This is my first DQG Tiny 18650 (gen 1). A great light in some respects and annoying in others. This one was always a bit flickery when new, then stopped selecting high.
Ric kindly sent me another entire light, albeit a black one. That one too is a little flickery but still works.
This one however eventually stopped working, when I removed the plate to see the driver some tiny little components fell out, not sure if this was a result of using the circlip pliers, or the actual fault before taking it apart. Suspect they were some kind of resistors, not sure were they went, and far too tiny for my soldering skills. The light seems completely dead now and does nothing.
The long and short of it is, I’m fed up of it sitting on the shelf and not being usable. So I’d love any bright ideas on how to make it usable again.
Geez, that will not be easy. I have a 1st gen DQG18650 too, it still works luckily but I have not really used it.
It will not be entirely impossible to repair it by using a common metal (Sinkpad/Noctigon) led-board and glueing a separate flat driver (l4p's LD1?) under it (component side facing the ledboard) with Arctic Alumina Adhesive. Make space for the solderblobs and wires of the ledboard by filing two rectangular bits away in the metal plane the driver board was glued against, sand away to bare copper part of the top of the ledboard where it will be glued (with AAA again) against the metal rim. Alternatively you can use common Arctic Silver instead of glueing the board by opening up the hole in the retaining ring to wider than 17mm (to make room for the driver board) and screw the ledboard from the underside against its rim. Doing this mod will solve the recordbreaking bad heatpath of this light as well.
Another way is to have a new driverboard designed by one of the pro's here with components on the underside and onboard led on the topside surrounded by a big bare copper plane connected to the thermal pad of the led, for guiding the heat away to the body, thus improving the heat issues of using a non-metal ledboard compared to stock.
Anything these guys come up with will definitely be a massive improvement. I’m certain one of them could easily whip something out in OSHPark. Maybe ask about it in the OSHPark thread? For even better improvement in heat dissipation, I’d go with the first idea, if there is room to do so.
The optics may need to be adjusted, modded, or replaced because of the LED being moved up into the head more by the MCPCB.
No, the plane will be the same this way, either the Sinkpad or the driverboard-with-led will be flat against the rim giving the led exactly the same hight. Notice that I suggest to glue the Sinkpad under the metal plane instead of on top of it, that is why the adjustments need to be made to both the metal rim (clearance for solder blobs and wires) and the Sinkpad (sanding away part of the top side to bare metal).
Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about setting the MCPCB on top of that rim and the driver under it, where the combo board is now. To me, that would make more sense, so the back of the MCPCB can conduct the heat into the rim. If you put both of them together under the rim, then is there room for the extra depth or will it create a problem for the cell? Also, it seems there would have to be some choppin’ done to the rim to make cut-outs for the wires coming to the top of the MCPCB. I don’t have one of these lights, and there are only a few pics here, so…
I mentioned those cut-outs, but english not being my first language, this may not have been clear enough. By sanding bare the part of the top surface that will be pushed/glued against the rim, the heat will leave the ledboard from the topside instead of the underside.
I think that the depth will be precisely right if a flat driver (like wight's one-sided 17mm FET-driver, or l4p's LD1) is used, given that the stock light uses a shallow brass pillar on the driver board.
Maybe there is a middle option, djozz. What if the hole were bored out for a tight press-fit of a small Noctigon, and the driver board were made with the whole back side coated in copper? The Noctigon is soldered to the copper on the back of the driver board, and press-fit into the opening in the rim. The bottom of the rim would be scraped or sanded to expose metal which would also contact the back of the driver board. A very thin layer of thermal adhesive, if needed, could be applied there. If everything worked out right, there would be tight, metal-to-metal contact from the edge of the Noctigon to the hole in the rim. There would be soldered contact from the back of the Noctigon to the copper, which would also carry heat to the back of the rim. It would almost be as good as an integral LED shelf. The other side of the driver board would have all the components and a spring (or post) for batt+ contact.
What do you think? Would it work? The LED would still sit a little higher, but it may be okay, depending on what the optics are like. I don’t know, because there are no pics of the optics here.
What is the diameter of the driver / led board? Height of brass pillar? Max length battery which fit in this (stock) light? Might be just enough room.
Safe to assume the led can’t sit any higher for the stock TIR. And I believe it already uses a short TIR. They have done everything to make this as short as possible. Too much IMHO.
I think that any option that alters the position of the led will get you in huge trouble. The tight (and nice) way the head/optic mounting of this light is constructed leaves no play at all with that unfortunately.
