Hi all
I just bought an blf q8 from amazon and some Samsung 30q button top batteries and when testing it for the first time I notice 1 of the four leds is significantly dimmer than the rest, it ramps up with the rest of them but always seems dimmer until it gets soo bright that the other 3 make it impossible to notice the difference.
I’ve heard that cree leds can have around 10% difference on multiple led lights but dont know if this would be a defect or normal for these type of lights
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My C8F came to me with one emitter like that. I removed the board and stuck it on a hot plate just long enough to liquefy the solder then let her cool down. Fixed mine right up. Don’t know if you feel comfortable doing that or not. Or you might run into someone on here close enough to you that can help you out with that.
Do you mean like an electric oven hot plate or a specialised hot plate?
So it is most likely a bad solder joint to that led maybe. I have basic soldering skills and a soldering station if that would work to reflow the joints on the led.
I’m quite new to advanced torches/modding so have never took a torch apart to see how its constructed.
I’m still blown away by this torch and done alot of research and this far exceeds my expectations but feel I might be losing some performance due to that led being noticeably dim compared to the others and worry that if each battery is powering 1 led “if that’s how it works” then one cell may be discharging at a different rate to the rest
They make hot plates for things like that but, in the past I have used a cast iron skillet on the kitchen stove for flowing, reflowing, or trying a quick repair like yours.
It’s pretty simple really. I preheat the pan getting it to around 400F. Place the board on the pan and watch for the solder to liquefy. Once it does, I leave it for a few seconds then I turn off the heat and remove the board for cooling. Doesn’t take too long to cool. Nothing will move around or fall off on you as long as the board doesn’t get dropped or something.
I imagine the problem may be that the solder paste on that particular led didn’t get hot enough or hot long enough to burn off the flux and leave only the solder behind. Heating it up again will burn off the flux and allow the solder to adhere to the led pads like it should.
I think there are a couple of videos on Youtube of guys using the cook top and pan method. I wasn’t real comfortable the first time I did it. I swore I was going to destroy something. I never did mess anything up. After I gained a little confidence there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t try.
Thanks for your help and straightforward explanation of the process.
I will have a look on youtube for some videos using the pan method