and the ePackets are piggybacked with the commercial (passenger) flights and these haven’t come back pre-pandemic. Often they linger about in some hub waiting for an available flight. I don’t think premium changes anything at that bottleneck. However, the premium does have tracking throughout and doesn’t get bounced around the various checkpoints/holding stations.

@ CRC:

My CULPM1.TG has some characteristic flowering really close-up (say 2 inches). I always thought this normal with these Osrams being a small die within a larger substrate. My CSLPM1.TG is out of focus and doesn’t show any artifacts.

As for that green Osram, you could loosen the retaining screws on the MCPCB and try re-centering the LED.

I’m not sure that would do anything. The centering ring adjusts to the led, not the other way around. It looks like the centering ring is just a tiny bit larger than the led body. He could probably try loosening the bezel that presses down on the lens and reflector so that they are loose and then tap the light against his hand to make the reflector and centering ring shift slightly. Once it looks centered, tighten the bezel back down.

Generally speaking, perfect centering gets harder and harder as the led die gets smaller. Just tightening the bezel again could shift the centering a little bit. Its going to be trial and error to get it perfect. If the centering ring refuses to move over, then you might have an issue of the mcpcb pushed to the side limiting adjustment. In that case I’d do like Sydney says and loosen and screws and push the mcpcb back towards the middle. Then you go back to the first procedure using light taps to shift the reflector and tightening it down.

An explanation of the parts:

If you take the bezel off you’ll see the lens and an oring. Remember how they are arranged. Then the reflector is sitting on top of a smaller plastic piece called a centering ring. The reflector centers on that. Then the hole in the centering ring is supposed to center around the led. It looks like the hole is just a tiny bit too large in your light which allows it to not center perfectly every time.

The pressure of screwing down the bezel presses down on the glass, oring, reflector, centering ring and mcpcb. This pressure is what allows good heat transfer from the mcpcb to the flashlight head. The mcpcb might have one or two screws going through it. These are usually there only to prevent rotation. Tightening the bezel might rotate the reflector and it could cut the wires if the mcpcb were to rotate.

If you unscrew the bezel and remove the downward pressure the parts should be able to move around a little bit.

Here is a typical centering ring.
It’s also called led insulation gasket or a reflector spacer.

@ Robin;

I hope it wasn’t a large difference in price between standard and premium.

Looking over the ETAs between the two, knocking a few days for often $4 + wasn’t justifiable (my experience). As for the ETAs changing from the purchase date and actual shipping order, logistics change and with the 11.11 yearly sale bonanza, volumes go way up. Perhaps they foresee some delays?

But this change from Cainiao to AliExpress Shipping furthers my thinking they are both the same and only on the merchant’s end there is some contractual difference.

Gotta play the patience game…

Hey what’s the low voltage on the S2+ with 219B?
All 3 of mine are blinking like a beacon every four seconds when it drops to 3.1v
My S2+ CSLNM1.23 Red is also having this problem and it’s also another 3.1v battery.

This happens at 100% power and not at 35% , 20, 1

Well, that’s a low-voltage warning. Can’t run at high current when below LED forward voltage (threshold).

Charge your batts…

The last line is the key. Voltage sags under load, so high power may be dropping the battery voltage below the threshold. Then, when you measure it unloaded, it reads higher.

I’m not sure of the cutoff but it’s typically around 2.8V ballpark for many drivers. Also, at lower voltages most batteries sag more than the same output at higher charge %

@ CRC:

Without going into all the details of centering the LED (Jason does give a good method), I’ve found that those retaining screws retain against torsion. So I’ve always taken to loosen them up as to let the MCPCB “float” on the shelf. Then I can always push it a bit when the emitter doesn’t sit dead center. The taping in my palm is always helpful if the alignment is just so skewed. But yes, the thermal compound should be soft and gooey.

So as you experimented, tightening the bezel throws the focus out. Might have to shim so slightly the gasket, be it between the reflector, or between the star. Depends on what you have at hand. But, the ‘O’ ring may be just a tad too thick or not have the same sponginess as the original.

The last part about flickering; check if all connections are tight, the retaining ring is usually the culprit.

The beam focus your describing sounds like the reflector is moving up and down in relation to the led. It should not be able to move like that. The centering ring is a fairly hard plastic and it sits solidly on the mcpcb and the reflector should sit solidly on top of it. To change the focus usually involves shimming the reflector higher or sanding the bottom of the centering ring to get the reflector lower.

I would look for anything around the centering ring not making it sit flat. Maybe there is a loose or shorted wire under the reflector. It definitely sounds odd.

I’ve never had bezel tightness effect the beam shape or focus. Unless the bezel is rotating the reflector and that is moving it left or right, off center. Maybe that is whats happening in your case?

That driver looseness can be causing the flicker. It looks like that driver was made using a slightly thinner pcb and now the ring is not squishing it. You can add a thin layer of solder around the edge to add thickness or maybe make a shim about the size of a grain of rice from a soda can. Loosen the retaining ring, slide the shim under and tighten down. If the driver feels snug then you’re done. If it’s still moving around you may need to make a thicker shim by using a larger piece of aluminum from a can and doubling it over for double the thickness.

You can pop the reflector out, no problem. Just cover the lens with your hand and tilt it over and let it fall into your palm. Don’t touch the shiny side. The oil from your finger will be super visible. If you try to wipe it, it will smear and make it worse. So hold it on the outside.

For dust, you can blow it out, just don’t get any spit on it. Do a couple of practice blows to the side to get any moisture drops out of the way, then blow into the reflector. Or leave it as is. Dust doesn’t hurt anything, it just messes with you mentally if you have OCD. Lol.

The factory will try to use an existing centering ring if possible to reduce costs. Some will have a custom ring made for their particular model. Either way, a tiny difference in thickness can have a noticeable effect. The factory can not take the time to sand or shim each light by hand to get it perfect. So it’s usually “close enough”. Some lights might roll off the assembly line perfectly spaced, while others might be a tiny bit too high or low. Just like with any product.

This is all part of being a flashlight tweaker. Even when the beam looks perfect you might find that shimming the reflector up or sanding it down can further tighten up the beam.

In your case, I would definitely pop the reflector out just to make sure there’s nothing out of place around the centering ring. It’s possible the reflector might be pushing on one of the wires underneath it, or there might be a little piece of debris under the centering ring. You might also have a bit of flux residue that has gotten underneath the centering ring lifting up one side of it. You’re not going to know unless you take a look. I typically will pop out the reflector, lens and bezel all as one assembly to minimize the amount of dust that gets on the reflector.

To reassemble, you can hold the flashlight upside down and drop it onto that complete reflector/bezel assembly. Then flip it over and make sure that you see the centering ring drop down around the LED and it all looks good before you tighten the bezel backup. It should be a piece of cake.

PS, the lower two videos look private. They don’t show up.

With LEP lights becoming more common, I have to ask; What are the practical uses for a laser flashlight? OK, I can see they might be useful for night coyote hunters on the plains. Other than that?

“I got a LASER flashlight!!”

“Cooooooooool…”

This Vulcan brand says it’s good for up to 9/64 (10 gauge). 1/8=8/64. So it should work, but I don’t have much experience with stick welders, just MIG.

Is the WTS section of BLF reserved for flashlights only? I ask because I have a pair of Sennheiser 6XX’s I’ve worn maybe 3 times. Cragslist seems dangerous, Facebook hides non-boosted listings, and Ebay wants too big a cut.

If it’s flashlights-only that’s fine, just checking.

You can try to sell anything that is legal in WTS.

Cool thanks! :partying_face:

I have two Sofirn 21700s (rewrapped Lishen LR2170SD) and one of them smells. I’m assuming that I should probably dispose of it? There is no visible leakage but one definitely smells.

Both cells are almost new and so far they seem to be depleting at the same rate under normal usage. When I go to charge them there is maybe a 1% disparity between them in terms of charge.

Thoughts?

If you can I would put them both aside for a week and measure to see if there’s any difference in the self-discharge rate. Measure after one day and then a week later. Start with them both at roughly the same voltage but not entirely fully charged. If one is an obvious problem then you’re done. At some point you should have new wrappers ready for all size batteries that you have. I would then pull the wrapper and fully inspect. If no obvious sign of corrosion then carefully clean with a slightly damp paper towel or rag and rewrap.

Thanks for the response. Why shouldn’t they be fully charged for this test?