I got my soldering stuff yesterday (burnt my knuckle 30 seconds into using it), but now the stock emitter is soaking in some gas. Grabbed some (Thor vs DST vs 2 not-even-close zoomies ) beamshots that turned out rather decent for my first time messing with all the fancy settings to get close to real life pics.
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Iām still trying to get a 4-6 amp driver with 3 ā 8.4v+ for versatility in 2x or 1Ć 26650/18650, or C batteries (Is this possible?). This seems to be about the only option currently (2-3 cells though).
Hehe I know that feeling well, burnt myself loads of times when I started soldering. Havenāt had any incidents in quite a while now so it does get less dangerous with more practice. :party:
Was there a driver originally in the DST or just that board? Because if there was no preexisting driver and it was just that board, that board was responsible for the high-low mode of the original. Either way, that driver youāre using as replacement has everything it needs on it. Scrap the original DST contact board. You canāt use the original contact board as it has internal traces to support those two chips.
Try looking for a smaller contact board, if you take too much off the contact board currently soldered to your new driver you could lose the ground contacts.
No driver, just stock contact board. Single mode. I saw relic reused his original contact board, but I canāt quite tell if he modified it in any way. He āended up stripping all two components from the existing driver and using that instead.ā Does that include modifying the traces?
I think for the moment I will just temporarily attach the new driver and paste the contact board to the rim of the pill. I donāt have any fujik, but I do have some silicone for home applications somewhere around here.
The traces are buried inside the board, sandwiched in the layers of silicon, you arenāt modifying them without destroying the board. If relic made it work then ask him where he soldered the input to the new driver.
Well Crap. Spent almost 2 hours in the 40ish degree garage working on this thing.
First sign things were going to go bad? I put the driver inside pill and the wires went perfectly through the holes to the emitter without even trying (was trying to get an idea of how the massive thing would fit). Well at this point in time I thought āWow this is going to be easy!ā¦ā First issue was the thermal pad I threw all over the driver, needed to be trimmed, no big deal. Place it up in the pill again, cool everything fits, but the wires were no where to be seen. Fiddle around with the wire bend for about 5 minutes and finally the driver gets wedged inside the pill and does not wish to move. Woops. Pulled out the positive wire from the contact board to the driverā¦ woops pulled the negative as well. XD
Alright no big deal, take the wires from the old driver and cut them to length, solder everything back together, good to try again. Iām not taking chances this time. Solder remaining wire to the ends of the new driver wires and use the super long wires to easily guide the whole thing up into the pill. Success? Nope. I swear the driver has increased in size as it no longer wants to attempt to go into the pill. With a bit of encouragement I get the whole thing inside the pill, solder the wires to the emitter. Painstakingly remove old spring from old board and attach it to the new board. Wall-freaking-Ah!
I rush inside everything numb from the cold, reassemble the light, improvise a spacer tube for the 2x 18650 out of poster paper. Fully assemble the light, click the switch and for the most rewarding millisecond I see bright white lightā¦ and itās gone. Wait a bit, fiddle around, and it works again!.. and itās gone. :_(
Started typing this long freakinā comment and itās working again. 3 modes. 2.6 Amps at the tailcap (Stock DMM leads) on 2 NCR18650B Protected. I can finally feel warmth emitting from the DST! One heck of a handwarmer after about 15minutes on high 105F at the hottest point.
So after letting it sit off for a while when clicked on the light will come on and then instantly off. Doing absolutely nothing but waiting 30-45 seconds and turning on again the light will stay on at max output. Now something random, I donāt know what, happens after some time and then all of sudden I have 3 modes. They seemed to appear after having the light on for 5+ minutes.
Iām not really sure what is up, is the problem with the driver, have I made a short somewhere? I know when the light is on and I tighten the head all the way down the light shorts out, so I made the blobs a bit too big on the emitter, but the above happens even without the head on.
Iāve done all that painstaking work, tested everything out and was satisfied, potted the electronics, and THEN issues arose! Once I very carefully removed potting to find the error. Another time I just scrapped the driver and started over. That driver was modified to take 2 cells at 8.4V with resistor and Zener diode additions. Yeah, sometimes it sucks. But when you get it rightā¦Hallelujah!
Do these drivers commonly have some kind of short circuit protection on the output side? I wonder if shorting the led wires across the reflector even just once might damage the circuit to some extent?
Seems like strange behavior in any case, sorry to hear itās been such a pain.
Generally, when I have a problem like this, it ends up being a driver grounding issue. Getting a good ground connection with an aluminum pill is tricky sometimes.
I guess Iāll make a little test bench, which I probably should have earlier. I need to go get some gator clips!
It performed rather well for the time it worked. I had it at about 115F on outer fins, 120ish on the pill. The driver and surrounding thermal stuff was Luke-warm after 30-40 minutes. I got some beamshots that put the old driver to shame.
Is there anything I can wrap around the components of the driver that wouldnāt be permanent? Like electrical tape maybe? Or would this cause issues?
Currently the contact board is suspended under the pill by 1-2mm, unless the light is assembled then the spring compresses the board against the rim of where the old board sat in.
Yes, you may want to make sure there a no non-metalic burs preventing the grounding ring from making a good contact with the pill. You may also want to secure the the contact board to the pill so that you know that it stays in place when you assemble the light.
Will do. I picked up a rotary tool today, so I will see if I can manage to enlarge the board lip without destroying the pill. Could be fun trying to take the driver out; Iām pretty sure itās wedged in there pretty good.
Would electrical tape wrapped around the circumference of the driver and toroid negatively effect anything?
Should I try to sand the driver edges a bit to allow it to fit inside the pill better, or should I bore out the pill a small amount?
I didn't realize you had the driver wedged in. It's probably well grounded then. You can verify continuity with your dmm by putting one probe on the driver grounding ring and one on the pill.
) beamshots that turned out rather decent for my first time messing with all the fancy settings to get close to real life pics.
Wait a bit, fiddle around, and it works again!.. and itās gone. :_(