Hi! I have a Fluxient U2 Mini which I got around ten years ago. It has worked fine until recently when it was dropped on hard ground a couple of times. Now the light is very temperamental. It will vary between on/off/flickering.
It has always had a SenyBor unprotected 18650 inside. I tried putting in a new XTAR protected 18650 but it has not helped so it looks as though something worked loose when it was dropped.
How likely is it that I could repair it by taking the bulb part apart? If it is not repairable I may be asking for recommendations of a similar size bike torch that will take a 18650! Thanks in advance.
I can only find an old Amazon listing of this light, looks like it was one of the ones that Torchythebatteryboy used to sell.
Does the light have a tail clicky? The construction is probably similar to e.g. convoy S2+. Assuming the light uses standard dimensions, a replacement driver (assuming that’s what you need) should be easy to find.
It’s possible the hard drops caused damage to a solder joint. Remove the battery, have a go at disassembling the light, and post some pics so people here can advise.
Yes, it was from Torchy The Battery Boy originally! It has a clicky rubber button on the end. You click down fully to turn on. Then optionally a half press to switch between full power, half power or flashing modes. It defaults to full power when you turn it on.
I’m pleased to say that after taking it apart and putting it back together it all seems to be working again. There was not any sign of loose soldering that I could see. Here are some photos.
The housing at the bulb end was really difficult to unscrew for some reason; perhaps I had overtightened it last time. Once it was all taken apart I used some circlip pliers to fit into the two little holes and unscrew the metal disc that screws down and secures the LED circuit board and lens. There is a similar thing at the button end but with a plastic disc which encases the spring that goes onto the negative end of the battery. Although the pliers fitted, I could not easily get this to screw out so left it as it was working at this point once reassembled.
I believe this is rated at 100 lumens according to an old Amazon page I found. Looking at the numbers for some of the other lights on here that sounds like yesterday’s news! I can no longer find the original page from Torchy with the photo and brightness measurements etc.
It’s still a nice light for on the bike and has a plastic moulded holder you can snap it into - better than the silicone rubber band style holder seen on that Amazon page. I recently got a Decathlon ST920 bike light as backup which is 300 lumens but am having problems fitting the supplied holder onto my handlebars.
That’s great news! Not at all uncommon, sometimes things become slightly unthreaded resulting in poor electrical connection.
Sometimes manufacturers use left-threaded components, sometimes they use thread lock glue, agree that if the light is working, no need to get the disk out.
The light looks like it uses an XM-L LED, 100 lumens is indeed “low” by today’s standards, but if it’s bright enough for your use then no need to change it.
The LED/driver “module” looks like it just slides into the head and is held down by the retaining ring, I’d be reluctant to soup-up this light too much as the thermal pathway probably isn’t that good.
More modern designs use either a “shelf” which is a solid flat platform integrated into the light head for the LED board to sit on, with only two small holes for the wires (e.g Convoy C8+), or they use a brass “pill” which is similar to the Fluxient design except the “module” itself threads into the light head which provides better head pathway (e.g. Convoy S2+).
Interesting stuff! Is the Convoy S2+ a modern equivalent to this light would you say?
I bought an Xtar SC1 Fast Charger along with the new battery. The charger was very reasonably priced, around 5 GBP. The old Xtar charger I had worked okay but did not have charging progress LEDs, just a single LED which went from red to green when charged. You had to tap the battery slightly to get it to change colour even when it was obvious that it had finished charging, as it would stay on red otherwise.
All is well now but I’m interested to know what a comparable budget choice of light would be nowadays in case I ever need it. I would be happy to remove the battery and charge it that way rather than having built in USB charging etc.
