I need my convoy s2+ repaired. I messed up the driver board trying to remove chips tonight. I am contacting Mountain Electronics to see if they can fix it. If they cannot help I may inquire here or just throw it away. Not sure a 20 dollar flashlight is worth all the shipping and handling even though it is less than a year old grrrr.
Where in Iowa pal
sw iowa villisca to be exact
Never heard of it, but the first Google result is “Villisca murders” so I don’t think I want to meet…
Do you think you can manage to get the driver board out, just de-soldering the LED wires? (maybe you already have done that). If so, you could ship that for less than a dollar to me in Des Moines.
I got the pill removed. I can’t get the solder joint broke to remove the board. I am an hour 50 sw of you. Don’t fret the murders. Idiots in this town giving tours in a supposed haunted house that 8 people were axed to death in back in 1917. I ordered an updated driver from allie express (or maybe I didn’t long story) that had a bike beacon mode. I use this light for bike riding and the strobe is too dangerous to oncoming motorists plus I got power hungry and ordered it with the 7135x8 driver. It’s way too much and even on strobe my battery doesn’t last as long as I would prefer. Do you think you could mod this cheap like a 7135x4 driver? What about that bike beacon mode?
So the driver is soldered to the pill? That’s what you can’t get loose right now? The pill will soak up all the heat from your iron. I would pre-heat the pill with a butane pencil torch to get it loose, but you would have to be really careful to avoid damaging the driver further. Even so, it would be cheaper to mail the whole pill than to pay for gas unless you were already coming to Des Moines.
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So you already ordered a new driver, or you’re just considering it?
Changing the max current (and therefore your battery life) is literally as simple as removing some 7135 chips. It just needs the right amount of heat. Any of the old convoy Attiny13 based drivers can also be reprogrammed to the biscotti software, that just takes a couple minutes if you already have the programmer (which I do).
Also, you said “I messed up the driver board trying to remove chips tonight.” Do you know how you messed it up, or did it just stop working?
I tried to de solder some 7135 chips and couldn’t get one removed so i quit. It looked fine on the surface but when I re assembled the light I only had high mode and nothing else so I am not sure what happened. I would be willing to mail you the pill/driver assembly if you could fix the driver and make it a less power hungry driver (say around 500 lumens on high) and reprogram the thing for the beacon mode. I ordered a new driver from allie express but due to some mix up I never got an email although my card got charged. I imagine i will get it eventually but I need this light and since the driver was less than 4 bucks I can live with the loss.
One high mode huh? Sounds like you have either
- String of solder between the left pin of one of the 7135’s, and the spring pad on the bottom of the driver, or
- The right pin of one of the 7135’s connected to the center pin or ground.
If you want to send it to me, I’m game. Just send me a PM and I’ll respond with my address.
Way to step up to help a fellow flashaholic in need PD. Cheers brother! 
This is surely how it will go when I get brave enough to pick up a soldering iron…
Don’t give up cmwr. You’re in good hands here. :laughing:
You could’ve shorted the positive bus of the 7135s to Vbatt (before the diode) or Vcc (after the diode). Essentially forces the 7135s to be on all the time, vs strobed by the tiny13.
On the exposed side, look for solder-bridges from a 7135 to the cap and/or to the spring.