Look the S-A2 http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/Forum.36358~threadid.832988
and compare to the R5-A3 http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Default.dx/sku.39062~threadid.879089
It looks like to be the same, even in another forum or another site (I dont remember) this issue was discussed (maybe here in BLF?). Some people were discussing about that the driver is the same and both can be modded to change mode arrangement by just the solders trick
What generation R5-A3 was this?
Was the original low a reasonably low low with visible PWM? Or did it have more of a high medium instead of a low? and How did you get the circuit board out. It seems that mine is pretty well stuck in.
Either way, Nice mod, and welcome. Im having fingers crossed that mines a PIC based torch too!
What generation R5-A3 was this?
Was the original low a reasonably low low with visible PWM? Or did it have more of a high medium instead of a low? and How did you get the circuit board out. It seems that mine is pretty well stuck in.
Either way, Nice mod, and welcome. Im having fingers crossed that mines a PIC based torch too!
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I picked mine up in January from DX.
I thought low was reasonably low, PWN was barely visible when pointed at a fan on low.
You really have to work at getting the board out, try prying with small screwdrivers and use some heat.
Also the chip is tiny so a magnifying glass is really helpful to solder the connections.
Just down the road from Eddyville myself. I'm definitely doing that mod to my R5-A3 the next weekend I have a spare hour or two, depending on how ornery it gets. It's my EDC so... can't put it out of commission for too long. :) A medium PWM (is it?) would be great since sometimes low is too low (i have the usable low version too), and high - unhandled - gets hot enough to brand cattle.
seems a little hard to get ther driver out I took a peek at it and messed with it for a second and thought mmmmmm maybe later ..I hate to break stuff
Mine was bought from Dinodirect on nov.25 -2010. It was 100 lm - 12 lm with PWM 202 Hz.
After modding: 100 - 32 - 12 lm, PWM still 202 Hz on medium and low. The same PWM I found on iTP A3-EOS and on the XM-L drop-in from KD as well as a Romisen RC-I3.
202 Hz is not bad, I think, as some of my lights has down to 100 Hz PWM.
The driver board was a little tricky to access (wrapped in adhesive paper) after twisting out the bottom print (breaking some of the copper layer in the process), but the biggest trouble was adding the solder blob as the solder would not bind to the very little pad. Eventually I used a thin core from a multicore lead to bridge the gap.
Mine is the early first gen, and it has a different driver board. Its still one of the generic PCBs where they make many different drivers from, and mine is still PIC based, but its got a different use of the pin-outs so im not going to play around with a different set of physical mode selection if the initial use of pins isnt the same.
If anyone else has the same earlier gen driver (green board) and can work out what the programme is/which pins are used for mode selection im interested.
I bought one from kaidomain on 09-06-2011 and received it today. It came with the modifiable driver, and the led star attached by screws 
I modified it within 10 min from opening the yellow envelope, very simple mod, thanks E1320.
No problem I am really glad I could help you out. I actually did another post on how to add an XML to this light as well. I added some beam shots to, check it out.