I disassembled my defective TS25. The button randomly registered and recently it did not click any more. It seemed almost useless, so I decided to tear it down. Wurkkos TS21 tear down thread by Tom E Wurkkos TS21 tear down was very helpful.
Here are a couple of things I learned something during the teardown.
1. Your flashlight is very likely to be damaged during tear down.
I knew from Tom E’s thread that the light could get damaged during the process, but his method of tearing down the light did not work well with my TS25. First of all, using a solder pick to push down the glued PCB was very hard because of the amount of wires in the hole. I decided to push down the middle pcb, but I broke the botton led and the switch during the process.
2. There were only very small amount of thermal paste.
My TS25 got warm quickly on turbo, so heat dissipation may have not been an issue. However, I was surprised at how little amount of thermal pasted was used. I think the amount of force that were put pressing down the MCPCB must have helped dissipate heat. If you ever unscrewed the bezel, I would recommend you screw back the bezel all the way and line up the “Hot Caution” sign with the switch.
3. RGB AUX lights are not meant to be desoldered and resoldered again using the stock wires.
It is because it is impossible to thread back the small and short wires from the PCB. Even if I succeed, I don’t think I can solder those small wires to tight spaces. Maybe I could solder each of the small wires with another wire and put it through the main hole and desolder those wires after the assembly. My PCB were already damaged beyond repair during the teardown, so I didn’t bother trying.
4. You need soldering iron with decent power to desolder the main leads.
I recently purchased TS101 soldering iron. It can be powered by USB-C PD power source and with it the iron can use up to 45W. However, it required significant amount of time until I could remove the main wires. This is because the main leads are connected to copper MCPCB. When I tried to desolder the main leads, the light got warm to the touch.
5. The button can damage the switch if pressed hard enough.
If you press the button, button can push down on the switch with a lot of force. Pushing the button will push down the switch but it can be pushed down further and possibly crush the switch. The button travel is limited, but the limit does not prevent damaging the switch.
On my working TS25, the button stops where the button is flush with the body. However, the button can be depressed further into the body therefore force you put on the button will be transmitted on the switch.
