When an LED is fried,,,

If you have a drop-in, and do something wrong, and the LED gets fried, is it just the LED, or is the entire drop-in fried? Or is it the electronics in the drop-in that’s fried and not the actual LED?
I know nothing about modding, so if it’s the LED, can it be replaced, or is the cost to a point that buying a new drop-in is the easy route?

It could be none or all of the above. You should talk to Ohaya. Frying a drop in was what got him into modding.

You can try the these steps:

  1. First, lets make sure it not just the switch. Take the tail cap off. Use a paper clip or something metal (Do you have a DMM?) and connect the bottom of the cell to a part of the light's tail that is not anodized. Does the light come on? If yes, fix or replace the switch. Probably just needs adjustment. If no, go to next step.
  2. Remove the reflector and see if light works. If it does, the reflector may be shorting on the led's wire connection points. If it doesn't work, go to the next step.
  3. Can you solder? If yes, try the next step. If you can't, you are going to need to either learn how to solder, buy a new complete drop in, or get someone to repair yours.
  4. Take the cell out of the light and then unsolder one or both wires from the emitter. Use 2 AAA or AA Ni-mh or similar voltage cells (connected in series) and connect them to the led directly. Make sure you connect the positive of the battery to the positive to the emitter base and vice-verse for negative. Watch out, you should not be looking directly at the LED when you do this. Use a plastic bottle cap or something to protect your eyes. If the led lights up, it is good and the driver has some type of problem. If it doesn't, you could be doing something wrong connecting to the cells, something may have disconnected or shorted something in the driver, the led maybe fried, or the led and driver may be fried.

I'll leave you with that. Hopefully someone and pick up when you come back with some more info.

Best of luck!

This I believe was a battery in backwards event. The LED will give a dim flash for an instant when turned on, then nothing.
It’s a twist on type, not a switch and works with another drop-in installed.
I think it is a Cree XR-E R2. I think it’s a 36mm unit. If it’s the LED and could be replaced (with a better LED even) for under $35 which is what a new drop-in would cost, it would be an option for me. Otherwise it’s just trash and headed for the dumpster.
Thanks for the reply.

If the LED flashes then it's not the LED.

Need more info. What light is this, what battery type? If lithium battery is it protected or unprotected? I hate playing 20 questions.

Whatever it is, will be less than $30 to replace.

It is THIS drop-in, and is in a wolfeyes m90. Uses 123 protected batteries…

What is the driver width in mm? 17mm?

How many CR123s does it take? 3 cells?

Honestly, I don’t know much about drivers, the inside part of the brass (if that’s where the driver is) shows to be a little less than 17 by my calipers. I checked online and saw some drop-ins that the brass unscrewed from the reflector, I don’t think this one does.
It uses 4 123 batteries. This light is an incan in front, and has leds in the tailcap, so the batteries goes + to the rear. I didn’t take that into consideration when installing batteries. I also know that the tailcap will have to be changed to a non led tailcap if I try this again.
I wanted to change to LED because I read somewhere that the incan bulb life wasn’t that long, and it only runs for about one hour on the 4 batteries. I can run it with 18650s so runtime may be increased, but haven’t tried it yet.
It may be easier to use it as is, or order another drop-in.

Well I was asking because I figured I could fix the drop-in with an LED and driver swap. Provided that I order a compatible driver, cause I don't use drivers with these higher voltages (12/13V).

Now I'm confused now because you say it has an incandescent bulb... but the drop-in link you provided says LED (light emitting diode).

Many tint heads still like incandescent lights even if they're more fragile and less bright. I keep one around cause I like the high CRI.

personally I would much rather use those 18650s if they fit. Those would help out a lot as far as run times. 3400mAh 18650s are the highest capacity right now (FT).

Yes, Lumens Factory make a LED drop-in for this. But I didn’t know I had to replace tailcap and turn batteries to the front. I may do a runtime test with some 18650s and see how they improve it.
I have quite a few lights, I just really liked this one and wanted to see it in LED. But if not, I still like it.

OK… run results with 2 Tenergy 2600s was right at 2 hours. Went down to 3.56 volts on last check.
I really couldn’t tell if the light dimmed or not, so maybe it’s regulated. Bulbs only have a 30 hour life according to the manufacturer, if I can find a couple extra maybe I will leave it as an incan.