First Dorcy AAA Mod - 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

I know there's a current thread about a Dorcy AAA mod but I didn't want to hi-jack the thread so I posted my own.

I found a 10uf cap out of an old broken cell phone. Well it looks like a cap and read 10.30uf IIRC on my DMM. Can anyone verify that I have the correct cap? It reads "106A L480A" on it.

I just want to make sure that I got the cap in the right place and in the right way. I couldn't find any detailed pictures showing the board with the cap in place. I just find posted to add a 10uf cap on the empty pads and remove the 1 ohm resistor. I added the cap at "C3" and shorted the resistor at "R1" by placing copper trace tape over the resistor and soldered over it. I checked for continuity to verify the cap being added to the circuit.

Also regarding the reflector, I'm going to open up the hole to 7/32" but do I need to remove material away from the reflector so that the luxeon will sit further into the reflector? Or is that not needed and will focus fine? I'm using a HD. As luck would have it, I got one of the heads that have a lot of glue to hold the reflector in place. I've put so much force on the reflector that I stopped being afraid that it'll break. That's gonna make things harder if I should have to remove material away.





Thanks

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

Looks like you did a nice job there! Or is C3 not soldered yet?

Daniel

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

by the way what does the cap do? i only removed the resitor.should i replace cap to. for a 1 watt white lux?

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

[ QUOTE ]
gadget_lover said:
Looks like you did a nice job there! Or is C3 not soldered yet?

Daniel

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, C3 is soldered already. I checked for continuity to verify if it has been added into the circuit which it has. So I assume I am good to go, ready to fire up the luxeon?

Thanks

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

Yup, It looks like you are good to go. Beamshot time!!!

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

From what I have seen, all tantilum caps have the + positive side marked, not the negative like standard electrolyte caps (forgive my spelling). The surface mount caps are Tantilum (i think) and thus the marked side is positive and C3 might be reversed. The first one I did had the cap in your position and it only worked for about 5 min and the light went DIM. I found the CAP was shorted. correct me if I am worng. All 4 of my dorcy mods have the cap with the marked edge toward the center and I have had no problems with the caps.
Jeff

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

[ QUOTE ]
WildRice said:
From what I have seen, all tantilum caps have the + positive side marked, not the negative like standard electrolyte caps (forgive my spelling). The surface mount caps are Tantilum (i think) and thus the marked side is positive and C3 might be reversed. The first one I did had the cap in your position and it only worked for about 5 min and the light went DIM. I found the CAP was shorted. correct me if I am worng. All 4 of my dorcy mods have the cap with the marked edge toward the center and I have had no problems with the caps.
Jeff

[/ QUOTE ]

Jeff, thanks for the important note. Luckily I didn't fire it up yet. I found some info that also explains why your mod with the cap backwards only worked for a few minutes then dimming:

"• Tantalum capacitors possess rectification characteristics as described in Item 5 and are used by applying plus voltage to the
tantalum metal side. If they are used with the application of voltage reversed, a large current flows continuously and the
dielectric film is destroyed.
• The polarity of capacitors is marked on the top end of the molded resin package wither with a band or with a "+" mark, so
in any case do not mistake the polarity.
• However, if voltage is applied for a short time only, the capacitor can withstand the application of reverse voltage. The
maximum permissible voltage that can be withstood for a short time is shown in Table 10.
• In the failure rate test with 100 pieces being tested, if a reverse voltage equivalent to 15% of the rated voltage is applied, data
show that 50% will fail after 100 hours. Please think of a short time in this case as thirty or forty seconds or so."

Time to flip that cap now. Jeff, thanks for catching that one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Re: First Dorcy AAA Mod 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

With the helpful knowledge of others I have finished my first Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif
I hope I did good?

Unlike others, I used a 1W side emitter out of curiosity, just to see the outcome. SEs were always to floodish for me (I'm a throw guy), so I will definitely do a HD also as soon as I recieve my black Dorcy from a fellow cpf'r (thanks again Daniel!). I know it won't be nothing new but I'll post that one too along side the SE Mod (and Nano-Mate, Micro Illuminator) when finished.

The 1W SE emitter's bin is unknown. I got it from georges80 a long while back.






Left: Nano-Mate R2H, Middle: Dorcy-AAA 1W/SE, Right: Micro Illuminator R3J - @ 3/4 ft. from wall



Thanks

Re: First Dorcy AAA Luxeon Mod: Need Help

[ QUOTE ]
raggie33 said:
by the way what does the cap do? i only removed the resitor.should i replace cap to. for a 1 watt white lux?

[/ QUOTE ]

Raggie - IIRC, DougS found the added cap will add a few percentage points of efficiency to the circuit, when driving over 100ma or so of current. But not at all nescessary, as the board works fine without it.

Bob

Re: First Dorcy AAA Mod 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

Pictures not showing...

Re: First Dorcy AAA Mod 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

[ QUOTE ]
Aten_Imago said:
Pictures not showing...

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, imagestation. They've been real screwy lately but I thought it was fixed. Guess not.

The pics worked fine for me but I moved them to logicnerd's server anyway. They sould be ok now.

Re: First Dorcy AAA Mod 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

nice mod darkzero,
i think you'll like the HD better, the SE
needs a bigger reflector (if you can call the stock one that), you are probably loosing some photons this way.

Re: First Dorcy AAA Mod 1W/SE:**Finished w/ Pics**

What's the runtime? I put a cyan HD in one and it turns green quickly. I'm getting about 200ma at the battery.

Also I noticed that the unit seems to get more cyan as it runs for a few seconds. Anyone notice this with a white emitter? Or am I seing things? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif