Yes, the T3 does have a green glow in the dark ring. I never removed that, as it stayed in place in the bezel of the light. I had the reflector in place prior to turning it on.
Correct, I did use a freshly charged Vapcell H10 that came with the light. That’s when the problem occurred, after using a standard AA for a couple weeks while waiting for the charger to arrive and had no problems at all.
I checked this closer last night, and it does appear that black spot you noted in #2 is indeed a piece of the LED structure that must have come off! Definitely a very tiny hole, but I can see how that could create a serious issue. Man…I really butchered this thing!
Yep, that’s the way I’m looking at it. Thankfully it happened to a cheaper light! Wish it was my wifes standard $15 version
She’s been teasing me about mine. “Why would you tinker when you don’t know what you’re doing? It’s not a knife hahah” Well my dear, I’m trying and be thankful it’s not some $500 knife!
I don’t think that was the issue. Having the reflector gasket upside down made it even thicker between the LED MCPCB and the reflector. So when the bezel was screwed on there should’ve been plenty of force pushing the MCPCB against the T3 shelf. Hence there shouldn’t have been an issue with the LED overheating.
And even with the gasket upside down, there’s no way it could’ve rotated and cause damage to the LED since it’s square on both sides.
And since the LED was dedomed, it would’ve been underneath the gasket and made it impossible for the reflector to make any contact with the LED and cause damage when it was reassembled.
My guess is that the phosphor was damaged when the dome was pushed off at a very steep angle. There would’ve been a lot of downward force on the edge of LED before it began to separate. That force probably damaged the phosphor underneath the glass.
With lower current it was fine, but with the higher Li-ion current it was too much and burned out.
For removing the dome in place like that, I would just use my fingernail to gently pull up on the dome and remove it. And as mentioned above and if possible, I agree that the safest way is to slice the dome down to the glass using a razor blade (and some window cleaner as a lubricant), plus it looks much cleaner that way too.
Regardless, looks like you’re on your way to become a flashlight modifier. Welcome to the club!
