To hot to hold in seconds!?

[RobertB]

@Kentuckywindage

That’s true. I shouldn’t have gotten it for him but he said he needed a good one. When I tried to tell him how to cycle modes he didn’t really listen. I tried to make it clear that the battery was potentially dangerous how to charge/insert it etc. I’m afraid he blew it all off and thought he’d figure it out. Needless to say I won’t be gifting another non alkaline powered flashlight unless I know they will listen or already know. If you can’t already tell by the rant he’s my father in law lol.

Maybe get him a light that has low voltage protection, a usb charge port on it, and a simple UI. Or if it doesn’t have LVP, put a protected cell in it. Something simple like an Eagle eye X2R, or an X5R both are fairly idiot proof, especially with a protected cell.

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

Hank, the driver has a diode that is reverse protection. If you put the cell in backwards it will blow the diode. The light won’t work, simple fix is to replace the tiny diode, a small black box looking component marked with the # 41. The 1 is the side that goes closest to the MCU.

Here’s essentially the A6 driver, on Wight’s board from OshPark…

In the center is the positive pad, the golden triangle. Just below it, the little black box is D1, the diode. The 1 on a diode marked 41 should be to the left in this picture, closest to the ATTiny13 or ATTiny25, depending on if it’s an A6 driver or Bistro.

Sorry, this is a straight FET driver without the +1 capability of the added 7135 chip on the dual channel of the A6 and Bistro drivers. Same reverse polarity protection though.

Here’s the A6 driver, again an OshPark version of Wights original Hybrid FET+1. The diode is on top, marked D1, the “1” would be toward the inside of the driver, still closest to the MCU.

[hank]

> diode … reverse protection

So does kentuckywindage’s suggestion make sense? The light would have gotten very hot very fast before blowing the diode if the cell went in backwards?

[Flashy_Mike]

@DB Custom

Hank, the driver has a diode that is reverse protection. If you put the cell in backwards it will blow the diode.

Am I missing something? Why should it blow the diode? With the cell backwards the diode just shouldn’t conduct.

[DB_Custom (Dale)]

Don’t know the electronics engineering aspects, just know they blow. Might not all the time, don’t know about that aspect of it either, but I’ve seen it happen more than a few times.

[hank]

Yeah, same electronics question, I don’t understand why a cell in backwards would kill the diode.

Unless maybe the negative end of the cell is so big it causes a direct short from the driver spring to the some component of the driver connected to the ground ring?
Maybe overheating kills diodes? Well, apparently they’re easily made unhappy: overheating diode? - Google Search