[EDITED] REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

I can't tell on my computer but resistors typically have numbers on them and capacitors are gold/yellow colored. I had to try all of them in one light as it had more than one capacitor I think the 18650 SKywolfeye lights only have 1 capacitor if I remember right.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

I can't tell on my computer but resistors typically have numbers on them and capacitors are gold/yellow colored. I had to try all of them in one light as it had more than one capacitor I think the 18650 SKywolfeye lights only have 1 capacitor if I remember right.

Ah.. but my question was a lot more basic/mundane than that...

Is that the right component (highlighted with red ellipse) to use the pencil on, please?

Thanks

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Ah.. but my question was a lot more basic/mundane than that...

Is that the right component (highlighted with red ellipse) to use the pencil on, please?

Thanks

Yes, It should do the trick.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Yes, It should do the trick.

Thanks so much for the confirmation -
I'll give that a try.

That component being a capacitor seems to make sense -
as drawing a pencil (graphite) line bridging the terminals
would in effect give a resistor between them, forming a timer.

pic from Wikipedia Multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC)

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Exactly.... or short it out. Long ago people figured out you could overclock some processor chips by using a pencil to draw traces across some parts of the chip with a pencil. The trick is to get the right amount. I put a lot of lead on the capacitors as just a little doesn't seem to do much of anything.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

In order to fix the "next mode" memory you have to access the driver board and use a pencil (graphite) to smear it across the right diode which will in effect "drain" the memory based upon how much is shorting across the diode. I used clip leads so I could test the operation of it and had to reapply more pencil lead twice to get it to work right. The more you put the shorter the memory is maintained after turning off. I first had it where you had to leave it off for a minute or two but found that I liked it best at 5 seconds or less.

If you get too much just use a cloth and wipe off the excess and start over. I think too much it may only have one mode unable to remember long enough to go to the next mode.

Thank you so much!
This worked for me.

It took me 2 tries -
at first I did 4 firm pencil lines between the terminals of that capacitor...
and...
when I put the light back together it wouldn't even switch on.

I thought perhaps it was the board not making contact with the pill -
so I put a blob of solder at the edge of the board hanging over the edge of the pill -
but no luck.

So perhaps I over-did the pencil lines -
went back and used a pencil eraser and rubbed off the lines
and this time I did just two lines...
and lo-and-behold! it worked
not only that, the reset time after off is less than 2 seconds.

WoW! it worked!

FWIW my board looks like this:

Thank you so much!:twothumbs

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Your welcome. I got the information from a thread in another forum somewhere. There is one issue with it if you drop the light really hard you may be able to knock loose some of the graphite and have to redo it. I had to use 4 times on mine to get it to work right first time I did it I had to wait 30 seconds for it to "forget" I think mine are now 1-2 seconds too. I'm guessing if you are good at soldering SMD components you could choose a smaller capacitance value and replace it and work the same, most likely they put a cap in that they could get cheaper than the right value without thinking much. For the $2 or so I paid for my lights I'm not complaining at all about having to do the mod but wished they would have charged me another penny to get the right component in the first place.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Your welcome. I got the information from a thread in another forum somewhere. There is one issue with it if you drop the light really hard you may be able to knock loose some of the graphite and have to redo it. I had to use 4 times on mine to get it to work right first time I did it I had to wait 30 seconds for it to "forget" I think mine are now 1-2 seconds too. I'm guessing if you are good at soldering SMD components you could choose a smaller capacitance value and replace it and work the same, most likely they put a cap in that they could get cheaper than the right value without thinking much. For the $2 or so I paid for my lights I'm not complaining at all about having to do the mod but wished they would have charged me another penny to get the right component in the first place.

I guess my capacitor may be a different (smaller) value?

Because I used only two pencil lines, and got about <=2 secs reset time.

4 pencil lines probably had shorted the capacitor out -
in my case the light wouldn't even turn on.

Thanks, I am real pleased with the results with such a simple mod.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

I guess my capacitor may be a different (smaller) value?

Because I used only two pencil lines, and got about <=2 secs reset time.

4 pencil lines probably had shorted the capacitor out -
in my case the light wouldn't even turn on.

Thanks, I am real pleased with the results with such a simple mod.

wouldn't surprise me if they just put different capacitors in that slot on the boards to use up extras that they had.
What I think boggles the mind is that someone can make these lights and ship them from china to your doorstep for less than $3 regardless of having to do the mod or not. Without the mod I wanted to almost throw the light in the trash as I often turned it on in strobe mode or low mode and when it turned on in low I couldn't always tell and tried putting it in low.... got strobe. I would love to get rid of the strobe mode for good in the light without losing the L/H modes.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

wouldn't surprise me if they just put different capacitors in that slot on the boards to use up extras that they had.
What I think boggles the mind is that someone can make these lights and ship them from china to your doorstep for less than $3 regardless of having to do the mod or not. Without the mod I wanted to almost throw the light in the trash as I often turned it on in strobe mode or low mode and when it turned on in low I couldn't always tell and tried putting it in low.... got strobe. I would love to get rid of the strobe mode for good in the light without losing the L/H modes.

Looking at the photo of my board more closely - that capacitor space is actually marked 1µF.

Having done the mod I can more or less avoid seeing the strobe mode unless I want to deliberately switch to it,
since turning off at Low now will reset back to high and no longer go to strobe.

Thanks!

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

What I think boggles the mind is that someone can make these lights and ship them from china to your doorstep for less than $3 regardless of having to do the mod or not.

Still on my pursuit of lantern alternative - I did a low-ball bid on this:

even though it says "Vander", the same looking light is also sold as UltraFire and possibly others.
It came as a "kit with 18650 battery and charger - and I manage to get it for $3.06 shipped (US vendor)

So this is cheaper than the ReadyFlex and other cheap lanterns -
in this one case it came with battery - rechargeable too.

It is labelled as 3000mAh - on test it is only 1022mAh - but it works, just lower capacity than the label.

Being a bigger 18650 light it is 5 modes - with the bigger LED -

BUT this had a very long reset back to High - in the order of possibly hours,
so it may as well have been next mode "no" memory.

It was a prime candidate for the pencil mod.

This light was relatively easy to take apart and access the board -
it looked similar to the other one I'd seen -
so it was easy to locate the capacitor.

Two pencil lines and the light did not seem to reset, in anything in reasonable time.

So added more pencil lines to about 5 in total.

This time on test it would reset in about 4-5 secs.

However there is a difference - in less than 4-5 secs but more than 1 sec - the light comes on with the last mode - which was rather nice.

Perhaps a little less pencil lines could extend the last mode period before reset back to High?

Its widest setting is just wider than the UltraFire SK98 (also 18650) -
so the wide flood coverage is better, and it will focus/zoom to a tight spot showing image of the LED die.

With the pencil mod even as is, this has become a really good candidate for a lantern alternative..
and it was cheaper (although the price is probably an anomaly)

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Still on my pursuit of lantern alternative - I did a low-ball bid on this:

even though it says "Vander", the same looking light is also sold as UltraFire and possibly others.
It came as a "kit with 18650 battery and charger - and I manage to get it for $3.06 shipped (US vendor)

So this is cheaper than the ReadyFlex and other cheap lanterns -
in this one case it came with battery - rechargeable too.

It is labelled as 3000mAh - on test it is only 1022mAh - but it works, just lower capacity than the label.

Being a bigger 18650 light it is 5 modes - with the bigger LED -

BUT this had a very long reset back to High - in the order of possibly hours,
so it may as well have been next mode "no" memory.

It was a prime candidate for the pencil mod.

This light was relatively easy to take apart and access the board -
it looked similar to the other one I'd seen -
so it was easy to locate the capacitor.

Two pencil lines and the light did not seem to reset, in anything in reasonable time.

So added more pencil lines to about 5 in total.

This time on test it would reset in about 4-5 secs.

However there is a difference - in less than 4-5 secs but more than 1 sec - the light comes on with the last mode - which was rather nice.

Perhaps a little less pencil lines could extend the last mode period before reset back to High?

Its widest setting is just wider than the UltraFire SK98 (also 18650) -
so the wide flood coverage is better, and it will focus/zoom to a tight spot showing image of the LED die.

With the pencil mod even as is, this has become a really good candidate for a lantern alternative..
and it was cheaper (although the price is probably an anomaly)

Last mode memory isn't as much of a problem as "next mode" memory which is extremely annoying because before you turn the light off you have to purposely change it to another mode before the mode you want it to come on. I like the 5 mode lights as the low modes tend to be lower than the low on 3 mode lights
I have one of those 1000mah 18650s that came with a USB rechargeable fan claiming it to be 2500mah. I'm not complaining as the fan cost me less than other fans without the free battery.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Last mode memory isn't as much of a problem as "next mode" memory which is extremely annoying because before you turn the light off you have to purposely change it to another mode before the mode you want it to come on. I like the 5 mode lights as the low modes tend to be lower than the low on 3 mode lights
I have one of those 1000mah 18650s that came with a USB rechargeable fan claiming it to be 2500mah. I'm not complaining as the fan cost me less than other fans without the free battery.

Just to be clear that Vander flashlight had next mode memory.

I would have been quite happy with last mode memory, and would not have done the mod at all.

The second and successful pencil mod gave it last mode memory, if the time before switching on was less than about 4-5 secs (after which it would now reset back to High).

Thanks

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: REVIEW - Eveready ReadyFlex Floating Lantern (EVFL45SH)

Yeah I'm half tempted to buy some decent $3 circuit boards/drivers that will fit my 2 lights and replace them as there is no guarantee that the $6 lights have any better drivers. My 5 mode lights don't have any next mode memory issues.

 

[GarageBoy]

Bumping a nice old thread - had a bunch of alkalines in a closest and work and figured why not pick one of these up?

Bought it and thought, man this is the dimmest 80 lumens ever... Should have checked this thread first. I hook it up with an 18650 and it's much better - too bad I can't get an 18650 to make contact. Guess this goes into the donate pile.

Can't really see a need for D batteries anymore. Maybe vintage AM/FM radios ?

 

[xxo]

The Eveready 1D is good for a cheap D cell light -

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/review-eveready-1d-economy-led-flashlight.424718/

or the ozark 1D if you want something a little brighter -

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/ozark-trail-1d-led.447897/


I keep some alkaline C and D cells around for the unlikely event that I have a power outage that lasts longer than all of my rechargeables for use in Maglites set up as lanterns.