Today, hodor’s Olight S15 Ti and Jetbeam E3S arrived. Also today, Quadrupel’s Boruit D10 driver arrived.
I disassembled hodor’s lights. They were exactly as described.
Jetbeam E3S: I consulted with CRX (he’s done one before ) and found an old “”other forum”:Help modding Jetbeam E3S | Candle Power Flashlight Forum thread. CRX recommended that the driver be pressed out from above. (He also found a horrifying disassembly video on youtube .) It was at this point that I decided I wasn’t going to save the old driver. I pressed it out from above with a straightened paperclip and needlenose pliers. A replacement driver is in the works, but will be straightforward.
Olight S15 Ti: Indeed, the switch itself is busted. It’s one of those tiny surface-mount tactile button switches. Also, I suspect the rubber/plastic physical button itself is damaged. Most likely, it should have been removed before the pill was removed, and the pill caught some of it. Also, it’s possible that’s not the case at all - I can’t tell. I was debating ordering some replacements and indeed thought I had placed the order, despite the estimated arrival time of September 30 - October 22.
I moved on to my Boruit D10. The Quadrupel driver was almost a perfect fit for the plastic part of the charger-driver sandwich, but I did end up having to file it slightly. I also only has 22 gauge high strand count silicone insulated wire, where I would highly recommend 24 gauge for this mod. For this reason, getting fitment of the wires through the sandwich, as well as into the grooves inside the body tube, was rather difficult. (I was unable to reuse the original leads as they were severed in the process of removing the MCPCB.) I’m currently debating throwing a Luxeon V2 in, or the original emitter back in, or waiting for my optics to arrive from Fasttech (probably next year). A provisional low-power test with test-leads works, and the on-board charging is functional. The lit tailcap is cool!
So I was sitting here, about to put my tools away, and I noticed the old D10 driver sitting, button facing up, on my workbench. Inspiration smacked me in the face and I took some quick measurements: it was a match for the broken switch on the Olight. I grabbed my solder wick and swapped them - it was a lot faster than I expected. I then tested the Olight pill partially assembled (MCPCB was loose but attached) with test leads connecting the battery. It functioned great. So I went to assemble the light and the switch did not actuate. With a lot of fiddling I decided that either the new switch was not as tall as the old one had been - impossible to tell, since the old one was in pieces - or the exterior physical button piece had been damaged. I eventually devised a method using UV glue on the inside of Kapton tape, wrapped around the pill partially and holding the hardened blob of UV glue over the microswitch on the pill. With even more fiddling I got everything back together and assembled - although not without almost ruining the entire driver with sloppy soldering on the MCPCB (I noticed because the reflector did not tighten fully - it actually screws into the pill!!).
So - if I ever feel stupid/crazy enough to pull that pill back out of the Olight, I would swap the emitter, clean the reflector, and clean the lens as well - I’ve muddied them a bit with all my fiddling. But for now, the switch and its silly adaptation are aligned perfectly and the switch actually has a really great feel.
Quick review of the S15: The emitter is almost the equal to the NW XP-L in my T10T V2, but it’s a bit yellow-green-er… the most noticeable “above BBL” tint of any emitter I’ve yet tried. (To guess - if the Thrunite were a 3D tint, the Olight is probably a bad 3C.) The output with 14500 is about equal to the Thrunite’s turbo on NiMh. The hotspot is very slightly tighter than the Thrunite. The body tube diameter and overall length are also basically identical to the Thrunite T10T V2, but the Olight S15’s head is decidedly chunkier. The switch is way easier to find than the Thrunite, and the pocket clip is slightly better (though it carries head-up). The UI is different than on my Olight S1: The S15 mode memory remembers moonlight (the S1 does not), and the S15 has a lockout (continuing to hold the button for another second after the 1 second hold for moonlight). Also, the S15 has 3 modes on NiMh/alkaline (four modes if two cells are used), but four modes on 14500. The threads are on the nicer end of Titanium threads I’ve dealt with.