Maggmod 2C VIP1000 help!

Kryosphinx

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
791
Location
NW suburbs, Chicago
OK, it was working for a few months, but it mysteriously stopped working. I opened it up, and discovered that one of the wires broke! So I soldered a new wire on, and fired it up for a second. Nothing. Hmmm... I open it up again, and check the board, it's really hot. WTF? I let it cool down again, and with my finger on the board, I fire it up again for a second or two. It got really hot really fast. Hm.... this isn't right. So I disconnect the lux and hook it up to a 14500 li-ion DD. It doesn't fire up. WTF? and then upon further inspection, it appears one of the board's IC's has a damaged pin. I can't be sure though, it's too small. Can anybody help?
 

rantanplan

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
186
Location
Hannover, Germany
A wire from the VIP to the luxeon? Boost-convertors like the VIP don´t like open output circuits. Without the load, the output voltage goes higher and higher and can damage components of the driver itself. At least I remember of a note on georges80´s site not to use a VIP without a load.

I would guess your VIP-1000 is dead ...
 

andrewwynn

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
3,763
Location
Racine, WI USA
what he said... no load will kill most boost ckts in about 3 seconds flat.. a fatman will make about 4 'clicks' and that's it. george does have more VIPs i just bought one .. he's on vacation right now so don't be surprised if you don't get an immediate reply. Most likely you only need to replace the switcher chip, but that's not a cake walk either.

-awr
 

Kryosphinx

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
791
Location
NW suburbs, Chicago
Ok, upon further examination, I have discovered that one of the pins on the IC is GONE. All that's left is the copper trace that's kinda sticking up, which I mistakenly thought was one of the pins. Anybody know how to fix this? And the lux is perfectly fine. I have absolutly no idea how this happened. I think I'm going to have to buy a new VIP board.
 

andrewwynn

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
3,763
Location
Racine, WI USA
yikes! IC pin gone... it sounds like a short happened.. over heated the trace and melted the pin or the trace... it is possible to swap out the IC if you can get the part by itself but that's pretty fine repair work. I've done it with a number of fatman drivers where i blew them up.
-awr
 

.308

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
308
Location
Brentwood, TN
Email George, he may be able to repair it. It won't be free but it'll be much better than purcahsing another one.
 
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