And why is it so big? Please educate. I’m all eyes but no ears. :nerd_face:
I was thinking capacitor because I know these ……and it looked similar to them. Now this inductor doesn’t have any markings whatsover on it.
I’ve seen my share of those swelled up too in other electronics that have gone T.U.
Yes, the tiny tan thing, ya that’s right I bridge those to lose next-mode memory or eliminate it all together and bridge to switch on right to high. Doesn’t grok as a capacitor in the typical application sense per Amazon version because it’s so frickin’ miniscule. 8)
But that brings up something else, if this little torch doesn’t have modes then why does it need this particular capacitor? I assume it must act like solely as direct led boost then right? And if so, could you conceivably add more of these to get more oomph to any led? H) Or am I being a stubid ignorant moron?
But wait, there’s more…….
Now here’s where it gets a touch confusing then. If that tiny tan thing is a capacitor which to me (do correct if bogus) stores and releases electrical energy in spurts so to speak which I’m garage-mechanic familiar with as to boosting lets say an air compressor motor so it can start things moving, and not constant, then again why is it there if this has no modes/memory? Is this then a constant-current capacitor? Or am I FOS for even asking?
There’s a thread in progress discussing the Joule Thief circuit of which I think this is an example. It has a coil, a capacitor, a resistor, and a transistor that combined can boost the voltage on a small amount of current enough to light a low power led. I just posted a pic of this driver in that thread to see if it was recognizable as such. There is a tendency for this type of circuit to cause the battery to leak from the extreme drain it is capable of causing. In other words “It might $h!t the bed” in the light.
My thought was that the light works fine as it is and all I would do is replace the blue 5mm led with a neutral white 5mm led. I don't bother with drivers that small. I have yet to have one work, once I touch it. They are too small for me to handle and I stay away from them. I have ruined about a dozen of them, so I know. Even the NANJG drivers are bad enough and I have ruined several of them too.
For me, this would be a simple led change and leave it at that, but I applaud you guys for getting into it. Glad to see y'all getting it on.
then he prolly sat there at his bench, proceeded to roll his eyes back into his head and thought…………“Oh gaw’d, not again. Thanks a lot Lumatic you flaming idiot.”
aren’t that way. But anyhow it looks like these things are gonna be a challenge for the young and the brave, eh? I don’t know maybe somebody’ll come up with a new work-around to make them friendlier. Well they can always just go direct-drive and leave the fancy driver out of it I suppose. But then again, direct-drive with a AAA prolly ain’t too swift right? Prolly get heat, no runtime, dead-leds, and destroyed batteries just for starters. :~
Yeah, they do look Led-Lenserish at that.
The ‘Joule Thief’ thread Rufusbuck mentions above now really has me thinking in circles. 8) Linked here for the morbidly curious……
There’s got to be * at least* 3-4mm more room in this than in a solitaire and I know people( never met em) that say you’ve played with those. Lol. Seriously, I’m not terribly interested in the JT circuit unless the battery leakage issue turns out to be a myth. I’m much more interested in putting a couple 7135’s on that board ( won’t bother with the traces), an xp-g2, and a 10440. I don’t know about the switch quality but it looks like the one Match used in his Solitaire tailcap mod. I busted my el cheapo 25W soldering pencil the other day so I’ll be making assorted copper pills until I fix or replace it(need to extract/retap for new tip).
Don’t have one do couldn’t say but they are cute. An inductor is big because it’s not a microchip but a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet and it takes a certain wire guage for the current, the correct number of turns for step up/down, and a magnet with the right field strength. That about exhausts my knowledge base on them.
I was at one of the local Lowe’s yesterday and found out that some ‘lady’ had cleaned out the entire display of these lights just an hour before I got there. She didn’t leave nary one.
Thanks, it was there when I got home and you’re right, it does fit well. With some 1/2” thinwall copper it fits even better. Just nabbed the mast 3 in the store. Must be a Lumatic convention around here or maybe that woman has cousins.
It’s cold today and I was in the mood to burn something so I dropped an imr 10440 into one of these and nothing bad happened. Tail cap current went from stock 220 mA (ever ready heavy duty carbon), 230mA(Duracell alkaline) to 360mA with efest imr 10440. Took the dog for a walk and no issues. Same sharply defined circular beam with no spill. Now I’ll have to desolder the led at some point and get an led current to find out if it’s linear and how efficient. Definitely an interesting cool little light. Still needs a switch mod to eliminate parasitic resistance there.
