I took the bezel off of my TS25 to inspect some visible marks on the tir when on moonlight. Without the lens and the tir, i turned the light on on turbo. Immediately smoke started coming out of the light! It doesn’t do it on max ramp, only on turbo. I can’t really see where the smoke is coming from though, as it is dumping out a ton of light. I’m worried about leaving it on too long to see what happens… I’m also hesitant to put the light back together and use it on turbo.
Looking at the LEDs (Samsung 351s), there is definitely a burn spot on one of the domes, and I’m pretty sure that’s the culprit. I’m guessing that’s the imperfection I could see in the tir when on moonlight.
Any suggestions? I’m not capable of reflowing a new LED on there.
Clean all main LEDs with isopropanol and see if that helps with the smoke. LEDs really do not like to have any kind of residue on them and it will likely cause damage.
Otherwise reminds me of the smoking B35AM DM11 from Hank where he was driving the LEDs just a little bit too hard.
The LH351D in my TS25 are quite green. I’ve been meaning to slice them. If you can’t get that dome clean you might consider it. Although there isn’t much room and you might have to desolder and remove the aux board at least.
I recall a similar scenario with a TS10 someone was messing with. If I remember correctly the concensus was removing the pressure of the optic against the board diminished the thermal path between the mcpcb and the light body, thus things got toasty when the light was run without optics installed/bezel tightened.
I did not buy the light directly from Wurkkos, I got it from AX. I contacted the store where I bought it, including the above picture and a video showing the light smoking (within one second of turbo being activated). I did that last night before going to bed, and by the time I woke up, I had a refund! They didn’t even ask for the light to be sent back.
At the advice given here, I did break out the q-tips and rubbing alcohol. Between that and a pair of Victorinox tweezers, I was able to clean the dome off. It’s a touch pitted where the markings were, but when turning it on to turbo (still with the bezel removed), it no longer smokes. And the damage to the dome is so small that there is no noticeable effect to the beam. So thanks to Valynor and Jeffgoldblum for the suggestion!
Since it is basically now a free light, if the dome starts to burn again (maybe it is being overpowered?), I will attempt to slice it. But as it is, and as I am color blind, I’ve never noticed much of a green tint to the Samsungs. So only if the problem returns will I attempt that.
Now I will have to make sure I keep the light from trying heroin next…
AFAIK that was because the TS10 has no screws providing pressure to the mcpcb, it shouldn’t be an issue here where there’s 2 screws pressing the PCBs to the shelf for good thermals, unless there’s not enough thermal paste.
