I'm relatively new to building flashlights. This is my 5th light...it's not working. I'm pretty sure it's a compatibility problem, but I want to understand why. Any help is appreciated.
Here's what I'm using (all purchased from Mountain Electronics):
I used this driver thinking it would give be the most output with no frills...That was my understanding of buck driver's, but maybe I'm missing something.
The L2 calls for a 20mm Driver, so i used a Brass Adapter Ring because I didn't have 20mm on hand. I soldered the ring in place.
I removed the pre-soldered wires and soldered the leads from the driver into the same spots where the wires were connected on the MCPCB.
I was sure this would work no problem, which tells me that I'm probably missing something essential to continuing in this hobby...Thanks for your help!
Sounds very straight forward and correct. Have you checked for a bad switch? Remove the tailcap and bridge from the bat- to the tube with a good wire. Also check that the ground path is good from the head to the ground plane on the driver… If you have some kind of power supply, test the leds and the path through the driver and eliminate the batteries.
Or a diode is backwards on the mcpcb or the cells might not be making contact between each other in the tube or you have offended the flash gods of propriety. Somewhere in there, your problem lies.
Like Scott said, did you set it up with the emitters wired the same way the driver is? Troubleshooting, the fun part of modding!
XYZ is easy, ABC is mundane, mixing those tanna leaves of Scotts with a bit of Ethiopian Guedo Worka and combining a good pasta with Mexican spices, now that get’s a bit more difficult. Carry on, you’ll be a full fledged addict in no time!
And remember, our motto around here is “Pics or it didn’t happen…”
I can post pics, I honestly didn’t bother because I was sure I did something that would be very obvious to someone who knows what they are doing…I’ll get the camera when I go home this evening.
Well, if your Buck driver is supposed to give 3V to the emitter, and if it’s set up for 3 cells, and if the cells are all touching like they’re supposed to, and if your switch is good and your grounds are good and your emitters are on the mcpcb’s in the correct orientation and your retaining rings are snug and you wired the driver correctly and you don’t have a short then you probably should be good to go. It’s usually something simple, I find, and it can happen on your first or 500th build.
You’ll be relieved when/if you find it and fire that bad boy up! Then you’ll be hooked for life.
Yes, I soldered the adapter ring in place and then screwed in the brass ring…admittedly, it seems pretty “rigged-up”…it didn’t all just fit like a glove….so it’s entirely possible that it isn’t grounded, I’m trying to make that ground more solid now.
So, I was just just testing connectivity with my multimeter & with the switch on, when I touched the negative wire on the LED to the metal of the host, the lights turned on. They were quite dim, but regardless they turned on….problem is, I still don’t know exactly what that means?
I honestly don’t know yet, I’m just tinkering right now. I wanted to see how a triple looked with 2x18650s & a buck driver. The only hosts I had were this L2 and the UF-1405 zoomie…but the zoomie requires a 16mm MCPCB & all I had was 20mm…so I was trying the L2. Think of it as a cadaver for purposes of study
Can you hook up the batteries with magnets and wires so you can touch them to the spring and the outer ground ring of the driver? This will determine if it’s an installation problem.
How did you wire the emitters? All positives to the red positive lead and all negatives to the black negative lead or did you run them like stacking batteries?
If direct drive was only enough to dim them then they must be wired in series. Through the driver, there wouldn’t even be enough voltage to light them dimly. Are we sure they are wired in parallel?
