want to get deeper into the flashlight thing

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hi, guys.

I kind of want to get a little deeper into the flashlight thing. So I’m wondering what tools are needed to test and examine a flashlight throughly. mean to open it thouroughly and test battery, pcb, LED, whole function, etc.

Is there such a thing like flashholic tool package.

Thanks

2

Are you sure you want to get deeper on this? Have you asked your wallet? You double sure? :bigsmile:

3

You’ll be sorry…
:face_with_monocle:

4

Decent camera and tripods, multimeter with 10A current range, light meter (maybe construct a sphere), IR temp prob.

Those are the basics and will enable a decent review.

5

How deep is your wallet? :p

6

you have over 130 posts, how deep do you wanna get?

7

You need some solid tweezers for unscrewing driver/pill, a multimeter, soldering iron with solder and flux and de soldering pump, different silcicone wires, then build new thicker cables for the multimeter.
Additional things are a adjustable power supply a photometer or a light box for your photometer.

And of course flashlight parts, the most of us have boxes full of stuff which is only to mod or to be modded.

8

And a lesson in basic electronics, with a dash of science and chemistry :slight_smile:

9

a multimeter, tweezers, circlip pliers, soldering iron and helping hands are enough to do what I would consider an advanced driver swap.

I have done mods with nothing other than my van seat, mole grips, needle nose pliers and soldering gun, its as much how inventive/determined/knowledgeable you are tbh as how many tools you have.

have a good look through the modding section, read lots of old lumens, comfy chairs, rufusbducks, racer86’s, tom e’s and relics posts as you can and you’ll soon pick the tech up, then move on to pilotptks posts, texaspyros, hkjs etc to help build, mix this up with johnnymac and foys reviews to lighten the load and chicago x’s x mods and you’ll have built an impressive knowledge base to put your tools into use.

the most important thing is to get a cheap light like a c8, strip it, use it as a base, do a driver swap, an emitter swap, just get it working with something else in it, don’t worry about refinement, just getting it going, that’ll teach you more than anything else.

find ouchyfoots profile and look at his posts, he asked lots of questions that’ll be helpful to you.

good luck and don’t give up, that’s the key, just having the determination to succeed, you’ll soon figure out the tools you need.

10

Welcome! We’re all here to help you…not trying to be smart but the best tool kit you can equip yourself with (to start off, anyway) is knowledge….here are links to a couple of websites that I hope you will find all sorts of useful info on:
Flashlight Wiki
(a virtual wealth of all sorts of information- highly recommended

Battery University
all about batteries- maintained as a service by a manufacturer of industrial battery chargers

Lygte Info
Again, a very good source if info, for everything flashlight-related, but especially tests & comparisons of 18650 and other batteries (primary & rechargeable) & chargers.Very good reviews. Not a forum (like BLF); more a review and educational site. As you read the reviews, you’ll pick up a lot of concepts & terminology

Selfbuilt’s Review Site
A very good review site, also useful for picking up concepts & terminology.

I know I didn’t answer your question about actual tools, but the knowledge & info is important & necessary…I’ll leave it to some of the other BLF members to help you with tool selection.

Hope this is helpful. GOOD READING!