A simple flashlight hack to increase brightness & runtime
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- čas přidán 18. 02. 2016
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A look at a simple flashlight hack that will increase your runtime by almost 10 minutes, and can increase your brightness by 15%. This modification is called a spring bypass. What you essentially do is to place a piece of copper braid at the top and bottom of the battery spring. The braid is shorter and more conductive than the spring and will allow the light to run more efficiently. This can be done easily with some copper de-soldering wick, some solder and a soldering iron and a small pair of pliers. Please make sure you practice a bit first, because flashlights are very sensitive and it is very easy to destroy components, or melt your plastic switch if you apply too much heat. - Zábava
I’d love to see a start to finish video on “How to”, please! Thank you very much.
I remade my spring using beryllium copper. The run time was increase thirty five minutes. The brightness was upped twenty five percent. Now that is a real improvement for a high power NEBO light. The fix really worked. Thanks so much for letting us all know on CZcams. Happy New Year to sir and many more to come. V
How do you know it got 25% brighter? Do you have a way to measure the brightness?
@@JC-zh1xy I have a lumens meter. Technology is just wonderful.
I'm fixing to try to remake mine using lithium metal
I look forward to see what you make fella. Lithium is corrosive and requires special handling. Elemental lithium is extremely flammable. How are you going to do that ??? Have fun too. @@Randallpink
@@victoryfirst2878 I just got out of the burn unit. They thought I was making drugs. The whole ordeal has been exhausting
"I'm Scott Malkinson. I have diabetes."
Found him, for reals.
Thanks 412 - It works! I did it on two of my cheap chinese zoomables! I don't see a problem with the solders and the increased load on the LED chips. So far so good. Probably won't try it on my mountain bike lights though due to vibration.
I know it’s an old video but ty this worked great in my convoy S2+. And my Q5 thanks man
Does your convoy s2 gets super hot?
Brilliant my flash lite has a mind of its own, I think from the switch side. I will be doing this hack so I thank you very much for your time and engineering :)
If your (flashlight) has strobe and SOS modes you can delete to make a touch 👍
See here 👇
czcams.com/video/28G6EMr59aA/video.html
Just keep in mind... less resistance may mean brighter, but it also means more current, which also means faster battery discharge & shorter lifespan for the led.
I'm sure they take total resistance, voltage, current, etc., into account when designing these the way they do.
If you have no de-soldering braid, then you could use the outer screening from co-ax cable. Give it a rub with fine sandpaper first & lightly tin the ends with rosin cored solder.
Insane good job, impeccable thinking!!
I have the thorefire s70s and I would love to see you do that modification on that or else smaller but Similar flashlight . The thorefire c8 throwering . This is awesome I am going to try I just don’t wanna ruin my s70s
Its kind of the same principle of swapping tamiya to deans plugs in lipo batteries, the improvement is significant and helps extend the life of the battery (less strain), and whichever device it is powering, electric motor, flashlight...
I do a similar mod on airsoft guns, and it is noticeable on trigger response.
px45
Thanks. Good works.
I'd like to see a start to finish vid on how to hack a flashlight.
I wanted to see a before he hacked how bright it was and an after how much brighter it is.
Dang I was was excited to see a video of the brightness before and after the hack..makes you wonder how much/ if at all the brightness changes from the hack..maybe next time you show a cool hack do a video so we can visualize the difference..i don't know about you but I tend to believe what I see a lot easier then if im just told something..all that aside, super cool hack brother..thanks for sharing/teaching :)
I just picked up a set of cheap flashlights from northern tool, they were on sale and looked fairly decent. I already converted one to run on my 18650 vape batteries, which removed the negative spring entirely. But the one at the front is long as hell, think I'll give this a try. It's already way brighter just with my lg hg2, and I don't have to worry about buying batteries. Rechargeable, and I always keep spares with me to vape with, so its win win.
The 18650 battery store has some for like 5 bucks that take 18650s these things are like a spot light 60 yards across yard scanning for animals at night lol
how did you find this info, thanks for passing it on.
the way I hack my flashlights is I take 1-3 usually 2 of the 3v "2032" button cell batts tape em together and just stick it on top of the 3 aaa batt pack, or bottom. doing so ups the voltage from 4.5v to 10.5v. I haven't found a l.e.d. flashlight that this trick doesn't work on. but the best ones I found so far are the Eveready flashlights found in the battery section at most grocery stores. I'm going to add this hack to my hack and see what happens.
well?
what happened,Elwood Sherman? are you dead?
I hate those triple AAA batteries requirement. You are better off replacing the entire cartridge with a single 14500 Li Ion.
Great way to turn your flashlight into a Pipe bomb.
1. Those button cells have shitty run times.
2. They have shitty current draw.
Maybe if you put all 3 in parralel, they might be able to handle the abuse.
Be careful and use just a very small amount of solder or the solder wick will become stiff
Would this make my 2x 18650 Incan
MAGLITE significantly brighter? I feel like it's bright enough, but would this make a noticeable difference using an Incan or only for LED?
Awesome from point 88 amps to point 99amps thnx a lot....
the spring is essentially a resistance coil the braid goes direct very cool hack
that resistance is FACTORED IN , do NOT change it, the LED will have a shorter life, mine just went dead.
You explain things very well indeed, but, you do not demonstrate or show the step-by-step process. But-never-the-less, you just gave me a wonderful idea on how to increase the performance of a sex toy.
Very interesting. Woudl like to see a start to finish video if you wouldn't mind.
Here it is: czcams.com/video/Ef9w0rOOARs/video.html
EDWIN617 a bit late don't you think?
@@midobula4797 absolutely not!
Can you tell me where I should get my replacement switch for my Fenix LD20 AA flashlight?
Crazy man why would you even mess with it for 10 extra minutes just crazy
wasted an hour to save 10 minutes
How about using Deans Wet Noodle wire ???? Supposedly the best wire with ultra small number of conductors ??
I would love to see some soldering done by you if you are willing to do it. I do have some soldering guns, but, I am horrible at soldering.
+campfire52 I'm going to see how well the video does over the weekend and decide. it's going to be tough to film because I'm going to have to set up alot of lighting and change angles so you can see. Just don't want to invest all that time if only a couple of people watch the video.
+Bushcraft412
I'd watch for what it's worth.
+Bushcraft412 I totally understand, I just wanted to place my vote.
I would also appreciate a video or two on your soldering technique. I have had massive rate of failure each and every time I try to soldier a flashlight.
Some people unintentionally reduce la resistance by shortening the spring to allow longer batteries e.g 2x 18650s in a 2 Cell Maglite.
Is that a bad thing? Sorry if that sounds dumb
I need your help trying to fix my flashlight i bought one on line and when I turned it on think something went wrong cuz it smelled burned what would that be its a rechargeable flashlight
this is a pretty good hack, but by lowering resistance you are accelerating the output of the battery... I can understand brightness but I don't see how that increases run time.
+TheSmokinApe me either. My guess is efficiency of the led? or perhaps even efficiency of the battery, or some combination of both. I test with Sanyo ur18650, Samsung 30q, and 30b, as well as panasonic ncr18650b and everyone of them got a run time that was longer. Range from 4-12 minutes more runtime. The runtime on this flashlight is about 70-90 min so your looking at close to 10% more runtime
oh another thought... lower resistance keeps the working voltage higher and prevents the light from ramping down to the low mode? For the purpose of testing I ran the light until the flashlight ramped down. Which happens around 3.2v +/- .05v
+TheSmokinApe I think it might be: resistence = heat build up = energy wasted
+Bushcraft412 hmmm, who knows... cool video.
+magicshon maybe...
Not directly, what happens is that by not having that small voltage drop, a higher voltage can supply the same wattage at lower current, or stay above the minimum threshold the driver needs to overcome the LED forward voltage for a longer period.
However, the video is only speculating and it will often be the case that a (different) light won't have BOTH longer runtime and brightness, rather one or the other. In some cases a light could even have more brightness but shorter runtime, depending on the driver design or lack thereof.
Is it soldered to the bottom of the spring or the spot where the spring touches or is it only soldered at the top of spring and only touching the surface below?
It's supposed to be solderes on both ends so that the current has a direct path instead of going through the entire spiral shaped wire of the spring. This results in fewer resistive losses. :)
Good idea
Omg, show it! I wish someone would actually show the soldering of the piece you're talking about! I wish you had showed #1: what the "braid" looks like #2: the work you did so I can actually do it myself! Why did I sit thru this to listening how to do something when the person "teaching" doesn't SHOW how! Smh
Kiki kk mom lol n
Hey so I think the braid. That he is talking about is the roll he showed that soaks up sotter it’s braided thin stripped of copper
Next was a tube of thin gauged sotter
Any decent hardware store should def have it !
Although Lowe’s did not when I went the sotter they had was a roll not a tube
And was really thick
Anyway
All he did was took a peice of the braided copper and sotter Ed a peice from the top of the spring to the base
Essentially giving it better contact due to it being copper instead of aluminum..
Hope that helps
I’m back to my journey that I can find no info about
The hb500 tactical torch flashlight
I need a teardown of the internals
I know right!!!!!👍
Too much work, jus buy another flashlight!!!!
Can you demonstrate what you did???
A piece of aluminum foil a 1/8 thick will work to.
very interesting would like to see it start to finish atb John
Every time somebody leaves out the most critical parts to something I watched the guy the other night teaching how to reassemble one that you couldn't remember how it went back together he didn't show you how the gold cap went into the rubber or the Spring which side of it went on and I still don't know and I can't find anyone it does so I've tried to both ways and for some reason it still aint working
Can someone explain how is it possible to heve more brightness(MORE mAmps ?) and also have the battery last LONGER at the same time?
More efficient going from steel to copper/brass which is almost all copper
Tho would work well for the old I incandecent bulbs , more LED flashlights now.
good
hi mate , i just want to ask can you let us know why , my light keep coming off when i tern on . its come on for only 2 second then off agan . can you please let me know how to fix it . thank you so much .
😂😂😂
Does the Flux on the wicking parade do any corroding After Time?
How about just stuffing the inner coil with common copper strands balled up? It would create less resistance with the mass increase contacting many parts of the inner spring.
WTF is "common copper strands", balled up no less? You have no idea what you are talking about, and no, copper oxidizes so it is not less resistance, nor is mass increase necessarily a desirable thing, and as the spring contracts and expands (which is why a spring was used), the copper does not spring back, so effectively a waste of time after a use or two, compared to soldering in a connection strap.
Copper braid is a pain in the butt to use. You're better off using 20awg or 22awg silicone wire.
Did you actually test this with a meter? You still have the resistance of the body, so can't see the spring makes much difference?
motorbiking I did some extensive runtime testing and every one showed improvement in runtime. the springs are steel, the body aluminium. big difference in resistance between the two
Bingo!!! I wondered why he didn't do something about the body resistance first, as it wouldn't be as critical. Maybe use silver wire on the body with only 2/3 the resistance of copper, much less aluminum. Hard anodizing I am told is worse than regular aluminum.
Spring Steel is still relative hard so the electrons aren't as free. Aluminium is a poor conductor too though the lesser of two evils. Some flashlights have a length of Brass running down the shaft.
@@Bushcraft412 I reckon the fact that Spring Steel is essentially hardened contributes to plus de resistance. So maybe if one were to anneal the spring with a Butane Torch, La Resistance would be reduced?
My problem is the switches always stop working.
How did you remove the top to access the bulb ???
couldn't you just solder the braid at the end of the spring and kinda loop it inside the spring? When the spring compresses, the copper should easily contact the base of the spring and accomplish the same end result... just sayin'.
+Frances Gauner There are several different methods people use. I know some people remove the spring entirely and run a loop of braid around the bottom of the spring and then solder the spring back on. You definitely want the bottom secured because if it is just hanging loosely there is the chance that it works it's way out of the spring and causes a short with the battery.
+Bushcraft412 thanks, your point is well made.
Thank you
Awesome
WOULD you also show us your free energy machine that run off love and water?
PLEASE???????????????
Fuck ya, I'm gonna try it
How much resistance is the alloy body?
@Whoop!
SAWDER
V
SOLDER
No one sezs /solder/.
How about show me dont tell me?
How about you do it meow
How did you measure the brightness?
used a cell phone app that measures lux
Why don't flashlight manufacturers actually do this. They're always looking for more light and runtime especially if it's this easy.
💸
You knownyou can get even more runtime and brightness by not doing this. And just going to the hardware store getting a few extra rubber o rings and put an 18650 battery instead in there. Also spend 16 cents make a joule thief hide it in there and now you have around 8500 watts of power vs 2700 in the same package. Not saying this doesn't work. Theory is sound but if your into batteries you know an average aaa has around 600ma of current. An average li on has around 2300 to 3600. Yes it's a bit more loss in the voltage. That's why I use a joule thief
I think it is physically impossible to lower the resistance and increase run time at the same time.
Lower resistance = more current = less run time
More efficiency = brighter/longer runtime from the same power source.
@@itechhen Not always.
In this case, lowering the resistance of the contact certainly did decrease resistance, and increase efficiency... As far as thermal losses in the springs are concerned.
However, this reduction of resistance, despite _increasing_ efficiency, still results in a higher current draw from the cells, reducing lifetime.
It's like...
A 10w incandescent lamp being replaced with a 15w fluorescent.
Sure, the 15w fluorescent is more efficient - It easily produces more light per watt of power consumed.
But it's still drawing 5w more than the old inefficient incandescent lamp did.
So you still get a shorter battery life, despite the relative increase in efficiency.
Okay, then shove a big chunk of metal between the Battery and Spring then tell us if the light was dimmer.
@@dancoulson6579 clearly that's not what's happening here.
@@stoopidhaters by all means be ignorant then. The video never references any such big chunks of metal being shoved anywhere, you seem downright confused about what's being discussed here, perhaps you have mistaken the wick as such. But go right ahead and see how a hunk of metal works for ya. In fact, go ahead and use that big hunk of metal protruding from your arse. That ought to be convenient enough...highlighted reply lol.
Was that Mike Tyson narrating?
I´m wondering about led lifetime...
shouldn't effect it much. I've read the bypass brings it up to 2.5 amps from around 1.7 for this flashlight. the led can handle that no problem
Wow so you talk about the hack that you never actually show the end result...... Doesn't sound like it's going to make that big a difference regardless what you have written down on a piece of paper
Well this told me nothing...
I need a new battery for my flashlight to
Tutorial please
Another method which produces the same result is to soak the batteries overnight in a container of gasoline. Preferably high octane.
Thanks I just spat coffee all over my monitor 😂
C'mon
To much talk! Just show how to do it pls
what have you been smoking? may I have some too? it will brighten my day ... not the flash light :)
If the hack increases the lumens the battery life will go down.
zippy not necessarily. If the light is regulated as most are, it draws a set current. Some of that is lost as resistance. Remove the resistance you that same regulated current will produce a brighter and longer lasting result
If it was meant to be that way they would have done it that way there's a reason why they didn't do it that way so why would you risk ruining a expensive flashlight just to get more run time that's why I have extra batteries I can go for months without worrying about my flashlight going dim 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂
just keep your flashlights ON all the time 24x7 and buy a box of 1,000 batteries and dispose of your used up battery every few hours. WHOLE lot easier than soldering your life away and going blind.
Your a towel
How does one go blind soldering? Something tells me you've never touched a soldering iron, maybe once at most.
Thumbs down for not seeing the process
And you also will shorten the life of the LED why are you doing this it doesn't make any sense 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
I got $10 says he didn't solder those tail caps himself. He is so in love with his own lispy voice and the numbers he tells us. If he had been able to solder he would have shown himself doing it talking the friggin time. I call bullshit.
"eyes see brightness algorithmically".... its not software bud.
dumbass
Or just insert a pennie and ur done!
Why in the world would you do a in-depth vid like this abs not freaking show how you actually do it just don’t make sense to me sure everyone would much rather see the actual steps in the process just my two cents sorry
stipid vlog
it doesn't work at all
Says a whole lot and does nothing
Ẁhat was the resistance of the original spring?