Destructive Disassembly - Peak Matterhorn!

Since I was a kid, I have always been curious about how things work and what's inside electrical/mechanical devices. Many of you seem to have a similar curiosity so I figured I would share what I have been doing.

I have been curious about the internals a certain light for a while. What started out as a non-destructive investigation last night ended up being a bit destructive. Since I didn't really use the light, I really doesn't bother me. :devil:

To quote a very well known CPF member: "Would I really try to cut up a perfectly good, brand spanken new flashlight? You bet your sweet patootie I would, if it's in the name of science."

I'm not finished yet, so the pics below are what I have done so far. See if you can guess which light this is from. Sorry, no prizes other than the intense visceral feeling of satisfaction from guessing correctly.

Here are the pics:

View 1


View 2


View 3


View 4


Here are some of my initial observations: The device is very well constructed and a more complex than I had envisioned. Assmebly looks very labour intensive compared to a competitor's product. The assembly not mod-friendly. Non-destructive dis-assembly would be very difficult (if not impossible). Interestingly enough, after this much physical abuse, the circuit above is still functional!

Paul

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

Holly cow!

For a moment it reminded me of an ArcAAA circuit I just gutted (almost literally). The LED and pill were jammed into the head so tightly that no amount of heat would make it budge. It was a dead head anyway, so I decided to try a little "torque" to the pill Let's just say things didn't go well for the poor pill... I got the LED out, though :chuckle:

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

I share your desire to find out how things work and how can I improve it.
Some multi led light Peak? I don't mess much with 5mm leds.
C

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

Congratulations, we have an early winner!

Christoph has "won" the "intense visceral feeling of satisfaction" from guessing correctly.

This is, indeed, the guts from a Peak Matterhorn 3 LED.

Two of the three LEDs were damaged. The remaining one still functions. On the LED PCB there is a 20 ohm resistor for each LED. I did a couple of quick measurements - the output of the potted driver was around 4.6 Volts with one LED. I don't recall the exact voltage drop across the dropping resistor, however, I seem to recall calculating the current to be in the order of 65 mA or so. This was a High output model (not the Ultra or Standard).

As I mentioned, the construction of this head was not conducive to easy disassembly like the ArcAAAs. The black sleeve, LEDs, PCB and connecting wires to the driver board are inserted from the head end and then partially filled with silicone. The driver board is inserted from the battery end and the connectors are soldered. The space between the silicone and driver board is then potted. Of course, I didn't find all this out until after the "de-construction" process.

There may be a chance of non-destructive disassembly by un-soldering the connectors and pulling the LED module out from the front. This would invilve getting a good bite on the LEDs, so you would need some replacements (which is probably why you would take it apart in the first place!). The success of this method would depend on the adhesion of the potting compound on the connectors and the grip of the silicone to the head's housing.

I think I will solder in a few "snow" LEDs and re-check the LED current before un-potting the driver board.

More on the driver design when I unpot the circuit.

Paul

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

OK. I had a little time yesterday so I got most of the potting off (and a little bit of the inductor - it's OK I likely have a substitute). The potting was a little more resiliant than the Arc's. The board layout is a quite a bit denser than the Arc's as well. There's

1 inductor (22uH)
1 switcher chip
2 capacitors
1 schottky diode (top mark SD)



I can read the top mark of the switcher chip and have identified the chip. In this increasingly competetive market, I do not think it would be fair to Peak to disclose this information to the public. I have shown the same courtesy to Arc with their switcher IC information.

BTW, the circuit still works.



Paul

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

Cool, you sure have the paitience to do this stuff! Doing my arc was tough enough!! But I'm really happy with the end result. My arc is as bright as the new premiums, and total cost of the arc, new led and shipping is only $21 bucks!!

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

Oh go ahead and tell us what chip it is. If you can find it by taking the light apart you can bet that competitors will do the same thing. So you won't be telling them anything they don't already know. Anyway, nice job.

By the way, the pcb of mine is covered with some potting compound on the back of the head, and the battery contact has some kind of gold-colored button, not just a pc trace. Was yours like that?

Re: Destructive Disassembly - Guess the light!

paulr said:

By the way, the pcb of mine is covered with some potting compound on the back of the head, and the battery contact has some kind of gold-colored button, not just a pc trace. Was yours like that?

Click to expand...

That is potting compound on the back and the little brass button is just soldered on. Mine started like that. Cheers,

Paul