I don’t have 
I don’t have any instrument to check current, voltage, etc… Maybe I’ll need to get that to check what’s happening…
Unscrew your tail and use any metall part you can find on your table to contact battery minus to the tube edge.
On all the tailcaps of my S2+ I have: brass retaining ring (stock), switch (lighted or not), plastic or metal washer (on the lighted ones I have transparent or opaque plastic washer), rubber tailcap.
I’ve tried it with different assembled tailcaps of S2+ flashlights (reverse lighted and non lighted, forward clicky, with plastic or metal washer). It never works.
It seems that the first time (after soldering) there is a “burst” of power and then it stops working…
Just tried it, also doesn’t work :person_facepalming:
My guess starts to focus on the driver or the connections on the pill, as the tailcaps work on all the lights I have…
It would be hard to make more diagnostics without DMM.
Lots of solder there!
If you are using a protected cell I guess there is a short in the driver. When the tube makes full contact and/or presses onto the driver the protection of the cell might have tripped. Don’t try a unprotected cell, might give lots of smoke or even more hazard.
It’s a bad idea to modify lights without a DMM at hand. Always check for shorts at battery side and LED connections before you insert a cell.
Hum, I’ve just tried one thing and the light worked for some seconds on MAX output!!
I took the pill out of the “head”, put the spring in contact with the battery, and used a metal tweezer to touch the non anodized part of the battery tube and the negative wire on the MCPCB! It lighted up!
When I put the tweezer tip on the positive wire it sparkled, as if it was a short-circuit!
So, what can be this? If this way the light worked, what can be wrong?
Mike is right. Spring is too big and shorts one or several negative amc legs.
it can be a short, best id to use 2 component epoxy to insulate those AMC legs after soldering the spring
If you havent used optics, you could probably screw the pill inside not as deep as it had to be. And with cell installed, all was fine till you screwed the tail down. Cell compressed the sping (which could also bend to the side when compressed) what causes a short.
Last thing I want to mension. Probabily of this short could be times less if youve used right (conical) spring.
Hum, does this mean that it is better to take the spring out and re-do the bypass? Saying, put less solder?
I’ve pressed the spring till the end and it doesn’t make contact with the chips legs! And I’ve screwed in “more” and “less” to check that and it never worked, since the first time.
But even with that it may be causing short due to the compression?
Lexel, I will try using the spring you sent! I opted for a Biscotti one as the MCPCB already had wires, so I just had to solder them and make the bypass!
What I posted on post #14 may mean all that you are saying, that there is a short?
Thanks for the advices every one 
I will re-do that and let you know if it worked
Thanks so much once again!! :+1: 
So, I’ve re-done the spring bypass, with a shorter spring (from Lexel)!
And what happened? The same exact situation! The lighted switch lighted up for a moment, and then it no longer worked!
Neither the switch, nor the emitters! The emitters only work when I retried what I’ve described on post #14, and they lighted when touching the negative wire…
Is there still too much solder?
:person_facepalming: :disappointed: :rage:
Btw: there is a (too) thick solder blob at the driver pad for the negative LED wire, this might get in contact with the pill. But this would make the light run in direct drive instead of going off.
So - are you using a protected cell?
I think you have moved several amc’s from their places now…
Did you screw in the tube in the proper direction? If it is the wrong way around there won’t be ground connection from tail to head.
Yeah, looks so.
If the PCB has been heated up so much, there is a good chance that components at the other side also moved.
Sorry, forgot to answer before Flashy Mike :person_facepalming: I’m using a Samsung 30Q!
Here are the photos from the back! Despite I made a bit of a mess, it seems to me that there is no connection from the blob and the pad. Maybe I’m disregarding something?
On the other driver I received from Lexel, I made that mistake and the light only worked on max. I saw the problem and eliminated it and works fine now.
On this one, I tried to clean that and avoid a connection from the solder, but I may be wrong :person_facepalming:
Yes, everything is in the right direction! Non-anodized thread with anodized edge upwards and anodized threads with non-anodized edge towards the tail!
Nop, the chips were already that way! Here is a pic of the driver on the day it arrived (left) and today (right). Note the numbers 713, they are in the same position (one at 11h, the other at 5h)
The chips are in the same position despite I may have heated up to place the spring.
Some tests I do for trouble-shooting flashlight mods:
Tools I use:
- An old radio-shack plastic 1xAA-sized battery carrier with 2 wires coming out of it. I use an IMR 14500 in this carrier for purposes of testing.
- Two jumper wires. (6” wires each with alligator clips soldered to both ends). If you don’t have alligator clips you can still do the test by temporarily soldering the wires instead of clipping.
- A small DMM that can be set to emit a continuous beep when no resistance is detected.
Tests to perform:
- Star check. Sometimes the problem might be an improperly reflowed LED or a bad LED. Unlikely in a parallel triple, but this check is easy: Take the battery carrier and touch the leads to the bondpads on the star. If all is right with the star, the star should light up. I typically perform this check before installing any star in a light and after every re-flow. This test can be performed with the star inside or outside the light.
- Driver check. Before installing a driver in a light, I like to check that it works. Outside the light I usually solder up a junk star with an old XML on it to the driver, then use jumper wires to temporarily connect the battery carrier to the star. If the driver is for an e-switch, I’ll also temporarily solder on a momentary push button. This test lets me verify that all the electronics are working properly and not defective where I can see them outside the light. If the light doesn’t work properly, I’ll check all the solder connections and look for shorts. Still not working?…. I might swap in a different driver. If it works with that the problem is something to do with the driver.
- Ground connection to pill check. If a light doesn’t work properly, most of the time this is the problem. If the negative connection from the driver to the battery tube or pill isn’t good then the light won’t work. After assembling the pill, use a DMM to check for resistance between the pill or battery tube threads and the driver. On the driver you are using you could place one probe on the pill, and the other probe on one of the center pins of any of the 7135 chips. There is a high likelihood that this could be the problem in your case. Perhaps the driver retaining ring isn’t screwed down all the way.
- Star to driver wire connection check. Check the solder points for the driver wires to the star to make sure you’re not getting any shorts. In your case, the solder blob where the negative wire is attached to the driver seems rather large and is very close to the edge.
- Driver component check. Use a round toothpick to pick out any debris between the pins of components on the driver board and to check for loose components. Also check for any components out of position and look for possible shorts.
- Driver wire replacement. Sometimes the problem might be a broken driver lead-wire. If still not working, try soldering on fresh driver lead-wires.
- Tail cap check. With the tail cap removed, use any piece of conductive metal (such as a flat screwdriver) and bridge the back of the battery with the edge of the battery tube. If that fixes it, then the problem is in the tail cap. Check that the tail switch retaining ring is tight. If that doesn’t fix it disassemble the tail cap and check the switch for problems.
The main thing about flashlight modding is to take it slow and methodical. Don’t try to rush.
Yeahhhh, I should be aware of this, above all!! :person_facepalming:
Thanks so much for the advises Firelight2!! I don’t have those tools or devices as I didn’t need them before, only now they may be missing to check some points! Most of my mods so far where LED and driver swaps :person_facepalming:
Today I built another triple, with Jaxman MCPCB and a driver from MTN! All worked just fine! But now I’m struggling with this one!
I’ll try to check some of the list above:
Star check - Works fine, as it already light up, and despite all the source (MTN) is reliable!
Driver check - I should have done something like that, but the inexperience and lack of knowledge, and the “faith” that everything would be fine, made me jump that phase!
Ground connection to pill check - Don’t have a DMM to check on that :person_facepalming:
Star to driver wire connection check - +Checked on this and the solder doesn’t make contact neither with the edge of the driver, nor the pill (as far as I can tell). But can’t check much further! I’ll re-solder and see if this works. (Although the is light when I touch the negative wire on the MCPCB and the non-anodized threads of the battery tube.)
Driver component check - All seems to be in place, nothing loose and no debris on the middle!
Driver wire replacement - The wires are 22AWG (pre-soldered on the MCPCB, by MTN) seem to be fine, as the emitters lighted up and no visible damage is seen!
Tail cap check - Works fine on other flashlights, so I’ll say this is OK!
Thanks again for the suggestions Firelight2
I think we can at least rule out a direct short between battery positive and negative, you should have noticed that. Generally I suggest to use low drain protected cells at low voltage for first tries after such a mod. It helps to reduce the damage from shorts or other faults. A current limiting power supply would be even better.
Perhaps we can see more if you post a close up of the front side of the driver, where the mcu sits. But it’s possible that your driver is fried already.