Just received my 3rd 18650s today. I’m only carying the one I already have an Attiny in but the other 2 will be used as soon as I’ve got a driver ready!
Can anyone ID the part labeled U2 on the board? Marked B1B5B
Hope Folomov did something to that light to make it better. The ones a lot of us bought got very very hot on turbo and the LED was being overdriven to a point of changing to a weird blue color with a fully charged cell. I swapped emitters on mine and did one for a friend. Hope you get a good one.
Look up the 858d Hot Air Station. It’s a small heat gun put simply. You can control air flow and heat. Made for soldering when an iron is not feasible. In this case the positive post is soldered to the mcpcb and the led cannot be removed with a hot plate. Works wonders. There should be some youtube videos if you want to see how well they work. Best $35 I spent lately.
Some kind of 2 input gate logic maybe?
BTW, for those who don’t like the Press-Hold to turn Off but still like the light otherwise (size, tint, etc), the Folomov 18650s actually runs good in Tactical Mode. It converts to operate as a forward clicky, with momentary Tactical (Turbo only however.)
Press-hold for Turbo / release to turn Off
or
Click to turn On in Turbo / Click to turn Off
(or Double-click for Strobe)
I have a transistor tester that can handle logic gates yet when testing this thing it returns “no results”. Actually the very first test in my tester it came back as 2 diodes,every time after that returned no results.
I get zero hits on Google for “B1B5B”
So, you replaced the stock driver in the 18650S with an Attiny driver?
This is the first time I’ve heard of an Attiny.
How does the light operate now?
Thanks, I really dislike the stock “Wave” UI.
Due to my lack of knowledge in general with flashlights, can someone explain what the resistors on the mcpcb actually controls? If it controls current to the LED, could adding a resistor increase output? I have put a 3000K XP-L HI on my 18650s and would love to increase the output a little more. I have already swapped the spring with pair of BlueSwordM’s springs.
Here's a pic:
The R14 is the only resistor I see and doesn't appear to have anything to do with current, though it could. I didn't measure it. Typically current carrying resistors are big, but it could be a current sense resistor.
Best thing is to do what you can to the springs and LED wires. I think Martin measured 3.6 amps so that's pretty good and also explains the stock LED turning blue. It's probably the best you can get out of this driver. It could very well be FET based, but it's a small 3 legged FET perhaps.
The resistors at the head are bleed resistors and have zero to do with current to the LED. They simply allow positive voltage to “bleed” (leak) into the body so it gets back to the tail where the driver is.
On the driver R14 is a simple gate resistor for the FET and also has zero to do with current.
If you just want to experiment you can swap the FET it’s self for a more capable one (say IRLML2502) but I didnt spec the stock D181C, it may be plenty good enough that even a top tier SOT-23-3 FET (such as the mentioned IRLML2502) won’t increase real world performance any.
Best bet is to use it how it is and wait for me to finish my BLF based driver. I’m waiting on boards now…
Greatly appreciate your responces. I’ll leave it alone for now.
FOLOMOV made a few changes with the new version (5000K) of the 18650s. The biggest change is indeed the 5000K tint which is still in the neutral range. The threads on both ends of the tube are now finer and square cut. (Old threads are slightly courser and V cut). The color of the body is not black. I would describe it as a silver gray brown titanium with just a bit of a sheen. The instructions now state that when the battery is less than 10% “turbo,high and medium levels will not be available progressively.” What happens on mine is somewhere around 3.4 volts turbo does not work and as voltage drops further high and medium become unavailable. With a different battery at 2.6 volts I was able to switch between the two lowest modes and turn the light on and off with the switch. And I was able to switch to tactical mode which utilized the second-lowest mode. (I’ll go over low voltage on the 3000k model further down)
During the following test the original 3000K was running about 10F degrees hotter so the temps I mention are for the original 3000K. I ran them both on turbo with identical Wowtac 3400mah batteries at 4.15v for a few minutes and then quickly clicked them off and back on and temperatures can climb up to 130F . After one more minute and a quick off and on (still on turbo) temperatures climbed to over 140F. Cycled again after another minute I did see that strange blue light and I immediately shut it off at approximately 150F. The 3000K instructions did not talk about low voltage. Folomov website does state that only the two lower modes will work and the switch will not turn the light off below 10% battery. The reality is that happens somewhere just below 3.4 volts. So you must unscrew the tailcap to shut it off. You can turn it back on, but you can do nothing else with the switch below 3.4v. Both the old one and the new one have very sharp edges on the holes for the lanyard. That’s not too hard to fix using a small file or other sharp tool to scrape off some of the anodizing and chamfer the corners. At this point I much prefer the 3000k tint. I will continue to carry both of them for another few weeks to test them under various conditions and uses. Edit. the above stress test was done in the name of science because of all the complaints of overheating. Only when refreshing turbo do I have temperatures get above 120F.
Oil, thanks for your additional information.
I’ll likely wait for the UI to be modified before giving this light another try.
I recently reviewed this light, more from a light painting photographer perspective:
This makes me curious what kinds of surprises it has up its sleeve.
I been carrying this flashlight since I got it in October on duty to replace my issued surefire 6px. I wanted a smaller flashlight that I could stick in my cargo pocket as I already have tons of stuff on my belt. I have changed the battery once since I had it and my biggest gripe or my own mistake is that I accidentally turn it on in my cargo pants depending on when i sit or move in the patrol car.
Besides that it works well for me as I work the night shift and use a flashlight daily. I have rotated between the SF 6px (too bright for my needs) and my non-ano blf a6 (just too shiny for my duty belt). I might try using a pen light next as I just want to lighten my daily load as possible but still have what I need.
Bezel is stuck on mine
Tried a soft jaw bottle opener but it’s extremely tight or glued (Purchased from Drop (formerly Massdrop)
Try wrapping the bezel tightly with duct tape, many layers. Same with the rest of the head. Leave a space between the two so the bezel can rotate. Two pairs of channel locks will get the bezel off and as long as your duct tape is thick enough you won’t maul up the anodizing. Yes it does have glue on it but it will come off. I just slowly applied more and more force until it finally broke free. Worst case scenario is you are spending 30 minutes getting the sticky stuff off the light.
Once you get it off the emitter swap is fairly easy. You’re going to have to reflow whatever emitter you want. Few resistors on the MCPCB and a button on the bottom of it to make contact with the battery. So just make sure you secure that button so that it won’t fall off while you are heating the MCPCB. Other than that it’s not so bad.
Thanks for the advice. It was not coming off without a real struggle. Ended up having to heat carefully with a butane micro torch several times and twisting with motor grip pliers
Below can be seen remnants of yellow retaining compound. Odor resembles lock tight
