Modding a cheap flashlight

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-27T23:07:02.000Z

Hello Illuminati;
Want to remove the strobe option of this rather nice looking flashlight. Long story short, I wanted to explore new designs and rather than going the conventional way with a host, purchased this inexpensive unit and thought to change the driver or mod the pins of the MCU. The e-switch is directly mounted on the driver board which also has a USB charging port. Doubt I could find a replacement without losing the charge option. So maybe someone knows a way to short / or break pin(s) on the MCU?
The UI is simple:
click on - high,
2nd click - medium,
3rd click - strobe,
4th click -off.
No mode memory.
I’m looking for a simple on/off function. A second mode may be nice but is not necessary. Going through 4 clicks to off is an added pain to the strobe. I dislike these flashy modes - what is it with the disco?

Album
driver pic

I had tried Googling the MCU, charging IC, board number, no results. I tried shorting/removing the cap. A blind man’s try.

I like the design, great anthracite grey color (makes for different than the classic black) and all the components are easily removable. Construction is fairly good, nothing that can’t be amended. Glow in the dark switch and bezel o-ring. The emitter is rather cheap with its imperfections (~300 lm, cool white), that can be swapped out.

I have a toolroom lathe and some electronic abilities. Thought I could convert this into a utility flashlight.

Microa · 2018-05-28T03:40:44.000Z

57D6 is a 500mA charging IC TP4057. The 519L should be the driver IC. It is so integrated that it seems unable to remove the strobe mode.

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T05:00:22.000Z

Naw, they’re hateful little things. You’d have to reflash the µC to get rid of blinkies.

If it didn’t have an e-switch (or charger), you’d have a shot sticking in a “standard” driver like a NANJG, but anything custom, forget it.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T05:05:40.000Z

Quite right about the 57D6 - connected to the status LEDs. My bad in deciphering the chips.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T05:18:56.000Z

Lightbringer:

Naw, they’re hateful little things. You’d have to reflash the µC to get rid of blinkies.

If it didn’t have an e-switch (or charger), you’d have a shot sticking in a “standard” driver like a NANJG, but anything custom, forget it.

Confirms what I suspected. Well wasn’t much of a purchase. But where to get drivers?

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T06:00:47.000Z

For an e-switch? Nowhere. Well, you can get, say, the driver-only for the SP10 from Sofirn, but that’s for an AA light. I got a few to try fixing a TK05 when I thought it was the driver going mental, but it was the LED. So I can always use these drivers in, say, a lantern project.

But any drivers that have an associated e-switch have to be put together in such a way that the switch is perfectly aligned under the hole where the switch-pushing-thingy goes. Add a charger, too, and, like I said, forget it.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T06:19:33.000Z

No, just drivers. May want to change other lights. This one if I change the driver then the charger is out and the e-switch could (maybe) be mounted slightly differently. Had found one site with drivers: Kaidomain. Are they any good? They don’t give the UI on all their drivers.

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T06:39:18.000Z

Hmm, I don’t think I ever ordered anything from KD.

FT (fasttech.com) has a nice assortment of drivers. Like 95%+ of all the drivers I got, I got from FT.

NANJG drivers all (that I know of) tend to be low→high, whereas if you get the “generic” versions of some drivers, they tend to be high→low.

Lots with have blinkies, and they vary all over the place. But if you need a decent 17mm or 20mm driver, FT is where I’d look first.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T06:42:20.000Z

Thanks, will look into.

everydaysurvivalgear · 2018-05-28T06:44:16.000Z

Hey mate it would be best to try Kaidomain they are good but its a bit of a wait some times for shipping. Or try Mountain electronics for a driver that is E switch compatible.

Some times shorting out pins on the MCU will disable certain modes?

If you still want built in charging you can get the generic 1amp charging boards cheap you just have to make it fit. They are generic clones of the TP4056

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T06:49:44.000Z

everydaysurvivalgear:

Hey mate it would be best to try Kaidomain they are good but its a bit of a wait some times for shipping. Or try Mountain electronics for a driver that is E switch compatible.

Some times shorting out pins on the MCU will disable certain modes?

If you still want built in charging you can get the generic 1amp charging boards cheap you just have to make it fit. They are generic clones of the TP4056

Thanks, will look into MTN. Might just try shorting some pins too. This MCU is rather limited - 6 pins.

djozz · 2018-05-28T06:49:52.000Z

That driver chip is very probably a non-programmable dedicated flashlight controller, so you are stuck with the user interface it gives you unless you find a compatible chip that just does on-off (which I have never seen in a chinese light, there’s always at least another mode and strobe).

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T07:13:20.000Z

I’ve kind of resigned at this flashlight. But I do have others that deserve to be changed. As I have stated, not much of a purchase cost, just thought a pin cut-out or short would render the unit basic on/off. Had found this model (Probe Shiny) hidden in the annals of eBay, lumped with a SkyEyeWolf TLY-327

Dirt cheap - one speed! Just what I needed in a office drawer. And yes, they do make blinkies all over! Children at a party…

everydaysurvivalgear · 2018-05-28T07:22:19.000Z

I done a video on moding one of those skywolfs but mine had no shelf where the led sits so I made one.
It’s not bad besides the pill issue. I kept the original driver I think but you can fit a standard 17mm driver in the light. The battery tube is short so there is no spring on the driver.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T07:31:08.000Z

They do have some nice design ideas (the EyeSkyWolfs). Build on the Probe Shiny is adequate - no shelf though. That can be made. I’ll leave this one aside - maybe try shorting some pins.

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T18:17:36.000Z

Sidney Stratton:

I’ve kind of resigned at this flashlight. But I do have others that deserve to be changed. As I have stated, not much of a purchase cost, just thought a pin cut-out or short would render the unit basic on/off.

Not an e-switch light. That needs the µC to turn the light on and off, as well as switch modes.

A light with a tailswitch that actually cuts power, you can wedge it full-on by bypassing the µC, then use the tailswitch to just turn it on’n’off.

I got a pair of crappy AT01s that have scratchy tailswitches, so you look at ’em wrong and it’ll change modes when you least want it to. Pulled one wire from the LED and resoldered it to the ends of the parallelled resistors so it’s just full-on.

Sidney Stratton:

Had found this model (Probe Shiny) hidden in the annals of eBay, lumped with a SkyEyeWolf TLY-327

Dirt cheap - one speed! Just what I needed in a office drawer. And yes, they do make blinkies all over! Children at a party…

Trust me on this… when you buy a light for 2-3bux, and actually see it, you’ll say to yourself, “Well, that’s 3bux down the toilet…”.

Should be from the anals of ebay, not annals, because those lights are pure crap.

Don’t waste yer bux.

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T18:40:31.000Z

Lightbringer:

Pulled one wire from the LED and resoldered it to the ends of the parallelled resistors so it’s just full-on.

Don’t quite follow you there. The negative LED emitter is connected to the end of the parallelled resistors.
Anyways, they are dirt cheap and not worth modding - too discreet components and not modular.

I don’t want to get anyone work up with this “Probe Shiny” unit. Not worth the effort. Leaving it as such.

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T18:45:16.000Z

Sidney Stratton:

Lightbringer:

Pulled one wire from the LED and resoldered it to the ends of the parallelled resistors so it’s just full-on.

Don’t quite follow you there. The negative LED emitter is connected to the end of the parallelled resistors.
Anyways, they are dirt cheap and not worth modding - too discreet components and not modular.

On the AT01’s driver, the positive end of the LED is wired directly to the positive and of the battery/spring. The negative end of the LED goes through the µC to switch it on’n’off, and the other end of the switch goes to parallelled ballast resistors to lower the current.

So all I did was bypass the &micro’C’s switch so that it’d always be on, but still limited through the resistors, otherwise it’d be direct-drive. Probably wouldn’t kill the LED when using 3×AAA, but why bother?

Sidney_Stratton · 2018-05-28T19:42:01.000Z

Hey, check out the formatting emission (UTF 8 - I suppose):

“() end of the LED is wired directly to the ()” on my computer. Took awhile to figure out () —> “positive”. I suppose your “+” character is lost…

Anyways, got it! You then interrupt the circuit with a tail clicky. Simple on & off.

edit: now formats with “positive” ???

Tried holding down the e-switch and removing / rescrewing the tail cap, went into SOS mode (not one of the given 3 modes).

Lightbringer · 2018-05-28T20:37:40.000Z

Sidney Stratton:

Hey, check out the formatting emission (UTF 8 - I suppose):

“() end of the LED is wired directly to the ()” on my computer. Took awhile to figure out () —> “positive”. I suppose your “+” character is lost…

edit: now formats with “positive” ???

Saw that immediately after saving. Had oparen/plus/cparen to signify positive, tried using “(&x2D;)” instead, still mapped to plus and did the same thing, so said screw it and actually wrote out the words. :confounded:

There are certain rules when plus/minus/hyphen do magic things to words, and when they don’t. Eg, trying to highlight an internal part of a word won’t go bold, like “haha*haha*haha”, which won’t be bolded, vs “hahahahahaha”.

—

I almost never have javascript turned on, so I always do the formatting stuff manually, vs any highlight-then-poke-a-button crap.