One Mode P60 - What am I doing wrong

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I'm having the darndest luck. I built an F8 host, bridged the third star on 3.04A NANJG driver, and ended up with all the blinkies anyway.

Today I built a P60 with a 3.04A NANJG driver, soldered the third star ( I even bridged it with copper braid) and ended up with one mode. What the hell am I doing wrong?

2

I had a similar problem. My LED wire was touching the ground pad around the outside. Light was mostly one mode (& darn bright), but would occasionally have modes. Let me see if I can find the thread with photos. Mine was with the 1.4A Nanjg driver.

-Garry

3

Ah - here it is. See post #4.

-Garry

4

It can easily be a short on the board somewhere.

5

It happens to all of us.

Got a magnifying glass? I have to use one to inspect it. Eyes getting old. The short is most likely on the other side of the driver where the Lead wire connects to the driver.

6

That could be it. This batch of Nanjg’s from I-O came without the leads attached. I reall don’t fee like desoldering the whole damn thing again.

7

Yep! I know how you feel! That's how I felt when I botched mine (and it was my first driver swap).

-Garry

8

Unscrew brass pill from reflector and see if it is changing modes.
Mike

9

I loctited it on. I’ll probabally have to take it off anyway though. I don’t think it shorting on the reflector. I put in a full size insulator that covers everything but LED.

10

I’m sure, that reflector is shorting a diode.
mike

11

Nope. I took off the reflector and its the same. I had it all hooked up with alligator clips so I could test the modes with the switch, and its still a one mode Charlie.

12
  • is secretly wondering what good loctite will do on threads between a pill and a reflector *
13

When you say one mode, which mode is it high? Take a current measurement to see what it’s drawing. Sounds like the attiny is being bypassed some how.

14

Yes, a tail cap reading will tell you if you are shorting the led- to ground (direct drive not a multiple of 350/380mA(can’t tell which from pic) or if led + is shorted to the Vdd pin on one of the 7135’s(bypasses Attiny locking all chips on high but = max output of driver)

15

I’m not tailcap measurement enabled yet, but it could be one of those two. It is high only. Like I said, these drivers came without the wires attached, so I had to do it. I could have connected the positive leg of a 7350 chip with the neg. to Led wire.
It might not be worth the bother of trying to desoldering the whole driver out of the pill and prying it out of there. I’ll give it a shot when I’m feeling fresh, and if it turns into a big pain in the ass, I might just shit- can the whole thing, pry out the LED, and start a brand new module.

16

I have done it more times than I care to mention, but I have learned from my mistakes. It’s all part of this wonderful hobby.
I have learned to take my time and check everything before permanent assemble. Although sometimes it still doesn’t work right.
Wish you luck Ouchyfoot. :bigsmile:

17

Actually yesterday I had two shorts. While I soldered the positive lead just a tiny bit of solder from that pad stretched to the ground, so I just had one mode. Also on another driver while adding an extra 7135 chips a very very small piece of solder ( it was almost like the thickness of hair) stretched to another pin right on the surface of the board. I was really really hard to notice, but once I removed it all went well.

18

This sort of points out the one thing Fujik adhesive is good for: sticking drivers into pills. It holds up under heat but can be carved away much more easily than any epoxy if something is wrong.

19

I have a 105c that does the same thing. It's not bright enough to be going direct drive, but it's one mode only... unless you watch really close. It gives a very tiny amount of flicker, enough that you can ID which mode it is, in the strobe & SOS modes, but no visible difference in brightness between hi-mid-lo.

It's not shorted anywhere. Removed from the pill, lead wires removed, cleaned back to as-new condition, tested with power via jumpers from a battery holder and a LED mounted on a heatsink. Still not working. It's got to be something wrong with a component on the board itself.

This is one of a batch of four I just got from FT, I sure hope the other 3 aren't the same way...

20

Comfychair, could you give me a link to that driver? I’m just curious.