question for Eternalight led modders,,,

Want to check and see if it is just me. I just recieved my refurb Ergomarine. Checked out all of the features for a few minutes. Including the power status feature. All 4 leds blinked, so all was good.

I had 4 of the new nichia cs leds left. And decided to upgrade my new light. ( all within 20 minutes of opening the box ) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

A little later, my new light was twice the brightness. Going throught the features again the power level indicated 3 leds, tried it again, 2 leds lit up.

Changed the batteries with new lithiums. And sure enought just three light up.

Any ideas?

does all the LEDs work in all modes but the power level indicator? if so it could be the indicator mode is sensitive to the Vf of the LEDs.

Yes everything, otherwise works great. Just do not get the fourth led to light on the power indicater.

I always thought that except for the elite max, the battery check feature seemed to not as reliable.

I bought all my kids this light when they first came out . They use it for camping. I have never done mods since I am a newbie to LED's . Is it difficult to replace the LED's in this light with upgraded ones? Thanks! Dave

it is not easy unless you are good at fine detail soldering.

i had my friend who is a superb handyman do it and it took him @ 35 min to do it!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick2.gif

1st - make sure that your timing is accurate. Half a second can make a difference. I'd suspect that's the place to concentrate your attention.

Next, check the reading on your cells. Are they all good and the same? Cells out of the box have known to be bad.

Did you get everything back together properly? Could you have damaged any of the battery contacts or connections? Are your solder joints on all the LEDs good? Are any TOO good (could you have damaged the board or anything close to the LEDs by overheating?

The battery status on the ErgoMarine that I modded works fine.

Rather then remove and replace the LEDs, I cut them out, near the base of the LED. Then I cut the legs of the new LEDS so that they would overlap the old legs a bit and then just soldered leg to leg. Before cutting the legs of the new LED, I marked the anode leg with a black marker so I wouldn't get confused and install the LED backwards. If you've soldered before, I wouldn't consider it too difficult, especially compared to the true very small surface mount parts out there.

[ QUOTE ]
DDS said:
I bought all my kids this light when they first came out . They use it for camping. I have never done mods since I am a newbie to LED's . Is it difficult to replace the LED's in this light with upgraded ones? Thanks! Dave

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, good idea, geepondy.
I was going to try the mod today, but have never soldered to a beard.

Bob

I'm going to mod my $20 Ergomarine when it arrives. One thing I did with first mod is remove the rubber seal. It was a bit of a pain to re-affix to the LEDs and line back up with the case. I'm going to investigate leaving it in place as it might even provide a holder for the new LED. Word of warning if you use the method I did of cutting the leads and putting the new ones on top, be quick with the soldering iron. If the leg heats up too much, it will fall off of the pcb. I'll have to look closer but I wonder if the led legs are even soldered thru hole to the pcb but rather just rests on a top pad.

HOOKOO, yes, some CPF members do remember the "unofficial" nature of the battery check. Here is the official story:
After all the code was done for the Ergo series, we still had some space and the only thing we knew we wanted but couldn't have was a real battery test (like the EliteMax has). The uC on the Ergo series has no precision standards which make measurements difficult. So we crafted this he "10 second technique" and average values out so that the feature would probably be accurate on 95% of the units. But, it is subject to temperature and standard part variance. Knowing the difficulty in using this feature and the possiblity that it was not accurate for all units, we ommited any mention of it in our marketing material. If you must have this feature, the EliteMax is the only way to go. If your are determined to get it to work on an Ergo unit, try changing your time standard. With known good NEW cells, try running to 11 seconds or 9 seconds. If one of those times yields 4 LEDs then that is probably the time you will need to use for your particular light. It is possible that the lower FV of the CS parts could affect this. Good luck!

This information has never been revealed before and is not posted anywhere else so.... mark this post!

They're soldered and you're right - you need to be careful that you don't disturb the solder joint at the board. That's why I completely removed mine and resoldered to the board.

I removed one at a time and soldered a new one in place before I removed the next one. I carefully bent the leads to match the LED that I removed and did a careful job of lining up all four and made sure that they were angled properly and not bent. The two end LEDs will protrude farther foward than the two middle ones. I checked and shaped everything from all angles and I when I put the gasket back on, it fit perfectly.

I don't know how much heat the gasket will take, so be careful if you try to solder them with the gasket in place. I don't know how hot the LEDs get during soldering, but I know it's too hot for me to hold.