Thorfire VG-15S broken!

I’m new here (although have had an account for a while) and don’t know much about flashlights. But here goes ….

My Thorfire VG-15S which is about 5 or 6 years old has stopped working. Doesn’t come on at all. I’ve taken it apart and removed the little circular circuit boards from each end and they look fine (no obviously blown components). The clicky switch works fine when tested with a multimeter. I’ve cleaned up the retaining rings from each end with some fine sandpaper and put it back together but still no joy.

What to do next? Can I replace the board(s)? Or is it new torch time? If so, what does anyone recommend? I have a small pile of 18650 batteries so something that uses one of those would be ideal. It’ll be used for DIY duties and putting in my pocket when going for a short walk in the dark, and further than that I’m not too fussed about the details. I won’t be trying to light up whole concert halls, go hunting for satellites, signalling to Mars or setting things on fire with it.

A bit of research suggests that a Convoy S2+ is an option. It looks to be the right size and work in the right sort of way. But if I can repair my existing light and save some £’s then that would be preferable.

All suggestions welcome, thanks.

no way to know

convoy would be a good backup if you do get this one going again

try new batteries

did you drop it?

be sure the negative ring on the driver board, contacts the lower body of the light
hard to explain
but it is the negative current path

wle

Thanks wle.

Different batteries didn’t bring it back to life. I think it’s definitely the torch.

It wasn’t dropped but has been transported and could have been knocked as part of the journey.

The two rings were taken off and cleaned up on some fine wet&dry sandpaper and put back in snugly, but it didn’t work.

Thanks for the tip about the Convoy. That’s looking like my best option at the moment unless I can find a replacement board for the existing torch. Any suggestions on where I may get such a thing?

Thanks again for your help - it’s appreciated.

I haven’t had a VG-15 in a long time so my memory of it isn’t the best.

Does the pill unscrew out of it? Copper slug with the led on one side and the driver on the other?

If so a driver swap should be easy enough. If there is a retaining ring holding the driver in that might limit what you can get away with. Unless you don’t mind soldering the driver to the pill. I’m sure there are many more options for drivers out there now days than there was the last time I had one of those apart. The VG-15 was a mighty fine light. I had quite a few but ended up giving them away as other lights replaced them.

Sounds like the VG15 had a good innings. Maybe consider the Convoy S21E or Wurkkos FC11 as replacements. Both have high-CRI emitters and USB charging.

Guys,

Thanks for the help.

toddcshoe, that’s really helpful. From your description the light doesn’t have a pill; there is a very simple circuit board in the tail of it which seems to only hold the switch, and there is a more complex board in the front with two wires out to the LED. I’ve not worked out how to get the LED out but that small board comes out easily enough and I’m very happy to do some soldering if changing it is an option. Where should I go looking for a replacement?

Stephenk, thanks. Those are two good options if I can’t get this VG15 going again. (I’d like to give it new life as I really like the torch and it’s not had much use, and it pains me to bin something which is 98% OK. If I can put a new board in it and get it going again then I’d be very happy. Besides, it’s picked up quite a nice patina of dents and chips which makes me fond of it!)

Thanks again for your input.

Stephen, coming back to this one …. what do those two lights have compared with the Convoy S2+? I’m not fussed about the USB charging but other than that they look to do much the same thing.

Taking a look at my own VG-15S, here are some tips if you want to diagnose/fix your light:

To access the emitter, you need to unscrew the steel bezel at the front of the light. You can use something rubbery like a mouse mat or a jar opener for that, just press the light down into it and twist counter-clockwise. The lens and reflector should fall out after that, and the LED board should be exposed for inspection/desoldering. To test the LED, you can use a multimeter in diode mode, or you can connect 3xAAA batteries together and run leads to the contacts of the board. If the LED is dead (and it’s not just a soldering issue), you’ll want to reflow another 5050 LED onto the board, or replace the board entirely (it appears to be 16mm).

The driver is about 19mm in diameter, and sits loosely enough that you should be able to buy a 20mm driver from Convoy and fit it in. Might take a bit of filing. So you have some replacement options there too, if the driver is the problem. To remove the old driver, you’ll still need to open the front of the head and desolder the leads from the LED board.

Good luck!

Serlite,

THANK YOU. This is precisely the sort of information I need.

Your tip about a mouse mat enabled me to remove the front bezel from the light. Here’s a photo of it dismantled.

Having measured some bits I can confirm that:

LED Board diameter = 15.5mm
Circuit board diameter at the front of the torch = 18.5mm
LED bias voltage in one direction = 3.01v
LED bias voltage in the other direction = 1.35v

Does this mean that the LED is cooked?

I’ve re-tested the tail light switch and it seems to work as it should.

Should I be replacing the LED or the circuit board into which the LED wires are soldered?

Thanks again.

VERY old thread resurrection here, but thanks to Serlite I bought a new board for my torch and … put it in a cupboard. Why? Because the torch decided that it did want to work perfectly well after all!

That was until a week or so ago, when it (again) failed. So I dug out the board from the cupboard, wielded a soldering iron and installed it. And the torch works fine again! It’s down from 5+1 modes (the +1 was a strobe) to plain 4 modes, which is a bit of a shame, but it’s brought my old Thorlite back from the grave and I’m very happy!

Thanks Serlite!