Where have you bought them from? That might help narrow down where this is being done.
Or perhaps it’s new?
I have six Convoy S lights; five came with the retaining rings. Only the second one from GB rec’d a few days ago came soldered.
As I said, Fasttech, MTN, Banggood, Gearbest. All bought in 2015.
The only ones not soldered were directly from Simon. But I think that is just because they had single sided drivers.
Without filing out the rings like you did, I also do not see a way to fit the ring on top of the chips of a double sided driver, there simply is not enough thread in the pill. Unless older pills were deeper?
Weird. I haven’t tried measuring the pills or counting threads.
Good grief.
This is the picture at GB, tho’ that’s not T64C*8 driver
Well, you could try a solder-sucker to remove the failed solder entirely and see if you could clean out the grooves if you could get a retaining ring.
(I recall seeing them for sale somewhere, it’s a fairly generic pill and ring, maybe DX. Someone will know)
Or just replace the whole pill.
Or remove the emitter so you don’t cook it, and tin the pill, and resolder the thing. What a pain.
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1583600
Get all the solder off is fairly easy. Lots of heat, some flux and wiping with Q-tips while hot.
As you mentioned, best to get the driver and emitter out before doing this.
Looking at mine I have to agree with this. Although there are some threads showing, the top of the chips are at the level of the top edge of the pill, however it appears hank has done it pressing on the chips:
But maybe Simon didn’t want to have the rings pressing on the chips for the lights he sells.
Here’s a quote posted by mattlward from J-Dub74’s Blue S2+ thread “(post #40)”:https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/35200:
(DEL you replied to that post also saying your Convoy’s with single sided boards weren’t soldered)
The photo I posted of the S6 pill with the ground jumper is quite puzzling, in that photo looking closely it doesn’t appear the pill is threaded for a ring, I’m thinking its an older photo from an earlier version that didn’t have a ring, (his current S6 host shows a ring is supplied with it)
Or Simon decided the driver shouldn’t be “floating” and now tacks them down with solder to secure and ground it.
Also he has the ground jumper soldered to the contact ring on edge of the board and that would cause the board to not be able to sit perfectly flat into its shelf in the pill.
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Poking around on the forum here I see that tacking the driver down with solder in a few spots is common practice for these when using a double sided board.
So that pretty much clears it up for me as to why some are soldered and others aren’t.
Thanks everyone for all the info, and thanks DEL for the link to the ring at Fasttech, I’ll get some with my next order.
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As for this light (now that I’m into it) it will probably get a FET driver and a new emitter on Noctigon. The pill hardly has any solder left on it so it won’t be a problem to clean it up.
I would of rather had the blue S2+ but it wasn’t available at the time. I think what I may do is get a blue host plus a pair of red and blue shorty tubes and build a set of “His & Her” 18350 lights just for kicks since I don’t have any 18350 flashlights.
Go for a FET+1*7135 driver. It gives the best of both worlds:
-Very efficient (when looking at the Vf of the emitter) 350/380 mA mode that can be PWM to very low modes. 350 mA is about 1 W and gives a substantial amount of light that stays regulated down to an almost empty cell.
-Direct drive when needed. This can also be PWMed to lower modes, although with a big hit on emitter Vf compared to the 350 mA modes.
Picture added at #6 above
Near as I can tell, after asking several people who know a lot more than I do, there’ s no physical or electrical problem with the ring pressing down on the 7135 chips (and I’ve done it with 5x (only one 7135 standing up high) as well as with 8x (four of them)
But there’s also no problem with having the notches filed to clear them as in the picture above that I’ve come across. The rings are tapered so the part that reaches the furthest in is rather thin and goes around the outside edge of any components near the ground ring, not shorting out anything that shouldn’t be contacting the ground ring.
I never am satisfied with drivers (or emitters) for very long, so I look for flashlights where i can change them easily by removing retaining rings.
Yes I agree, for the shorty’s that’s what I was thinking to have some regulation to help with the lower capacity cells, at least in the lower modes.
The driver I had in mind was the FET+1 BLF A6 driver from Banggood (when they come back in stock) because of the low price.
For me the only drawback to the Bangood A6 driver is the A6 firmware, I cannot re flash and after reading up on it I don’t think I’ll be doing that any time soon.
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Don’t get me wrong TK’s A6 firmware is awesome and I appreciate all the time and effort she has put into it for the SE BLF lights, she has really worked out a design to try and please a broad range of what forum members here would want.
However for most of my lights I like them to start on high or turbo, (or at least have a quick access to high/turbo from off) For me starting on high is typically more useful than starting on low, then if I want less light I can quickly tap down a few levels, and with all of the flashlights I have there is usually another one handy that starts on low for when that’s whats needed.
With TK’s A6 firmware (starts on moon/low) I can quickly access turbo after the light is on with a “medium” press (medium tap) to enter the hidden modes (turbo is first) which usually works great, but once in a while if I hold too long (long tap) it resets back to moon/low, or if not long enough (short tap) it just goes to the next mode.
Also when I use the medium tap method for quick turbo access (to enter the hidden modes) from there sometime if I tap too long it enters the next hidden mode which is a blinky. So its a bit complicated for what I like and when it doesn’t do what you want it can be frustrating and annoying, especially when I hit that blinky mode |(
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I guess it just takes some getting used to it but sometime the K.I.S.S. principal is best (Keep It Simple Stupid) especially because I have so many different lights with different UI’s.
And having mode memory doesn’t really help because of my own memory (I can’t always remember to shut it off in high mode)
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The only other place I know where to buy a FET or FET+1 driver is MTN Electronics, and one firmware he offers that stands out for me is the Dr. Jones Guppydrv. But I guess it can only be put on the standard FET driver.
With the K.I.S.S. principle in mind, the Standard or Custom firmware would usually work for me, with that there’s the benefit of LVP shutdowm that isn’t on the Guppydrv.
OK sorry, enough rambling about UI’s :zipper_mouth_face: …
Just to clarify I wasn’t saying you weren’t correct about the ring pressing, or that I thought it may cause damage. 8)
I only suggested maybe Simon didn’t want to do that for his lights for sale to the public. Not because of any damage but for looks (some might question it?).
In fact I’ve already decided if I keep the 7135x8 driver in there for a while I will do just that and use a retaining ring without notching, pressing on the chips, because I agree about being able to swap drivers / work on the lights without having to de-solder tack downs on the pill.
Thanks again for your kind advice here 