I know this is something I’m doing, or not doing correctly, but what exactly is it?
I’ve got a LED XM-L2 it was lighting up fine. I’ve just put it in a p60 and all it does is glow. I thought maybe I’d ruined the driver, so I de-soldered it and I tried direct driving the LED with wires from an 18650. But I get the same result.
Just a very faint low glow from the led. Much lower than a moonlight mode.
Does this mean I’ve buggered this LED? Any ideas how I might have done it, as it looks 100% on visual inspection.
Unfortunately I have had the same thing happen to me many times and yes I can commiserate. I’m no expert but I believe it has shorted somehow somewhere. I have never been able to get the leds to work again once this has happened. Hopefully the driver will be ok.
Do you have any clue about the current? Is it very high (it sparks when connecting it direct to a 18650, something is shorted, perhaps the soldering under the led), or virtually zero (the led disconnected perhaps from the board somehow, with a very tiny current path leftover, or the led is ruined, then you might see something wrong with the bond wires in the silicone, black blobs).
Look closely at the traces under the dome on the led. I had one where 1 of the three traces popped, and you could see the dome was crazed at that spot. Visual damage but I had to look real close.
Yeah, I’d try to check that, too.
It’s not difficult to get a short somewhere. The wires could be damaged at the corners of the star. Or maybe the wires touch the + and - symbols on the star.
The LED needs only a very small current to glow, and producing a short is easier than producing a bad connection with a contact resistance so high that only a few µA are flowing.
If all testing doesn’t work, take the LED out, unsolder the wires and clean the star pcb and then test again.
Don’t throw anything away rashly.
If dd doesn’t make it go then yes, it’s toast but check your cell too as a short might have tripped cell protection or drained it very low. A short might also have collapsed the springs( they overheat, glow, and get short) in the host.
I blew an LED once when I accidentally shorted it with 8.4V. I didn’t realize the lettering ‘CREE’ on the star, was actually connected to an electrode. ;(
You can guess what should happen there……