Nuwai Q3 Circuit Mod?

I like the light but hate the battery usage. When the battery goes down to about 2.75v the circuit turn it off.

Is there a simple way to mod the board to give me full usage of the battery. And yes, I dont care if it gets dim.

Thanks all.

PS- I'm upgrading to something a bit nicer soon but want a backup.

Hmm, There may be ways to mod the board to fix that and keep the boost it gives you (boost 3V to ~3.5V) but I'm no expert on curcuit mods, so I will give you just what I can think of. Which all include ditching the board.

1) Run it direct drive. Ditch the board and replace it with a basic contact board (has only a positive contact spot in the middle and negative around the outside (I think for the Q3?)) Put an appropriate resistor in line if you use RCR with a low Vf emitter. It will be dim if you use 3V primaries, but run a lot longer.

2) Replace with Goldserve's FluPIC board. Direct replacement for the stock board, but you will need to run RCR with this too. Benefit: you get multiple level programability, and strobe.

3) Simplest and cheapest: leave the bord in place, but just bypass or short the board with a jump wire to run direct drive. You can reverse this easily by removing the jump wire.

4) See if someone here has a spare board from the old Q3 that dimmed all the way down.

nauss said:

I like the light but hate the battery usage. When the battery goes down to about 2.75v the circuit turn it off.

Is there a simple way to mod the board to give me full usage of the battery. And yes, I dont care if it gets dim.

Thanks all.

PS- I'm upgrading to something a bit nicer soon but want a backup.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Sounds like good advice. I'm no flashaholic but I like a good torch.

I had tested the duarability of the light a few days ago and gave it a toss in the yard. Of course, it hit a cement step directly on the button.
Only hitting on the rear end would get it to work.

Took it apart and adjusted the bend spring and staightened the board up.
Seems to have done the trick.

This would be a really great light if it had a moon mode or flashing voltage indicator or something.

Good idea about the short. Might try it. Wish I had the direct drive board.
Might try something later.

Lance

This is a great inexpensive light and you can direct drive it and add a
two position switch for a second level. Do a search for more details.

Also if you want a driver that you can configure yourself, search for
FLUPIC.

And what ever you decide to do, NEVER get rid of the reflector.
It's very good and will work beautifully with the Cree XR-E or S-P4.

Good luck,