1xCR123 flashlight with magnetic selector ring

I received one of each (16350 and 18650) today. Being the hopeless nerd I am, the first thing I did was to take the pill apart to see what makes this thing tick. From a first glance, it seems to be direct drive, with brightness controlled by PWM via a FET (the B772 thingy). More interesting, judging by the pin-out, the MCU seems to be a PIC 12f..., which means, it could be reprogrammed (cue manic laughter).

As you can see from the picture, the driver PCB is quite large, larger than the 4x7135 driver I put next to it for comparison. The pill is quite deep, so there should be enough space to stuff in two of these babies, which could be controlled by bypassing the FET...

I think you all get where I'm going with this. Replace the Q5 with a well-driven XM-L, reprogram the MCU and you've got an insanely bright light with a kick-ass UI.

Thank you so much Tido for the pictures of the guts, I guess I better order one. Will a 16mm emitter fit or do I need to order another 14?

The emitter is mounted on a standard 16mm round aluminium disc (which, BTW, could use some thermal grease under it).

Indeed, the emitter is just put on the pill. I'll glue it today sonce i'm not gonna go the xm-l way on this one.

I'm excited ...i'm going to re-program my MCU ..when I get the stuff to do it with .. I just ordered my programmer it's in the mail . whoo hoo i love ebay

I ordered it on 5/28 from byincoin and still no sign of it here in NE USA

I already ordered a bit back, but I take it from the lack of moral outrage that this is indeed a hall effect switch?

I mean, coming from some podunk shop in china it wouldn't have been surprising it's some kind of variable resistor instead inside.

I got mine today, well, 3 of the 4 I ordered. The single order has not arrived yet. It does indeed have real hall effect control and they are surprisingly well built. Both sizes feel good in the hand and work very well. Threads are clean and anodizing looks even except for the head being a different shade than the body. The head is very thick walled.
All three emitters are a different tint with one being greenish, another purpleish and the 3rd cool white. The reflectors are smooth and very deep making for a small hotspot and pretty good throw. I am very impressed compared to what I was expecting. Now I just have to figure out how to take one apart to upgrade it to XM-L.

Could someone do some amp-readings for the modes? Thanks.

6 modes of light would be nicer .. the off obviously at the tail , make it start in low low mode and fix the pwm ..o yeah a neutral xpg or a xml too.

Vectrex, just in case you missed that, you can find current measurements in my mini review of the 18650 version.

.10 /.50 / 1.00 18650 4.19v.

Pain in the tailcap to do because it doesn't fire up in low so you have to hold it and twist it from high /med/ low all in one move

Thanks a ton. You guys keep posting so much stuff, hard to keep track. Not that I am complaining. :bigsmile:

Hey, Budgeteer, how did you get your selector ring off? One of my CR123 models seems to be off with mode selection. When it clicks into place the light goes out. While rotating it goes into the next mode in between detents then out again when it clicks into place. The whole thing is out of whack and it’s weird because it worked fine at first then it went screwy.

They are offering me a $10 refund and allowing me to keep the light but I'm not sure I want to do this if I can't fix it. I suppose I could use it for parts or just keep the tube and swap tubes with the one working head, SolarForce style to use either 16340 or 18650 batteries. Any ideas on how to adjust the mode detents?

I got the 18650 one. It is a pretty big light. It will not turn on in the low mode if stated from the tail cap switch. I also expected it to be brighter. Oh well, I wish I had shown some restraint and resisted ordering it.

Well the way magnetic switches work you might want to fiddle with the pill a bit... tightening or loosing by a tiny bit untill modes works as it should. Had to "recalibrate mine" after taking it apart.

Makes good sense. I should have thought of that myself (duh!) :) I will take the $10 refund and keep the light. I still would like to know how you managed to get the ring off of the body. I figure it has to unscrew somehow but short of using a vise and a pipe wrench mine acts like one piece.

I measured the off-current and it shows 30 microamp on both Micro and Milli scale on ammeter which I do trust. Somebody said they got 5 milliamp but I think they made an error in measurement. The anodizing is flaw less and if it is only HA-II, it is the best one I have seen so far. The output on high is no more than 50% more than on medium but it sucks up twice the power. The magnetic switch goes as

OFF->HIGH->MED->LOW->BLINK->SOS->OFF

It would be a great light for gifting provided you are willing to gift the battery and charger. My experience with non-flashaholics is that they are impressed more with the throw than the spill and this has pretty good throw.

Now if this can be upgraded to XM-L with a better driver, it would be a killer light. This has great potential.

Nay, the bottom cover/ring unscrews kind of easily. Then the selector ring fall off. Be sure to do it on the table because finding the steel ball bearing and the magnet proved to be next to impossible and had to improvise them. Nice that i had some neodimium magnets at hand which are rahtere easy to break in desired shape with pliers.

I managed to get a good grip and that ring came right off. Now it opens and closes easily. I slid the run back just enough to see that ball bearing you mentioned. It IS tiny! I saw enough and put it back on. Light is adjusted and now works like the others. Thanks!