wf-606a dimmer, overheated? How to fix?

[VegasF6]

I had ordered a couple ultrafire wf606a's a little while back. My daughter was playing with one last night and left it on, standing on the head. It was about 20 mins or so before I discovered it. The light was pretty warm, which I would imagine is normal. It still worked and all, but now in comparison to my other one, the light output is decreased by maybe 25% or so. The color has gotten lighter. I don't know quite how to describe it, but it isn't bluer at all. If anything, maybe whiter or even slightly yellow. I let it cool down and tried different batteries, but no change.

Is it likely the emitter is damaged, or the driver board? I did peel off the black plastic cover from the emitter, but haven't put a meter to it or anything yet.

So, would replacing the emitter be likely to bring it back up to par? And any benefit to using q5 with same driver board? Only reference I found was essexman said he was going to do it, but I didn't find out if he finished or not. I have PM'ed him about it though.

 

[Essexman]

Hi there VegasF6. Got your PM.

I order a Q5 from DX when they first came out. 3 months later it arrived. When I checked it out it had a high(ish) forward voltage (Vf) of 3.6V, and the star was too big ,so I didn't use it in my WF-606a.

Looking of DX, now you can buy a Q5 on the size boards, so you could buy a direct replacement and just swap them over.

I hope it's just the emitter that got too hot and not the driver board?
I might be worth swapping the emitter into your other WF-606a to determine if it's the emitter or the driver that's damaged.

Best of luck.
Let us know how you get on.

 

[VegasF6]

I wish it was easier to get the black plastic plug off of the emitter. I had to break this one pretty good, so I am hesitant to do another. Though that would be the ideal test.

On the dimmer torch, the one that actually has better color now, I am putting about 3.3 volts into the emitter. About 1.25 amps off the batteries, with either E2 energizer, or Hybrio's.

On my other one (I actually have 3) I am getting about 1.65 to 1.72 amps from batteries. (I am amazed how much current this thing is pulling???) I haven't checked voltage to the led on the good one.

I haven't checked amperage to the led of either. I would think I can count on 80% efficiency? So, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.3 to 1.35 amps actually going to the P4? Wow, if true that sounds quite overdriven.

I have a P4 in a 14mm and a Q5 in a 16mm both on the way. My micrometers show this as closer to a 14mm, but others on this forum have cited it as 16MM, so they are probably right. Mine isn't a round board, it appears to have once upon a time been a star that was cut down. As bright as they are, or were, it may not be a P4 even, I have no way of knowing.

VegasF6

 

[Ty_Bower]

On my other one (I actually have 3) I am getting about 1.65 to 1.72 amps from batteries. (I am amazed how much current this thing is pulling???) I haven't checked voltage to the led on the good one.

I haven't checked amperage to the led of either. I would think I can count on 80% efficiency? So, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.3 to 1.35 amps actually going to the P4? Wow, if true that sounds quite overdriven.

amps to led = (converter efficiency) * (amps from batteries) * (battery voltage under load) / (led forward voltage)

80% efficiency sounds optimistic to me. I'd guess it's lower.

 

[mhubble]

I recently purchased a Ultrafire wf 606a. Something I found in doing runtime tests was that running alkalines vs lithium there was a huge difference in runtimes, heat and the look of the beam( brightness and color). The alkalines get terrible runtimes(45 min of full brightness, another 45 min of deminishing light). And it doesnt run hot at all on alkalines. On energizer lithium it runs extremely hot. But you get 1.5 to 2.0 hours of full brightness and another two hours of deminishing light. Im not really sure why there would be so much difference between the two types of batteries. Im considering changing the driver and the led.