When are people going to learn, expect to use these just as hosts since most do not work.
Nah, seriously, I’ve gone through 4 of them, and this affects all versions of the light. The whine, the bad output, the flickering, the warm battery, and random dying, etc. I could never get one that worked like it should. Even the cheaper T08s have a better track record.
As long as the driver functions I’m happy (For HD 2010 in particular), which it seemed to before this issue. I was getting 3.3amps on an ICR26650. I don’t have any high drain unprotected batteries yet.
Alright, my 22 awg wire is waiting at the post office; I’ll just upgrade them while the star is off.
As far as getting the star off… someone mentioned throwing it in the freezer and popping it off (for fujik), but this is light grey stuff (I don’t think it’s fujik). Or should I do the ‘drop it in a ziplock, drop ziplock in boiling water for a bit and then pop it off’?
My number 1 priority is to not damage the driver. I have several noctigon xml2’s waiting along with the wire so I’ll probably end up putting one of those bad boys on instead of the stock star/emitter.
Any kind of chemicals work on this stuff? The dome isn’t really a big deal as I’d probably remove it with gas anyway, but I’d like to save the emitter for small projects if possible.
Best bet is to try and push the star out with a small screwdriver from inside the driver cavity. If you have a small enough flathead you can get through the holes for the emitter wires and usually get some purchase on the edge of the star. Then just apply a fair bit of pressure and soon enough the fujik/glue will break.
If you can’t do that then your best bet is to again get a flathead or a thin flexible blade and try to wedge it in around the edges of the star itself to lift it up. You’ll have to remove the pill to get a good enough angle but if it’a a stock alu star the eges will be bent up from the stamping so you can get some purchase in there. Don’t be too afraid to use the edge of the pill rim as a leverage point as wel,. It will usually take a fair bit of force before the glue gives.
It’s usually a pain and you may end up scractching the pill surface or bending the star slightly. It’s why I don’t really like gluing down my emitters anymore, I try to go for screws and thermal grease only if possible since it’s so much easier to swap emitters afterwards.
Good luck
Edit: Oh and if there’s any excess glue around the edges, remove that first. Don’t want to increase it’s holding strength unnecesarily!
Heh I’m well past worrying about the pill being scratched.
Almost to the point where I rip the star off and scrap it, or buy one of those sexy copper pills and forget all about this one.
Wooooo!
These little stars are quite a bit sturdier than I thought. It came out with just a slight bend on both sides, and a few indents from the screwdriver on the underside. If it wasn’t glued down over the wire holes I don’t see how I could have gotten that buggar off!
Anyway the star/emitter… I’m not an expert on placing an emitter on a star, but this looks wayyy off (I didn’t do it! ).
I've seen this before - in my direct drive LM C8. Lesson learned - don't ever try tightening the bezel with a direct drive light on high - this can happen .
In my case, the over-driven XML on aluminum is most likely to blame. There should be a current limit on all aluminum star lights.
Well under high amps, the solder softens and if you have some binding with the reflector and plastic alignment piece, this can happen. I think the copper stars are so efficient in pulling off heat, it would be much more unlikely.
Also, we've seen some really poor LED re-flows in the these Chinese lights, combined with probably poor quality solder, so...