Has anyone disassembled Crelant V11A head? - Now I have :)...

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

Hi,

From the pics on this FT page:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10004679/1360300-crelant-v11a-cree-xm-l-u3-3-mode-450-lumen-waterpo

It looks like the head of the V11A can be disassembled into two pieces, apparently with the emitter and driver in one of the pieces.

Has anyone disassembled a V11A like that? If so, how’d you do it? I’ve tried nitrile gloves, some BGA remover, putting it in boiling water then freezer, but the head part won’t budge from the driver/emitter part.

Also, I thought I saw that in thread, someone mentioned that you get to the driver, etc. by removing the bezel, so I’m wondering if there’re two different versions?

2

In my V31A, the head came apart pretty easily, although it had red threadlocker on it.

I first thought it was lube because the threads were pretty smooth after I had opened it.

3

The good news is that I just got the head and “pill” parts separated! The bad news is that I bent and scratched both parts (using a heatgun to heat up the head, and then turning it in a vise using a vise grip), and also, for some reason, the light isn’t working (won’t turn on) anymore :(.

Now that it’s apart, and not working, I’m stuck again. There’s a white plastic disc at the spring end. I thought that the disc might unscrew, but there weren’t any holes for unscrewing it, so I drilled a hole on each side of the disc, but the disc just turns and doesn’t come out. Looking down the center of the spring, it looks like it goes THROUGH the plastic disc, which means it must be attached to the driver that’s under the disc.

So, somehow, the driver and the disc (and the spring) must all come out together, but I can’t figure out how to get them out?

I’ve tried poking something through the holes on the emitter side of the pill, to push the driver out the other end, but the driver won’t budge.

So, the next question is how to get the driver out of the pill. Does anyone know how to do that? Ryan?

Thanks,
Jim

4

Sorry, mine is AWOL …

5

I’m thinking that the driver, plastic disc, and spring are all together, and that this is designed so that the plastic disc is pressed into the pill and holds all 3 things in the pill? In other words, what holds the driver in the pill is the plastic disc?

For the manufacturer, they just have to push the whole assembly into the pill, and they’re done.

And, for repair, they’d have to destroy the plastic disc to get the driver out and put on a new disc.

Is that possible?

I’ve been reading comments that Crelant lights are designed for lower cost manufacturing (but not necessarily lower cost maintenance/repair), so am wondering if it’s possible that the above is the case?

If it is, I’d have to break the disc to get to the driver?

EDIT: I may have to try that, as since the light isn’t working, that may be the only choice I have?

EDIT 2: I got the disc out! As I was surmising, it was just press fit into the pill. It’s not just a flat disc, but more like a “cap” with a hole in the middle for the spring to poke through. I had to enlarge the two holes I made earlier, and then used a pair of hemostats to grab the two holes and just pulled, and the disc and spring came out.

And, the spring is NOT attached to the driver. Rather, the driver has a plated through- hole right in the center, and the spring is suppose to go into that hole, to provide the positive contact from the battery. I have no idea how they actually make sure that the spring goes into that hole, because they’d have to basically do it “in the blind”.

The driver is not attached to the pill, except for one spot, where it appears they soldered from the negative ring on the driver to the side of the pill, I think to provide the negative input to the driver.

I have no idea how they did that either, because the driver is pretty deep in the pill, which is aluminum. I’d not want to be the one who was doing that, as I’ve had a heck of a time soldering drivers to aluminum pills :(…

Once I had the disc out, I took one end of a pair of tweezers and shoved it through one of the holes on the emitter side (BTW, the emitter is loose. There’s some white stuff under it, so they may’ve just put some thermal grease under it).

Anyway, I haven’t tested yet, but I think everything looks intact, so I’m guessing that the reason the light stopped working is that when I had it in a vise, it must’ve broken the driver to pill connection.

I’ll post some pics in a bit, so that if anyone tries this in the future, it might help them…

6

Oh no, hope you do fix the V11A. No matter what the value, it always sucks to have a light go out during disassembly.

Unfortunately mine is also AWOL/MIA as well. :frowning:

I’m guessing a soldier blob to the driver to the pill would fix it?

7

I have had to do a few “repairs” on the occasional defective light. I usually stock the entire pill-disk assembly and just swap them out. The two or three out of several hundred I have sold have not had any locktight. There is a gasket between the reflector assembly and the emitter assembly.

8

Thanks for chiming in madecov!

9

Hi,

Ok, here’re some pics that I took along the way, again, mainly for the record:

First, the pill removed:

The pill:

This is looking at the white disc I mentioned earlier, notice spring goes through the disc. The holes were drilled by me :):

The disc removed (holes enlarged so I could pull the disc out):

The driver in the pill - mainly to show the through-hole in the center where the spring used to go :):

The driver:

The spring. Correcting what I said earlier, the spring was soldered to the driver on the non-battery side, so my earlier guess was corrrect, i.e., Crelant must’ve put the driver, disc, and spring together, then shoved them all into the pill:

The emitter sitting in the pill, loose:

The driver:

The spring-side of the driver:

I hooked up the driver to the emitter, outside the light, and powered it from my bench supply, and it worked!

Looking into the now empty pill, driver-side:

The emitter-side of the pill:

Family portrait of all the parts disassembled, except for the bezel ring and reflector. Bezel ring is still stuck:

10

I sent you a PM, I may be able to help you with some spare parts.

11

Yes, I saw that. I just PM’ed you back…

Thanks a lot, Mark!

Jim

12

Replied

13

Responded, and thanks again Mark!!

Jim

14

Hi,

As some of you may’ve noticed, I did some damage to the V11A while doing this disassembly.

In the process, at one point, when I was kind of stuck, I PM’ed madecov at md-lightsource to see if he knew how to take the V11A head apart, and he responded earlier in this thread.

Not only that, but, without me even asking, he later offered to provide some spare parts so that I could get the V11A working!

Those arrived today, and I just put my V11 back together again, and it is now working again!

While I have been an md-lightsource customer, it’s been awhile since I’ve bought something from him, so I wanted to thank Mark for SUPER commitment to his customers, and super fast shipping :)!

Jim

15

That’s certainly very nice of him! :slight_smile:

Love how the words change into emoticons.

16

Sorry about that. I think I fixed it now?

17

Not a problem, I think it’s fixed as well. :slight_smile:

18

Your more than welcome. The one thing you forgot to mention was that in your initial message to me you told me the light wasn’t purchased from me but from another BLF member. In any event if I have or can get the part I’m more than happy to take care of it.

19

Mark,

I was trying to be “subtle” (the “have been an md-lightsource customer” part :laughing:. Also, BTW, I just put some stuff from md-lightsource on my wish list to my kids for an upcoming B’day, so if they do order, we’ll both be happy :)!