Cofly KX-A036 flashlight, impression and teardown (+mod now)

[Studie]

@djozz

@Studie

@djozz

Very thick wires handle a bit stiff, make sure they do not lift the led-board, a led board with air under it is the one best way to kill a led.

While you are soldering anyway, solder a thin piece of wire around the side of the driver (file the produced blob almost flat on the component side), it will press-fit the driver again and help with the electrical contact with the pill.

When you mean side, on the silver rim on the component side? Also how did you remove the white plastic piece? It seems to be glued on…

What I mean is bend a piece of wire around the edge of the driver and solder it onto the minus-ring  on both sides. But if you leave the blob thick on the component side of the driver, you can’t press the driver in the pill anymore because the blob is in the way, so file it down to almost flat on that side.

The white plastic piece is a very tight press-fit and very hard to remove without destroying it. You could drill a small hole near the side, not too deep of course, and use a small screwdriver as a lever. But mind that the plastic piece is there to keep the led-board squeezed onto the pill, so if you remove it you must have an alternative plan for that, like using Fujik or better Arctic Adhesive to glue the board down.

Dj thanks for the tips, I understand what you mean now. I’ve fitted the driver nice and snug.

I re-soldered the original wires properly to clean up the poor job they did. Took the advise from some of the forum members and you to keep the wires stock since they don’t play much of a bottleneck in power anyways.

I re-lubed the threads with some superlube grease and oiled the o-rings. Degreased the zoom o-ring, so that the zoom is more stiff than loose.

Put in my Panasonic 18650s, and wowieeee, one of my favorite lights! Thanks for the suggestion to buy this light, it was totally worth $13 shipped from DX!

[hank]

> file it down to almost flat on that side.

Or tap it with a hammer on an anvil and flatten it out where it will slip between driver and pill
(hammering makes copper work harden (become a bit brittle); gently heating it will remove that work hardening)

I hadn’t thought of soldering the wire on both sides of the driver, d’oh. Very good idea.

I’m thinking maybe some DeOxIt or similar corrosion prevention cleaner might keep the connection good longer in there as well.