very robustly so.
Once it broke loose I had to scissor it back and forth getting it unscrewed, 2 steps forward one step back…
You can do this with a heavy belt
penumbra, this might be true with some things, but this light is glued together solidly! These Boa Constrictor stap wrenches are heavy duty, and it was about more than they could handle. One of the major problems is slippage, a heavy belt is leather (typically) and it’s difficult to get leather to “grab” an item to turn it. Perhaps if the belt is wet? Good luck!
I think for now I will just Dedome, braid the springs, upgrade the wires and leave it be. Unless someone comes up with tested, reliable driver mod, I don’t think I will risk it.
I already have the light apart. It was certainly a pain to open the head!!
Surely someone on here has a K50vn that they can just pull the driver plate off and take some photos of what has been done?
Wouldn’t it be possible for one of the board design guys to draw up a board for the carrier without the charging circuitry to see if that solves the reliability issues? I’m not sure how time/money consuming this would be, just a thought.
It should not be difficult to find what the cells are connected to and replace the components with jumpers. It's likely the PCB in the tail will have to have all its gubbins bypassed as well, everything but the switch.
That’s what I would do. Strip the board and just wire up all the cells in the proper series…and toss the charging cord so nobody decides to hook it up.
If the board in the tailcap is stripped/jumpered the charging port won't be connected to anything any more.
The charging cord could be used to hold this years school picture of the kiddo on the fridge. 
Ok, so I dedomed the LED, braided the springs and upgraded the driver -> LED wires and it all works fine except it won’t turn off!
All the modes work correctly etc but it won’t shut off via the tailcap switch, only if I turn it to standby. Any ideas what could cause this?!
Something has shorted with your braided springs?
Actually I see there is no need to use copper braid on these springs. Assuming it is 6A through the LED each spring in the battery carrier will only see about 1.5A.
I just braid the springs on most of my lights just out of habit now whether they really need it or not.
I assumed there must have been a short somewhere. I have doubled checked all the springs and there is no shorts anywhere. I only use 1.5mm braid and I run it down the middle of the spring so it doesn’t touch anything else. In the tail cap I only did the centre spring not the outside ones.
Check continuity in the tailcap to see if the current breaks when you click the tail cap. perhaps your bypass is working correctly but the heat you used melted the switch?
Edit: Also sounds like what happens when the small spring inside the switch overheats. It won’t press the switch components apart to turn off or break the connection.
I will check that out. The weird thing is clicking the switch still turns the battery indicator light in the tail on and off. That makes me think the switch is still operating correctly?
Check to make sure the tail cap isn’t somehow contacting the back end of the carrier or otherwise bypassing the switch. That’ll do what you’re describing as well.
I have tested it by unscrewing the tailcap completely and just pushing it on until the springs make contact with the carrier and it still switches on. This really has me baffled, I have done the same mods to two K40s, TN31, TN30 and a TN35 and have never had an issue. I wish they hadn’t introduced this in light charging system and had just left it as a normal tailcap switch without all the other circuitry.
Also, how are you all focusing the emitter? I need the emitter to sit further into the reflector because there is like 3 distinct segments to the beam at the moment. The hotspot, a small bright ring around that and then the spill. I have taken the centering ring off but the reflector still won’t sit closer…
Will try and get a photo to show what I mean with the beam.
Hey guys, back again…
I’m really hoping someone might know what is going on here. I have been looking at this switch for two days now and can’t figure it out and I’m just baffled as to what is happening. The switch works perfectly, tested continuity across it and all works fine plus the led indicator on the tail works with the switch, I have looked for any sign of a short anywhere and can’t see anything, I even lightly filed down the spots of solder on the outer spring to ensure they couldn’t come in contact with the body. I have tested it by using some leads with alligator clips with the switch outside the light and it still won’t turn off so it is definitely something in the switch board itself. I have taken a whole bunch of pictures from different angles in the hope that someone notices something that I haven’t… Lastly when I was soldering I was hardly getting any heat into the board, I used a hot iron, touched it on and straight out again, the board was fine to touch immediately after and I have done a ton of braided springs on drivers etc now and never had an issue from getting it too hot. Pics below…
Cheers,
Tim
Have you tried undoing everything you did already? ie. remove the braid, extra solder, and any other modifications. If so, what was the result?