Mod Advice For a Cheapo Flashlight (switch issue)

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I have 6 of these “cheapo” flashlights that I bought several years ago for $5, so less than $1 each. Overall they are nice flashlights, they work well, single mode, reverse clicky switch, use a single AA battery, the kids use them on sleep overs, and I have them in the vehicles. But they have an awful blue tint.

Left is the cheapo, right is an Astrolux A01 Nichia 219B on high.

Here is the disassembly of the flashlight.





Before I took it apart, I thought about dedoming the LED, but that does not look possible. The dome is plastic and it has a small reflector and wires built into it.

Maybe I can just replace the LED?

Maybe it’s not even worth trying to modify it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

(Edited again to hopefully show the pictures and to replace missing text.)
(Edited again to switch the pictures from Google Photos to Flickr)

2

Can’t see the pics, just thumbnail ?’s.

3

Thanks for letting me know Rufusbduck. They look fine on my computer after I posted it, along with my other posts, but apparently there is an issue. I will try to figure it out. I also see that I cannot see the pictures on my phone. Strange.

4

I think I figured it now, I can see my pictures on my computer AND my phone. Please let me know if it’s still an issue.

5

i’d change the emitter, if nothing else to get the tint i might want

is the PCB sitting in a plastic pill? i wouldnt do a driver swap though, unless you get that worked out.

6

No images here. It comes up when you click on the picture link that you have to sign into your Google account.

7

i saw the pics, made my post… now they are gone…

if that timing helps…

8

Thanks for letting me know sedstar. I’ve reposted the pictures again so hopefully they appear now. Please be patient with me.

9

I see the pics for the first time!

10

No pics and no thumbnails. :frowning:

11

no images, no thumbs

12

I cant see them either…. you need to upload to an image host, copy the sharable link URL and post those here.

I use photobucket, but there are others.

13

The ?’s are still small but the boxes they were in are full size so that’s an improvement. :wink: how are you posting the images?

14

I question how i SAW THEM FINE, then they disappeared…

15

Is the hoster down?

16

They are hosted on some sort of Google site / service. I have seen people having problems with posting some Google hosted images on forums before. I forget the solution, but do believe there is one.

17

the solution is…

photobucket

18

Hi everyone, sorry for the technical difficulties! I tried so hard to make Google Photos work, but eventually gave up.

The first time I tried to submit a picture to BLF I created a Flickr account, but I didn’t use it since it seemed Google Photos was working. What’s strange is that the pictures looked fine when I viewed the postings, but apparently that was due to me being logged into Google.

I’m glad that I finally got this figured out and thank you for your patience.

19

If you put a new led and star it’s going to sit much lower in the light.
Right now the led is very tall and provides the dimension to hold the reflector against the lens.
IMO I don’t think this light is worth modding.

20

Not worth much, plastic pill, so no thermal path. You might be able to swap an original XR-E in there and get some better output, if you have spares laying around in your kit.

I don’t think dedoming would be worth trying in that light, but I have seen some of those cheap emitters where the dome was just a clear protective plastic cap…

In fact, you could probably find a better fried egg style emitter than what’s in there, but I don’t think it would be worth it. I give lights like that to little kids as toys since they won’t start fires or blind anyone with them.