Fenix help required

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

I recently bought this light on the BST. I knew at the time is was not working I thought it would be neat to get it working again. I believe it is one of the older ones that is capable of running either Li-Ion, alk's, or NiMH. Most of the Fenix line up can't use Li-Ion, to bad.

So I get the thing apart to find that there is one component that appears to be toast. Not exactly sure what it is but appears to be a regulator of some sort. It's the black chip like thing with 6 legs (just below the inductor). One of the legs in the middle of the top side is larger than the rest. There are no markings of any kind on it. It appears as though whatever markings there once were are burnt off. The surface is sort of dull and has that burnt look about it. The red wire is long enough to reach across the two lower right legs. However, it may have become seperated from the center leg when I was picking off the white silicone like stuff that was covering the connections of the two wires.

So what I guess I'm hoping for is some help in identifying that one component, and detirmining whether or not the red wire is supposed to be attacthed to the center leg of that chip. I guess while I'm in here messing about I might try and increase this circuits output a little. And of course you just know that I'll be putting a SSC-P4 in there as well.

Any light that can be shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,

zwf

 

[Raymond]

Why not measure the diameter of this driver and order a new one from DX?

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

I looked at DX and all the drivers there are a little to big in diameter to fit. Most are 17mm. I did try one with no luck. Also to, all but one of the drivers on DX are buck drivers. I'd like to have a buck/boost board. The fenix board is exactly 16mm dia x 7mm thick (tallest component). There can be no components on the battery side of the board if it's going to fit into the Fenix.

zwf

 

[Raymond]

Did you try this one:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4735 ?

 

[Illum]

It's the black chip like thing with 6 legs (just below the inductor). One of the legs in the middle of the top side is larger than the rest. There are no markings of any kind on it.

its actually a 3 Pin with a ground tab, SOT-223 [or was it SOT-89 :thinking:] Surface Mount version.
its a switching regulator of some sort

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

Did you try this one:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4735 ?

Looked at that one too. If you scroll down to the disscussions section there is a dude (750uz) says he received 3 of these on Apr.5/08 and the're 17mm not the advertised 16mm. Unfortunatly 17mm won't fit.

zwf

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

its actually a 3 Pin with a ground tab, SOT-223 [or was it SOT-89 :thinking:] Surface Mount version.
its a switching regulator of some sort

I measured the various pins to ground and found that the two pins on the left upper and lower both go to ground. The LED is wired to the ground pin and the pin on the right. Possibly the center pin is supposed to be wired to the +LED as well. Not sure. The pin on the upper right appears to go to battery + contact. The larger pin is a mystery at this point.

zwf

 

[warlord]

Looks like a constant current driver with a really crappy solder job. I would make sure that the pins aren't connected to each other like they look like in the pic.

Ground is always the lower left pin, + is usually on the far side of a resistor.

 

[louie]

I recently bought this light on the BST. I knew at the time is was not working I thought it would be neat to get it working again. I believe it is one of the older ones that is capable of running either Li-Ion, alk's, or NiMH. Most of the Fenix line up can't use Li-Ion, to bad.

The original Fenix - they came in L1P (premium, with R bin Luxeon and coated glass) and standard L1. According to my spec sheet, input voltage is 0.9v - 1.5 volt. However, everyone used lithium primaries (about 1.7 v) with no problem. NiMHs are, of course, recommended. I put SSC P4s into a couple of these and it is an excellent upgrade by itself.

I'm not in a position to take mine apart right now to help you out, though.

 

[Illum]

Looks like a constant current driver with a really crappy solder job. I would make sure that the pins aren't connected to each other like they look like in the pic.

Ground is always the lower left pin, + is usually on the far side of a resistor.

considering the size of the driver board the solder pins looks pretty good. whoever spliced the wires did a bit too long. I dunno what the white stuff is, I would hope to believe its the "potting mix" fenix tosses in to hold the driver board, but if thats the case the allocation should be relatively uniform:thinking:


the MOSFET, if thats what it is, appears to be okay from the outside. I'd insulate the wires and see if thats the problem first.

if its the regulator that failed, there would've been cracks and some board damage...something that looks like NewBie's TLE-6EX


the inductor looks fine, but check to make sure the thin copper wires are connected and that the ferrite core is intact. Often lights that failed to work after being dropped is caused by a shattered inductor core. the gen II Inova X1s and dorcy 1AAAs have been known to fail in this manner. Usually manufacturers would pot the driver boards to prevent this.

the Schottky looks fine, but if you have a DMM with the "diode" feature, you could test that too. I'm not quite sure what the blocky thing is beside the MOSFET. its corner looks damaged or it may have some of that "potting mix" on it and the cameras overloaded in that region. If possible could you post another pic from a different direction?:huh:

I'm not sure how a SMT cap could fail unnoticed but I have read threads to USB drives failing after the wash and removing residue from the solder joints revived the electronic.

 

[eebowler]

GD buck/boost driver from the sandwich shop. If you want a quality component, don't bother looking anywhere else. The link shows the 750mA version which I believe is TOO much current for a 1AA light. Go with the 500mA version.

Forgot to add that the diameter of this board is 0.55in or just over 14 mm.

 

[warlord]

No, it doesn't look good at all. It looks like a drunken monkey soldered that driver on there blindfolded. And I say this after looking at the soldering quality on the E0 boards I've already modded. It really looks badly hacked. This is what I think SMC x is:

http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?h...+7135&hl=en&safe=off&client=opera&rls=en&sa=G

And I agree the component looks fine on the outside. It just looks like the soldering needs to be fixed.

 

[Illum]

No, it doesn't look good at all. It looks like a drunken monkey soldered that driver on there blindfolded.

well I couldn't have done it better. My solder tips about the thickness of a luxeon emitter:candle:

I hadn't thought of the possibility that the board may have previously been modded though.

functionality assumes the new chip will function in design with existing parts.
on a side note LEDmuseum registers the L1Ps current consumption to be 1010ma, and that the L1 came before L1P, I'm guessing someone wanted a more efficient driver

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

GD buck/boost driver from the sandwich shop. If you want a quality component, don't bother looking anywhere else. The link shows the 750mA version which I believe is TOO much current for a 1AA light. Go with the 500mA version.

I'd really like to get this board working as plan A. However, as a plan B The GD-500 is one hell of great idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that myself.

zwf

 

[chimo]

A few comments:
1. It's not a MOSFET. It's a switching regulator.
2. Often, companies (including Fenix) will deface the markings to discourage reverse engineering. The appearance of the switcher may be only cosmetic.
3. The solder job is not great. The newer Fenix lights appear to be better quality.
4. The red wire is most likely connected to the output of the schottky/positive side of the larger cap(white band side)
5. You could possibly pot a smaller (sandwich sized board to fit - you would just have to work out the ground path).

Question:
1. the driver will depend on what you want to run this on. Alkaline to Li-ion will require a buck-boost that goes way down to 0.9V. You may be better off choosing Alkaline or Li-ion. Remember the GD is 1.8-5.4V in.

Good luck,

Paul

 

[eebowler]

Just realized that the GD works with 3V up to 5.4V I believe.... Don't know how it'll perform with 1AA cell. Sorry. My oversight. Maybe that's why you didn't think of it. lol. What battery will you mainly be using in this light?

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

Most of the soldering actually looks not to bad. The only area where it doesn't look so good is the soldering of the wires. Probably done by hand at time of manufacture. Some how this board doesn't look to me like it has been messed with by anybody before I opened it up. The white stuff you see was a couple of silicone sealler sort of stuff. It was only around the ends of the wires, sort of covering the ends of the regulator. One question that I had in the beginning is still bugging me. I'm wondering if the red wire is supposed to bridge across the 2 pins on the right? None of the components appear to be damaged or cracked. The only thing that looks a little off is the color of the regulator thingy. Here are a couple more pics from different angles.

cheers,

zwf

 

[warlord]

One question that I had in the beginning is still bugging me. I'm wondering if the red wire is supposed to bridge across the 2 pins on the right?

No, that's what I've been saying...

I would make sure that the pins aren't connected to each other like they look like in the pic.

 

[ZuluWhiskeyFox]

No, that's what I've been saying...

I just ensured that the red wire is only connected to the right pin. The circuit is working. However not very bright. I noticed for the first time a crack in the base of the inductor. Actually saw it for the first time in one of the latest posted pics after posting. That crack is likely the cause of the poor light output. arrh.

I have a piglet on the way. I had other plans for the Piglet. However, in light of this most recent discovery perhaps this Fenix is the right candidate for a Piglet transplant.

Piglet max output is I beleive 500ma. This combined with multiple settings and SSC-P4... Not a bad comprimise.

 

[warlord]

Should be nice when you get that swapped in.

I don't really think that the red wire is supposed to be touching the regulator but only be soldered to the trace connected to the capacitor (as pointed out by chimo). Although I can't really tell from the pic (maybe the trace underneath leads to that pin anyway) it's hard to say.

IDK, if you're going to scrap the board it may be worth a try. I have a board with a cracked inductor and it's still working fine. Have fun modding.