Dereelight pill problem...

Today, I turned on my trusty CL1Hv3 with the 2sm module in it. The light flickered and went out. Strange I thought... so i open it up and the magic smoke has escaped. (I hate it when that happens) I did some rudimentary testing and am 99% sure its the driver board. So I am wondering a few things.
1) Is it hard for someone to replace a driver board? Keep in mind i dont even own a soldering iorn and have maybe soldered once in my life. Has any one done this on a derrelight pill?
2) Is there anyone that does this stuff really cheap? A new pill is only 30 or so dollars so i cant get into it too deep money wise, but it would be nice to use the perfectly good XR-E Q5.
3) I searched some and didnt find one, but is there a walkthru or anything like that showing how to do this kind of stuff?
I think thats all for now... I am suer i will have some more as this goes on.
Thanks
Charles

Contact Dereelight and see if they will do anything for you. If they won't replace it, I'd fire it into the garbage myself. Just my opinion.

In the meantime, grab a quality dropin from a cpf member in the custom b/s/t forum. :naughty:

I recently had Nailbender swap driver boards in my Q3 5A XRE Dereelight drop-in module.

I got it on a trade hoping it would run full power on 1x123 primary. It wouldn't( input voltage was 2.8-4.2v) so I contacted NB, and he agreed to swap driver boards for $20 to a 3.6-6v board, so I could run it full power on 2x123 primaries.

He was able to turn it around in about 3-4 days.

Hope that helps.

J

Here is his latest sales thread....
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3355484#post3355484

Maybe one of these?

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-133/**NEW**-3-dsh-Mode-Regulated-Circuit/Detail

* Regulated circuit board designed for Cree XP-G and XR-E emitters
* 3 modes: Low>Med>High
* Voltage input: 2.8V - 6V
* The memory feature will memorize the last mode
* Output current: 60mA on low, 440mA on medium and 1.4A on high
* Buck circuit board
* Linear regulators for high efficiency
* 17mm base board diameter
* Lead wires already soldered on board
* Reverse-polarity protection prevents wrongly installed batteries from damaging the circuit

$5.95 and less than $3 shipping.

I had a driver in a Deereelight pill quit working a few months ago. Not their fault. I'm very hard on lights. This is a work light and gets dropped regularly on concrete.

It has an R2 WH emitter, and I totally love the tint so invested in an SOB 917 driver from the Sandwich Shoppe and installed it. Been holding up a for about 6 months now.

If you're not just married to the tint of that particular emitter I'd pop it out and put it in the spare parts drawer and get a new XP-G pill from Flashcrazy.

i have several Dereelight components and absolutely love them, especially the DBS, i can't see it being worthwhile to spend $30 for a new pill...not now at least. personally, i've yet to come across an XR-E pill that stands out against all others. i would just get a pill from Solarforce or DX...maybe a couple. keep your broken pill and see if you can figure out how to fix it yourself. the experience and education would be worth a lot more than $30.

You can make a direct drive pill e.g. with a Cree P4 (3W) I just soldered a 1 ohme 1W resistor to use it with one 18650 cell. I'ts not my brighter light but it works.

Ok... so i am thinking of trying to do a repair myself. So i just heat the solder and pop the pill out? Who make decent borads? I think I want a single mode driver, maybe pushing it to 1.2amps? I like the one bluepilgram posted but am not interested in three levels, i already have a solarforce that does that. Also, would like regulated output for an 18650.
Any sugestions?
Thanks
Charles

chas9rr said:

Ok... so i am thinking of trying to do a repair myself. So i just heat the solder and pop the pill out? Who make decent borads? I think I want a single mode driver, maybe pushing it to 1.2amps? I like the one bluepilgram posted but am not interested in three levels, i already have a solarforce that does that. Also, would like regulated output for an 18650.
Any sugestions?
Thanks
Charles

Click to expand...

wish i had those answers myself. i have two XP-G pills, one from Dereelight and another MC-E pill from DX that turned out to be a dud....i'm just chipping away trying to learn what i can before i try and fix them.

chas9rr said:

Ok... so i am thinking of trying to do a repair myself. So i just heat the solder and pop the pill out? Who make decent borads? I think I want a single mode driver, maybe pushing it to 1.2amps? I like the one bluepilgram posted but am not interested in three levels, i already have a solarforce that does that. Also, would like regulated output for an 18650.
Any sugestions?
Thanks
Charles

Click to expand...

An El Cheapo board that I've been using with good results is the 1400ma linear regulator from KD.

If you have acccess to a lab power supply you can test the front voltage of the LED. Many XR-E's can be direct driven on a single Li-Ion cell.

replacing a board is not difficult...you just take the opposie steps of dissambkling it....which you will do anyways....

Unsolder the leads from the led, watching for propewr polarity., desoldering and removing the board, desoldering the spring....

and reverse this....

you might find soem trouble with the DL boards...they are very well stuck in there....but if it is broiken maul it to your heart's content....LOL

I am more conserned with your soldering skills....have you a friend that can do this?

Regarding driver choices...go to dealextrem.com and check the sku3256 one
(shiningbeam sells it too)

drivers like sku7612 are very good for one Li-Ion ONLY

BTW the Derrelight 1SM driver is very like this one
http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=1640
...or the likes of sku.26107