There has been a lot of threads on soldering drivers to brass pills. There is great info on these threads and I have been taking notes! There has also been talk about someone doing a video tutorial on this but I have not been able to find one. A link to a video that specifically addressed this would be great for me(and others I’d guess). I have just destroyed a Drjones fet+8 and have only two left. I’m a visual learner and need to see it done. I need to SEE metal prep, fluxing, tinning, heat on iron, solder type and your technique. If there is not a link already please please if somebody can find the time to put something like this together I and I’m sure many would find it useful. The more video’s the better and there can not be too much information in the video. You can’t dumb it down too much. There’s 2 brinyte 158s a JAX Z1 and and a Warsun 50(aluminum pill thats a different thread)whaiting to be modded. My future is in your hands. Thanks Jeff
I have only done this once, first thing I did was to solder a wire onto the inside of the bare pill, outside of the light, using a gas cook top for heat, when the paste turns into solder place the end of the wire in and remove from heat at the same time, careful here it is very easy to burn yourself, then when you put the driver in you just solder the other end anywhere on the earth, no harder than soldering on the led wires 
Cheers David
Seconded. Great idea, Jeff and advanced thanks to any who accept the challenge.
You might have already seen this one and it didn’t answer all your questions, but mhanlen did a nice video about modding the B158 in his thread:
This video is not exactly about how drivers go onto brass pills, but it shows a heavy mod to the S2+. the modder David Sunshine shows in a really good video how metal like copper can be soldered to the pill and also other aspects (spring mod, comparison to other lights, safety warnings, schematics, …)
I needed to learn the same thing as I couldn’t find a way to fix the driver to an P60 pill. The secret was 1) flux and 2) heat. It just worked out magically with that.
Almost goes without saying but I learned this by, um, not thinking of it:
“get the heat into the pill. Then
wait for the pill to cool off. Then
fit the driver and then solder it
Gchart,I did see the mhanlen video and that was what got me interested in modding in the first place. We need more videos like his for the people just starting out in the modding world. Step by step videos explaining everything and assuming the viewers no very little. Thanks mhanlen. The problem with the b158 video is it shows him simply applying solder to the pill/driver, bam, thats it no problem. It appears as though there was no preheating of the pill and makes it look so easy. It didn’t work out that way for me. Jeff
Great video! Thats exactly the type of thing I am looking for. Homemade braided wire, butane torch, heat management, it moves pretty fast but covers a lot of area.
Too late, already thought about it. I’ll try it though and let you know how it goes. I have a feeling this learning process is going to be expensive. Jeff
For soldering drivers to P60 pills, I’ve found that a chisel tip works best. I place the tip across the joint between the edge of the driver and the rim of the pill. I move the tip along the joint, towards the solder wire, as I feed the solder wire to the end of the tip. I’m able to lay down a “band” of solder that bridges the driver and the pill across the joint this way.
I think for some joints, it is possible to heat up the two components to be joined and then touch the solder wire to the components and not directly to the soldering iron tip, but in the case of the driver and pill, I’ve found this technique to be infeasible. In many youtube videos, people talk about not touching the solder wire directly to the tip, but when they demonstrate, it can be seen that they actually do. I think what they really mean is don’t feed the wire to the tip the same way you tin it, e.g. on top of the tip, but it’s ok to feed it to the end of the tip.
Don't know if it helps or not, seeing as there are literally hundreds of youtube videos out already, by much better skilled people than me.
O Lumens, you’re video’s are always a pleasure to watch. :cowboy_hat_face:
Old-Lumens, thank you, sir, for taking the time to make the video and share your knowledge.
Old-Lumens, thankyou so much for that video. I feel like I just took a class in soldering. I like the idea of the leather insulators on the vice, Im looking for suitible leather to use right now. I just picked up some 60/40 rosin core and steel wool from Ace Hardware. Going to give it another shot tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your help. Jeff
Great video, OL. Definitely some good tips there!