DQG Tiny 4

A description of management:
SC - single click, DC - double click, TC - triple click, LC - long click

From OFF state
SC = LO
DC = MED
TC = HI
LC = TURBO. No preflesh to LO, directly go to TURBO after 1s
From ON state

LC - switching between LO-MED-HI. Switch works only in one direction.
SC - OFF
DC - Turbo
From Turbo SC always translate to the previous mode of operation, if any, was not (the lamp was turned on by LC) that translates in the LO

All activities except LC occur when the button is released
Turning the lamp occurs in about 0.1 s after the first press of the button. When the delay is palpable with powering to LO mode by the SC, powering to HI mode seems that flashlight power on instantly.
Switching modes is activated at about the same delay as the powering on, ie almost instantly.

On personal feelings switching modes close to the ideal, because all modes are available from OFF state.
Dont worry about accidentally pressing the button, it is not necessary, why - is clear from the gallery:

Group photo with other my flashlights

Photos of disassembling

All parts at one photo. Very thin back cap

Thickness of negative post. Insulator thickness around 1.3mm so back side has near 1mm.

Head without besel. Button front view. It is recessed relative to the ring around it.

Head without besel. Button side view. Button move around 1mm. Accidental pressing unlikely

lens with a step

Head without lens. Standart microswitch

Back side of the head

And at last v4 has heatsink layer!

Driver removed from head with heat and not so brute force push from lens side. just pushed it with toothpick

It has no thermal compound on heatsink. Heatsink are super thin.
Inside adhered at two locations on the gray thermally conductive adhesive.

However, the thermal conductivity will be much better than in the third version since battery presses pill to the head of fl. And if we add thermal compound on the edge, it will be absolutely wonderful moderately good. But this pill is no substitute for normal pill, no.

As a design feature in this case it is necessary to note the presence of foam insulator required by the (+) as it plays an important role in the pressing pill to a head and, in addition, does not allow to push the positive contact of the battery. прижимать

There are serious suspicions that the heatsink is actually organized on the positive battery contact.

Beamshots and other tests on the way.

Great review! I think you are the first to be able to get one of the 18650 models apart! How hard was it to unscrew the head?

Any plans to mod this light?

Unlike the previous version v4 has much weaker locking thread. 3 min heating with hairdryer and it can be opened with bare hands.

I have plan to mod it to triple nichia with indicator light at button and Tamagotchi driver. But i will have trouble with unscrewing heatsink layer.

That sounds like a nice mod for this light, please keep us appraised of your project!

Nice! I asked George to use less glue. Maybe he really did it! If I can use an alternative driver I may get one!

Awesome that they used less glue in the DQG4.

How wide is the driver?

Very easy to completely disasm this version of flashlight.
First post updated.

18mm

Appreciate the updates on this Vitaliy Korotkov, how difficult would swapping just the emitter be in your opinion? I would be happy just having the choice of tints that buying a new emitter would bring.

Thanks and let us see the rest when you get time, great review!

I received my DQG Tiny 4. Beautiful light. I love it! :heart_eyes: The anodizing is perfect. It’s a little lighter grey and slightly less shiny than the anodizing on my Tiny 3s.

I really like it. It addressed a number of my main concerns about the Tiny 3:

  • The flush rubber button is much less likely to accidentally turn on in the pocket than the protruding metal button of the Tiny 3.
  • The designers added a shortcut to turbo from off (click and hold).

That said, like any light there are still areas that can be improved:

  • The tiny rubber button is completely flush with the body and compared to other side switch lights it is relatively hard to find by feel. My modded Tiny 3s with finishing washers around the button are much easier to find by touch and still well protected from accidental activation. Suggested solution: Add a raised ring around the button to make the button easier to find… Also, the metal button of the Tiny 3 surrounded by a chrome plated finishing washer looks far classier than the rubber button.
  • Without the clip installed the light has no anti-roll device. It can easily roll off a table if laid on its side. Suggested solution: same as above. The raised ring also serves as an effective anti-roll device.
  • The light doesn’t get that hot on Turbo. Suggested solution: increase turbo timer duration from 1 minute to 2 minutes.
  • The tailcap on the Tiny 3 and 4 are interchangeable. However, in the Tiny 4 they removed the knurling and replaced it with a raised band with sparsely spaced ridges. This is purely a stylistic preference, but personally I prefer the Tiny 3’s knurled tailcap as it gives better grip.

I haven’t yet opened mine up, but from other reviewers it looks like they also added a very thin heatsink layer on top of the driver. I’m not sure how effective this will be given that the top of the driver has various SMD devices on it, but it is still probably better than nothing (the DQG3 had basically no heatsinking).

The switch internals also look a little different. The Tiny 3 had a microswitch pressed or glued into the side of the head with two tiny wires connecting it to the driver. the Tiny 4’s switch appears to be mounted directly to the driver.

This is a beautiful light right out of the box even without modding. I own multiple DQG 18650 lights, including the Tiny 1, 3 and now 4. This is the first one that I would consider carrying unmodded …. very rare for me since I usually only carry modded lights. This light is just that good. Unmodded I like this light even more than my Zebralight SC62w … a light that costs over 3x as much.

I haven’t yet decided whether I will try to mod my Tiny 4. I already have two modded Tiny 3s and the exterior of the Tiny 4 is very similar. If I mod this light into a triple, the internal heatsink layer probably wouldn’t help me since I’d want to add my own copper heatsink.

As these lights use a single board that contains both the driver and LED it probably isn’t possible to mod them with a different single emitter and driver due to lack of space. Fortunately, it is possible to mod them into triples as Carclo triple TIR optics are considerably shorter than the stock single-emitter TIR optic.

That said, in case I do decide to mod it I do have a 20mm e-switch FET driver from RMM standing by. I expect it should fit even if I need to file the edges slightly.

I confirm that separating the head from the body is much easier in the DQG Tiny 4. I was able to unscrew it using just my hands with no preheating. This light should be easier to mod than the Tiny 3.

Interested. Anyone has a nice coupon code and link to share?

Edit: never mind. I found the code from m4d m4x thread.

Hey guys,

I just got one in today, a grey one (form Gearbest).
Good to see the PCB can be removed with some heat, because there are (indeed) some design issues that should be solved.
I love the tiny size though, it’s, well, it’s really tiny. :stuck_out_tongue:
The heat management is a joke though, and the switch is just waiting to break from the PCB by the looks of it.
I hope to find a satisfactory way to improve things and put a Nichia 219C in it, but that looks to be a real challenge.

Well, that didn’t go quite as planned:

Oops…

In with new driver and triple mcpcb :wink:

I’ll try to repair it first.
Then take the XM-L2 off and see where we’ll go with this POS.
…i mean DQG.

So, i guess this is one of my lucky days…
Just dropped a three legged black thingy on the floor and now it’s apparently gone to another dimension…
I don’t even have carpet here, but it’s gone…

i wish there was a better switch solution too but i can;t think of one

mine failed electrically, and broke off the pc board - at the same time!

wle

I HAVE FOUND IT !!

Yesssssss !!!

Soooo tiny….

Now back to reassembling the PCB…

Yeah that sucks…
Mine came off too eventually, but i’m gonna fix it with grey epoxy.
No chance it will come off again.

It’s a shame this light is so poorly thought out regarding the PCB.

Well, all the parts are back in place again.
Quick test showed it works, but not sure about the modes yet. (fumbling with tweezers as a switch)
I put the switch back on too with a bit more solder and a blob of grey epoxy.
Will be able to test in a few hours.
I’ll put up a pic of the result and how i secured the switch.

And if all is well, i’ll take off the XM-L2 and see if what can be done about the non existent heat management.