Hi all,
I have decided its time to do an instructional video series. “Flashlight hax” will be the theme for most of it. I thought re-flowing would be a good place to start since I get a lot of questions about it. Hope you enjoy.
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If this tutorial helped you please click “like” on the video. If you enjoyed it and would like to get a notification when the next video on the series comes up you can subscribe.
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Here is a thread on how to use a soldering iron.
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/51777
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In Him (Jesus Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
http://asflashlights.com/ Everyday Carry Flashlights, plus Upgrades for Maglite.
Great video. I wish there had been more of this type of “how to” videos when I was a beginner modder. Thank god Old Lumens was here for us, or I would have been lost.
Well made! Good resource. I wish I had seen this when I did my first reflow.
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Thanks vob. Nice video.
djozz quotes, "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
"My man mousehole needs one too"
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Wow, this is a great video ‘vestureofblood’!!!
It answers every question I had about this subject as well as took the “mystery” out of it. I actually believe I can do this now without a problem.
Thank you for sharing this……..
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EDIT: May I suggest this thread be made a “STICKY”…. The info is priceless as far as I am concerned.
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Very well done! You could be an educator. I am not a model so this was really an eye opener for me.
thanks!
Good video, thanks for this. Also big thanks for the work you have uploaded on Oshpark.
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Nice video … you need to start doing infomercials.
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See how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand
υμεις εστε το φως του κοσμου ου δυναται πολις κρυβηναι επανω ορους κειμενη
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Thanks for video. It was very useful.
Wow! This just came on time!
I’m planning on reflowing 4 3’5×3’5mm emitters on an XHP70 board. I see you “tap” the emitters to remove excess solder but, I wonder what will happen upon tapping over the dome of each one of the emitters on such a 2×2 array. :/
Cheers
P.S.: Great tutorial.
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
NICE thanks!
It is done when it is done
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Thank you all for the comments, I appreciate them.
I know you can do it.
“What one man can do, another can do”
– Anthony Hopkins – in some movie I forgot the name of.Maybe if Convoy, Surefire, or Maglite ever needs a guy I will get the job
Thats a pretty ambitious reflow for anybody. I’ve never tried it. I suppose if you have a problem with them squabbling around when you tap something you could do is this. Once you have them in place you can take something with a flat and set it on them. A glass lens should be heavy enough to push them down and you could still see if they had been moved out of place. I have done that a couple times. You just put the lens in place ( I used a borofloat maglite lens) and turn off your heat.
Once you get it done maybe you can shoot us a pic or two.
In Him (Jesus Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
http://asflashlights.com/ Everyday Carry Flashlights, plus Upgrades for Maglite.
Thanks, very helpful.
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Sorry for my poor English
Whew! And I was just thingking in assembling a mixture of emitters like a “XP-L HI”/“219B” and “219B/XP-L HI” plaid fashion … DERP!
Cheers
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
Better get this one to the top again in time for the made from scratch contest
In Him (Jesus Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
http://asflashlights.com/ Everyday Carry Flashlights, plus Upgrades for Maglite.
A lot off effort from vestureofblood. Very nice and educational video.
I still use Old Lumens bench vise – soldering iron method and I found that as a best method for me (btw it is also very safe and regulated through regulated soldering station)
Worth to mention that there are emitters which will not automatically suck into MCPB and they require steady hand, eagle eyes and firmly pressed MCPCB to properly set up emitter on tray
So if you have emitter on MCPCB that refuses to suck it Old Lumens method is only one that will do and especially if you want to tap and hold emitter until it cures to push excess solder and to make as thin layer of solder between it and trays.
This! XPE2 simmilar ones do that often, they are just too light to push the extra solder aside
Something else that is important and worth mentioning: sometimes the emitter + pad and the core pad could solder toghether yet the emitter will work( xml, xpl, xpg est).
It will work even if you connect the proper driver for testing outside the flashlight, but then inserted in the host the MCPCB will contact the host body and ofc this will cause a short connection.
Thats valid for DTP MCPCBs, non dtp in this case wont suffer that issue yet the emitter core isnt electricaly neutral: sometimes it could affect driver memory mode and/or correct driver modes
Ya, doing small emitters is the hardest. For me either setting a piece of glass on them to weight them down (like when doing a triple) or a very quick “tap”, hard and fast enough to eject the extra solder like a projectile is about the best way.
In Him (Jesus Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
http://asflashlights.com/ Everyday Carry Flashlights, plus Upgrades for Maglite.
Hi!
My first reflow guys, done with helping hands, standard solder wire and a cigarette lighter. Toasty! LOL!
Cheers
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
Great video, thanks! You make it look very easy, and explain it very well.
Ah, but does it work?
djozz quotes, "it came with chinese lettering that is chinese to me".
"My man mousehole needs one too"
old4570 said "I'm not an expert , so don't suffer from any such technical restrictions".
Old-Lumens. Highly admired and cherished member of Budget Light Forum. 11.5.2011 - 20.12.16. RIP.
Nice you asked, because I had not tested it.
Just hooked it up to a 5V PSU (output: 5'16V). I dimmed the room a bit at first because nothing seemed to happen and, anyway, at 2'58V per die I thought it would be barely visible under my 5000 lumen kitchen lamp. Then I realized I was trying to drive it inversely… Aaah! WHOOOSH!
@#$%! That stuff is shining bright for such a low Vf! Is that normal? Maybe I should take some current measurements tomorrow…
Cheers
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
Well, my multimeter shows 0'02 onscreen using the 10A (unfused) scale so, current is ≈20mA. And I remembered I had popped off the ammeter fuse long ago.
Cheers
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
Thanks for the video! I was wondering about that. Despite my age I still have childlike curiosity and a need to know.
Way to go man, I’m so glad you decided to try it. Getting a lot of light even at low power it normal. When I check to see if my reflowed XHPs are working I apply 4.6V with my bench power supply. This will allow me to look directly at the dies to see if they all light up. Going up to only 4.8V and doing this would result in a sharp piercing of the eyes.
Keep up the modding…
In Him (Jesus Christ) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
http://asflashlights.com/ Everyday Carry Flashlights, plus Upgrades for Maglite.
Great video. Thanks for doing this. Turned out to be a fun thread too……..
Looks like that sinkpad got way to hot, its gone brown!
I reflow on my stove top using an aluminum pie pan and sometimes my sinkpads turn color but they seem to work just fine.
It's gone plaid!
Yep, the thing got tanned. That's what happens when you're a n00b in these matters and try to dissolve/spread some solder onto the base “the way of the tiger” (i.e. no rosin/flux).
I'll have my packet of rosin at hand next time.
Cheers
Please avoid fully quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim quotes down to the essential. Helps with neatness and legibility. Thanks.
The human mind, and its programming, is at the forefront of a particular battle of The Light vs evil dark forces. Nearly every human being on this beautiful planet “Earth” has some sort of negative mind programming in its mind. And you better take care of your mind programming, or someone else will in this wicked world.
Good video! You got your hand/fingers in the way a few times when it gets interesting but hey… no problem
There is one thing I was always very curious about: the LED and pad have 3 connection points, two for + and – connections and one large pad that is resposible only for heat transfer from the LED to the sinkpad, right? Now you took A LOT of that solder paste on that first pad. now what happens if you take so much that the solder under the LED creates a electric connection between + and headpad, or – and heatpad, or even between all 3 of them? When connecting this to power it should create a short and destroy the LED, right?
How do you make sure this does not happen? You seem to be very tolerant and even move the LED around on the pad when the hot solder is fluid, I don´t get why it works anyway.
EDIT: those DTP boards like the sinkpad also have some kind of “cavity” or pit where the solder can “flow in”, while cheap aluminium stars like this don´t. Does this affect the process?
K.
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