Anyone ever fry a flashlight? I just did ugh!!

BeastFlashlight

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So has anybody fried a light before? I have a custom 3,200 lumen, single mode, 4 de-domed XML2 monster and it looks like I pushed it too far and let it get too hot. The top half is definitely where all the custom work went to it's 2.5 inches of aluminum heat sinking in a really good heat sink host with 4 XML2s on top, each on a bed of copper bonding, each in shallow orange peel reflectors.

I don't notice anything wrong with the top so my fingers are crossed but the springs on the battery carrier are half black and they shriveled up. Normally there is a lot of spring tension on each battery but now they just fall right out. Damn, I'm really hoping the carrier is the weak link on this light and I just need to get a spring mod done on it.

So anyone else have a fried light story?
 

pjandyho

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I think you are putting too much current through the spring. You either need a thicker spring or you have to replace it with some solid conductor. Or it could be a short circuit of some kind causing the spring to overheat.
 
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DellSuperman

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I once had a near miss which my light just went out, I removed the bezel immediately & saw smoke coming out of the drop-in & battery.

After some trouble shooting, the problem was that 1 of my wire got exposed on the inside & caused a short.

Fortunately, the emitters & driver were okie after the repair but I stopped using the battery.
And yeah, my spring on my tailcap (McClicky) was also blacken & the tension seem different too.
 

Cereal_Killer

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I've burned up 2 of them, an aspheric no name XR-E that's dome was literally burned brown (still worked but only about 1% light output) and the other a streamlight polytac with an XP-G swap that I was experimenting on and ran the emitter direct drive off one 16340 and watched it get brighter and brighter till it started to smoke and died.
 

BeastFlashlight

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I think you are putting too much current through the spring. You either need a thicker spring or you have to replace it with some solid conductor. Or it could be a short circuit of some kind causing the spring to overheat.
That would be awesome to replace the springs with solid conductors. The LEDs look fine I think I just need battery carrier repair
 

Fireclaw18

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I've had 2 lights fry.

1. Modded Sipik 58
I had a heavily modded Sipik 58 (1xAA sized zoomie), running on an IMR 14500 and 2.8 amp Nanjg 105c driver, powering an XML.

One time it accidentally turned on in my pocket at max. I didn't notice until the heat started radiating through my pants. When I pulled it out it was still running, but the entire light was burning hot and too hot to touch. I managed to turn it off and take out the battery. Everything was extremely hot... even the battery.

I let it cool down and put the battery back in and it seemed to run fine. The extra heatsinking I'd added around the emitter seemed to do it's job. But the next day I noticed it was intermittent. Close inspection revealed that the solder holding the small brass spring on the positive contact of the driver had broken off and the spring was loose. I tried soldering it back on, but unfortunately, back then my soldering skills weren't so great and I ended up frying the driver (yes only after did I discover the joys of solder flux and low temp solder paste).

I've since rebuilt the light with a fresh driver at 3.56 amps, and XM-L2 emitter on copper star. I also removed a spacer inside the switch boot so it takes much more pressure to activate the electronic switch and turn on the light. So far at least, no more problems.

2. Jetbeam BK135a
A couple years ago I purchased a brand new Jetbeam BK135a with XPG R4 LED. I ran it on 1.5v lithium primaries. After just 5 minutes continuous output at max power, the light output abruptly died. Thereafter the light would only barely light and you could only tell by looking directly at the emitter. The light output was unusable even as a moonlight mode. Turns out 5 minutes on high was enough to fry the driver.

I sent it back to the dealer for warranty repair. The dealer then shipped it to Jetbeam in China for repair. 3 months later, I finally got it back. They'd replaced the driver and the light now worked. Unfortunately, the BK135a was a limited edition light with programmable driver. They had no BK135a drivers availalbe, so instead they replaced the broken driver with the driver from the production model, the PA01, which unfortunately was not programmable and had a rather poor interface.
 
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alpg88

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solder a copped deslodering brade (without flux) at both ends of the spring, i had to solder one even on thick maglite c tailspring in my hotwire mod. 10 amps heat it up so much it melted rubber centering ring, actually the smell of burned rubber alerted me. after i soldered the braid the spring didn't even get warm. and bulb was brighter
 

Fireclaw18

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solder a copped deslodering brade (without flux) at both ends of the spring, i had to solder one even on thick maglite c tailspring in my hotwire mod. 10 amps heat it up so much it melted rubber centering ring, actually the smell of burned rubber alerted me. after i soldered the braid the spring didn't even get warm. and bulb was brighter

I do that with the springs in my modded lights, but I'm not sure how well it will work in a battery carrier. Parts of that spring probably go through the carrier to each battery holder. It would be awkward trying to apply solder braid to those hidden portions.

I think he needs a carrier repair anyways though as his springs no longer hold tension.
 

alpg88

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it will work just as good, getting it done might be the hardest part, in small spaces it is not easy, but i did it with radio shack aa holder, it was pita to get it done thou
 

BeastFlashlight

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So get this, this awesome light that i fried, I started getting happy that I only burnt the battery carrier springs, so I sent it back to Vestureofblood to repair and even improve upon it.

BUT now i'm convinced it's lost in the mail. I'm freaking!!! Of course i put no insurance on it. I put delivery confirmation & tracking on it, about 1,000 mile delivery, sent it 6 days ago and the tracking info has it leaving my local post office and absolutely NO further movement. From Thursday till Wednesday all it did was leave my post office?? This is my favorite flood light this SUCKS!!!!
 

scout24

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I fried an early 1000+ lumen triple P60 dropin, due to my own stupidity. Wasn't reverse polarity protected, and my 18650's were not button top... 'Nuff said. Awesome amount of smoke, though. Boy was I pissed at myself... Hope your light shows up, Vesture's work is good stuff.
 

CMAG

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nailbender direct drive sst 90 p60 on 2 IMR 18350 cells. Two seconds of wow thats bright
 

fnj

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BUT now i'm convinced it's lost in the mail. I'm freaking!!! Of course i put no insurance on it. I put delivery confirmation & tracking on it, about 1,000 mile delivery, sent it 6 days ago and the tracking info has it leaving my local post office and absolutely NO further movement. From Thursday till Wednesday all it did was leave my post office?? This is my favorite flood light this SUCKS!!!!

Don't give up yet. AFAIK, the only trackpoints you get with USPS are once when it is submitted and once when it is delivered. Six days is starting to get a little on the long side for priority mail, but it wouldn't be out of line for parcel post.
 

BeastFlashlight

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Don't give up yet. AFAIK, the only trackpoints you get with USPS are once when it is submitted and once when it is delivered. Six days is starting to get a little on the long side for priority mail, but it wouldn't be out of line for parcel post.
It got delivered today what a relief!! I've gotten tracking on dozens of packages before and never had this happen. Perhaps i've just had a huge lucky streak and this does happen from time to time like you say. I had my mind made up that it was lost/stolen, i'm pretty friggin happy right now!!!!
 
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