I keep breaking my E01's!!

I started out with 2 of them. One black and one olive. Of course I had to try unpotting one of them. That just ended up with the olive one baked to death. (read the full story HERE)

Yesterday I received 2 more, my first colored ones, one blue and one "orange". The hotspot in both lights were severely off center, even though the led's seemed well centered in the reflector. :shakehead I guess the led's were "tilted" to the side, thus placing the hotspot way to the side of where i was pointing the flashligt. :sick2: I HATE that. I would rather receive a flashlight with scratches than one with a bad beam.

Of course I just HAD to get the led/circuit out of the head to try and fix this. I tried cooling, heating, pushing, pulling, but the damn thing would not move at all. Finally I tried to do it the same way I did it with my black E01, by just pushing a thin blade under the edge of the circuit board and forcing it out. That worked fine with the black E01, but obviously NOT with this blue one.

After a mad fight to get it out it finally gave way and fell out, BUT... To my suprise, there was NO components on the circuit board. All the components, including the led, was STILL stuck in the ******* white goo in the head :hairpull:. WHO's idea was it to stuff the head full of this white goo?

Now i'm sitting here with 2 working (but one with a off center beam) E01's, and 2 empty bodies and a spare gs led. What to do? I think I will use the GS led to mod my E0.


Here's what the head looks like inside after trying to digg out some of the components. This "potting" is as hard as rock oo: And the head is totally stuffed with this "potting".




Edit: Added picture..

The white 'goo' you refer to might be either epoxy or heat transfer paste. I haven't seen how an e01 is put together, so I'm not totally sure myself. But either of these could be used in the construction of a light.

You can stop breaking them by simply stopping buying them, or accepting them as they are and leaving them intact, simple fix...

Sorry to hear what happened. Thanks for taking one for the team.

I guess the good news is it's only a $15 light so you're not really out that much money.

It would have been nice if Fenix had made the LEDs easily removable, but trying to hit a certain price point probably restricted this.

Yeah, I know, but it's not really a huge loss, they are just $15 ($30 lost so far :sigh. I would never try this with a $50 flashlight. I have bought 4 of them, and at least I have one decent E01 with a ok beam quality. A flashlight with a off center beam is worthless to me anyhow, so I really had nothing to loose.

@ LED-holic: I don't think NOT potting the E01's would make them cost MORE to make. My E0 is not potted and it works perfectly fine. And I can just push out the led with a cotton stick at any time without worries.

No one can accuse you a being scared to try!

You could have had this Peak LED Solutions Matterhorn Stainless Steel 1 LED
for what two EO1's are worth and had a much nicer light, about $30 with there current special 25% off.
Norm

I don't suppose you read this thread? I have opened a couple up now. The key is applying the right amount of heat and pressing on the LED, not prying on the board. Good luck with the next one!

Nice work chimo! Have you managed to swap the LED yet?

chimo said:

I don't suppose you read this thread? I have opened a couple up now. The key is applying the right amount of heat and pressing on the LED, not prying on the board. Good luck with the next one!

Click to expand...

Yes, I have read it . I tried heating as much as I dared and pushing on the led first, but no go. Looks like this E01 had much more "potting" than my black E01 and the unpotted E01 you have pictures of in your thread. The head is completely filled.

I guess you have to make the potting "un-stick " from the walls in the head. Then you can push it out as often as you like. The mistake I made was assuming that the potting was glued to the circuit board better than to the walls in the head. It was VERY glued to the components sitting on the board though, much stronger than the soldiering

Bummer to hear about this. I was hoping they were like the E0 that I have that had no potting/epoxy at all. It was a breeze to get the board out for a LED swap. Sorta takes all the fun out of it. :shrug:

-LT

Sorry to hear about the off center LED's but at least we can assume these are fairly waterproof and I find that appealing in this little light. Good luck with the new mod bodies.

i can understand your exhasperation....

maybe sacrifice one head and leave it in the oven on low throughout the day while youre at work? leave it on some foil though....

Crenshaw

I'll try to open the orange one later. I just have to figure out a better way to do it first. I heated it in the oven so that it was hotter than I could touch, but I could still not push it out, no mather how hard i pushed on the led.

But now it's bedtime for me. It's 4:20am here in norway right now.

mighty82 said:

I'll try to open the orange one later. I just have to figure out a better way to do it first. I heated it in the oven so that it was hotter than I could touch, but I could still not push it out, no mather how hard i pushed on the led.

But now it's bedtime for me. It's 4:20am here in norway right now.

Click to expand...

you have to remember that even if its hot:

1) the Epoxy may not have heated up yet
2) the Epoxy may not have had time to melt even if the body of the light is already hot.

Crenshaw

What I don't understand is.. you keep having problems.. why do you keep buying them?

KDOG3 said:

Nice work chimo! Have you managed to swap the LED yet?

Click to expand...

I have tried a DS and done an LED swap (red LED) for another member. If you swap LEDs, you have to change the dropping resistor to get the LED current in the appropriate range. I didn't mind the original tint, after all, they are only 5mm LEDs. I opened the first one because I was curious.

It's important to ensure enough heat is transferred to the epoxy prior to pushing on the LED. A small dowel with a concave end works well as a push rod.

These E01s are a great value. They are solidly made and well worth the price.

Paul

Doesn't the potting make it more durable/waterproof, etc? I thought I remembered the original run of E0's having reliability issues because the heads weren't potted.

J

chimo said:

I have tried a DS and done an LED swap (red LED) for another member. If you swap LEDs, you have to change the dropping resistor to get the LED current in the appropriate range. I didn't mind the original tint, after all, they are only 5mm LEDs. I opened the first one because I was curious.

Click to expand...

Hi Paul, how were the results with the DS and red led swap?
I'm curious how a DS EO1 would look.

I'm kinda wondering why Fenix chose GS over DS?

gunga, it was the hype about the GS, esp when arc implemented it.

the First gen E0s didnt have an epoxeied head, so if the LED was pushed down, it would contact a capacitor, i think, and over use, it would end up crushing it. Later epoxied heads didnt have that problem.

epoxying something basically encases it in material, so basically nothing, not air, not water can get to it. Essentially, thats the logic behind epoxsying something. If you could find a way to connect the head or an E01 or ARC to a pwersource safely underwater, they woudl still work i am guessing.

Crenshaw