Haha, thanks for that, but I think for a review that deserves such praise I would need some proper spectrometer and lumen measurements too 
I am just an electronics nerd who does what he knows best - overanalyzing and measuring, but I lack tools for proper LED measurements. And in the end of the day, the brightness and light quality is the main focus of a light.
This light with its weird bugs was however a great opportunity to play my strengths - analyzing electronics ^^
Being kinda am electronics nerd myself (and I say “kinda” because I don’t have anywhere near the level of competence you demonstrated) I can see very well where you’re coming from 
Re: measuring instruments for lumens and whatnot, I’m sure you will get there in time… but this is the first time I see a reviewer totally disassembling a light and documenting the process so thoroughly that, informed by it, even someone like me might try with a reasonable chance of success.
And I specially liked your mod for exposing the “R” pad so the light can be easily flashed after reassembling – as you said, not pretty… but in my book, functional and doable beats pretty every time! 
Now that I saw how easy it is to disassemble, I might even try making a drop-in replacement Buck driver for it… Got other stuff in the pipeline that needs doing first, but I think it would be a reasonable upgrade for this light 
What a GOAT, thank you for your efforts! Great review and documenting.
i wonder if this a cost saving measure, or its just a production run version.
Space constraints? Would they have enough space if they use single 1A charging circuit for proper resistors ?
The button placement bothers me. I haves seen these break off during use. If the button ever starts action out or it will feel too soft and it seems like you have to push harder - it has probably broken off the pcb. With anduril you need alot of button presses, we will see how it plays out.
My guess is, it’s a good way of lowering bill of materials. Some lights should charge with 500 mA, some with 1000, some with 1500, so they always fit the same chips but 1, 2 or 3. Similar to how flashlight people often use multiple 7135s.
Regarding the resistors - those are 0402 resistors for very little current. Putting different values would not affect the PCB estate requirement. My guess is, they simply didn’t think of it, or they wanted to get the protos out there quickly and fix such things for production. Some things you usually have to determine experimentelly on a PCB, and getting the resistor values for RGB right is one of them. Could very well be that they use this PCB for testing by manually replacing resistors until they are happy, and then solder different values to the final one.
The button position is a bit concerning, but they apparently used through hole mounting buttons. Those should be rock solid, and not possible to knock off. These problems mainly arise with surface mount buttons.
Thanks for the teardown.
500mA is largely enough for 14500 cells, 1C charging will lower cells cycle life, weird to put two charger ICs.
Yeah, I would have preferred 500-750 mA over 1000 mA as well 
On the other hand, who gets 300+ charge cycles on a flashlight in any reasonable and relevant timeframe… And for the few who do, 14500s are cheap.
So what i see Wurkkos again playing Anduril card only. BTW 14500 are very expensive.
Simon sells 1000 mAh cells for 3,80€ incl 22% Italian tax, and that’s a better cell than the one included with this light. He also lists 750 mAh cells for 1,60€.
Let’s assume the cells manage 300 cycles if charged at the specced “quick charge current”, which is 1.5A for the 1000 mAh cell in Simons store and probably 1A for the cell in this light. Few people will charge any particular light more than once per week on average. That’d mean ~6 years until one needs a new cell. If they are 3,80 now, they’ll probably be 2-3€ at most by then, since cells of the same quality get cheaper, and same price gets higher quality over time.
I don’t really see that as a big issue. I would still have preferred 750 mA - would still charge fast enough, but extend the lifetime a lot.
it is possible to remove one of these two components and recharge the battery at 500mAh?
Io le 14500 le ricarico a 300mAh col caricatore esterno che ho
Should not be a problem, yes. Might need hot air to remove without damages to the PCB.
For me it shows that it is 3.30 USD for the batt it self, and 4.60 usd delivery fee. Doesn’t seem very reasonable. Probably will be cheaper to buy it locally (at least for me).
I am looking at INR 14500 1000mAh
Yeah, batteries at Simon only have free shipping if sold together with a flashlight… Some international shipping regulation stuff. Was just an example since I know Simons shop well, I’m pretty sure prices will be similar elsewhere.
@andrx are you gonna disassmble, update and mod yours? If you want you can drop by someday in summer or ship it over and I’ll mod yours, since we seem to live somewhat close to one another.
Could you post the link to the 1000 mAh version? On Convoy store I only see Vapcell, and at Aliexpress only 750 mAh…
A vapcell for the EU people:
It’s always sold out, but when it’s available it’s the best
Mi tenti…
It is more about efficiency rather than cost. We all are to used to just throwing things away rather than making the best use of what we have. Batteries may be cheap, but the rare earth elements in them are a limited resource. So why accelerate their death when it should be so easy to treat them well and have them last much longer?
To be fair - we could recycle between 90 and 98% of materials inside LiIon cells. We simply don’t (on industrial scale) yet because it is still cheaper to dig new crap from the ground. But it seems like we are reaching the tripping point, and with more EVs reaching decommissioning age, I would expect the EU to force companies to accept dead cells back eventually too.
You are still right though, no need to wear things down unnecessarily fast because “we can just replace”.
Before we run out of those limited resources we will have a new rechargeable and hopefully non rechargeable batt chemistry. And they will only get cheaper as materials in those aren’t as rare and the manufacturing scaling will help with bringing down the cost.