Help with a dead Cree C3 Flashlight.

Hi veryone, this is my first post here.

I recently bought a Cree C3 2xAA (With P4) From DX and it worked perfectly for all the time. Until one day I accidentaly dropped it from my desk and it didnt turn on anymore.

I tested the switch with an voltimeter, it works fine. Then i tested the flashlight body's conductivity and it was fine. The problem is on the Led emitter, but I'm unable to twist it off and disarm it.

Here are some pictures, if anyone could help me. This is my first flashlight and I have spent over $20 USD, it might not sound too much in the US, but in my country 20 bucks is the salary of 2 days of work.



My Cree C3 Flashlight. Wont work anymore :mecry:




The LED emited seems to be fine.


I Don't think it's burnt...


I was able to twist of the switch, but not the LED.



It works, i tested it.



You can see the marks when i was attempting to twist it off



I did this after the flashlight stopped working, trying to disarm the led.



I also tried putting some aluminium, if the problem was the conductivity. It did not work.

I also tried to connect to battery in several ways, with wire and nothing worked. Please help! If anybody know what is the problem tell me what to do now... I miss some light.

Thanks.

Not sure, But I seem to remember reading on here somewhere that C3's have a bad reputation of going to hell when dropped......

You try removing the tailcap and shorting the battery and body?

Marduke said:

You try removing the tailcap and shorting the battery and body?

Click to expand...

I already did this millions of times with different metals: knife, pen, coin, wire, screwdriver... Didnt work...

Usually the bag and boil method will loosen up the loctite enough to remove the pill.

Marduke said:

Usually the bag and boil method will loosen up the loctite enough to remove the pill.

Click to expand...

How do I do that?

To get the Pill out of the head you will need to heat the head with like a hair dryer or boil it in some water (but it in a plastic bag first) and use something like pointed tweezers or small scissors to unscrew it.

I had a 5 mode light that did not have the notches in the pill and it took forcefully breaking the driver board to remove it.

Poke around CPF an there are threads detailing how to remove glued heads and boards etc.

If all else fails...... http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=179046

Thanks! I will try.

Sweet! I was able to take it off using the bag-boil method, now i have a led emitter with many layers of circuit and i dont know what to do with it.

The same thing happened to me, I dropped the light and it stopped working..

Dont fret though, all is not lost.. Just the ability to use AA batteries.. Use 14500 and you should be good to go.. Seems the board is the problem..

My C3 works like a champ using 14500 batteries..

Is there any way I can buy the led+circuit board unit? The whole aluminium thing exept the reflector.

Hypnosis4U2NV said:

The same thing happened to me, I dropped the light and it stopped working..

Click to expand...

I must have been lucky then! :twothumbs I dropped my 5-mode C3 one time and it went off and I couldn't get it working so I panicked thinking it was game over. I tryed again a few minutes later and amazingly the thing worked perfectly and I was happy.

It's worked perfectly ever since and has not flickered or gone out yet. I was lucky!

Good to hear that it works OK on 14500's after the board is wrecked.

No, but if you know how to solder you can fix it pretty easily. All you need is a new board.

Does anything on the board look broken?

:welcome:

Can you solder?

Dealextreme.com has many boards you can try to use, some are not quite the right size and will not fit, or will require sanding down to get to the right size. Im sure someone here knows what will fit in there.

To get the board out you will need something like a small utility knife to pry it loose. Try and keep the thin brass ring in one piece because I have not figgered out how to solder to aluminum. There should be a little bit of solder on the inside holding the board to the brass ring, but it breaks loose easy.


Edit....I am not seeing the little protector that holds the LED away from the reflector, usually there is a piece of plastic or the like. Try putting power to the pill as is to see if it lights up, it might have been a short from the reflector.

See if it fires when you put power to it removed. It it does, it was a shorting issue, easily solved.

richardcpf PM me with your address I think I can help you

I am at a loss with this C3 death by gravitation trend. I took one of mine and dropped it and sure enough it died...after a little bit. Would dimly light up with 2xaa batteries, and would fire okay with a lithium, but generally dead. I popped out the board and all the components are there and still soldered.

I've bben loking for replacement, but i dont know what is broken.

Probably the board is dead (everything is solded), because the led seems to be fine. Where can i find a 16mm board For the CREE c3 flashlight? The led is an P4XRE. I found a board+Q5 6mode led but they cost $15 together, and that is enough for me to buy an romisen G2 flashlight (similar to mine or even better).

So I think better would be buying a new one.

Which brands/models are resistant, specially to drop-offs?

if youve tried by-passing everything and just connecting up the battery to the head via wires, and it still doesnt work, try just connecting some spare wire to the led itself,there are markings for positive and negative. If that fails too, then its likley something broke on the circuit itself.

i must say though richard, those are pretty good pictures..what kind of camera are you using?

Crenshaw

The LED doesnt work. Tried with 1.2 and 1.5v and nothing happened.

If there is nothing I can do to repair my flashlight with less than $10, which torch would you recommend?

I need brightness and durability, throw/projection is not that important to me.

Crenshaw: I own a Sony DSC-W50. The pictures were taken in manual adjustment mode.

Richardcpf, please don't panic !

You still have plenty of possibilities to save your flashlight.
Please read carefully all this thread. I have tried at least 2 solutions to upgrade my UF C3 with extension tube and it works AND the led is now driven at full power (1A) with modes and memory :thumbsup:

Now I don't think that your led is dead... If you have powered it with 1.5 V you possibly will NOT see anything as this led must be powered under 3.5V to get full power.
So the most probable is that your driver is dead or has a broken solder (which could be fixed quite easily)

However :

if your led is dead, change it with a Cree Q5 (only 7$) or your original Cree P4 (only 5$)
if your driver it dead, I have the original one still working (give it for 3$), or change it with another one (just have to sand a bit the pill for DX drivers to fit in your UF C3...). I am running now with this one (3$) which runs also on a single 14500 liion battery. I can do all the soldering for you (just need the pill not all the flashlight --> cheap to send it by mail)


Well keep me informed if you need more advice or want me to help you (free of charge of course !).

Don't throw away your UF C3 it is a nice flashlight with an overall quite good quality...:wave:

Bye
JP