What tha hell are those things ?

[DocBurN]

If I want to mod yet another flashlight, i would like to know if I should get rid of those unknown-to-me part on the circuit board of this model. If I get the right voltage from the 2 CR123a that come with this flashlight, should I just leave the extra parts alone ??

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/1153/flashlight.jpg

 

[surbitonPete]

On a flashlight I am thinking it could be some kind of 'over' current protection so probably better to take it out ....... but I expect one of our experts will know. I have something similar in my cold heat soldering Iron mod ...I don't have a clue what it does but I left it in because I figured on a soldering Iron it won't be there to prevent too much current, a soldering Iron must need all the power available.

 

[warp1900]

I'm no expert, but I always take all that off since what I want is a straight connection from the battery to the atty connection or switch.



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[VaporX]

That is the circut that drives or powers the LED.

It may have some neat power switching features or voltage control.

i suggest:
remove the led and hit the contacts with a volt meter, see what ya get. if its in voltage range you want wire thru it .

if not trash it

 

[DocBurN]

i suggest: remove the led and hit the contacts with a volt meter, see what ya get. if its in voltage range you want wire thru it .

The voltage seem good to me, I think im gonna remove everything and build on the empty board

 

[jeffakamax]

Ah, Nexxtech - makers of the Radio Crap switches.

 

[Technocrat]

I see a voltage regulator, a mini buck coil, and probably a chopper to go with the coil. All these things are to get the voltage above the band gap of the white LED, while making sure that no power is wasted with overvolting. These are propably the opposite of what you want to achieve with a heating element.

The only other forum I bother to visit is The Candle Power Forums ( CandlePowerForums - Powered by vBulletin ) They could probably help you with a lot of this electrical stuff. They could also help you make your mods light up like a Christmas tree on crack.

 

[Dave Rickey]

My guess is a buck regulator. Probably 3V, given that it's a CR123 flashlight and those cells come in two voltages. If I'm reading the part number (A1834?) right, it must be a manufacturer part number not used publicly, as a search doesn't turn up anything useful.

The form factor and pin count says linear buck regulator to me. If it was anything else, there'd be more pins, more components, and at least one would be a choke diode on the output.

--Dave

 

[Dave Rickey]

Little more looking turns up a 5V linear buck (meaning it keeps voltage from going over a certain value, boost regulator would raise it and buck/boost would do either, a needed) regulator with that part number.

You get a lot of weird regulators with LED flashlights, with manufacturers trying to either stay within specs for the diode, or deliberately exceed them (to get a cheaper part to do the job of a more expensive one).

--Dave

 

[Carlos49]

Little more looking turns up a 5V linear buck (meaning it keeps voltage from going over a certain value, boost regulator would raise it and buck/boost would do either, a needed) regulator with that part number.

You get a lot of weird regulators with LED flashlights, with manufacturers trying to either stay within specs for the diode, or deliberately exceed them (to get a cheaper part to do the job of a more expensive one).

--Dave

Must be nice to know all about the electrical stuff, when it comes to that I'm lost. When I do it my way I always wait for the tell tale blueish smoke, that tells me I have to start over ...LOL