To the point - Where do I solder the pos/neg leads coming from the emitter to this board to make it direct drive? Will the forward voltage be a concern?
Backstory - It just couldn’t handle the many accidental “left on’s” by my 2 yr old (as well as the few times his daddy did too!). Anyway, I saw it under the couch “on” as if he was looking for the dog or a ball. It was blazing hot as always after being left on for so long….perhaps 20-30 min. I quickly turned it off and let it cool down. Went to fire it up but this time, it didn’t turn back on.
So can someone tell me where to solder the wires? Also can I use solder paste instead?
The driver. See the slightly melted neg wire?
Another view. Does the “cfc” component/thingy look damaged or what?
Here’s my good ol pal.
Lastly, anyone know of a driver that would be good for this light?
Those pins should be negative, along with the one I circled.
In resistance or continuity mode of the DMM, have one probe on the + contact where the battery meets the driver, and snoop around spots where there is no resistance on the component side of the driver.
I don’t think direct drive is the ideal solution for a light which is often turned on accidental, especially if it shows some issue with the heat/current it had before…
I guess you are using lion only? Because you are considering direct drive…
Which diameter has the driver? Does the new driver need ability for nimh and liion?
Can you post a pic of the other side of the board, ideally, in the same orientation as one of the pics you posted? Maybe that might help figure out where the + appears on the circuit side of the board and also confirm the negative.
Also, can this light lockout from the tailcap? Maybe you could just turn the tailcap slightly when you are not using it so he would have a harder time turning the light on?
I’m thinking if you do DD it, and he turns it on again and leaves it on, things might get a little hot.
Another way to DD it is that it looks like two edges of the board are flat. If they leave enough space, you could just run the red and black wires over to the battery side, and solder the black to the negative edge contact and the red to the bottom of the spring? Or, if there’s not enough room for the wires to squeeze through when the board is in the pill, maybe just put some notches on the edge to make enough room for the wires to get through to the other side of the board. Just want to make sure that the wires don’t get cut when the board is in the pill.
Replace the light with an Asgard, and program all the modes to turn off after 30 minutes of inactivity. (only partially kidding, that would be a kid- and idiot-proof setup) :p
For the negative, ohm from the outer ring on the spring side and the plated area with the 3 holes on the circuit side.
For the positive, ohm from the holes in yellow circle on the spring side and the holes in the yellow circle on the circuit side:
If both ohmings (is that a word?) show shorts/0-ohms, you can move the black wire to the 3 holes area and the red wire to one of those two holes in the yellow circle on the circuit side.
Ohaya, thank you very much for the step by step. That did the trick nicely! It was difficult getting the solder to “run” and I ended up with a blob on the contact side…lol. The neg was a bit easier for some reason. Anyway, my first “mod” under my belt! Thanks!
Here’s the first spot to be expertly soldered.
Just look at that skill. Next the red wire.
Somehow a blob appeared.
Going in anyway.
Well well…it works!
Comfy, the Asgard is too nice. No way he would get to “play” with it, if I had one that is.
Werner, I just may have to find a new driver as it runs way too hot now. Not even one minute before its too hot.
Its hard working on a 15mm board I must say. But it felt good getting my feet wet so thanks a bunch for everyone’s help.
would a 17mm board sit on top of the pill, instead of inside as it does now? If the pill is wide enough and there’s enough length in the battery compartment, then one of PilotPTK’s 7135 drivers would be perfect as it has a programmed thermal response.
Probably the reason you got the “blob” is that plated through hole, on the spring side, is in the middle of that big plated area, so when you applied the solder, it will flow wherever the heated plated area is. If it was a normal isolated plated through hole, the contact area would just be a small circle around the hole. I don’t think that this is a problem, so congrats on your 1st mod :)!
Edit: That big contact area for the positive side was also why you had difficulty getting the solder to flow. It would basically absorb a lot of heat because it’s so large. In other words, even though you were trying to solder only the wire poking through, you’d be heating up the the whole goldenish color part.
