Version II of that as well, http://youtu.be/HFI12H0jGbY
The forceps were the only way I could learn to solder the chips on, because they held tightly enough in the vise, to handle my shaky hands. Other ways caused the chips to move a bit.
First of all LJ you are looking for a miracle and that is not likely to happen. Everybody and I do mean EVERYBODY comes across a hurdle somewhere with something. The most common is working on cars. Believe me, I can tell you some stories.
Does it or should it preclude you from doing something or in this case modding lights? Absolutely not! The very first key to success is recognizing one's weakness and strong points.
From I have garnered on this site, soldering resistors is a very small part of the equation. There are many mny more aspects, and from the sounds of it you are quite proficiant at some of them. I will not get into some of the things (not flashlight related) that took me years to master but I will tell you that until the "light went off" and I finnaly figured out "how" I commssioned others. It wasn't out of laziness but the savings of time and money.
In relation to modding lights, I too am learning to solder...and have been for years..in other words I am lousy at it. Lol. As of yet I haven't modded or even built a light BUT for the time being I am planning on buying some drivers from RMM (his charges to modify are minimal) that will be configured the way I want and need. That way I don't ruin anything and still get what I want. For practice I will work on the pulled drivers. The other alternative to soldering is the use of FET drivers (as already mentioned).
There is no need to get discouraged or disgusted. Just skip that part (soldering) for now and put your energy where it helps you and gives you a sense of accomplishment whe you turn on that super bright light :)
Good luck and enjoy your hobby ;)
I know the frustration light junkie. Although I can stack the 7135 chips now but I have gone through a long way too - A lot of drivers and 7135 chips were scrapped due to the trials. But I still can’t do the 3rd layer of stacking, which I don’t think I will practice that anymore.
After I know how to do the chips stacking, turns out I don’t quite like the idea of linear regulation anymore and I prefer buck regulation. So I no longer looking for light using Nanjg driver but using buck driver, though most of them have crappy modes and PWM, unlike the Nanjg drivers which allow you to flash and customize whatever firmware you want with them.
What impress me is your incredible spirit - You are already impressive my friend! 
Dumb saying that my wife and kids told me today I told them winners never quit and quitters don’t win and they all told me but you don’t quit losing so alas I’ll hang up my solder gun for a while again , and debate what I can do while recuperating from surgery. Maybe hand loading ? I ve do e a few times o. A single stage press for a .308 and no kabooms and cancel my order from fasttech for 10 more strips of 10 380 mAH 7135s.
Thanks all alot of this is soaking in now and as I look at my shelf of 15 lights and only 6 are up and running I realize I didn’t do anything other than solder the springs on the functional ons, the others are awaiting drivers and emitters that’s a pretty bad ratio.night all
It’s not just you light junkie
I may have modded like 5 lights…(I think I have more busted lights than working lights) and each time I got so frustrated that I wanted to throw em thru the wall
I got a hot air gun, still have lights that won’t turn on above moon mode (think I flashed the wrong FW)
Busted my SOIC clip so have to have my kid hit enter while I use two hands to hold it on the IC and it not always flash
Burned this, flashlight don’t work that…I get so frustrated I shelve them and then forget about em
I have a large fishing tackle box of drivers here and there in different levels of construction, destruction, mod…then finding the motivation to get off my duff to actually work on them when I don’t have a permanent bench setup and it takes me 20 min of setup and teardown to work on them
Trust me man…it ain’t just you bro!
It’s good to understand ones own ability. I have never attempted to stack chips because I just know it’s going to frustrate the hell outta me. Having said that I tip my hat to your commitment and persistence.
Chip stacking is a pain! I’d skip it for now until you get a lot better at soldering. I find that just disassembling junk circuit boards from various old appliances or from obsolete computers and re-soldering the chips on helps beginners a lot. Obviously good tools and supplies help tremendously, but there’s no substitute for having made thousands of solder joints.
Good luck, and don’t give up just yet.
Lay off caffeine and that helps steady your hands… I used to be into drinking those energy drinks and tried pipe welding after a couple, your work will look like some crackhead got loose on your welder especially with stick or oxy. Brace your arm on something, that helps. Good vision is key too. I guess some can’t do it but with a little practice I don’t see why you can’t get good. Like even with totally shaky hands you can brace your arm on something and do a half way decent job. Noones going to judge your work but you’ll know it’s crap (and that’s sometimes worse) but if it works…
Key is not giving a crap about what others think. That’s the vice of a smart person. Once you just don’t give a flip anymore, you can do anything 
Good work comes with practice. A crash course is sometimes more valuable and breaking a few things to get there, oh well.
Any suggestions on a basic soldering kit for a newb?
I’m an automotive/diesel/heavy equipment mechanic. I can rebuild engines in lawn mowers to natural gas compressors with pistons the size of 5 gallon buckets. I’ve always been really good with all things mechanical and LOVE fixing up old vehicles. One thing I learned after spending entirely too much money and time on is that I can NOT do paint and body work. As much as I wanted to learn it just wasn’t something I was good it. I ended up about driving myself nuts before I finally admitted it wasn’t for me.
It sounds like making or modding drivers is something that you just might not be good at. Don’t let it ruin a hobby you otherwise really enjoy. I haven’t been on this site long but I’m sure someone here would be happy to mod a driver for you.
I’ve yet to mod a driver in any way so I very well may end up in the same boat as you :Sp
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You hit the. Caffeine part pretty good , Ugh my vision is where Iam suffering with my retinopathy I use prescription glasses and the magnifying glasses, I took today off to not get too obsessed with it and i have been drivers built fore I was hoping to learn how to do it myself but I’ll put it on the back burner for a while, I have to wait for 10/3 to get paid again any how’s .
This is especially true on some people, myself included. The hard thing is to not get that cup of coffee in the morning. It’s almost impossible, man
Unsteady hand + small components soldering = HUGE frustrations. It would seem everything that can go wrong, would.
Anyway, LJ, this is pretty much standard for everybody. Don’t beat yourself too much of it. I’m sure I too have probably around ten lights not working right now and just KIV forever, waiting for that “right” modding moment that never comes.
If vision is an issue and you have a little bit of time and money build yourself something like this:
Edit: Just be careful where you put your hands when you are using a hot iron!
+1
Practice on junk (and it helps if parts are bigger than a flea) and throw away your mistakes free of charge. I got my 10K+ solder joints of practice many years ago before SMD technology was around. It still took a few tries to get soldering flea sized 0603 resistors and such. It takes a real steady hand to do this and your solder skills need to be top notch or you will just have a mess of solder bridge and burned parts.
SMD get a hot air reflow gun, thruhole get a good 30-60 watt temperature adjustable rig…they do even have dual units out…someone here will chime in with the correct model to get at a reasonable price I am sure
hehe, funny you should mention that…I laid my hot air gun across my middle finger on my left hand one day when building a 5*7135 SK68 Nanjg and/or working on my triple Convoy S2 (was …at 350C it melted the skin instantly…for about a month I had a huge scab, and now have a permanent “divot” in the skin on my finger
yeah…pay attention to where your hands are at (ask me how I know :P)
That’s nothing compared to my stupidity just a few months ago. I was crouched down to make a weld on a rack for my friend’s truck when I lost my balance and grabbed the hot steel pipe with my bare hand. An oval about 2” by 3” swelled up about 3/4”! That hand was useless for almost a month
Fvk’n MEYOW!!!
wow…hot welded pipe + flesh
(haha…comparing out scars and war wounds now 
)
Lol, yep! I’m just waiting until I get to post about burning off skin or loosing an eye to my latest megalumen build. Maybe its a good thing my budget only allows for kilolumen lights! :bigsmile:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Practice does NOT make Perfect. Practice only makes permanent.
Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Whether or not you give up is up to you, but I would suggest a method that might save you some money:
Go to the dump, the trash, anywhere you can find some modern electronic toys that are “dead”. Take them apart & scrounge the littlest parts you can lay your hands on inside. Look at the driver you want to Mod and figure out what parts from the toys approximate the sizes of the good stuff.
Now get “artsy” and solder the trash parts together, or to pads on the trash circuit boards. Keep analyzing your methods and work out a way to do it with the smallest, cleanest, best solder blob possible. Use a dead toy as an example — it didn’t fail for bad solder joints! Get some serious magnification and examine your joints in the most minute detail you can muster, and compare each one critically to the ones the toys had from the factory.
This will be a good time to acquire or build tools to hold the wee parts in whatever places you want them to stay.
As often as not, you can pick up a wee droplet of solder & use that both to transfer the heat to the joint and to transfer itself as soon as the joint is hot enough for it to flow. That makes more sense in my head than it probably does to read, but you’ll see it. Carrying the solder droplet in on the tip leaves your other hand free to hold parts.
Once you can solder trash parts together in a way that looks like how it was made to start with, hold on to that method and repeat it until you can do it Every Single Time. THEN PRACTICE THAT.
You won’t be working on repairing electronics, you’ll be working on improving your soldering technique, that’s all.
Once you feel comfortable with trash, try removing what you did to your paid-for drivers, clean them up and try again with one. It may be fried already, but it won’t cost you any extra. Continue to examine your work, analyze and criticize. And strive for improvement. If you get one of your paid ones working again, share that with the family!
You can quit if you want to, but that’s what I’d do. Okay, what I DID… Yes, I’ve been soldering since Integrated Circuit referred to a race with a mix of dark- and light-skinned people in it, but when I did decide to go SMD, I found practice materials abounded in the trash.
Just a simple suggestion. Just trying to help. Hope it does.
But I’m just…
Dim