Good video. Sadly the majority of people who try this will probably end up with a half dozen flashlights in pieces. Im curious to know if you checked the capicitors specs after removing it.
Nice. The blinking thingy is just a useless gimmick aimed at kids. That's one of those rare occasions where removing components actually *_increases_* a device's value. Well done, sir.
There is one scenario where the flashing could be very useful, and that is confronting and disorienting an intruder at night ! As a retired Security Guard the whole concept arrived a couple of decades too late for me !
The problem is that if you're actually confronting an intruder, you never know where that blinking mode hides. You first have to fiddle through all the other settings, miss it, try again.... you think that's good? I would like it, if it had an extra switch for extra functions.
Thanks for your excellent video. I have 5 of these flashlights, and the most annoying thing is all the modes. The second most annoying thing was I could not figure out how to open it. Your video made clear how to disassemble it. Much appreciated.
Just add a 100k 1/4w resistor across the capacitor and as long as you leave the flashlight off for at least 2 seconds it will always turn on at full brightness. If you tap the button while the light is on it will still step through its brightness and flashing loop! Just take the flashlight apart, add the resistor across the capacitor, and do not alter the circuit in any other manner.
You don't neet that resistor because the circuit does exactly that by itself. The problem is that the power switch does not switch cleanly. If it jumps once or twice before it finally turns on, you're already in a different mode. Therefore you never know what the lamp does when turned on.
nice idea, i have 3 or 4 of these flashlights laying around here. these where gifts when i ordered other things from chinese sellers. now i can convert these to useful lamps
This was a great video I can't believe you figured out how it works what you said was an IC chip just looked like a transistor to me Thank you for not adding music while you were talking
This worked on 6 out of 8 flashlights , 2 of them had 10 resistors and the circuit board was painted black so I will have to wait until I use the oscilloscope on those 2 , thanks a lot , scrolling through a bunch of button pushing is a royal pain in the ass 👍
Nice one, I'd ready to tear into one right now. Problem being they know how much I hate them that they're all hiding. Must have a dozen, can't find a single one!
@PixelGliderr he already said he bought four of them and made them all non strobing. That means every flashlight he has doesn't strobe who carries two flashlights with them solely for the purpose of having one that does sos? Also it was supposed to be a joke. Thank you for playing.
@PixelGliderr what do you mean by it's just you? Are you trying to say that you're the original poster of the video? I'm glad you have two flashlights... I have two also. Actually I have about a dozen or more maybe... so yeah... (-.-)Zzz・・・・
I think the rapid flash is intended to dazzle muggers. It is very useful to have different brightness levels if you are outdoors in the dark. 1) Low light makes the battery last longer - high brightness runs it down quickly and leaves you in the dark. 2) Low light enables you to see more of what is around you - high brightness reduces your night vision. 3) Many LED lights are being overrun at full brightness - so the LED dies sooner. Using lower light levels make the LED last (much) longer.
Yes that's all true, but the problem is that you never know what light mode is starting first. The switch is not reliable and chances are high that you don't get the light you want. So I find it much better to disable that gimmick.
@@PlaywithJunk My experience is that each time you switch it on, it will go to the next mode in the sequence, unless it has been off for a length of time (5 min ?), when it will reset to the first mode of full brightness. I often add a 2- or 3- or 4-position switch plus resistors to flashlights to have a selectable brightness.
Thats a good fix. I would like to do that to all festive lights. Some I have to press the button 7 or 8 times to get to the constant light. If you have a "simple fix" for the usual 6 pin chip. Like cutting off one leg or soldering two legs together then please make a video about it. Thanks for this one. 👍🔦
If you're talking about the Christmas lights or outoor leds on wires that comes with 8 functions you're talking about, those are not as simple as removing the chip. The controller also "flashes" the leds rapidly so it acts like a Led-driver, meaning that it doesn't provide full power to the led (which could possibly overload the cheap power supply these come with), and cost you a lot more on your powerbill. Better remove the power supply, and make your own Led driver instead.
Interesting! I have one of those cheap flashlights and while I noticed the sometimes irritating blinking, this is the first time that I see why now and then it outputs a lot less light than normal. It is apparently intended functionality.... arghh. Time to take it apart!
@@PlaywithJunk Yeah! Mine is a bit different in construction. It has variable focus distance. It is much easier to disassemble but it compensates for that by being much more difficult to get back together! 😀😀 But I managed to do it and now it works as it should. Thanks for the hint!
Freegin genius! A+ to you sir! I have a 100 times worse than this! It has a safety... You have to double click it to "turn it on" then click it again to "actually turn it on". Then you can click through high, med, low... Long hold for turbo mode. 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
Thanks, I too find it really annoying and might have a few of these around so will try your mod. At the end it would have been interesting to see the effect of just removing the capacitor.
It's hard to say if it's OK to remove that Chip as it often regulate voltage on leds to not burn it out to quickly and/or smooth output to reduce flickering. Of course it all depends do flashlight but I would recommend using some resistor and to limit power and small capacitor to smooth light and removing any flickering. What I did when I was using those cheap light is... Just slap some small but beefy cap to make that flickering so smooth that you can't see it as I still wanted low-power mode on them xD
Agreed. I tried this on mine, which is the same as this one. Current with the chip was some 600mA and shorting it was 1 amp... I don't know the rating on that LED but hey, I just left the chip in place just out the capacitor so it doesn't remember the settings.
This chip does not regulate anything. It just turns the LED on and off. There is also no undervoltage protection.... this chip is just useless. There is also no need for a capacitor in a battery operated light because there is no flicker from DC current.
Thank you, I have almost the same flashlight, and I plan to do the same with it. It has way too many modes, and it doesn’t remember which one was last used.
i did the same thing, i removed the black 3 pin chip and capacitor thing and bridged it like in the video but it didn't work so i had to solder everything back on
Well, not all the lamps are equal. Maybe yours has a differnet chip? But figuring out the schematics of yours shouldn't be that hard... You only need a direct path from the battery to resistors to LED to switch to battery. 🙂Or does yours have more parts?
Impressive video, Play with Junk. Looking forward to seeing your next upload from you. I clicked the thumbs up icon on your content. Keep up the fantastic work! Your breakdown of the flashlight's circuitry was fascinating. Have you considered exploring how different LED configurations might impact the performance and efficiency of such modifications?
I just replaced the momentary switch a slide off/on switch. Just turn it on and the first mode is all you get ,turn off and there is no battery drain so battery lasts longer.
With the original switch there is also no battery drain. The switch turns the lamp fully on or off but when on, it has a momentary break function to change the modes. You can simulate that with your new switch too. Just turn it on-off-on very shortly and it will change too. And if your switch starts getting old and gets jumpy, you will get the same problems again...
Flashlights became "flashing-lights" around the same time "WARNING - FLASHING LIGHTS" started preceeding cartoons, or so it would seem. And who exactly asked for all these settings, anyway? I don't need options, I need LIGHT! This is NOT the 21st Century we were promised.
Literally have same flashlight and hate the "modes" because i think mine one has error idk but after turning it of and turning it on it doesn't stay on same mode it stiwch modes and i hate it cant wait to try in the morning ❤
I bought about 10 of them. They cost as little as Fr4.- downunder. Most have a holder for 3 AAA cells. All work fine with a 18650. You must have watched Daniel from Diodegonewild. He hateds daylight chips and besides swapping the main led he figured out a way to trick the IC. In countries where they call Benzin Gas they call it flashlight. Here we use Petrol and call it torch.
I have one of these as well. But I have enough small-format cheap flashlights already (five-packs from Tractor Supply) that I don't need to convert mine. Still, it's interesting to see how it works.
The chip has no undervoltage protection. At least not that one I removed in the video. And there is also no current limiter for the LED. It reduces brightness with 50% or 25% duty cycle. However it's just an on-off circuit. Even at half brightness, the LED get's full current, but only for a fraction of time.
You could also fiddle with the resistors to change the brightness. High is too high for me, and it gets hot quickly. But medium is perfect. Plenty of light, mildly warm instead of hot, battery lasts about twice as long.
Of course you could replace them with higher value resistors. Not a big deal. Even better would be some sort of constant current regulator but that could get hot. Cooling is not a great feature of this lamp.
@@marcogenovesi8570 more resistance = less light. Less resistance = more light. I was thinking about adding a tiny little pot so you could adjust it once and that's the light level you would always get. Or just try 3 or 4 additional resistors until you find the one that gives the light level you want.
I think you overdid it. All you should have done is unsolder the red wire and put it on the other side where it says "LED -" and that would have been enough to stop the transistor from working.
Removing the control chip also means you remove the ability to cut the power in half which means you remove the ability to have twice the battery life. That's not something I really want to get rid of even if it meant clicking through two other modes. Especially when you consider that half the brightness is really all you need most of the time.
Muy cierto y creo sino me equivoco que dejar conectado todo el tiempo agota la batería a nivel crítico en litio ión. Bajar el voltaje tanto destruye el sistema. No creo que hay un corte de energía por debajo de 2.4v. corrija si estoy equivocado. Gracias por su aporte.
getting rid of the fiddlyness of this control system is worth losing the half power mode. If you really want it to half power you can remove some of the resistors too. If you want a lamp that isn't fiddly get a real brand like LedLenser or something.
@@terrafinsa this lamp has no battery protection anyway. The "battery protection" is the user that sees it's not making a lot of light and shuts it down. If you want a lamp with battery protection circuit you should not buy cheap chinese lamps
I have a Lone Survivalist bullet flashlight, half the size, four times as many lights, and so stupid bright you don't even wanna use it past level 1 and 2 out of 4 levels brightness for very long. Even level 1 brightness is ridiculously blinding. And yes it's USB-C rechargeable, and takes a 16340A 1000mAH Li-ion battery. Yes it has all the modes you have there, but you gotta literally hold the button down to use the various flashing modes. Simply clicking the button cycles through the 4 solid brightness levels. Brightness levels 3 and 4 scare me, the flashlight is already bright enough at level 1 and 2 with 4 high power LEDs, but using brightness levels 3 or 4 start to overheat the light rather quickly. But hey, if used responsibly, it's way brighter, way smaller, and less annoying than the light you have there. Bonus points it also has a special mode with red flashing lights.
There are thousands of different flashlights out there. This one costs between $1 and $5 and it seems it's the most frequently used circuit and also the most annoying... :-)
Buen tip, aunque creo sino me equivoco que dejar conectado todo el tiempo agota la batería a nivel crítico en litio ión. Bajar el voltaje tanto destruye el sistema. No creo que hay un corte de energía por debajo de 2.4v. corrija si estoy equivocado. Gracias por su aporte doy like y nuevo suscripción
The chip will have an internal MOSFET so it will have some on resistance in addition to the 4x1ohm resistors. I wouldn't just replace the chip with a wire. Work out the RDSon resistance of the chip and replace it with an equivalent resistor of the same value. The LED and battery will last longer.
TLDR; remove one or two of the resistors if you want to play it safe Rdson for nearly all MOSFETs is in the milliohm range. Without the datasheet it will be difficult to measure accurately enough to worry about it. If removing the capacitor gives the desired functionality that's the safer solution but tbh i'd stick with what you did - removing the capacitor likely won't have the desired effect and is more likely to cause the IC to fail before the LED will. My GUESS is that its purpose is for switching the gate of the MOSFET. The potential gains from reintroducing Rdson would be so negligible i doubt you'll be able to accurately measure that too BUT with all that said... If you really want that insignificant potential gain remove one or two of those resistors - it'll have the same effect. The four 1 ohm in parallel is just a 0.25 ohm resistor, removing 1 will make it a 0.33 and 2 will make it a 0.5 😊
This is true. But I like to have any unnecessary parts removed. You never know if something shorts the battery or goes up in smoke. That's why I also removed the capacitor. Less parts are more reliable :-)
thats so simple... i hate the flashing modes. have a bunch of those types of lights sitting, that i never used, took it apart, no flashing circuit lol.
interesting, so the chip is not a constant current supply as i originally thought, you're saying that it just has a fixed PWM duty cycle of 50% and 25%... ...that would generate a variable current that depends on the battery voltage and the fixed PWM rate. And the first settings is just 100% PWM , so the current is limited just by those 4 resistors..that is kinda disappointing.. I think this can be checked by measuring the current and powering the circuit with less voltage to see if it has constant current.
It's exactly as you wrote. The chip just turns the LED on or off. 50% and 25% and 100% and SOS and blink. Nothing else, not even an undervoltage protection.
they made a simple sot chip for that, wow. I think it's completely garbage, not sure why they keep adding the SOS and flashing modes. it's probably useful for someone, but not for the broader audience for a "flashlight"
Just a word of caution to everyone out there wanting to do this: This is just ONE flashlight out of many using a blinker chip, many of the LED flashlights you buy off these sites also have an USB charging chip built inside, so make sure you're not messing with the charging mechanism (protection) or you could find yourself without a home later on, so stay safe and Happy 2025.
You are wrong. That was the bell signal for x:45 There is one ding-dong at x:15, two at x:30, three at x:45 and four at the full hour followed by the number of hours. The 3:00 signal would be ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong ---- dong, dong, dong. Trick question: How many times does the bell ring at midnight? Answer: 20 times (12 for the hour and four dings and dongs)
The current with just the resistors is about 1A which is in specs for that 4W LED. And no, the chip does nothing except turning on or off. Two settings use a 25% and 50% duty cycle, everything else is just a switch.
@BitBanger yes - the voltage drop of the power LED is much higher - leaving for voltage drop over the current sense resistors(0.25 ohm) of only about 250 mV...
Or for a few dollars more we can get a non-flashing light with more than one power setting. THEN we can do what we really rather do with these annoying flashlights--put a hammer through the circuitry. No messy irons to heat up.
@@marcogenovesi8570 because the soldiering station is a foot deep under other projects and those extra minutes are precious to the current project whatever it is, so no i'm not re-chipping a 3-dollar light with 25$ worth of time. Doesn't make financial sense (nor does the rest of my life, but hey here we are). 😅
Yeah. The problem with all those devices is that you never know what you'll get when you order it, until you finally got it. This video is for those in the same situation as I am. I have these and I don't want to trash it...
That's kind of the point. It's actually considered to be an incapacitator and non-lethal weapon. If you've ever stood in front of one in a pitch black room you know it can be very disorienting
I cannot understand why this would be a wanted feature of every single flashlight out there. I rip this stupid BS circuit out of any flashlight I can. all it does is wearing out the button while annoying the living crap out of you
Those flashing torches are super annoying! Especially the ones that have fake lumen ratings, stupid zooming mechanism and crap cold white, low CRI LEDs that burn bright and suddenly leave us in the dark! I like dim running driect drive ones best 👍
@@PlaywithJunk I say "broke" when the switch has too many functions. POW POW POW with a hammer like Barnie Fife smashes stills in Mayberry. Then buy a better light. No soldiering station required (I can't find mine). adhd 🤣
@@PlaywithJunk the hacker by definition requires a computer and network background.. electronics is another thing. Modifying has nothing to do with violating.
@@janx4706 Das letzte mal als ich reingehört habe, wars nicht so schlimm (HP67 Video) zumindest die Übersetzung. Stimme und Sprechen ist ne andere Sache. Ich habe schon überlegt mal ein Video auf Deutsch zu machen und die "Engländer" können sich dann die Uebersetzung anhören.... aber die meisten mögen meine Stimme 🙂
@@janx4706 Du hast recht... es ist zwar ziemlich wörtlich übersetzt aber super langweilig. Aber trotzdem beeindruckend wie das automatisch geht.... Sorry aber ich bleibe wohl bei Englisch 🙂
This is just what I’ve wanted for ages. Just a plain torch without those other functions. Bravo. 👏🏼
It's super annoying having these chips in almost every flashlight out there, Almost as annoying as kids toys having that exact same sound chip 🙄
Good video. Sadly the majority of people who try this will probably end up with a half dozen flashlights in pieces. Im curious to know if you checked the capicitors specs after removing it.
I didnt see any O rings to attempt to make it water resistant much less water proof
There are o-rings but not everywhere. Making it solala waterproof...
Nice. The blinking thingy is just a useless gimmick aimed at kids. That's one of those rare occasions where removing components actually *_increases_* a device's value.
Well done, sir.
There is one scenario where the flashing could be very useful, and that is confronting and disorienting an intruder at night ! As a retired Security Guard the whole concept arrived a couple of decades too late for me !
@@CitizenSmith50 IMO a blinking flashlight would confront and disorient six year-olds only. YMMV of course.
The problem is that if you're actually confronting an intruder, you never know where that blinking mode hides. You first have to fiddle through all the other settings, miss it, try again.... you think that's good? I would like it, if it had an extra switch for extra functions.
Thanks for your excellent video. I have 5 of these flashlights, and the most annoying thing is all the modes. The second most annoying thing was I could not figure out how to open it. Your video made clear how to disassemble it. Much appreciated.
Yeah, the first one is always the hardest....
oh perfect, fixing all SOS kraps right now, thanks!!!
Just add a 100k 1/4w resistor across the capacitor and as long as you leave the flashlight off for at least 2 seconds it will always turn on at full brightness. If you tap the button while the light is on it will still step through its brightness and flashing loop! Just take the flashlight apart, add the resistor across the capacitor, and do not alter the circuit in any other manner.
You don't neet that resistor because the circuit does exactly that by itself. The problem is that the power switch does not switch cleanly. If it jumps once or twice before it finally turns on, you're already in a different mode. Therefore you never know what the lamp does when turned on.
@@robertrobinson4619 Switch bounce.
nice idea, i have 3 or 4 of these flashlights laying around here. these where gifts when i ordered other things from chinese sellers. now i can convert these to useful lamps
This was a great video I can't believe you figured out how it works what you said was an IC chip just looked like a transistor to me
Thank you for not adding music while you were talking
many different things use the same black box with 3 legs, it's a standardized package
I almost never add music when I talk.... Thank you for your comment :-)
This worked on 6 out of 8 flashlights , 2 of them had 10 resistors and the circuit board was painted black so I will have to wait until I use the oscilloscope on those 2 , thanks a lot , scrolling through a bunch of button pushing is a royal pain in the ass 👍
We're going to call you little clive.
If you could tell me who that is?
Nice one, I'd ready to tear into one right now.
Problem being they know how much I hate them that they're all hiding. Must have a dozen, can't find a single one!
Plot twist... you find out this guy died stranded somewhere because he had a flashlight that wouldn't give him SOS
Plot twist... he has another flashlight with sos mode
@PixelGliderr he already said he bought four of them and made them all non strobing. That means every flashlight he has doesn't strobe who carries two flashlights with them solely for the purpose of having one that does sos? Also it was supposed to be a joke. Thank you for playing.
@@nickbrockelman yeah bro i was just joking but its just me i have two flashlight... so yeah....
@PixelGliderr what do you mean by it's just you? Are you trying to say that you're the original poster of the video? I'm glad you have two flashlights... I have two also. Actually I have about a dozen or more maybe... so yeah... (-.-)Zzz・・・・
@@nickbrockelman srry blud 😭🙏
I think the rapid flash is intended to dazzle muggers. It is very useful to have different brightness levels if you are outdoors in the dark.
1) Low light makes the battery last longer - high brightness runs it down quickly and leaves you in the dark.
2) Low light enables you to see more of what is around you - high brightness reduces your night vision.
3) Many LED lights are being overrun at full brightness - so the LED dies sooner. Using lower light levels make the LED last (much) longer.
'dazzle' muggers?! 🤨🤩🤪😱🫣😵💫👏😎
Yes that's all true, but the problem is that you never know what light mode is starting first. The switch is not reliable and chances are high that you don't get the light you want. So I find it much better to disable that gimmick.
@@PlaywithJunk My experience is that each time you switch it on, it will go to the next mode in the sequence, unless it has been off for a length of time (5 min ?), when it will reset to the first mode of full brightness.
I often add a 2- or 3- or 4-position switch plus resistors to flashlights to have a selectable brightness.
thank you i absolutely hate the pointless flashing features on cheap torches
Thats a good fix. I would like to do that to all festive lights. Some I have to press the button 7 or 8 times to get to the constant light. If you have a "simple fix" for the usual 6 pin chip. Like cutting off one leg or soldering two legs together then please make a video about it. Thanks for this one. 👍🔦
If you're talking about the Christmas lights or outoor leds on wires that comes with 8 functions you're talking about, those are not as simple as removing the chip. The controller also "flashes" the leds rapidly so it acts like a Led-driver, meaning that it doesn't provide full power to the led (which could possibly overload the cheap power supply these come with), and cost you a lot more on your powerbill. Better remove the power supply, and make your own Led driver instead.
Thanks for this, very useful, I'll have a go when I find my needle nose pliers.
Happy New Year!
Interesting! I have one of those cheap flashlights and while I noticed the sometimes irritating blinking, this is the first time that I see why now and then it outputs a lot less light than normal. It is apparently intended functionality.... arghh.
Time to take it apart!
Another cadidate for modification 🙂
@@PlaywithJunk Yeah!
Mine is a bit different in construction. It has variable focus distance.
It is much easier to disassemble but it compensates for that by being much more difficult to get back together! 😀😀
But I managed to do it and now it works as it should.
Thanks for the hint!
Freegin genius! A+ to you sir!
I have a 100 times worse than this! It has a safety... You have to double click it to "turn it on" then click it again to "actually turn it on". Then you can click through high, med, low... Long hold for turbo mode. 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
It sounds like the parody ad for the "Mactiny". The smallest Mac with only one button. Google that.... :-)
Thanks, I too find it really annoying and might have a few of these around so will try your mod. At the end it would have been interesting to see the effect of just removing the capacitor.
Very nice! Could you leave the chip, but remove the capacitor so it cannot 'remember' the setting?
Yes exactly.
purists would say the chip might draw some little current
That could work, but my philosophy is: less parts = more reliability! :-)
Well for reliability remove one of the resistors so it don't push the led so hard.
So, nobody knows what that IC is? I wanted to see the datasheet 😅
www.hmsemi.com/downfile/HM5101.PDF (not the same but similar)
@PlaywithJunk thanks
No need to remove ic or capacitor. Just bridging the pads is sufficient.
less parts = more reliability :-)
It's hard to say if it's OK to remove that Chip as it often regulate voltage on leds to not burn it out to quickly and/or smooth output to reduce flickering. Of course it all depends do flashlight but I would recommend using some resistor and to limit power and small capacitor to smooth light and removing any flickering.
What I did when I was using those cheap light is... Just slap some small but beefy cap to make that flickering so smooth that you can't see it as I still wanted low-power mode on them xD
Agreed. I tried this on mine, which is the same as this one. Current with the chip was some 600mA and shorting it was 1 amp... I don't know the rating on that LED but hey, I just left the chip in place just out the capacitor so it doesn't remember the settings.
I was thinking the same thing Time will tell
This chip does not regulate anything. It just turns the LED on and off. There is also no undervoltage protection.... this chip is just useless. There is also no need for a capacitor in a battery operated light because there is no flicker from DC current.
Thank you, I have almost the same flashlight, and I plan to do the same with it. It has way too many modes, and it doesn’t remember which one was last used.
Normally it starts at full brightness. But because of the crappy switch you never know what comes next 🙂
Thank you Thank you...I will now fix the drawer full of these I've almost trashed.
do you know if that chip can do overdischarge cut-off too, or is it just the blinkyblinky?
Ther is no under-discharge protection in this chip. Just the blinky thing... I tried it with my breadboard circuit.
@ awesome, thanks
i did the same thing, i removed the black 3 pin chip and capacitor thing and bridged it like in the video but it didn't work so i had to solder everything back on
Well, not all the lamps are equal. Maybe yours has a differnet chip? But figuring out the schematics of yours shouldn't be that hard... You only need a direct path from the battery to resistors to LED to switch to battery. 🙂Or does yours have more parts?
Impressive video, Play with Junk. Looking forward to seeing your next upload from you. I clicked the thumbs up icon on your content. Keep up the fantastic work! Your breakdown of the flashlight's circuitry was fascinating. Have you considered exploring how different LED configurations might impact the performance and efficiency of such modifications?
I just replaced the momentary switch a slide off/on switch. Just turn it on and the first mode is all you get ,turn off and there is no battery drain so battery lasts longer.
With the original switch there is also no battery drain. The switch turns the lamp fully on or off but when on, it has a momentary break function to change the modes. You can simulate that with your new switch too. Just turn it on-off-on very shortly and it will change too. And if your switch starts getting old and gets jumpy, you will get the same problems again...
Flashlights became "flashing-lights" around the same time "WARNING - FLASHING LIGHTS" started preceeding cartoons, or so it would seem. And who exactly asked for all these settings, anyway? I don't need options, I need LIGHT!
This is NOT the 21st Century we were promised.
taking it personal, yeah
Literally have same flashlight and hate the "modes" because i think mine one has error idk but after turning it of and turning it on it doesn't stay on same mode it stiwch modes and i hate it cant wait to try in the morning ❤
I bought about 10 of them. They cost as little as Fr4.- downunder. Most have a holder for 3 AAA cells. All work fine with a 18650. You must have watched Daniel from Diodegonewild. He hateds daylight chips and besides swapping the main led he figured out a way to trick the IC. In countries where they call Benzin Gas they call it flashlight. Here we use Petrol and call it torch.
Yes I have one that came with both a 18650+plastic sleeve and a holder for 3xAAA.
@LawpickingLocksmith
So you are French.?
@@snakezdewiggle6084 Nah, in France they call Gas Essence?
@@Rob2 two of mine can hold 21700 cells without that plastic sleeve. others are little different. triple a are not interesting for me
I have one of these as well. But I have enough small-format cheap flashlights already (five-packs from Tractor Supply) that I don't need to convert mine. Still, it's interesting to see how it works.
Happy New Year.
I wonder if the chip also looks at the battery voltage and disconnects if it drops below 3.0v to protect the cell.
Cheers Dave,
Not only that, it's also a LED Driver chip so you don't have the LED at full power all the time. There are also variants with USB chargers built in.
it does not. I killed a 18650 cell by forgetting it on overnight, before I decided to remove the chip
The chip has no undervoltage protection. At least not that one I removed in the video. And there is also no current limiter for the LED. It reduces brightness with 50% or 25% duty cycle. However it's just an on-off circuit. Even at half brightness, the LED get's full current, but only for a fraction of time.
You could also fiddle with the resistors to change the brightness. High is too high for me, and it gets hot quickly. But medium is perfect. Plenty of light, mildly warm instead of hot, battery lasts about twice as long.
yes remove the resistors to reduce brightness. Easy
Of course you could replace them with higher value resistors. Not a big deal. Even better would be some sort of constant current regulator but that could get hot. Cooling is not a great feature of this lamp.
@@marcogenovesi8570 yeah and to increase battery life to infinity
@@PlaywithJunk yeah ok, I meant remove some of the resistors, not all
@@marcogenovesi8570 more resistance = less light. Less resistance = more light. I was thinking about adding a tiny little pot so you could adjust it once and that's the light level you would always get. Or just try 3 or 4 additional resistors until you find the one that gives the light level you want.
I did this mod on a bunch of flashlights... thanks!
Thanks for the video, that worked out really neat.
you didn't need to remove the chip, correct? since you're bypassing the chip anyway.
you could leave the chip inside but I prefer to remove all unnecessary parts. Less parts = more reliable :-)
I've got the same thing planned for a similar flashlight, I don't want chip functions.
The flashing occurs because the battery is getting low. Yes, it can be made to flash, but that is not the primary function of the flashing.
As far as I see, there is no connection between the battery level and the flashing.
I think you overdid it. All you should have done is unsolder the red wire and put it on the other side where it says "LED -" and that would have been enough to stop the transistor from working.
yes, but using your way you have nothing to play with after finishing the project . . .
In fact it's simpler to solder that bridge than to move a wire. Especially if you have a model that can't be taken apart completely (some are glued)
Removing the control chip also means you remove the ability to cut the power in half which means you remove the ability to have twice the battery life. That's not something I really want to get rid of even if it meant clicking through two other modes. Especially when you consider that half the brightness is really all you need most of the time.
Muy cierto y creo sino me equivoco que dejar conectado todo el tiempo agota la batería a nivel crítico en litio ión. Bajar el voltaje tanto destruye el sistema. No creo que hay un corte de energía por debajo de 2.4v. corrija si estoy equivocado. Gracias por su aporte.
getting rid of the fiddlyness of this control system is worth losing the half power mode. If you really want it to half power you can remove some of the resistors too. If you want a lamp that isn't fiddly get a real brand like LedLenser or something.
@@terrafinsa this lamp has no battery protection anyway. The "battery protection" is the user that sees it's not making a lot of light and shuts it down. If you want a lamp with battery protection circuit you should not buy cheap chinese lamps
Well, it's up to you if you want to change the circuit or not. You could also replace the resistors with higher values to lower the brightness.
I have a Lone Survivalist bullet flashlight, half the size, four times as many lights, and so stupid bright you don't even wanna use it past level 1 and 2 out of 4 levels brightness for very long. Even level 1 brightness is ridiculously blinding.
And yes it's USB-C rechargeable, and takes a 16340A 1000mAH Li-ion battery.
Yes it has all the modes you have there, but you gotta literally hold the button down to use the various flashing modes. Simply clicking the button cycles through the 4 solid brightness levels.
Brightness levels 3 and 4 scare me, the flashlight is already bright enough at level 1 and 2 with 4 high power LEDs, but using brightness levels 3 or 4 start to overheat the light rather quickly.
But hey, if used responsibly, it's way brighter, way smaller, and less annoying than the light you have there.
Bonus points it also has a special mode with red flashing lights.
There are thousands of different flashlights out there. This one costs between $1 and $5 and it seems it's the most frequently used circuit and also the most annoying... :-)
10:00 if the cap shorts out, you get a large flash instead! (when using LiIon 18650 cell)
Maybe an emergency fire starter for camping trips? 😊
But only for one time :-)
New sub here …. Great video! Will play with my own flashlight next year (Dec 31st today hehehe).
But does it actually flash S-O-S? Most of them usually do SO-SO-SO instæd.
Mine was like . . . _ _ _ . . .
@@PixelGliderr and after that?
@@jkobain it keep on sos mode until I click on button and it switch to high mode
@@jkobain it has 5 modes high, medium,low,flashing,sos so it keep on repeating these
@@PixelGliderr if I didn't make it clear enough, is it true SOS-SOS, or a cheap SO-SO-SO?
how about turning some of that obsessive compulsive attention to making your audio 'not excruciating'?
I'm working on that...
Buen tip, aunque creo sino me equivoco que dejar conectado todo el tiempo agota la batería a nivel crítico en litio ión. Bajar el voltaje tanto destruye el sistema. No creo que hay un corte de energía por debajo de 2.4v. corrija si estoy equivocado. Gracias por su aporte doy like y nuevo suscripción
It is possible that the battery will go below 3V but it is not worse than the original circuit. The "chip" does not have any undervoltage protection.
it's easyer to simply move de red wire from right to left.
Thanks , I have a bunch of these --- and hate the stuff it does , just want a flash light ;)
The chip will have an internal MOSFET so it will have some on resistance in addition to the 4x1ohm resistors. I wouldn't just replace the chip with a wire. Work out the RDSon resistance of the chip and replace it with an equivalent resistor of the same value. The LED and battery will last longer.
So keep the chip and just remove the capacitor. That should disable the flashing functions but keep Rdson in series.
Genuine question, how much longer would the battery and LED last?
TLDR; remove one or two of the resistors if you want to play it safe
Rdson for nearly all MOSFETs is in the milliohm range. Without the datasheet it will be difficult to measure accurately enough to worry about it.
If removing the capacitor gives the desired functionality that's the safer solution but tbh i'd stick with what you did - removing the capacitor likely won't have the desired effect and is more likely to cause the IC to fail before the LED will. My GUESS is that its purpose is for switching the gate of the MOSFET.
The potential gains from reintroducing Rdson would be so negligible i doubt you'll be able to accurately measure that too BUT with all that said...
If you really want that insignificant potential gain remove one or two of those resistors - it'll have the same effect. The four 1 ohm in parallel is just a 0.25 ohm resistor, removing 1 will make it a 0.33 and 2 will make it a 0.5 😊
Merci beaucoup je savais pas que vous pouvez modifier la qualité et le oscillateur merci je vais le tenter moi aussi😅😅😊
No need to remove the IC, just bridge two legs. If you want to roll back remove the bridge.
This is true. But I like to have any unnecessary parts removed. You never know if something shorts the battery or goes up in smoke. That's why I also removed the capacitor. Less parts are more reliable :-)
There are a surprising number of machined connections in there.
The led will burn quick . You remove the 7135 cc , you should add some 7135 ship to get more power
7135 ?
thats so simple... i hate the flashing modes. have a bunch of those types of lights sitting, that i never used, took it apart, no flashing circuit lol.
interesting, so the chip is not a constant current supply as i originally thought, you're saying that it just has a fixed PWM duty cycle of 50% and 25%... ...that would generate a variable current that depends on the battery voltage and the fixed PWM rate.
And the first settings is just 100% PWM , so the current is limited just by those 4 resistors..that is kinda disappointing..
I think this can be checked by measuring the current and powering the circuit with less voltage to see if it has constant current.
It's exactly as you wrote. The chip just turns the LED on or off. 50% and 25% and 100% and SOS and blink. Nothing else, not even an undervoltage protection.
they made a simple sot chip for that, wow. I think it's completely garbage, not sure why they keep adding the SOS and flashing modes. it's probably useful for someone, but not for the broader audience for a "flashlight"
Eliminate the cap and it should work the same but keep the undervolt protection (if any exists)
Just a word of caution to everyone out there wanting to do this: This is just ONE flashlight out of many using a blinker chip, many of the LED flashlights you buy off these sites also have an USB charging chip built inside, so make sure you're not messing with the charging mechanism (protection) or you could find yourself without a home later on, so stay safe and Happy 2025.
the flashlights that have USB charging will have a different board, obviously.
That's a good advice! But I guess those lights with an USB charger have a better circuit (I hope) and it's not necessary to modify them.
Flashlight (definition): a handy container for leaky batteries.
lithium cells don't leak, so just use 18650 cells
😊 nice .. i like this...😊
11:16 3 o'clock ⛪ 😊
You are wrong. That was the bell signal for x:45
There is one ding-dong at x:15, two at x:30, three at x:45 and four at the full hour followed by the number of hours. The 3:00 signal would be ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong ---- dong, dong, dong.
Trick question: How many times does the bell ring at midnight?
Answer: 20 times (12 for the hour and four dings and dongs)
Just remove the cap. Or for more fun, add capacitance, should made mode selection a bit more tricky.
Why not just eliminate the capacitor?
What's the difference? If it just turns on at 100% brightness, it doesnt need the chip... And with the chip in place, you never know what it does.
@PlaywithJunk Obviously, not knowing what your flashlight's going to do was part of the intended design.
Perhaps this chip also contains a current stabilizer for the LED. By removing it, you can reduce the service life of the LED.
The current with just the resistors is about 1A which is in specs for that 4W LED. And no, the chip does nothing except turning on or off. Two settings use a 25% and 50% duty cycle, everything else is just a switch.
@@PlaywithJunk0,25 ohm 2,8 volt = 11,2 amp = 31,36 watt. Or am I missing something?
@BitBanger yes - the voltage drop of the power LED is much higher - leaving for voltage drop over the current sense resistors(0.25 ohm) of only about 250 mV...
@ Aah that makes sense, thnx.
Or for a few dollars more we can get a non-flashing light with more than one power setting.
THEN we can do what we really rather do with these annoying flashlights--put a hammer through the circuitry. No messy irons to heat up.
why waste a functional flashlight when all it needs is a small modification
@@marcogenovesi8570 because the soldiering station is a foot deep under other projects and those extra minutes are precious to the current project whatever it is, so no i'm not re-chipping a 3-dollar light with 25$ worth of time. Doesn't make financial sense (nor does the rest of my life, but hey here we are).
😅
Yeah. The problem with all those devices is that you never know what you'll get when you order it, until you finally got it. This video is for those in the same situation as I am. I have these and I don't want to trash it...
@@wadepatton2433 25$ is a lot for 15 minutes with a soldering iron.
who needs strobing anyway, could trigger siesures without knowing it
That's kind of the point. It's actually considered to be an incapacitator and non-lethal weapon. If you've ever stood in front of one in a pitch black room you know it can be very disorienting
@@nickbrockelman not saying that, im saying triggering people with epilepsy,
Foi legal mostrar o esquema elétrico reverso. Ficou bem legal.
13:30 it's "waterproof" but only for deionized water 😅🤣
I cannot understand why this would be a wanted feature of every single flashlight out there. I rip this stupid BS circuit out of any flashlight I can. all it does is wearing out the button while annoying the living crap out of you
Those flashing torches are super annoying! Especially the ones that have fake lumen ratings, stupid zooming mechanism and crap cold white, low CRI LEDs that burn bright and suddenly leave us in the dark! I like dim running driect drive ones best 👍
For that low price you can't have a cri of 100! I love the zoom and high color temp!
I saw one on Temu that had 14 modes!!!!!!!
OMG! What modes? Can it play "La Cucaracha"?? Or is it the same scheme like "It has 10000000 Lumens" ? Or 1000dB car horns?
i thought i was the only one that hates those features on my zoom led beemer
You are never alone... 🙂
@@PlaywithJunk hi
Not waterproof. Maybe water resistant.
You mean it will not dissolve if it gets wet....? :-)
Donnerwetter!😆
If it ain't broke, don't fix it....
EVERYTHING is sold in "kit form" such that we can modify it to suit OUR NEEDS better. Cars, knives, lights, motorcycles, toaster ovens...
It was not broke but unreliable 🙂
@@PlaywithJunk I say "broke" when the switch has too many functions. POW POW POW with a hammer like Barnie Fife smashes stills in Mayberry. Then buy a better light. No soldiering station required (I can't find mine).
adhd 🤣
🤘🤘👍
👍
Looks like a pocketlight after your hacking. Why do You call it flashlight? It´s not flashing.
It's not flashing after the procedure. In England they call it a torch, in the USA a flashlight. Where are you from?
@@PlaywithJunk In nordic europe and Germany it is pocketlight. USA is so weird.
Schnee Lampe :)
Funktioniert auch ohne Schnee....
modify, not hack
What's the difference? Doesn't a hacker "modify" things too? 🙂
@@PlaywithJunk the hacker by definition requires a computer and network background.. electronics is another thing.
Modifying has nothing to do with violating.
Waste of time😂
In German please ❗🙄
Du kannst ja mal die automatische Übersetzung von RUclips ausprobieren 🙂
@PlaywithJunk Oh Gott, die Übersetzung ist teilweise mehr als grauenhaft 😳🤷
Aber danke für die Antwort 😎👍
@@janx4706 Das letzte mal als ich reingehört habe, wars nicht so schlimm (HP67 Video) zumindest die Übersetzung. Stimme und Sprechen ist ne andere Sache. Ich habe schon überlegt mal ein Video auf Deutsch zu machen und die "Engländer" können sich dann die Uebersetzung anhören.... aber die meisten mögen meine Stimme 🙂
@@janx4706 Du hast recht... es ist zwar ziemlich wörtlich übersetzt aber super langweilig. Aber trotzdem beeindruckend wie das automatisch geht....
Sorry aber ich bleibe wohl bei Englisch 🙂
@@PlaywithJunk
Och menno 😫
Ne, alles gut 🤪🤣😆😎👍